DISCUSSION IN DORT, MICH.
By J. G. STERLING
In my last report, I stated to you that Bro. Strong and myself were laboring, for the time being, in the town of Dort. Just as we were about to close our labors there, Eld. Shepard, a Disciple minister, succeeded in getting the opportunity to occupy one evening in preaching an opposition discourse, to show, it was said, that there were two sides to the subject we had been presenting to the people. The sermon, and discussion which followed, commenced Tuesday evening and closed the following Thursday evening, holding three evenings. Eld. Shepard had previously made an effort to get up a discussion, which was not entered into, simply because he refused to take it to the village hall of Wayland, or other place, where a room of sufficient capacity could be obtained, that a fair chance might be given for all to hear. As it was, the school-house was crowded, and probably not one half who came were able to gain admittance. Eld. Shepard. Heb. xii. 2; “Looking unto Jesus, the author [margin, beginner] and finisher of our faith.” When did it begin? God says, at his transfiguration, Luke ix: “This is my beloved Son: hear ye him.” So, anciently, God said, “Hear, O Israel.” Deut. v, 1. But now we are to hear Christ, “that prophet,” Deut. “I am the true light,” i. e., now. “Our faith” is synonymous with “the gospel,” Rom. i, 16. “I am not ashamed of the gospel of Christ; for it is the power of God unto salvation to every one that believeth.” God has no power outside of the gospel to save men. 1 Cor. xv, 3; “For I delivered unto you first of all, that which I also received, how that Christ died for our sins according to the Scriptures.” Hence we conclude that the death of Christ is the first thing in the gospel. Two prophets declare that the gospel shall go forth from Jerusalem (Reads from Isa. ii, and Micah. iv, and Luke xxiv, 47). Shows this fulfilled. “And that repentance and remission of sins should be preached * beginning at Jerusalem.” “Tarry ye in the city of Jerusalem until ye be endued with power from on high.” “In thee [Christ] and thy seed shall all nations be blessed.” Anything before the gospel does not belong to the system of faith necessary to our salvation. “I am alpha and omega.” Jesus is the beginner and ender of our faith, hence no law or system of laws belonging to a former dispensation has anything to do with us. Bro. Strong. I agree with my opponent that Christ is the beginner and finisher of our faith; but my faith is not so narrowed down, that I cannot reach back of the cross. Abraham had this faith, or “the gospel,” preached to him. Gal. iii, 8. “And the Scriptures, foreseeing that God would justify the heathen through faith, preached before the gospel to Abraham, saying, In thee and thy seed shall all nations be blessed.” Verse 16. Noah preached it to those in his day. 1 Pet. iii, 18-20. “For Christ * being put to death in the flesh but quickened in the spirit: by which also he went and preached unto the spirits in prison, which sometime were disobedient, when once the longsuffering of God waited in the days of Noah,” &c. Moses believed it—“Esteeming the reproaches of Christ greater riches than the treasures in Egypt.” Heb. xi, 26. We conclude, then, that it began back as far as Eden, even to the seed promised to the woman.134From Eden to the cross, they showed their faith by offerings which typified Christ. So the argument based on not receiving any law or gospel back of the cross, is unsound. But God said, “Hear ye him.” And he said also (Deut. xxiii, 18), “And he shall speak unto them all I shall command him.” Query. Where has God commanded Him to abolish his moral law? Echo answers, Where? But will the Elder hear Him? “Think not that I am come to destroy the law or the prophets: I am not come to destroy, but to fulfill. For verily I say unto you, Till heaven and earth pass, one jot, or one tittle shall in no wise pass from the law, till all be fulfilled.” Brother, you have a hard job here, overturning heaven and earth, before the law can be abolished. But we are told the gospel is powerful to save. Save from what? Sin. Sin? what is it? Transgression of the law. 1 John iii, 4. The gospel does not purpose to save us in our sins, but from our sins through obedience. Obedience to what? The commandments of God and the faith of Jesus. Eld. Shepard. 1 Cor. xv, 1–3: “Moreover, brethren I declare unto you the gospel * For I delivered unto you first of all, that which I also received, how that Christ died for our sins, according to the Scriptures.” The gospel commenced at the cross and no where else. Any system that has not the death of Christ in it, will not prove salvation to us. There was not one spiritual blessing under the former covenant, but all centered in the cross. Answer. Paul delivered unto them first of all, what? The gospel, that Christ died. What did he die for? Our sins; and not for ours only, but for the sins of the whole world. They had transgressed the law of God, and as man has no saving influence in himself, neither has the law that he has transgressed. Christ has therefore offered himself to save sinners, and the honor of his Father’s law, but not to abolish that law. “No spiritual blessings under the former covenant!” Has God failed then to keep his promise to Abraham? Stephen said, “He gave him none inheritance in it; no not so much as to set his foot on. Acts vii, 5. Paul intimates that he looked for spiritual favors. Heb. xi, 10. “He looked for a city which hath foundations, whose builder and maker is God.” Eld. Shepard. Christ is the mediator of a will. “A testament (i. e. will) is of no force while the testator liveth.” Hence, to get any of the benefits of the gospel, we must come this side of the cross. There never was a sin remitted till the death of Christ. Heb. x, 4: “For it is not possible that the blood of bulls and goats should take away sins.” We have no right to go back of the cross for anything. All the commandments of the former dispensation are forever and eternally abolished, taken out of the way, nailed to the cross. Ans. “No right to go back of the cross for anything,” and yet Eld. Shepard goes there to get several of the commandments of his new law; e. g., “Hear ye him.” “A new commandment I give unto you,” &c., and “Whatever ye would,” &c., are all given before the cross. Again, he says, “All the commands of the former dispensation, forever and eternally abolished;” yet he drags nine of them over into this dispensation. But how about the law of God being abolished? Will Bro. S. obey his new law, and “hear him.”? Matt. v, 17: “Think not that I am come to destroy the law, &c. I am not come to destroy, but to fulfill.” Evidently, the elder does not distinguish between the “law of commandments contained in ordinances” “which was contrary to us” which was nailed to the cross, and taken out of the way, Col. ii, 14, and the law of God, the royal law which James affirms that it is a sin to transgress, James ii, 8–12, and which Paul declares is “holy, just and good.” Eld. Shepard. Christ did not destroy the law, he fulfilled it,—to fulfill is to fill full—hence to do away—to expire by limitation. Christ fulfilled the law, and made it honorable, that it might die an honorable death. It expired at the cross. Answer. Let us try our brother’s use of terms: Fulfill is to fill full—hence to do away! Matt. iii, 15. “Suffer it to be so now, for thus it becomes us to fulfill fill [i. e. do away] all righteousness. James ii, 8: “If ye fulfill [do away] the royal law, ye do well.” Again he says, The old law “expired at the cross.” When was the new given? According to his own showing, last evening, it was at Jerusalem, on the day of Pentecost, fifty days after the death of Christ; hence the world was left fifty days without any law! Eld. Shepard. Bro. Strong gains no advantage by asserting that the world was fifty days without a law; for as the Jews did not believe it, they considered themselves amenable to the old law, so it is just as well as if they were; and as the disciples were not disposed to do evil, it did them no harm. If he will read Matt. xxvii, 51, “And behold the veil of the temple was rent in twain from the top to the bottom,” he will discover that God had forsaken the sanctuary, and the law, and yet he persists in asserting that it is still in force. Ans. If the earthly sanctuary was forsaken, it does not appear that the law was. Paul asserts that the earthly sanctuary was only a pattern of the heavenly, and John saw the heavenly, and there, in its proper place, was the law. Rev. xi, 19: “And the temple of God was opened in Heaven, and there was seen in his temple the ARK of his TESTAMENT.” Doubtless I have followed the arguments till I have occupied all the space allowable, but will mention a few other important points. In answer to quotation and application last made, Eld. Shepard argued that the law was transferred to Heaven to judge the Jews by, at the Judgment day, that the gospel would be the law for the Christian, and the conscience of the individual, the rule for the heathen, and the conduct of the world during the fifty days between the cross and the day of Pentecost, quoting Rom. ii, 14, “Are a law unto themselves.” He was shown in answer that they became a law unto themselves by the principle adduced in the next verse, 15, “which show the work of the law written in their hearts.” He said the law of God (ten commandments) was added because of transgression. When asked, To what added? and transgression of what? he said, “Added to Abrahamic covenant,” for transgression of whatever precepts God had given them previous to that time. He did not claim to know what they were, only as he learned by the Bible—the Sabbath, for one, for that seems to have been given at the exode from Egypt. There might be others, he did not know what in particular, any more than he knew what Enoch prophesied, except as he learned it from Jude. 2 Cor. iii, 7–18, was advanced as proof that the law “written and engraven in stone” was “done away.” The error, of course, was shown to be confounding the law, and the ministration of the law; the former being changed, the latter from its nature unchangeable. Rom. vii was advanced as another proof that the law (of God) was abolished, or dead. The argument and positions were thus: God was the first husband, the church the woman, Christ the second husband, the ten commandments the marriage law; the law dies, hence the first parties are released. The new law (gospel) comes in and joins the woman to the second husband (Christ). He was shown to be in a sad dilemma, for by verse 3, “So then, if while her husband liveth, she be married to another man, she shall be called an adultress.” He must either assume that his Creator was dead, or the church was an adultress. During the discussion, in order to make Christ a lawgiver, Eld. Shepard assumed that he (Christ) acted in the capacity of lawgiver and advocate between himself and man. Concerning the Sabbath, his positions were, that God kept it alone as a memorial of creation till the exode, that it was then given to the children of Israel as a memorial of their deliverance from bondage. Eld. S. expressed his fears, in his first discourse, that some one would have occasion for “all sorts of turning and twisting.” I have tried to give a synopsis of the main arguments, and am satisfied in my own mind, as doubtless others will be, on which side the turning and twisting was done.