Figuratively Dead |
|
Elder
Mark
Green |
"The sinner is said to be dead, and he is, in a figure; and
Cayce says he cannot hear. But he can hear politics; he can
take part in all the affairs of this life; still he is
figuratively dead. The word “dead” is used figuratively.
Cannot he hear God and obey him? The gentleman does not know
what spiritual death means." [F.B.Srygley, a
Campbellite minister, from his debate with Elder C.H. Cayce
in 1911]
Mr. Srygley admits that the sinner is dead, but it is
difficult to tell exactly in what respect he thinks he is
dead. If he argues that the dead sinner can see, hear,
follow, accept, and do any and all of the things that please
God, then in what aspect of his abilities is he dead?
Deadness must in some respect denote inability; but if the
sinner has the ability to do anything and everything, then
how is he dead?
He belittles Elder Cayce for saying that the dead sinner
cannot hear God. The Lord told some wicked Jews, “Why to
ye not understand my speech? Even because ye cannot hear my
word” (Jn. 8.43). Either they could hear his word or
they could not. Jesus said that they could not, and we
believe that what He said was correct, Mr. Srygley's
arguments notwithstanding. That they were able to hear the
Lord's speech from an audible standpoint is obvious, for
they were carrying on a conversation with him and became
angry because of what He said. What they could not
understand was the spiritual importance and meaning of the
words, for they found no resting place in the hard stony
hearts of those men.
He says that men can hear politics and take part in all the
affairs of this life. Certainly they can, for those are
natural affairs and natural men can take part in natural
affairs. However, Brother Paul tells us that the things of
the spirit of God are spiritually discerned, and if a man
has not by regeneration been made a partaker of the Spirit
of God, then he remains a natural man, who is not able to
discern or understand spiritual things. To say that he
cannot “discern” them is all the same as to say that he
cannot hear them.
Mr. Srygley accused Elder Cayce of not knowing what
spiritual death means. He may or may not have known what it
meant according to Srygley's definition. The Scriptures do
not use that exact term, and so we are left to conjecture
what he may have meant by “dead in trespasses and in sins,”
and we are satisfied that Mr. Srygley did not know the
meaning of that term as the Bible defines it. If he meant by
“spiritually dead” that men cannot take part in politics or
other natural affairs, then we see nothing in the Bible that
would in any wise bear out his definition. Those who are
dead in trespasses and in sins cannot please God. Those who
are corporeally dead cannot do anything. Mr. Srygley would
have to pick some sort of contrived definition in between
those two types of disability if his definition of
“spiritually dead” were to be different from them. If by
that term he meant that such individuals cannot act
according to the indwelling Spirit, then we would agree with
him; but we feel very sure that that was not what he meant
by the term. |