Benoni Stinson's Third Speech
On His Third Proposition
STINSON'S LAST SPEECH,
ON THE THIRD PROPOSITION.
Gentlemen Moderators, Ladies and Gentlemen:--In the short space of half and hour, I have to close my part of the investigation of this proposition. My worthy opponent in following me, has recognized much of the evidence I introduced, but denies its application. He has told us that the question between us is, whether salvation is conditional or unconditional? He takes one side, and I take the other. He says he can not, in the honesty of his heart, understand it differently. That all who are saved are saved unconditionally, without any reference to anything they can say or do.
[HUME--I believe that.] Now, permit me to join issue with him on this point, and deny his position, for he has taken a distinct position, that those sinners who are saved are of the elect, and therefore, their salvation is unconditional and certain.
Is there nothing he can do that would hinder him from being saved, if it be unconditional? I take this view of his position: That nothing that he can do or say can save him, or be the means of his salvation; and that nothing he can say or do will prevents his salvation, or hinder him from being finally and eternally saved. I have admitted the impotence of man, but I am glad that we have a way set before us-- a dying Savior, held forth in the Bible, that promises to save any man who will use all his powers.
I will now bring a point to bear here, which my brother has frequently alluded to in this discussion. He had admitted and asserted that God never required of man that which he could not do; has never given a commandment which he could not obey at the time the commandment was given. I have special use for this rule--God, under the gospel dispensation, commands all men everywhere to repent. Can this commandment be obeyed? Is there anything in the economy of redemption that precludes the possibility of every man who is thus commanded to repent obeying the commandment? When Jesus said (in Luke xxx): "Except ye repent, ye shall all likewise perish," are we to understand that these men could not repent, and that, therefore, they must perish, inevitably?
The idea that I wish to impress upon your mind is that the damnation of the sinner is upon his own head. Not for failing to do that which he had not the power to perform, but for neglecting to do that which he might have done. The moral agency we have established clears much upon this point. We hold, therefore, that man, by failing to do what he might have done (repent and believe), subjects himself to just condemnation.
Jesus, before he was crucified, is said to have wept over Jerusalem. His language on that occasion was: "O! Jerusalem, Jerusalem! thou that killest the prophets and stonest them that were sent unto thee! how often would I have gathered thy children together as a hen gathereth her brood under her wings; but ye would not." Now, if my brother's interpretation was correct, that they would not because they could not, would it not have been pertinent in the Jews, when Jesus said this, to have replied, "We would not, because we could not."
[HUME.--You misunderstood me. My language was this: they could not, because they would not.]
The elder says they could not, because they would not. This only changes the matter, and makes it stronger on my side; for it admits that the volition was free; from the fact that they would not, he says they could not. This looks like reasoning in a circle: you can not, because you will not; and you will not, because you can not. We again refer to the fixed principle, that God requires no effort which it is impossible to perform. He commands all men to repent. This presupposes that the commandment can be obeyed.
I have a few remarks to make on the subject of faith. On one occasion Paul and Silas met a penitent sinner, who felt himself to be lost. He asked them the question, "Sirs, what must I do to be saved?" What was their reply? "Believe on the Lord Jesus Christ and thou shalt be saved." I ask, is there sufficient ability given to obey that commandment? This is the very point. When obedience is indispensable to salvation, would it have been right for him to have said, "I would believe if I could? or ought he to have made an effort to obey that command and to exercise faith in Jesus Christ, to result in his salvation? The question to be settled is this: does man first believe? is belief a condition required of him on his part, and has he the moral powers to examine evidence and believe, or has he not? Here we make the point, that man either believes or God believes for him. The exercise of faith is exclusively the work of God, or man has some agency in it. Our brother quoted a text, "By grace are ye saved through faith." Here he discovers faith enters directly in connection with grace in the salvation of the sinner. We quoted a text which he has never controverted: "With the heart man believeth." Jesus also says: "He that believeth hath everlasting life." If man can not obtain salvation without faith, and if he can with his heart believe, and has the promise of everlasting life upon the exercise of faith, I claim that my position is sustained. I claim that this is a correct view, and that the proposition is established. The question is not whether all men have this saving faith. Elder Hume brings this up again and again. The difficulty that Elder Goodwin and he got into (though I think Elder Goodwin gave him about half of it in that debate--but he seems to have the advantage), is, they could not believe because their hearts were hardened. [HUME--That was Elder Franklin.] They were beyond the limits (if you will allow me the expression) of salvation. He wants me to give my view upon this. I will admit that the Bible teaches the possibility of man sinning away his day of grace, of committing the unpardonable sin, till his conscience becomes seared, till God forever forsakes him. I think the position is easily sustained. If it be possible that this is so, then he wants me to point them out. Who are they? This is requiring a little more than I feel disposed to undertake. It is enough for me to say that there is a possibility of man becoming hardened, of striving against the Holy Ghost, till God will say of him as he did of Ephraim: "He is joined to his idols; let him alone." But in the whole scope of the Bible he finds but one instance (and he is certainly one of the best Bible scholars we have), where there are men that could not believe. I therefore regard it as a rare occurrence. Can a man exercise faith? Can a sinner believe in Jesus Christ? Can he with his heart believe in Jesus Christ? Can he with his heart believe unto righteousness? The Bible says he can. The Bible says, we are all children of God by faith and he that believeth shall be saved, and he that believeth not shall be damned. This is my understanding of election and reprobation. It is a decree of God that he that believeth and is baptized shall be saved. Would he command us to believe, would he proclaim that we may be saved by believing in Jesus Christ, unless it became necessary in order to salvation to exercise that faith? Would he issue such a decree if it were impossible for the creature to believe the truth? If this is true, the sinner is damned for not believing. Yet at no period of his life could he believe. Look at it. The only question is, whether the sinner that fails to believe, and subjects himself to condemnation, could have believed. If self condemnation, could have believed. If he could have believed, his condemnation is just; if he could not believe, he is condemned for not doing that which it was impossible for him to do. This expression I wish to leave on record. It will become a matter of history. There are but two sides to this question. I have shown you that faith is a condition of salvation. I have shown you that we are commanded to believe, and that with the heart man does believe. I have shown you that the sinner will be condemned for unbelief. The question recurs again, will he be condemned for not doing that which it was impossible for him to do? I will spend the remaining few minutes of my time in reviewing the ground gone over. I have labored since Tuesday as the affirmant; first introducing the doctrine of a general atonement. In that proposition I labored to show that Christ by his death made full of satisfaction to the Adamic law, and set forth a system of salvation fully calculated to save the whole race from their personal transgressions; and in the next place that man was a free agent, endowed with volition of free will, capable of choosing eternal life, as it is proposed in the gospel.
And, now, a few minutes have been spent in showing that it is offered to all, and that the conditions are faith and repentance. I have thus shown the economy of redemption. My worthy brother views it differently. His plan is unconditional salvation, and that no powers on earth can disturb it. Hell may rage, the devil may roar, yet this unconditional plan of salvation will reach every person it was intended to save. He will not, in charity, allow that a laudable effort on the part of us Armenians, might succeed in bringing in some poor sinner, who would not come in under the influence of his rigid system. Surely, we can possibly do no harm; if the thing is changed, it will be for the better, and man will be benefited by our efforts, if affected at all. Here, I have another remark to make. I am now closing, and this young man has dotted down our speeches, and the recording angel has kept a record. I may have said or done many things I would rather not have happened, in my religious life; but there is one thing in which I have never been fearful of committing an error, and that is, in offering Jesus Christ to too many. Never have I been fearful that I would persuade too many sinners to turn to God. Never have I been fearful of deceiving a sinner in that direction I never expect to meet a sinner at the bar of God, who will say to me, sir, you told me that Christ died for me, but you was mistaken; he never died to save my soul. I never expect to meet one in this position, and may God help me so to conduct myself, that it may not be said to me that I saw the sword coming and did not blow the trumpet. May it never be said to me that I saw the sinner in danger, and did not warn him. Elder Hume has thrown a good many difficulties in my way, but according to my understanding of the Bible and the economy of redemption, he has failed, utterly failed, to disprove my proposition.
(Time expired.)
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