BIBLE
STUDENT'S SERMON ATTACKED
The
Duluth Herald. May 11, 1914.
The
sermon of Judge Rutherford given recently at the Lyceum theater on "Where
Are the Dead" was attacked last night by Rev. W. H. Farrell, pastor of the
Asbury Methodist church. Sixtieth avenue west and Raleigh street. The pastor
charged that the Bible student did not live up to expectations and that he
presented nothing new.
"For
reasons best known to themselves, the Millenial Dawn' [sic] folks do not
advertise who they represent," said Rev. Mr. Farrell. "Judge
Rutherford, presenting their doctrine from the standpoint of a lawyer, failed
to come up to the advertisements. The matter in his address was not new. The
books published by Russell, who appears to be the society sometimes called the
'International Bible Students,' contain all there was in it.
Other
representatives of Russellism have preached the same stuff to Duluth audiences
months before the judge got to it.
"The
doctrine of soul sleeping with its attendant heresies arose among the Arabian
and Armenian sects centuries ago. During the twelfth to sixteenth centuries
they were passed upon by various church councils and discarded.
"Mr.
Rutherford says that Satan said to Eve: ‘There is no death.’ Russell may say
that was what Satan said but the Bible says Satan said: 'Ye shall not surely
die,’ a very material difference. Satan sought to mislead and he has continued
an adept ever since.
“Was
Adam dead after he sinned? The judge says he was legally. What is meant? The
Word says ‘The soul that sinneth shall die;’ ‘the wages of sin is death.’ Paul
writes ‘Dead in trespass and in sin.’
Though Adam did not dies until 930 years later the judge says ‘I say in
the light of the word, he died to righteousness.’ To pass into death by sin is
far more terrible than physical death. To lose the innocence of childhood and
the consciousness of God’s love out of the soul is the awful tragedy of human life.
This was what came to Adam as the wages of sin.
“The
judge claims that all who were born were born were without the right to life,
and therefore, sinners is not scriptural. The Scripture quoted by the judge to
show that the dead are unconscious has reference solely to the physical man and
the things of this life. The experience of Stephen, of the penitent thief, of
Jesus, Moses, Elijah on the mount of transfiguration reveal the condition of
the spirit of men after death.”
2 comments:
Just a quick comment to get everything started. There seems to be a misunderstanding in regards to both what Russell and Rutherford said regarding death.
"Mr. Rutherford says that Satan said to Eve: ‘There is no death.’ Russell may say that was what Satan said but the Bible says Satan said: 'Ye shall not surely die,’ a very material difference. Satan sought to mislead and he has continued an adept ever since."
He then proceeds to discuss what is called "spiritual death", states it as a 'fact' and doesn't attempt to prove it.
The Duluth Herald's explanation of the Rev. Farrell criticism was that there was nothing new in Rutherford's talk as it had been preached in Duluth before and was, in fact, all based on Russell's books. This no doubt was true. Farrell took exception to Rutherford's talk seemingly not being advertised as coming from a Millennial Dawnist or International Bible Student perspective. Perhaps he had attended in ignorance of this, being attracted only by reference to a lawyer's perspective on the Bible.
Farrell seems to argue that the consequence of Adam and Eve's disobedience in eating from the tree resulted only in her spiritual death (as Zions Herald explains) when the innocence of childhood and the love of God was lost. For Farrell this was their 'wages of sin'. Farrell, it seems, objects to the idea of their offspring being born in sin and takes the event of the transfiguration as proof of the immortality of Moses and Elijah, seeing their involvement as being conclusive evidence of their continuing existence rather than just a vision illustrating how the Law and the Prophets bore witness to Christ. Presumably Farrell thought that Adam and Eve's ageing and eventual human death would have occurred anyway, even if they had not sinned.
The problems with the Rev. Farrell's explanation (or is it the Duluth Herald's understanding of Farrell's explanation?) are many. If, for instance, one argues Moses, Elijah and other ancient worthies considered righteous were transferred to a spiritual life one would need to question where exactly did these exist following their bodily death? Acts 2:23 states that David did not ascend to the heavens. Further both Colossians 1:18 and Revelation 1:5 call Jesus "the Firstborn from the dead". Another difficulty arises in that some would question why was it necessary for Christ to come if it were possible to reach heaven through good works alone, as Farrell's understanding of Moses and Elijah's post-human existence seems to suggest.
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