IS UNBELIEF A CRIME? (BEEBE)

Brother Bebe. Will you be so good as to give your views on the following queries?

Is unbelief on the part of the Sinner to be considered prime? If so, is not there believing a virtue? Does it not have an awful squinting toward the Arminian system of suspending our salvation or damnation upon our receiving or rejecting the gospel?

By answering the foregoing queries, you will greatly oblige an honest Inquirer after the truth.

J. R. M.

Reply.

If by unbelief our brother means a destitution of gospel faith, or that faith which is the operation of God, and of which Jesus Christ is the author and finisher, we answer, no. We know of no requisition of the law under which they are condemned that requires them to so believe or condemns them for non-profession of it. It is the gift of God to them and those who possess it, and none can possess it only as a free gift. We cannot find anything in the scriptures to prove that man was ever required by the law under which he was created in Adam to possess anything more than Adam possessed before sin entered into the world. Instead of regarding gospel faith as a requisition of law, we view it as a gospel endowment. But if by unbelief is intended A willful rejection of divine testimony, as far as it is presented in the natural mind or intellect of man, as exemplified by the carnal Jews, when they saw the astounding miracles which Christ wrought, and the good works which he performed, healing the sick, Casting out devils, raising the dead, In the face of which they maliciously disputed his words, denied his sonship and condemned him to die under the charge of blasphemy, for asserting that he was the son of God, we do regard it as a criminal warfare against the clearest evidence, and hence a crime. “He that believes not God has made him a liar” I John 5.10. To make, charge, or imply a charge of that character against God is blasphemy. And blasphemy is a crime new line The faith of God's elect, being a faith once delivered to the Saints, has a clear, piercing, steady, straightforward site, and never squints at anything. It boldly confronts Arminianism in all its multiform ramifications and lays hold of the truth as it is in Jesus. Poor, guilty, hell Hell deserving sinners, who are washed in Jesus' blood, and freely justified to redemption, that is in Christ Jesus, or by grace made partakers of this faith, and by it believe in God, who justifies the ungodly, and consequently reject the doctrine of men and of devils.

We do not believe that the salvation or damnation of men is suspended on their receiving or rejecting of the gospel. Yet we do believe that all who receive it are saved. Of the Lord would have everlasting salvation, and all who are suffered to die in their sins must perish forever. But the reception of faith by those who are saved as a consequence, and not a first cause. “We are bound to give thanks always to God for you, brethren, beloved of the Lord, because God has from the beginning chosen you to salvation through sanctification of the Spirit and belief of the truth”. Hence they believe the truth, results from God having from the beginning chosen them thereto.

The Damnation of all who perish is for and in consequence of their sins. And soon as the transgression of the law, and as all have sinned, and death has passed upon all, they are not in a state of probation or trial, as some have represented, but as the Scriptures affirm, they are condemned already, and the wrath of God abides on them, and from that condemnation and wrath. Nothing short of the blood and righteousness of our Lord Jesus Christ can possibly deliver them.

The gospel of our Savior is not a thing offered, to be accepted or rejected by men. None but the blessed nor the sound of it. “Blessed are they that know the joyful sound they shall walk, O Lord, in the light of thy countenance”. It is the power of God unto salvation, to all them that believe, to the Jew first, and also to the Gentile. Wherever God directs it, as his power, it accomplishes salvation. And no Sinner ever had the ability to reject its power where God has sent it. But all the missionaries and money the world can boast of never had the power to send it to one soul that was destitute of it. Nor can all the power of men, sin or Satan, prevent its saving power to every soul to whom God directs it.

Elder Gilbert Beebe
Editorial, Signs of the Times
Middletown, NY. January 15th, 1853.