INVITATIONS OF THE GOSPEL

 

The message of this article is so different from the message we hear today in most churches, that it is hard to believe they are preaching the gospel - ed.

We have received the communication from the north over the signature of "a friend of truth" desiring our views in regard to what are called the invitations of the gospel. Would it be addressed indiscriminately to sinners or exclusively to the quickened children of God?

We learned from the letter that some of our esteemed brethren are differing seriously on the subject. Such passages as Matthew 19.28-30. "Come unto me, all you that labor and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest", etcetera. "Many are called, but few are chosen." The marriage of the King's son, "I came not to call the righteous, but sinners to repentance." Also the 1st and 8th of Proverbs. Some brethren take their position that these are invitations to sinners indiscriminately, and others contend that these are invitations addressed only to the children of God.

In giving our views, we beg to leave to differ very respectfully, however, from both parties. We deny that there are any invitations, either in the law or gospel, to saints or sinners. We think that a little reflection on the subject will satisfy all honest inquirers after the truth. That it would be altogether incompatible with the eternal perfections of Jehovah to issue invitations to any of his creatures.

First. We will remark that none of the communications from God to men are anywhere in the Bible called invitations. And it is therefore speculative and idle to argue theologically a position or question which has no scriptural foundation. And therefore, like the endless genealogies and questions about the law which the apostle warns us against, is only calculated to gender strife, but cannot edify or comfort the family of God.

Second. An invitation is a complementary request or message from a party having and claiming to have no authority to enforce the request or message which concedes that a party invited has the undisputed right to respectfully decline the invitation. Leaving it entirely optional with the party invited to accept or decline without transcending his right.

Third. All who have been brought to a saving knowledge of God will admit that he speaks the word and it stands fast. He commands and it is done. "Were the word of a king is there is power," and God is the king eternal, and the word that precedes from him shall not return to him void of the work whereunto he hath sent it. Even carnal Jews perceived that our Redeemer spoke as one having authority and not as scribes.

Should the writer of these remarks receive a card of invitation from the President of the States or from the Governor of New York? The fact of it being an invitation guarantees the right to accept or decline without involving a wrong or a crime in doing either. But should either President or governor, as Chief magistrate of the national or the state, send an authoritative message to any citizen summoning him to be or appear at any place? That message would be clothed with all the authority and power of the magistrate. From whom it issues, but it could not be regarded as an invitation. Because it does not concede to the party to whom it is addressed any right to decline or disobey its authority.

Will any of our brethren contend that when the God of heaven preemptively says to the seed of Israel. "Seek you my face" that they have a right to disobey or regard it only as a mere invitation. If he says to him, "look unto me, and be you saved all the ends of the earth, for I am God, and there is none else." Thus this imply that the people thus addressed have the same right to decline it as an invitation, as to obey it as a sovereign mandate from the throne of God? Since God has commanded Men to look to him for salvation, have they a right to look anywhere else for that salvation? If there is any authority implied in the address, it destroys the nature of an invitation.

Indeed, we cannot, without detraction from a proper sense of the eternal power and majesty of Jehovah, entertain the preposterous idea that he deals in invitations to any of his creatures in heaven, Earth, or hell. All his words are big, with power, and high in authority. He works all things according to the counsel of his own will and submits nothing to the volition of our or any of his creature's will.

But in regard to the passages referred to, they bear the impression of his divine authority. They can none of them be disregarded or disobeyed without incurring the sin of disobedience. The passage referred to Isaiah. 14.22 is a sovereign command to the seed of Jacob, scattered to the ends of the Earth, to look to him for salvation, because he is God, and besides him, there is no Savior. All who look anywhere else, or to any other being, or to themselves for salvation, are not only guilty of disobedience to an express command of God, but they are guilty of idolatry.

The passage "come unto me, all you that labor, and are heavy ladened" is sufficiently clear and explicit. Is addressed to all who labor and are heavily laden and to no others. And whenever and wherever these words are applied by the Eternal Spirit to any poor, laboring, heavy-laden sinner, that Sinner will assuredly come to Jesus, as it is sure that the dead will arise when the voice of the Archangel and the trump of God shall call them forth from their graves at the last day.

The dead neither labor nor they heavy laden, they slumber unconsciously in their graves, and all mankind is dead in sin, and this destitute of spiritual youth vitality until they are quickened by the Spirit, as the body of Lazarus was of natural life when Jesus raised him from the grave. But as soon as a sinner, is quickened by the Holy Spirit, he becomes a laborer, and his burden with a heavy weight of guilt, and such a call to Jesus, and find rest their souls in hearing his yoke, which is easy, and his burden, which is light. To take the yoke of Jesus is to come under his law, to be baptized in his name, and be yoked up together in communion and fellowship with his disciples in all the privileges of the Church of God. But are the unregenerate called to be baptized and identified themselves with the Church of God? Philip did not so understand it when he said to the eunuch, "if you believe with all your heart, you may" Acts. 8.37. None but believers are called, commanded, or ever invited to be baptized and come under the yoke of Jesus. For they must first be delivered from the yoke of Moses, the yoke of bondage.

In Matthew 20.16, in the conclusion of the parable of the Householder and his hired laborers for his vineyard, Jesus used these words. "So the last shall be first and the first last for many be called but few chosen." There was murmuring among some of the disciples. The sons of Zebedee desired distinguished places in the Kingdom. And some said we have forsaken all. What shall we receive? The parable was to rebuke the selfish principle and to show not only the right of our Lord to choose from the whole company of his called Brethren, whom he pleased to labor in his vineyard but also to reward them equally. Those who labored the most or longest were amply rewarded, but Jesus chose to make those who had laboured at least equal with those who had borne the left heat and toil of the day.

Again in Matthew 22.14, The same words are used at the end of the parable of the marriage of the King's son. The application was made to the Jewish nation, which had been called as the carnal or fleshly descendants of Abraham, and under the Covenant of Works. God by the Prophets had informed them of the approaching marriage. In the type, they were bidden to the marriage, but in the election of grace, they were not the chosen people of God. As the apostle, Paul explains, "for they are not all Israel which are of Israel. Neither, because they are the seed of Abraham, or they all children, but in Isaac shall thy seed be called. That is, they which are the children of the flesh. These are not the children of God, but the children of the promises are counted for the seed." Romans 9.6-8 Although the whole nation of Israel was called in the type or shadow of good things which were to come. How very few of them were found to be included in the Covenant of Grace. Isaiah so cried concerning Israel, "though the number of the children of Israel be as the sand of the sea only remnant shall be saved. Romans 9.27. What then? "Israel has not obtained that which he seeks after, but the election of the few chosen has obtained it and the rest were blinded." Romans 11.7.

We have not time or space to enlarge on those parables, but it is sufficient for us to demonstrate that there are none called by grace but the chosen people of God, whose salvation is fully secured in our Lord Jesus Christ. "For whom he God did for know them, he also did predestinate to be conformed to the image of his son, that he might be the firstborn among many brethren. Moreover, whom he did predestinate, them he also called, and whom he called them he also justified, and whom he justified them he also glorified." Romans 8.22-30. In this calling, none but the elect are called, and all who are called are justified and ultimately glorified. They are saved and called with a holy calling, not according to their works, but according to his own God's own purpose and grace which was given them in Christ Jesus before the world. Began. Second Timothy. 1.9. To prove therefore, that they are the called according to God's purpose, is to prove that they love God, that all things work together for their good. That they are predestinated to bear the image of the son of God, that they are justified and glorified in Christ. The passages, therefore, which speak of many being called, but few chosen does not, nay, they cannot possibly relate to this holy calling, in which Christ the Good Shepherd calls his own sheep by name and leads them out. For in this calling the "dead shall hear his voice, and they that hear shall live." John 5.25. "The promise of God is unto all that are far off, even as many as the Lord our God shall call" Acts 2.39.

The Declaration of Christ to the self-righteous Jews, that he had not come to call or save righteous people, but to call sinners to repentance, does not admit of the construction that he had come to call all the sinners of Adam's race to repentance. For many millions of them had already left these mortal shores, and some of them were already suffering the vengeance of eternal fire. The Pharisees upbraided him for associating with publicans and sinners, and he told them that this was his business in the world to save sinners. The whole did not need a physician, nor did the righteous need one to save and purge them from sin.

The first chapter of Proverbs is also referred to as favoring the doctrine of the invitations. But an examination of the proverbs of Solomon will show that Solomon personifies wisdom and wisdom, we are told, is justified of her children. In a spiritual sense, Christ is the wisdom of God to his children. He is of God made unto them wisdom and righteousness, sanctification, and redemption. But wisdom, abstractly considered, is the opposite of folly and madness. As rational beings, we disobeyed the maxims or proverbs of wisdom when we transgress her dictates. And wisdom will laugh at us in our calamities, into which we foolishly plunge ourselves and mock us when our fear comes. The voice of wisdom is loud in her reproofs when we rush headlessly into trouble. But the wisdom of God is only known to those who are made wise unto salvation through faith, which is in Christ Jesus.

Brethren should be careful to avoid any interpretation of the scriptures which will clash with other plain declarations of the inspired word. We may fail to comprehend or understand some portions of the divine testimony. But our ignorance will not justify us in forcing interpretations that must necessarily conflict with the teachings of the word and the Spirit of the Lord. If our views are right, both the word and the Spirit will harmonize when our views. But if we entertain opinions or views which the scriptures do not justify, they must be discarded as wrong and pernicious.

Now, in conclusion, we will reiterate to our legally inclined brethren of the North. The appeal that the great apostle to the Gentiles made to the bewitched Galatians. "This only would I learn of you. Receive you the spirit by the works of the law or by the hearing of faith. Are you so foolish? Having begun in the spirit, are you now made perfect by the flesh?" Galatians 3.2-3. Review your own experiences. See if, in your own salvation, you only accepted an invitation and availed yourself of it to secure your acceptance with God. Or were you awakened to a sensibility of your guilty, lost, and helpless condition by the irresistible and almighty power of God? Was it left optional with you to decide whether you would live or die? When by the arrows of the Almighty you were arrested and arraigned before the bar of eternal justice. Why did you dare cry, "Lord save or I perish?" Why did you not say, Lord, I will accept your invitation?

Elder Gilbert Beebe

March 1, 1863

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