THE PREACHING OF THE GOSPEL (ELDER FA CHICK)

Dear Brethren, editors of the Signs of the Times.

I have been reading your paper for some time and have enjoyed it much. I would be glad for you to give me your views on the following scripture. Go you into all the world and preach the gospel to every creature. He that believes and is baptized shall be saved, but heat up believes not, shall be damned. Mark 16.15. Did not just make the plan of salvation playing for all who desired to be saved. Will we be held accountable for not sending the gospel to the heathen? Will they be saved without the gospel? If it were four, damn for some to be saved, then a certain portion to be lost. Why was it necessary for Christ to die for the world that whosoever believes in him shall have everlasting life? If a man were foreordained to be lost under the free gift of salvation, can he be saved if he so desires? If we confess our sins, he is faithful and just to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness. I do not ask this in any spirit of argument, but desire and explanation of it. Yours truly.

William A Murrow.
Rutledge, GA. April 10th, 1895.

Reply.

There has never been anything more plainly revealed in the Scriptures than what the gospel is. And yet few things have been so much misunderstood and perverted in the minds and by the teachings of men. We desire, in reply to the above questions, to consider the theme of what the gospel is and what its object is, and what the design of preaching is. The very word gospel carries its own meaning with itself. The simple meaning of the word gospel is never anything more or less than the good news or good tidings or good word. To preach the gospel is to preach or proclaim the good news. It is not a gospel, but the gospel. There are many sorts of good news, but this is the good news above all others. To the captive. But one thing can deserve to be called Good news, and that is deliverance and so to the conscious Sinner. But one thing can be good news, and that is the news of salvation. The scriptures use the term gospel to describe death, the salvation which has been wrought out and finished for sinners. To proclaim the gospel is to proclaim a finished salvation for the lost.

The gospel, then simply good news concerning salvation. To preach the gospel, then simply to declare the good news of salvation. We desire to emphasize the definition of good news. And 1st the gospel of finished salvation is not good news to all men. It is good news that a man who feels his lost condition and his need of salvation, but to the unconvicted careless Sinner and to the Pharisee, it is not good use. It is not. It is not good news to the unconscious, unconvicted Sinner because he is not aware of his lost estate. It is not good news to the Pharisee, to the legalist, because he feels himself already safe in and on account of his own goodness. Such a one not only has no use for a salvation that saves sinners, but he thinks such teaching is immoral and calculated to lead men to grow careless about sin and salvation. Therefore, a finish-up issue is not good news to him. Good news to the careless, worldly world would be that he should enjoy carnal pleasures to his spill forever. Good news to the Pharisee would be that a great reward awaited his own righteousness. The preaching of a finished salvation seems to each of these classes as an idle tale. To the Greeks, it is still foolishness. Unto the Jew, it is still a stumbling block. All the children of God who believe in Jesus. Who once belonged to one or the other of these two classes. We are, Persuaded. That thousands of our readers. Our witness to the truth of what we have been saying. There was a time the Gospel of a finished. Redeemer. Was not good news to any of them.

But to whom is it good news sent? The scriptures have described the salvation of sinners under various ministrations. They are lost. They are dead in sin. They are condemned they are enemies to God by wicked works they are lame, halt, as well as blind, sick, leprous, and without strength. All this in the Bible testifies concerning all such by nature. More than this, men do not know their own vileness or undone condition. But when by the Holy Spirit the Sinner is enlightened to behold the truth concerning himself then he knows and feels his need for a way of salvation that does all for him and requires no atonement of him. Now the good news, the gospel declares to him that there is a way of salvation just suited to his need. It presents Jesus full of truth and grace. It declares to the condemned sinner that all fullness dwells in Christ. It tells him what to him is most wonderful and blessed that he is not saved by works of righteousness required at his hand but by the finished work of another. It tells him that there is salvation in no other and that there need be none because there is a perfect fullness in Jesus. Such a one has found that he can do nothing to save himself, and now the wondrous truth breaks in upon his gaze. That he need do nothing. That all is already done. The Gospel tells him of Calvary and the Cross and the Bleeding Lamb of God, and nothing more does he need.

Would a conditional salvation be good news to the poor Sinner? If the sinner could perform the conditions such as gospel might be good news. But to the sinner who is without strength, the gospel of conditions would be evil news instead of good news. Error is in a sense consistent with itself. We mean that those who believe in the conditional salvation also believe in human power or merit and do not believe what the Scriptures teach concerning the fallen depraved condition of man. In the view of the followers of a conditional salvation, men are not dead in sins, but only in a stupor or sleep. Such as these can speak to the glory of self and human nature, and not to the glory of Christ. But to a man who has no merit and no strength, a conditional system of salvation, that is, a system that saves men upon the ground of terms and conditions which they must comply with, is the proclamation of death rather than life.

The gospel is not an offer of salvation. To preach the gospel is not to preach that God offers to save men, but that he has saved them. Jehovah does not offer to save anybody. If the gospel were but an offer of salvation, and all men were left to accept or reject it, as they will, then men would all choose darkness rather than light. By nature, all men love darkness rather than light. Because their deeds are evil. Unless a man feels his need for salvation. Salvation. Could present no charms to him. Without the revelation of the law of God to the soul, no man feels his sins or his need for a savior. The gospel is not an offer of salvation, and if it were, it could not possibly benefit anybody. The gospel is simply the good news of salvation finished for sinners who are lost.

This is the gospel that the disciples were bidden to preach to every creature who will gladly receive it and believe in it. On the day of Pentecost, a few weeks after this Commission was given by our Lord to the disciples, one of the disciples, Peter, preached the gospel, and it was gladly received by those who had been pricked in the heart and who cried out. What shall we do? Such ones always gladly receive it. Such ones have been prepared to receive it. Such preparation is by the Spirit of God. Such as these shall be saved. Such as these are saved. To believe or gladly receive the gospel is not a condition of being saved, but it is an evidence that the man or woman is saved. To not believe or gladly receive the word of this good news is, on the other hand, evidence that the soul has not felt its need and that the work of salvation is not begun in that heart. Baptism is but the evidence that the Word has been believed. It is the fruit of living faith and the evidence of it.

We have presented this general view of the gospel. And of the text to which our brother refers in order to pave the way to the saying of a few things in direct reply to the questions which he has proposed.

Question 1. Did not this make the plan of Salvation plain for all who desired to be saved?

Answer. We are not sure that we fully understand the meaning of the above question. But suppose that the meaning is to inquire whether this text is not a clear presentation of the way of salvation to all who desire to be saved, or to know how sinners are saved. If this is the meaning of the question, we would answer yes. If those to whom these words were first spoken understood the meaning of the term gospel as used here by the Savior, (and we do not question that they did) then to them, his words contained a clear, plain statement of the way of salvation they were bidden to preach. Not an offer of salvation, nor any conditions of salvation, nor of salvation as yet imperfect or incomplete, nor salvation that depended upon any human effort of will or choice, but simply the good news of the finished work which made salvation sure to all the chosen vessels of mercy. This is the gospel. Nothing else is the gospel. Those who are asking how can I be saved? Have an answer that tells them that they are already redeemed and justified through Christ. We would lay special stress upon the last five words of the above question. Who desires to be saved. To them the good news of the gospel belongs. They are prepared to receive and understand it, but it is not plain to those who desire to save themselves. No man can desire to be saved until he has learned the utter folly of expecting to save himself. To the former, the good news is plain. To the latter, it is foolishness.

Question 2. Will we be held responsible for not sending the gospel to the heathen?

We have heard assertions such as are implied in this question all our life. We presumed that our brother has heard the same and therefore asks the above question. These assertions are to the amount that heathen souls are descending into hell every instant because Christians have been so careless, selfish, and stingy that they would not provide means to send men into heathen lands to preach the gospel to them. Such an assertion as this in effect denies sovereign grace, election, and a new birth, and puts human means and efforts before the Atonement of Christ. To say that one soul is lost eternally through the neglect of another is to put salvation upon the basis of human work and effort, and to rob Jesus and his atonement of all their glory. How inconsistent men are at times! Those who make such assertions as the above also teach that millions are in hell simply because they have rejected what they call the gospel. Many of them also teach that God cannot condemn men justly unless they have first had the gospel preached to them and have rejected it. If these things be all true, then the greatest curse that could befall the heathen would be to have the gospel preached to them. If they have no light at all, they cannot be condemned, say these followers of a false gospel. If they have light sent to them and reject it, they will perish. Thus they make the gospel the means of destruction instead of salvation to nine-tenths of all the heathen who hear it. God forbid that any of the children of God should be led to believe such a libel upon the justice and mercy of God. New life If our brother had asked a question, are we under obligation to proclaim the gospel of the Son of God wherever God calls us to do so? We should unhesitatingly say yes. If the question should be. Are not all who believe in Jesus under obligation to bear witness in all places to His power and grace? We should also say yes. Are not Christians responsible if the heathen are lost by reason of not having heard the gospel? We cannot too emphatically say no! If any man is lost, the sole reason is sin, which condemns the guilty in the sight of the Divine Law and the Divine Justice. No man is lost because of the neglect of another. No man is lost because he rejects the gospel. It would be far nearer the truth to say that he rejects the gospel because he has lost. But we desire to be understood as objecting to the words accept or reject if either is understood to imply an offered salvation.

Question 3. Will they, the heathen, be saved without the gospel?

We suppose the question means will they be saved without having heard the gospel? No man could be saved without the gospel, for Paul expressly testifies (not by preaching it) that the gospel is the power of God unto salvation to everyone that believes to the Jew and the Greek. But if the question simply means, will any among the heathen be saved without having heard the gospel preached? We can only say that it seems to us that the Bible is silent upon that point. It is sure that not one vessel of mercy shall be lost. Whoever our God has chosen in all the lands of the earth shall surely be among his jewels at the last. But God only knows his own elect. Sometimes he is pleased to reveal his work in some man or woman in such a way that others can behold it, and as say this is a child of God. But he alone knows the hearts of men. We may say that it has been a thought with us that our God has so arranged in His eternal purpose, that where He performs His quickening work upon the hearts of any. there he will also have servants to him to unbind the grave clothes and let them go. If the question is meant to imply that preaching the gospel is a means of saving sinners in the sense of quickening them from the dead and that therefore the heathen cannot be saved without it, we have no hesitancy in replying, no!

Question 4. If it were for ordained, for some to be saved, then a certain portion to be lost, why was it necessary for Christ to die for the world that whosoever believes in him shall have everlasting life?

Answer. We should first of all protest against the statement of our belief. Or what we understand Bible teaching to be. The doctrine of God's eternal purpose of love and mercy is not to be stated in that way. Election is not responsible for the final destruction of any man. Election does not cut any man off. Election is unto salvation. Men are lost by reason of sin. Without election, all would perish and perish justly. If men perish sin and not election is responsible for it. Election regards men from the standpoint of sinners, and it is a choice of sinners.

We should also protest against the expression that Christ died for the world. He saves his people. He gave himself up for his sheep. He gave himself for the church. These and similar expressions are frequent in the scriptures. If it is true that the God of heaven did choose a people out from the rest of the world of sinners whom he purposed to finally save, then we may well ask why was it necessary for Christ to die for the world? We know of no greater absurdity than the assertion that Jesus died for the world when at the same time he designed to save but a part of mankind. But it was necessary that Christ should die for his elect, because only thus could sin be put away, justice satisfied, and his holy law magnified. As justice would be violated were any sinner saved without an atonement, so on the other hand it would be an equal outrage against justice where any for whom Christ died to finally perish. Jesus could not die in vain. Sin cannot require a double price. If Jesus has paid the debt once, no man can be called upon to pay it again. If Christ has died for any man, that man cannot perish.

Question 5. If a man were four ordained to be lost under a free gift of salvation, can he be saved if he so desires?

Answer. In reply to the 4th question, we entered a protest against this statement of our faith and Bible teaching. So here again we entered the same protest. But if the question simply means can the nonviolent be saved if they so desire, we would reply that here also is an absurdity. The non-elect cannot desire to be saved. And this is true simply because those that are dead in trespasses and sins do not know their need for salvation. If a man is mourning over his lost condition and his prayer is for holiness and salvation. These things are proof that he is a chosen vessel of mercy. In the heart of such a one, the work of salvation has begun. It shall be performed to the day of Jesus Christ. We trust that some who may read this may be among those who desire to be saved. If so, they show that the work of God has begun in their hearts, and as Jesus said, "Blessed are they which do hunger and thirst after righteousness, for they shall be filled." This blessing is for those who feel their need for salvation.

We have perhaps written too lengthily already. And we'll leave these remarks to the consideration of our brother Murrow and all our readers.