TIME SALVATION, C.H. Cayce If there is only one salvation, or one kind of saving, spoken of in the Bible, then no man under heaven can harmonize the Bible. In Eph. 2:5 the apostle says, “By grace ye are saved.” They are saved by the unmerited favor of Christ. This being true, they are not saved by reason of any good thing done by them. The same apostle says, in another place, “Not by works of righteousness which we have done, but according to His mercy He saved us.”—Titus 3:5. They are saved according to God’s mercy, and not by any righteous works performed by them.
The same writer says, “Take heed unto thyself, and unto the doctrine; continue in them: for in doing this thou shalt both save thyself, and them that hear thee.”—1 Tim. 4:16. Here is a saving which follows as a result of doing something, and that doing is a righteous doing. But this saving is not an eternal saving, or the receiving of eternal life. The receiving of eternal life is “not by works of righteousness which we have done,” but according to God’s mercy. Timothy was a child of God, already in possession of eternal life, when Paul wrote the language to him just quoted.
Hence, it was too late for him to save himself in that respect; but it was not too late for him to save himself from false doctrines and wrong practices by taking heed unto himself and to doctrine and continuing therein. He would save others—“them that hear thee”—in the same way that he would save himself by doing what the apostle here admonished; hence he would save others from false doctrines and wrong practices. (Cayce’s Editorials vol. 2, ppg 378)
J. H. Oliphant Conditionality is a necessary element of moral government. I do not regard the resurrection of the dead, or regeneration, as acts of obedience, as a vice or virtue on our part, because they are not our acts at all. They are the simple acts of God. They do not properly belong to moral government, but to another system of things.
Some of our brethren object to the word conditional, but I think it represents the truth on the subject as well as any word we could use. “If ye keep my commandments, ye shall abide in my love.” The word IF in this text denotes conditionality. Webster in defining the word says, “It introduces a conditional sentence.” This is not the only use of the word if, but Webster mentions it first.
There are hundreds of places in the Bible where the word is used as in the above text. I have conferred with some of the educators of this city relative to the meaning of the word, and I doubt whether there is a single college or institution of learning among English speaking people that would deny Webster’s definition. “If ye do these things, ye shall never fall.” If we tell people this is not conditional, they would not know the meaning of any text.
I regard Cruden as a good author. Our Signs of the Times brethren advertise his book and sell it, and I think it an excellent help to the study of the Bible. He gives the meaning; 1st, “A condition, 2nd, A supposition,” 3rd, A reason of a matter.” Cruden cites some places in Deut. 28, as an example of where if is used in a “conditional” sense, also Luke 9:23. The word if occurs six or eight times in Deut. 28. Carefully read the whole chapter. Verse 2, “If thou shalt hearken unto the voice of the Lord thy God, blessed shalt thou be in the city,” etc. Now, if we deny conditionality in these places, we must deny the generally accepted meaning of the word if.
Jesus says, “Take my yoke upon you and learn of me, and ye shall find rest.” Jesus addresses his disciples as intelligent beings, and lays before them an inducement to follow him; he does not deal with them as the boy deals with his marbles, but presents motives, as if he would say, You need rest; you are laboring and heavy laden, and need rest. He plainly encourages them to obedience by promising them rest in case they obey. Parents do the same thing with their children. “If you obey me in this matter, I will give you a toy, or give you my approval.”
Some of my brethren think it would be an unworthy motive for us to serve the Lord in the hope of receiving a blessing, but why are these motives put before us as an encouragement to obedience? Take the words, “If ye keep my commandment, ye shall abide in my love.” Would it be a sin for us to desire to abide in his love? Or would it show an unworthy temper if we ask, “How can I enjoy the love of God?” And when told that we shall abide in his love IF we keep his commandments, would it be a sin for us to allow this fact to weigh something with us? Certainly not. To say, “We shall be blest IN obedience” would not change the case.
If we are told that precious fruit grows on a certain road, we understand that we cannot have the fruit unless we go along that road. So, if we put it this way, there is as much reason to be influenced to obedience by the hope of reward as there is to admit that our time salvation is conditional. We gain nothing to say we are blest IN obedience, for in this way of putting it we clearly hold that our receiving the blessing depends on our obeying. If the blessing is IN obedience, it is plain that we must obey in order to enjoy it, and also that we cannot enjoy it in disobedience, but if men obey they will receive the blessing.
Take the text in Peter, “He that will love life, and see good days,” etc. Is it a sin to love life, and see good days? Peter here urges this as an inducement to lead brethren to obey. It is a good motive and worthy for men to desire to enjoy life. Peter tells them how to do this, “let him refrain his tongue from evil, and his lips that they speak no guile; let him seek peace, and ensue it.” As a motive and encouragement to obedience he says, “he that will love life, and see good days.” These are not the only motives, but they are some of the motives. It is not sinful to serve God and do right in order that we may see good days.
Our ministers have urged this upon the people as one reason why they should obey. I have hundreds of times urged that there is sweet peace found in obedience, that we cannot have peace and rest of mind in sinful paths, hence we should eschew evil, seek peace, and ensue it. We should distinguish between that salvation in which we are quickened, and that which “we work out.”
God’s word does not call on us to be quickened, or to be born again; but it does, hundreds and thousands of times, show us it is OUR DUTY to obey. Now, if obedience is of grace in the same sense that being born again is of grace, how is it that we are called on to do the one and not called on to do the other? We can scarcely read a page of God’s word, but we see a command, exhortation, or encouragement to obey the Lord and do right. And we may read every line in the Old and New Testaments, and not once find it our duty to be born again.
Now, if both are of grace in the same sense, why are we, times without limit, exhorted to do the one, and scores of motives laid before us to induce us thereto, and not once exhorted to do the other? The fact is, we should make a distinction here. We should either exhort everybody to be born again, or [exhort] nobody to obedience, or [else] we should make a plain, clear distinction between time salvation and eternal salvation. (J.H. Oliphant Justification 1899 Emphasis added)
T.S. Dalton: James says again, “Brethren, if any of you do err from the truth, and one convert him, Let him know, that he which converteth the sinner from the error of his way shall save a soul from death and hide a multitude of sins.”
Notice he is not talking about ungodly sinners, but brethren; hence if one of our brethren should be drawn off into error, and therefore fails of the enjoyment of the blessings of the time salvation, it is our duty to labor with him, and do all we can to convert him from the error of his way, and we thereby save a soul from death, and hide a multitude of sins.
Not that we save him from an eternal death, for Jesus alone can do that, but we save him from that error in which he has been ensnared, and thereby enable him to enjoy again the blessings of the time salvation. (Zions Advocate Oct. 1897)
Sylvester Hassell: All Primitive Baptists are agreed upon the unconditionality of our eternal salvation, and the inability of those who are dead in sin to render spiritual obedience to the law of God. Instead of repentance and faith being conditions prerequisite to salvation, we understand that they are the work of the Holy Spirit in the renewed heart, and are the essential parts of salvation; and, until this spiritual renewal, the fallen child of Adam will love sin and hate holiness and continue in rebellion against God.
But there is an apparent disagreement in two or three of our associations, among worthy and lovely brethren, who would be heartily fellowshiped and gladly welcomed by other Primitive Baptists everywhere, as to whether our time salvation, that is, our deliverance from spiritual darkness, coldness, distress, and chastisement during the present life is conditioned or dependent upon our obedience to God, and as to whether the child of God is able to obey or not.
Now, even the authors of dictionaries have no right to manufacture or change the meanings of words; their business is simply to ascertain and state the meanings which words actually and already have in the language of which they treat. It would be deceptive to use words in a different sense from that which they generally have, unless we explain the sense which we mean. The most of controversies are strifes of words; and when words are properly defined, and their correct meaning is accepted by both parties, the controversy ends.
A “condition” is defined by the best of English dictionaries to be “an event, object, fact, or being that is necessary to the occurrence or existence of some other, though not its cause; a prerequisite; that which must exist as the occasion or concomitance of something else; that which is requisite in order that something else should take effect; an essential qualification.” And these dictionaries say that the word “if” is “the typical conditional particle, and is nearly always used to introduce the subordinate clause of a conditional sentence,” and means “on the supposition that; provided, or on condition that; in case that, granting, allowing, or supposing that.”
There are 1,422 “ifs” in the Bible—830 in the Old Testament, and 592 in the New Testament; and these conditional sentences make up about one-fiftieth part of the Bible. Thus forty-nine fiftieths of the Scriptures are unconditional, and one fiftieth is conditional. All reverent minds must admit that this conditional part of the Scriptures, though comparatively small, has a real and true meaning.
It cannot be denied by any informed and honest man that such Scriptures as the following are conditional: “If his children forsake my law, I will visit their transgression with the rod, nevertheless, my loving-kindness will I not utterly take from him,” Psa. 89:30-33. “If ye be willing and obedient, ye shall eat the good of the land; but if ye refuse and rebel, ye shall be devoured with the sword, for the mouth of the Lord hath spoken it,” Isa. 1:19, 20. “If ye know these things, happy are ye if ye do them,” John 13:17. “If ye live after the flesh, he shall die; but if ye, through the Spirit do mortify the deeds of the body, ye shall live,” Rom. 8:13. “How shall we escape if we neglect so great salvation?” Heb. 2:3. “If we walk in the light as he is in the light, we have fellowship one with another, and the blood of Jesus Christ, his Son, cleanseth us from all sin,” 1 John 2:7. See also such scriptures as Lev. 26.; Deut. 4:29-31; 7:12-26; 11:13-32; 28.; Ezek. 18., 33.
Not only is it certain that these scriptures are conditional, but it is equally certain that the condition, introduced by “if,” necessarily precedes the conclusion, which would not take place unless the condition took place first. If the conclusion in these sentences means eternal punishment, then Arminianism is true; but either the text itself, or the context and other scriptures, prove that the punishment or chastisement threatened in case of disobedience, is temporal and corrective, and not eternal and destructive, for God gives his children eternal life, and they shall never perish, and though their voluntary sins separate them from his face, nothing present or future can ever separate them from his love. (John 10:28-30; Heb. 12; Isa. 59:2; Rom. 8:28-39).
Thus the conditionality of time salvation is just as certain as the truth of the eternal word of God.
Baptists have always heretofore understood it so; nearly all Baptists understand it so now; and this truth is in perfect accordance with Christian experience. And if the living child of God, having the indwelling of the Spirit of life and grace, which makes him alive, is not able to obey heartily and sincerely, though imperfectly, the commandments of his heavenly Father, his real state does not differ from that of those who are dead in sin. Of course he can do nothing spiritual or acceptable to God except by that Spirit of grace; but that Spirit dwells in him. (John 14:16, 17; Rom 8:9-17; 2 Cor. 6:16; Eph. 2:22); and he can do all things through Christ who strengthens him. (Phil. 4:13); and he well knows and loves to confess that he has nothing good which he did not receive from God, and that without Christ he can do nothing, and that, by the grace of God, he is what he is—a poor, hell-deserving sinner, SAVED BY GRACE—a brand plucked from the eternal burning (1 Cor. 4:7; James 1:17; John 15:5; 1 Cor. 15:10; 1 Tim. 1:15; Zech. 3:2).
And he knows just as well, both from the Scriptures and his own experience, that in wilful disobedience to God, he does not enjoy that spiritual comfort which he has in obedience.
All the children of God are assured of these truths as they are of their own existence; and bitter contention over them is wholly unnecessary, unprofitable, unwholesome, and subverting. The ENTIRE scriptural truth about any matter unites, comforts, and edifies the children of God; while a contention for a PART of the truth for the WHOLE truth divides, distresses, and overthrows them. Truth is spherical; we must look at it on all sides to understand it at all aright. Extremes are dangerous; let us avoid them as we would the verge of a fatal precipice. “Let our moderation be known unto all men—the Lord is at land,” Phil. 4:5. (Sylvester Hassell Advocate and Messenger 1939)
S.F. Cayce: I know that when I first identified with the Baptists in this country (in 1866) they ALL believed that our eternal salvation is wholly unconditional, altogether the work of God, but that the time salvation, or Christian enjoyment, of the children of God (those already born of God) in this life depends greatly upon their obedience, and that it (their timely salvation) is in that sense conditional.” (Cayce’s Editorials vol. 1, pg. 8)
C. H. Cayce We will say that we are not a stickler for the term “time or common salvation.” The Scriptures teach that there is a salvation enjoyed by the child of God as a result of his walking in obedience, and that enjoyment is here in time. Hence it is called a “time salvation.” If a brother prefers to call it by some other name, we have no objection, just so he holds to the truth which is meant to be expressed by the use of the term.
In John 13:17 the Saviour said to the disciples, “If ye know these things, happy are ye if ye do them.” In this language there is, most assuredly, a happiness promised the persons addressed provided they do the things. He was speaking to the disciples, and they were children of God. The first thing necessary, however, is to know these things. Then, “if ye do them” a happiness follows as a result. They do not get that happiness if they “know these things” and fail to do them. The happiness is promised “if ye do them.” True, this language was spoken by the Saviour at the time He washed the feet of the disciples, but the same principle is true concerning every act of obedience which the Lord requires. Hence, there is a rest, a happiness, enjoyed by the Lord’s children as a result of their obedience to the Master. This is not a promise of rest or happiness beyond this life, or in the world to come, but a promise of happiness now— right here— for “happy are ye” is the promise. The happiness is now. Hence, they are saved from sorrow, leanness of soul, a troubled mind and conscience, by doing “these things.”
In 1 Tim. 4:16, the apostle says, “Take heed unto thyself, and unto the doctrine; continue in them: for in doing this thou shalt both save thyself, and them that hear thee.” This language was addressed to Timothy, who was already a child of God and a minister of the gospel. He had eternal life already. Hence, so far as eternal life is concerned, he was already in a saved state. He was brought into that saved state by the grace, mercy, power, and work of God, and not by doing something himself, nor by another man doing something. But here the apostle says that “in doing this thou shalt both save thyself, and them that hear thee.” He would save himself by “doing this”–- so the apostle affirms. He does not get eternal life, or eternal salvation, by doing; but he saves himself by “doing this.” He does not save himself from an eternal hell by doing; but he certainly does save himself from something else. By taking heed unto himself and unto the doctrine, and continuing therein, he saves himself from many “gins and snares” set by Satan; he saves himself from walking in, or going into, many places where he might go, and where a child of God should not go. He saves himself from the doctrines and commandments of men. He saves’ himself from false ways, from false doctrines and practices. By doing this, lie not only saves himself, but he also saves those that hear him. Those who hear him are hose who have already been made alive from the dead by the Spirit and power of God. “Why do ye not understand my speech? Even because ye can not hear my words. He that is of God heareth God’s words. Ye therefore hear them not; because ye are not of God,” says the Saviour. Hence, those who hear are already of God—have already been born of God, They are already children of God. But they are to be saved from false doctrines and practices, just as Timothy was. And this was to be accomplished by Timothy in “doing this”— taking heed unto himself, and unto the doctrine, and continuing in them. This saving is not regeneration, and no part of it. Regeneration is first; and then they need to be saved from false ways by having the gospel preached to them. But the man’s preaching is not worth much, unless his walk is right. He must take heed to himself. That is the first and most important thing for the minister to do, and in doing that and taking heed to the doctrine he will save himself, and those who hear him, from wrong doctrines and practices. This is a saving which follows as a result of doing something. Eternal life is not given men and women as a result of their doing something. Hence, this is a saving which is not eternal. It is a saving which takes place here, and the benefits of it are here in time, and not in eternity. God’s people in eternity who have never heard or known the truth here will be just as happy, and as much glorified, as those who have known the truth here. They will miss nothing in eternity on account of not having known the truth here. But those who do not know and practice the truth here miss something here. They are not saved from false doctrines and false ways.
In Heb. 2:1 to 4 the apostle says, “Therefore we ought.to give the more earnest heed to the things which we have heard, lest at any time we should let them slip. For if the word spoken by angels was steadfast, and every transgression and disobedience received a just recompense of reward; how shall we escape, if we neglect so great salvation; which at the first began to be spoken by the Lord, and was confirmed unto us by them that heard Him; God also bearing them witness, both with signs and wonders, and with divers miracles, and gifts of the Holy Ghost, according to His own will?” Here the apostle teaches that under the law dispensation every transgression and disobedience received a just [pg 131] recompense of reward. In that dispensation the Lord punished His children, or chastised them, for their disobedience. There was no escape then. Now, if that was true then, it is much more certain and sure now, under the gospel dispensation-“How shall we escape, if we neglect so great salvation.” This is a stronger way of saying that we cannot escape. Condemnation is the opposite of salvation. By neglecting this salvation we receive the opposite, which is condemnation, and there is no escape. If this salvation is eternal, and we neglect it, then we cannot escape the opposite, which is eternal condemnation. But our escaping eternal condemnation does not depend upon our not neglecting. We do not escape eternal condemnation by our zeal or diligence in the service of God. Escaping eternal condemnation, and receiving eternal life, having eternal salvation, is the free and unmerited gift of God. But here is a salvation which God’s children are required not to neglect; and we are told that we cannot escape the opposite of the salvation if it is neglected. The condemnation is not eternal, and as that is the opposite of the salvation, then the salvation is not eternal. Hence, here is a salvation, a joy and pleasure and delight which follows as a result of zeal and diligence in the service of God, as He requires.
These are only a few of the many places in God’s word which might be produced along the same line. How necessary that we study the Scriptures, and search them diligently, to know the truth as it is therein revealed. May the Lord help us to search for and know the truth, and then practice the same, The Primitive Baptist, January 2, 1917.
C. H. Cayce We have before us at this moment a copy of “A Brief History of the Regular Baptists, Principally of Southern Illinois,” by Achilles Coffey. To which an Appendix is Added by Thomas J. Carr.” This book was published in 1877— just eleven years before Elder Weaver united with the Primitive Baptists. In this book is a “Biography of Elder A. Coffey,” written by Elder R. Fulkerson, and dated January 1, 1877. Elder Fulkerson says: “Having examined his manuscript, I, with all my heart, recommend his little volume to the Regular Baptists, and to all enquirers after truth. There is no man that stands higher among the Regular Baptists than does Elder Coffey, not only among them, but he is a man of good report with them that are without. Having labored to the best of my ability in the same gospel field for the last thirty years, I know whereof I speak.” This is a plain and unvarnished endorsement of the doctrine and principles set forth in this history, and a plain statement that Elder Fulkerson advocated the same doctrine set forth in the book.
In the “Appendix” written by Thomas J. Carr, we find the contention that there is a salvation that is not eternal. We give the following extended extract from this appendix, beginning on page 170:
Paul says,”All Scripture is given by inspiration of God, and is profitable for doctrine, for reproof, for correction, for instruction in righteousness; that the man of God may be perfect, thoroughly furnished unto all good works.”— 2 Tim. 3:16-17. This is plain, positive testimony. Then if all Scripture is for the purpose of thoroughly furnishing the man of God unto all good works, where is any of it given for any other purpose? Nowhere. Then why should one search the Bible to find a Scripture to overthrow Paul’s testimony? He would not have written this to Timothy had it not been the truth. Paul, in writing to the Romans, says: “For I am not ashamed of the gospel of Christ: for it is the power of God unto salvation to everyone that believeth.”— Rom. 1:16. Some contend that this Scripture is applicable to the unbeliever. One or two things is true of this. Either the gospel is the power of God unto salvation to every one that believeth, or else it is the power of God unto salvation to every one that does not believe it. Well, which is it? Paul says, “to every one that believeth.” Jesus says, “He that believeth on me hath everlasting life.”— John 6:47. Again Jesus says, “He that heareth my word, and believeth on Him that sent me, hath everlasting life, and shall not come into condemnation, but is passed from death unto life.”— John 5:24. Hence “every one that believeth” is passed from death unto life, and, as a matter of course, is a “man of God,’‘ and the Scripture is for the purpose of thoroughly furnishing him unto all good works. Here, then, is a perfect harmony seen between the two quotations from Paul. But how can the gospel be the power of God unto salvation to one who is saved already? Timothy was one of the “saved already” when Paul was writing to him, yet he says, “Take heed unto thyself, and unto the doctrine; continue in them; for in doing this thou shalt both save thyself and them that hear thee.”— 1 Tim. 4:16. This cannot have reference to eternal salvation from two considerations; first, Timothy was at that time a young preacher of the gospel; second, if he was to save himself and them that heard him, there would have been no necessity for Jesus Christ, since Timothy, in this case would not only be his own saviour, but the saviour of them that heard him, be they many or few.
Paul tells how Timothy and himself were saved; that is how their eternal salvation was accomplished: “Who hath saved us, and called us with a holy calling, not according to our works, but according to His own purpose and grace, which was given us in Christ Jesus before the world began.”— 2 Tim. 1:9.
From the above quotation we see his eternal salvation did not depend upon, nor was it “according to our works.” But the salvation that Paul was writing to Timothy concerning did depend upon “in doing this.”
Paul, in giving his charge to the elders at Ephesus, says: “Take heed therefore unto yourselves and to all the flock,” etc.; “for I know this, that after my departing shall grievous wolves enter in among you, not sparing the flock. Also of your own selves shall men arise, speaking perverse things to draw away disciples after them.”— Acts 20:28-30. And again, “That we henceforth be no more children, tossed to and fro, and carried about with every wind of doctrine, by the sleight of men and cunning craftiness, whereby they lie in wait to deceive.”— Eph 4:14. “But there were false prophets also among the people, even as there shall be false teachers among you, who privily shall bring in damnable heresies,” etc., “and many shall follow their pernicious ways.”— 2 Pe 2:1-2.
By Timothy taking “heed” to himself and to the doctrine he saved himself and them that heard him (the flock) from “grievous wolves;” saved from being drawn away by men speaking “perverse things;” saved from being “carried about with every wind of doctrine, by the sleight of men and cunning craftiness, whereby they lie in wait to deceive;” saved from those “damnable heresies” privily brought in by false teachers; saved from following “their pernicious ways;” in short, they were saved from every false way. The Primitive Baptist, October 15, 1926.