FOREWORD
The Two Seed theology attributed to Elder Daniel Parker went
through a number of changes in subsequent years. Elder G.W. Mathes of Cole
County, Ill., starting in the late 1860s, popularized a revised version of Two-Seedism,
which concentrated on eliminating the idea of unconditional election and
eternal punishment while not asserting free will or conditional salvation. In
Florida and South Georgia, this doctrine was popularized by Elder Isaac S. Coon
of Lowndes County. Coon’s Synopsis and Mathes’s Discourse are very complete examples
of the unusual hermeneutics and conclusions of what might be called “Neo-Two
Seedism.” Although the Two Seeders ceased to be a functioning organization in
Georgia and Florida after 1935, aspects of their belief quietly survived among
local Primitive Baptists.
Dr. J. Crowley
Issac Coon“Elder Isaac S. Coon presented and read a synopsis
of the principal points of the doctrine as held by this Association, which was
endorsed and ordered printed in our minutes of this year, the brethren
guaranteeing expenses.”
“Synopsis of Doctrinal Points
“’ It is said that your denomination is holding some very peculiar views in
relation to the doctrine of the Bible. Please answer me in what respect you
differ from other orthodox churches?”
“’Well, sir, we differ from other churches in almost all particulars. We take
the Scriptures as they apply to the man of God, and firmly believe that none
can feel, see, or know the truth as it is in Christ unless it is by the
revelation of Christ. “The invisible things of Him from the creation of the
world are clearly seen, being understood by the things that are made, even his
eternal power and Godhead, so that they are without excuse.” And again says
Paul, “Adam is the figure of Him that was to come.” So you see that we hold
that the earthly Adam is only a figure of Christ. God made the earth; it is the
figure of the new earth. This earth is the mother of all Adam’s family and that
Adam and all his children were created in this earth, and when he was taken
from the earth and formed into a man that his bride and all his children were
in him, and that he contained in himself everything necessary to produce his
own kind, and when God took from his side a rib and formed a woman that she got
all her existence from him, and when they produced children the mother and the
children were all from his substance, so they were entirely unmixed. The father
and mother violated the law given to them, and hence all their posterity fell
under that law, and with God’s assurance that they must satisfy it. The penalty
was death and nothing more, except a return to the earth as they were before
formation. The law was equal to the subject it was over, hence it was a figure,
and has not been removed or modified, hence each subject must pay the penalty
for himself, because all fell under that law in Adam. This is called Adam’s
transgression, and as all of it was a figure, we find that Adam and his bride are
the figure of Christ and the Church (the Lamb’s wife), and as a figure or type
cannot exist without a substance to make it, therefore it naturally follows
that Christ and the church existed before this world was made. Therefore, if
Christ is eternal, his children, being of his bones and flesh, are as eternal
as he is.”
“’ Then, if I understand you at all, you deny that Adam is the child of God.’”
“’ You understand right, for it is plain that if Adam’s children figure forth
God’s children, that each set must be of the same substance as its father. I
know that Adam is called the son of God in one place in Luke, but the word
“son” is supplied by the translators. Christ is God’s only begotten son, and
all his children are embraced in Him as all of Adam’s were in him. Adam’s
children are of the earth and return to the earth as they were; so God’s
children are spiritual; they come from Heaven and all return to Heaven from
whence they came. Christ told His apostles that as the Father had sent Him into
the world, even so had He sent them into the world. Adam was not sent into the
world, for he originated here, and here is his destiny.
“’ Well, do you think that Christ had flesh and blood, and if so, where did He
get it?’”
“We believe that Christ had flesh and blood, and we believe it came from
Heaven, and that God sent it here to suffer and die, and we believe that it is
His blood that bought the church out of bondage, and Paul tells us that it was
God’s own blood. Adam’s flesh and blood are from this earth and are subject to
decay and corruption, but the flesh and blood of Christ are from the new earth
and are not subject to corruption. So while he lay in Joseph’s tomb, his body
did not see corruption, but was raised up just as it had been there. Jesus
Christ was sent here in the likeness of sinful flesh – in the form of a man, in
the fashion of men, and for these reasons his enemies denied His being the son
of God.”
“’ So then, I understand that you do not think that Adam’s children will go to
Heaven, and if so, what is it that does go to the Heaven above?”’
“Just what came from the Heaven above, ‘No man hath ascended up to Heaven but
he that came down from Heaven, even the Son of man that is in Heaven.’”
‘” Yes, but hold on. You will remember that Enoch and Elijah were translated
and went to Heaven, and still you deny that anything goes there unless it came
from there.’”
“Well, my friend, I rather think that the difference is between you and Christ,
for it is He that says no man hath ascended but he that descended. It is His
words (not mine) that I repeated. If you could only see that the Enoch that
went to Heaven walked with God three hundred years, I think you would not say
that he was a poor carnal, sinful man like you and I, for Paul tells us that
the carnal mind is enmity against God – not subject to His law, nor can be, and
if so I fail to see how he could walk with God, especially for three hundred
years; but let us understand that there was a spiritual Enoch which was God’s
child, and then we have the secret. There is a carnal, earthly, sinful Adam,
and there is a spiritual, Heavenly Adam. There was a carnal David. He fell
asleep and saw corruption, but there is a spiritual David, whom God swore would
not see corruption. There was a spiritual Elijah, and when he went up, he
dropped his mantle, and it is so with all God’s Children. When they return to
Heaven, they drop their mantle, which is the Adam man, the house or world into
which they have been sent, and hence it is only that which descended that
ascends.
‘” Well, you know that Paul tells us that we shall all be changed in a moment,
and caught up to meet the Lord in the clouds and ever be with the Lord. So you
see that it is we who are to be changed.”’
“I have frequently thought of the great struggle that Error has in trying to
sustain itself. It is said by the same authority that you can prove anything by
the Scriptures. Now I say that if you can prove that any position is true and
then by the same witness prove it is not true, then your witness is false, and
I am sure that Heaven’s court would not take the testimony. The Scriptures are
a witness of Jesus Christ, and never do they clash in their testimony. You
profess to quote a passage, and you use the pronoun “us” and say it is you and
I, and the same passage tells us that we shall all be changed and caught up to
meet the Lord in the clouds, and be ever with the Lord. Now, if that Scripture
alludes to the human family, you ought to see that it is universal salvation to
all the Adam family, for the words “we” and “all” must include the whole. I
take the Scriptures, and you take tradition. When I ask Paul who he means by
“us,” he tells me that he is talking about those who were sanctified in Christ
Jesus: 1st Cor. 1st chap. 2nd verse.
He tells me it is the church; he tells me the church is the members of the body
of Christ and are God’s children, and these are the “us” that are to be
changed, and the number to be changed is all of them, and when I ask what he
means by change he tells me that it is their situation and not their substance.
He tells me that here they are in an earthly house which will be dissolved, and
in it they are burdened and groan, not wanting to be found naked, but to be
clothed upon with the house in Heaven. This Heavenly house, Jesus said, he went
to prepare, that these children might be with him. Job waited for that same
change; his appointed time was what he had to suffer here. You cannot apply the
word time with the eternity of God; it is only an allotted space in eternity
for the illustration of the fall and salvation of the church.”
‘” So your denomination does not believe that our earthly bodies will be
changed to spiritual bodies at the great day of resurrection and final
judgment?”’
“Well, sir, you have now come to the point that all denominations agree upon
but our despised few, and for our views we are called non-resurrectionists. It
is told by our opponents that we deny the resurrection because we take the
testimony of Jesus Christ. Martha told Christ that she knew she would see her
brother again on the last day, at the resurrection. This is the same doctrine
that is preached now by all sects that I know of, except ours. She had learned
by tradition that there would be a day for resurrection, just as you and I have
been taught. But you and I ought to notice that Jesus was at that time making a
grand illustration of facts, and he did not tell Martha that she was right, but
I think that His language was equivalent to a positive denial of her assertion.
He told her in answer to her assertion that “I am the resurrection and the
life.” Now sir, is there any other resurrection but Christ? If so, what is it?
I know that men claim there is a second one because Christ said ‘Blessed and
holy is he that hath part in the first resurrection.’ When I ask Him about it
He tells me, saying “I am the first and the last.’ So if He is the resurrection
at all He is the first one and the last one. And you will take notice that the
“He” that hath part in it is holy, and that word cuts Adam out. He is not only
holy but “blessed,” not to be made so, but is holy. As to a general judgment I
find nothing said about it after time. We find that there is a judgment; there
is no such passage as the day of resurrection except Martha’s allusion to it at
the grave of her brother; but we find there is the judgment of the great day,
but not the great judgment day. We take the Scriptures; they tell us that under
the law every transgression and obedience received a just recompense of reward.
It is many times said that they are judged according to their works. All
judgment is founded on works, and it is to punish the evil-doer that judgment
is founded. The Gospel day is the last day, and we are in the judgment of the
great day, and it is the party that does the evil that is under the judgment.
If your idea is right, it is you and I, sinful men, carnal men, doing evil
every hour, and after we die, then we are to be changed to a spiritual body,
and that spiritual body will be judged for what the earthly man did. This seems
to me would be punishing the wrong man. We understand that Christians are now
under the law of grace and are therefore in judgment. Paul tells the church
that ‘we must all appear before the judgment seat of Christ, that every one may
receive the things done in his body according to that he hath done, whether it
be good or bad.’ All of these expressions are in the present tense. “Must
appear’ and ‘may receive’ are both expressions of what is now taking place. His
next expression fully proves it, for he said, “Therefore, knowing the terrors
of the Lord, we persuade men.’ Paul was in judgment and was telling the church
the certainty of punishment. The word ‘we’ is the church and not the world.
Jesus Christ said ‘For judgment I am come into the world. What a man sows, he
shall also reap. This is the day he hath appointed in which he will judge the
world. The law of grace is written in every child of grace, that there is no
dodging of that law or the penalty of its transgression. As to what you call
the wicked, it is the devil and his angels, and their doom is fixed. Now I will
criticize your belief and say to you that if I or I have to be judged and
receive after time what we have done in time we are gone, but you say that the
Christians are excused on account of what Christ has done for them, but they
will be judged so that God’s decree may appear to be just. He will not punish
them, but he will judge them. That would be a mock court in Heaven, and our
earthly judges would not do so.”
” Well, you have been confining yourself to the church. Now, what do you think
will be the destiny of the person in whom God hath not put his spirit? He is by
common consent called the wicked.”’
‘” We understand that God is no respecter of persons, and that there is one
event unto all ‘as is good so is the bad;’ all are dust, all return to the dust
alike. So when a Christian dies, the spiritual man in him returns to Heaven,
the devil that is in him (for the devil is in all) goes to the lake that burns
with fire and brimstone, and the earthly man returns to the earth. When the
sinner dies (the man without God’s spirit) the devil that is in him goes to the
lake of fire and brimstone and the earthly man returns to the earth as he was
(dust). The devil is no part of the man that God made nor is the spiritual man.
The earthly man is a soul, ‘the soul that sinneth it shall die.’ It is the
figure of Christ, hence the spiritual man is a soul, but it is the man in
either case it is the man. No man can show by the Scriptures that any soul or
anything with life ever was cast into the lake of fire and brimstone. This new
man is brought into manifestation, or from darkness to the light in the new birth.
The new birth does not change the substance of anything, it does not make good
out of evil, but it is the manifestation of God’s child in the earthy man. When
the new birth takes place it is Christ come into the world, and then that man
is under the law of grace and is called a Christian, and as Christ did not
change this world when He came into it, so the new man does not change the Adam
man, but he is honored and ought to show it by his conduct. I know that men
think there is something about a man that is worked over, but the Scriptures
teach that it is a man born of the spirit, it is the new man which is God’s
child, and how it is put forth into the Adam man is God’s
secret.”
‘” Well, sir, I have understood that the change spoken of is that our earthly
bodies will be made spiritual, and then God will judge them, and if it is a
Christian, He will carry his body to Heaven, and if it is not he will go away
into punishment.”’
“Well, sir, you have stated the sum at last. This is what the world believes,
and it does not require the new birth for a man to see your position, but if it
is true God is not properly represented in the record, for if he prepares one
man for Heaven and immortal glory, and leaves out another one of the same kind,
the He does show more respect for one person than he does for another, and
again, if He has created a man, and formed him, and put life into him, and that
man is not able to help himself and dies a sinner, and then God puts His spirit
into him and gives him sensation and turns him over to Satan to burn forever, I
must say, if such is the fact, that I would understand God to be the best
friend that the devil has got. The man is without power to prepare for Heaven,
and then because he does not do so he is to burn forever. It destroys mercy
enduring forever. Again, such an idea would make God divide himself. If he
raises up a dead man by his spirit and then judges that God-spiritual body, it
would divide God, putting a part of himself into punishment; and a house
divided against itself cannot stand. That idea would destroy God himself.”
‘” Well, you reason on it differently from anyone I ever talked with. You have
made me think that about all I ever did think is tradition.”
“Yes, sir, that is the trouble among believers; it is by taking tradition
instead of truth. This is where the devil annoys Christians; he makes them
believe a lie by deceiving them. That is the way he got our first mother, Eve,
into trouble. He told her a lie and got her to believe it, and sealed her doom.
All the children of her race have had to suffer the results of her
transgression. Tradition is false, revelation is truth. Jesus Christ is all the
Scriptures teach him to be – a God, a savior, a redeemer, a full Passover, and
when we turn away from his teachings and take tradition, we are sure to reap a
full reward. I am sometimes astonished that men will not reason, but when I
remember what I am myself, I can excuse anyone else.”
“’ Well, sir, after your many explanations, I will quote you a Scripture: “The
hour is coming in which all that are in their graves shall hear His voice and
shall come forth, they that have done good unto the resurrection of life, and
they that have done evil unto the resurrection of damnation.’ Now, how do you
reconcile this language with your position?”
“Tradition tells that there is a time coming when all the families of the earth
that are in their graves shall hear the voice of Christ and then shall leave
their graves, the Christians to life and the evil doers to damnation. Ever
since you or I can remember, we were taught this as a result of good or bad
conduct. This is one of the strongest points for those who think that eternal
life is obtained by good works. Now, for the sake of controversy, I might ask
what is to be the doom of those who are not fortunate enough to be put into a
grave, as none said to hear his voice, only those in their graves. If the word
grave only means a hole in the ground, some might miss hearing. But I will say
that if it means after time, it surely covers the ground of universal
damnation. We understand that God looked down from heaven to see how many had
done good, and the record tells us he did not find one, not even one. All had
done evil, and according to your text, those who had done evil must come forth
unto the resurrection of damnation. So if you are right, your Scripture proves
universal damnation. So it is your position that will not reconcile with truth;
with mine, we have no trouble. The grave is a hiding place, and when the voice
of Christ reaches his child, which is in the Adam man, it is quickened into
life and comes forth to the resurrection of life, which is Christ. He is the
resurrection and the life. That child finds peace and pardon and lives forever,
but that devil that is in that man, the (grave) comes forth unto damnation, for
God is the condemner of his enemies, and like those of old they must obey,
though it is torment. All this is experienced in the travail and delivery of a
Christian. Jesus Christ is called the Son of Man, and he sowed the children of
the Kingdom, and when he calls them into manifestation, they come forth unto
the resurrection of life, which is Himself. There are three separate
generations, and no two of them are related to each other. The generations of
Adam compose the human family, so far as we teach or know; the generation of
Jesus Christ is the church or body of Christ; the generation of vipers compose
the children of the devil. The generations of Adam are of the earth – earthy;
the generation of Christ is a spiritual generation, and the generation of the
devil is spiritual. Christ is good, and his children are like him, as much so
as the children of Adam are like him, and the evil generation is like the
fountain from which they came; they are evil. God puts forth his child into the
Adam man, and it is his secret how he does it. The devil introduced his spirit
in the garden, and all of Adam’s family are the common heirs of that
introduction. When God calls his child in the Adam man, the war between the two
spirits begins and never ends until the death of the Adam man. These
generations compose all the nations of the earth, and these are the nations
that stand before God, and His division of the sheep and the goats is now going
on and will last through the Gospel day.”
“’ Well, sir, Paul tells in the 15th chapter of 1st Cor.
That it is sown a natural body and it is raised a spiritual body, and one of
the evangelists tells that the graves were opened and many of the bodies of the
saints that slept arose and came forth out of their graves and went into the
holy city. Now, do you not see that this is an absolute rising out of their
graves, which proves that there has been one resurrection?
“Your question only proves tradition. In the first place, Paul tells us it is
sown, and it is raised. Now what is that pronoun ‘it’? If you will read the 41st verse,
you will find that it asserts the different degrees of glory of the sun, moon,
and stars, and in the 42nd verse, he tells you that is the way
with the resurrection of the dead. Now, sir, I find that ‘the resurrection of
the dead’ is the noun, and the pronoun ‘it’ is used in the place of the noun,
and the verb ‘is’ is always in the present tense. It is sown, and it is raised.
What is sown, a body? No, but it is ‘the resurrection of the dead,’ and it is
sown one way and raised another. So if the record be true, it is Christ all the
time, and although it is sown in many places, it is the many members of the
body of Christ. The body of Christ is all the ‘body’ that is natural. Adam is
not natural. He was made natural, but he has left that position and is now
carnal. It is God’s seed that is sown, and being in their own order, they form
a natural body, and when they are raised up by the new birth, then they are
raised a spiritual body. When Christ was laid in Joseph’s new tomb, he was
natural and mortal (not sinful) but mortal, but when he was raised up from the
dead, he was immortal; he could not die anymore. He is free from death; He has
‘put on immortality.’ All these things, like the others, are explained by the
new birth, and as to the graves that were opened, I suppose that men think they
were graves holding dead bodies, but if you will look at it you will find that
they were the bodies of saints only, and they were not dead but asleep, the
saints that ‘slept’ they arose and went into the holy city, not that wicked
city of Jerusalem, but into the holy city. It was simply the children of God
that had been sleeping, and they came from their graves or hiding places and
followed Him. I understand that Ezekiel alludes to the same kind of characters
when he told Israel that he would bring them up out of their graves, and then
they should know that He was their God. 38, verse 12-13. Here they are called
bones, and are very dry, but take notice, they could talk. They said, ‘Our
bones are dried, and our hope is lost.’ God told them that He would put His
spirit in them and that they should live. Now to sum it up, we, as a
denomination, believe that Jesus Christ is the ‘resurrection and the life,’
that His children are all spiritual and that they existed before time; and that
the transgression of the church was a fact before time, and that Christ was
slain for the offenses of the church before time; He was a lamb slain from the
foundation of the world. We believe that He actually paid all that was against
them. Christ is a spiritual man, and all His children bear the same relation to
Him that Adam’s children do to him. Both He and they are of the new earth which
abideth forever.”
‘” Well, if you are right, after all the sufferings of Christ, he will at last
get nothing but what He had before he created this earth, and if so, it is very
plain that he, Adam, will not reach Heaven and immortal Glory.’”
‘” Well, my friend, I am sure that Christ will get all that He asked of His Father,
and he told his Father after He had finished all the work that His Father gave
him to do, that he only asked His Father for the glory that he had with Him
before the world was. He said His covenant was made not to grow, and if any
material goes to Heaven that was not there before time, He will have more than
He asked for. If He fails to get all that He redeemed, then God’s power is a
failure. To my mind, the common idea preached by men is a farce and charges God
foolishly. Good works belong to the Christian here, and they save them from
judgment in the same sense that my obedience to the laws of Georgia saves me
from judgment of our courts, and the annoyance of our sufferings. If the
redemption of Christ is intended to reach the Adam man, then I say it is a
failure for several reasons, for redemption only puts anything back where it
was before it went under the law, and if it is for Adam, he would only be put
back where he was in the garden, not fit for Heaven nor hell. But we say to you
that Christ obtained eternal redemption for His children. Eternal redemption
could not reach a time being, for the redemption must be equal to the subject,
and Adam cannot be made eternal because he had a beginning.”
‘” How long have you believed the doctrine you now hold to, and what effect
does it have on you as a professed believer?”’
“Well, sir, if I am a believer at all, I was one for eighteen years before I
saw the doctrine I now hold to, and all that time I was in doubts and troubles,
because every time I would try to get comfort out of the thought that God would
judge me after this life, and that I must receive according to works, right
there my comforts fled. I would often ask myself the question, why did God
choose and ordain one man to joy and leave out another of the same sort to
suffer eternal woe, and then say he did not respect persons? These thoughts put
me to trying to search for the truth and leave out all creeds, and I am now
fully satisfied that man did not show me the doctrine I now hold, but I can
say, thanks to His blessed grace, I could lie down and be easy when I did see
the truth as it is in Christ, and now to me the record all conforms to this
position. When I got in sight of Adam as a figure or shadow, I could then run
my sum, and by the light of His blessed spirit, it would guide His children to
all truth. Many of God’s dear Children are kept in bondage through fear of
death, and never enjoy the freedom that belongs to them through the perfect law
of liberty. All earthly things are only patterns of the Heavenly things, but
the Heavenly things themselves required a sacrifice that was fully equal to the
Heavenly things. Of our doctrine, I am fully satisfied and love it as I do
God.”
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