"Who Only Hath Immortality."
By Editor
THERE is no other denomination in the land to which we feel so strongly drawn by fraternal ties as the Seventh-day Baptist. And there is no other paper (outside of our own denomination) which we take up with so much pleasure as the Sabbath Recorder. We love the Sabbath of the Lord God with a very earnest devotion; stronger, perhaps, than if we had been raised in its observance, as our observance grew out of strong conviction. We cannot fail to respect those whose "delight is in the law of the Lord." Soon after we embraced the Sabbath, in Wisconsin, Eld. O. P. Hull remarked to us that he took great interest in the movement of the Seventh-day Adventists and their success in winning converts to the Sabbath. Of course we tried to impress upon his mind the fact, which we thoroughly believed and now believe to be a fact, that our success was entirely due to the power of the Third Angel's Message of Rev. 14:9-12; that its proclamation received the special blessing of Heaven because it is "present truth." Of his further remark we have often thought, namely, that he had feared that God would have to raise up a people to give the Sabbath truth to the world, because the Seventh-day Baptists were not aggressive enough to move the world with the important truth committed to them. Further, that he expected some truth would come up which would greatly shake the Seventh-day Baptist churches, because there were in them so many "birth-right members," and so few converts to the Sabbath; so few who had embraced it in their maturer years by conviction. This was the expression of his view, and not ours. We speak of it to show that we are not alone in our estimate of the value of personal conviction of a truth. And we are ever ready to accord perfect honesty to our brethren of the Seventh-day Baptists in their opposition to certain views held by us as Scriptural and important. We are as strongly entrenched in our faith on the advent as we are in that on the Sabbath. We are fully that which our name implies—Seventh-day Adventists. It is our belief in the "signs of the times," the fulfillment of prophecy, which so arouses us to the danger of the proposed "Religious Amendment of the Constitution of the United States." In like manner we are warned, and in the self-same prophecy (Rev. 13), of the deceptions, and ultimate triumph among the people of this world and a sleeping church, of Modern Spiritualism. As shown in our article last week on "One-sided Religion," the doctrine of immortality only in and through Christ, and the resurrection as the only hope and means of future life, are given as safe-guards against those deceptions. Confident, as well they might be, that they held a most important and precious truth of God's law, few compared to the millions of believers who had followed the papal church in accepting tradition, the Seventh-day Baptists naturally felt conservative in regard to attaching new views to their own time-honored truth, and many of them felt suspicious of the faith and the methods of the new denomination. The Jews were right when they said, "We know that God spake to Moses," and there they took their313stand on a known truth. But when they added, "as for this man, we know not whence he is," perhaps it was equally true, for they did not know; but it was equally important that they should know, for God had not exhausted his revelations in speaking to Moses. The Seventh-day Baptists are to be credited in one thing—they have the truth. But they would do well to consider the position of the Jews, and inquire whether they have all the truth. We were led to this train of thought by reading in the Recorder a criticism by a correspondent on the use somebody had made of 1 Tim. 6:16, which, speaking of the King of kings and Lord of lords, says, "Who only hath immortality." And the criticism was partly correct, for we believe that very often an injudicious, if not an unlawful, use is made of these words. The text certainly cannot mean that "our Lord and his Christ" are the only immortal beings in existence at this time. We think it must be evident to every one that, in the controversy in Heaven, when legions of angels "kept not their first estate," but sinned, the angels on both sides determined their character by the choice they made and the part they took, and thereby fixed their eternal destiny. If the rebellious ones sinned beyond recovery, so that they were hopelessly lost, as the Scriptures teach, it must follow that the obedient ones were in like manner fixed in their obedience, never to fall, even as the saints will be when glorified. And to this the Saviour refers in his answer to the Sadducees on the resurrection. Speaking of those who are counted worthy of eternal life in the resurrection, he said: "Neither can they die any more; for they are equal unto the angels." Luke 20:36. This would not be conclusive if the angels could die. And if they cannot die they are certainly immortal. But inasmuch as this refers to the saints in the resurrection state, it is no proof in favor of their being immortal in the present state. To the contrary, it is opposed to that idea, and is in harmony with the teaching of Paul in 1 Cor. 15, that we receive or put on immortality, exemption from death, in the resurrection. God, the living God, is the only being who "has life in himself." John 5:26. It is not in the nature of a created being to have life in himself; it must be a gift to every creature. Hence, in this sense, by self-possession, or by virtue of his nature, God "only hath immortality." If any use the text to prove that none but God are now immortal, we think it is used in an unwarranted manner, for the angels in Heaven have doubtless had immortality conferred on them. But it is a contradiction of the theory that any are naturally immortal. And here come in the remarks by the writer in the Recorder which are so very questionable:— "So far as man has been able to penetrate, it is a universal law that the offspring is the same in kind with the parent. Adam 'was the son of God.' Luke 3:38. Paul (Acts 17:28, 29) readily agrees with the heathen poets that 'we are the offspring of God.' It will require more than four words taken out from a sentence of fourteen words to prove that in the creation of man there was a violation of the general law of relation between parent and child." This paragraph is so faulty that we can but wonder that it ever found a place in that paper. 1. "So far as man has been able to penetrate;" but man is not able to comprehend himself, much less can man "by searching find out God." We can know God only by his own revelation, and this does not at all justify the position of the above quotation. 2. It is assumed that because God the Father has immortality, therefore man, his son, must also have immortality. But, if immortality is an essential or necessary attribute of man, what mean the words applied to God, "who only hath immortality?" Who can tell?" 3. But immortality is only one attribute of God. If man must by virtue of his nature be "the same in kind with the parent," God, we must give him all the attributes of his parent, because that is according to the "universal law," "so far as man has been able to penetrate;" for who ever knew a son to resemble his father, in only one respect? God the Father is immortal, all-wise, omnipotent, omnipresent, self-existent; of course man, "his offspring," must possess all these qualities. If not, the "universal law" is a failure! 4. But there is one expression in the extract which sufficiently betrays the weakness of the argument. It is that which speaks against the idea of proving "that in the creation of man there was a violation of the general law of relation between parent and child." Now there is no such thing as "the general law of relation between parent and child," in creation. Is it the "general law" of natural generation that the parent forms the child of the dust of the earth, and by an act of creative power endues it with life by breathing the breath of life into its nostrils? It is exceedingly strange if this is "the general law" that there is no one living who ever saw the process. If ever there was a decided case of "reasoning from unlike to unlike," it is presented by this writer. But the all-important question is this: "What say the Scriptures?" Do they show that man, as the offspring of God, possesses and must possess the nature and attributes of his Creator? Let us present a short series of points. a. God is self-existent; therefore man is self-existent. But read Job 25:6. b. God is immortal; therefore man is immortal. But read Job 4:17. c. God is uncorruptible; therefore man is uncorruptible. But read Rom. 1:23. d. God has life in himself; therefore man has life in himself. But read Ps. 89:48. Surely there is no need to extend this list. It is more than absurd to make such a claim in regard to the nature of man, as that in the above extract. 6. In reasoning on a Bible subject, why not take what the Bible says on that subject, and let that settle the question? If immortality is in our nature, it is not brought to light in the gospel. 2 Tim. 1:10. If all men possess it, there is no need for any to seek for it. Rom. 2:7. If we have it by birth, we do not receive it in the resurrection. 1 Cor. 15:53, 54. The word rendered "uncorruptible" in Rom. 1:23, is the same that is rendered "immortal" in 1 Tim. 1:17. "The King eternal, immortal, invisible, the only wise God." Instead of the child partaking of the nature of the parent in respect to immortality, the contrast is stated in direct terms on this very subject. If Rom. 1:23 were translated as 1 Tim. 1:17, and it would be perfectly right to so translate it (they are rendered alike in the Revision), then it would read, "And changed the glory of the immortal God into an image made like to mortal man." Think of it; a creature made of the dust claiming the nature and attributes of his Creator, the self-existent, eternal One; and this for the reason that, as far as our observation extends, the child partakes of the nature of the parent! Is immortality through Adam more valuable than through Christ? "When Christ, who is our life, shall appear, then shall ye also appear with him in glory." Col. 3:4. Our hearts respond, Amen.