INDEX
Part One: What it is and how to obtain it.
Proposition
Part Two:
Part Three: What must I do to be saved?
Part Four: Objections Answered
Part Five: Who will “Meet the Lord in the air?”
Preface to 1973 Edition
The publication of this edition of six thousand copies of "The Great Salvation" completes the total printing of one hundred and five (105) thousand copies since it’s first appearance in 1893.
It was prepared by the author, Thomas Williams, in connection with "The World's Columbian Exposition" held in Chicago in that year at which time thirteen thousand copies were distributed at a booth set up at the "World's Congress of Religions" held at the Chicago Art Institute.
Since that time the work has continued in steady demand as the purposes for which it was prepared: "to present the only true plan of salvation in as clear and concise a form" as the circumstances called for, "and it’s merits as a means of heralding the gospel to the perishing, aiding young students of the Word, and assisting parents and teachers in teaching the Scriptures" are still as vital and necessary as they were seventy-nine years ago.
It is republished in the same hope as was originally expressed by the author; "May God's blessing go with our little book in it’s continuance of the good work it has done in the past, to the honor of His Name and to the salvation of many sons of Adam's fallen race."
The Christadelphian Advocate Publishing Committee
Reprinted December 1995
Part 1.
The Great Salvation
What It Is and How to Obtain It
Reader, we earnestly appeal to you. We have an important subject to talk to you about – not about making money, either for you or for me, but about a matter of much greater importance, that which every man needs – about what people call religion. You perhaps will answer, "Away with it; look at the confusion there is in the religions of the world. What is the use for me to trouble myself when wise men cannot agree?" That is just the reason I want to talk with you just now – to show you that the wisdom of the wise is foolishness with God; and that the religion of the Bible is not found in the "wisdom" of theological schools, but is revealed, so that plain, homespun people may understand it and be saved by it – in fact I want to show you – don’t get angry – that for to learn the religion of the Bible is to discard the popular religion of Christendom. Now, "come and let us reason together".
Perhaps you will have done like many others – concluded that it does not make any difference what our religious belief is if we are honest and sincere; but it is the hopelessness of reconciling the many religious creeds with themselves, and nearly all of them with the Bible that has driven many to say, "Well, it makes no difference." But your common sense will tell you that it does make a difference whether you believe the truth or believe a falsehood, whether you believe God or not’ and the religious world, by it’s actions, shows that it makes a difference what is believed, for they send missionaries to change the belief of the heathen, and also to the Jews to change their belief, so that they may believe that Jesus is the Christ.
If it makes a difference what we believe, then we can see why the Bible has been given – to guide us into the Truth; and the Bible itself says that our salvation depends upon our belief of the gospel as revealed in it’s pages.
I Thes. 5:21 Prove all things; hold fast that which is good.
Jude 3 Beloved, when I gave all diligence to write unto you of the common salvation, it was needful for me to write unto you, and exhort you that ye should earnestly contend for the faith which was once delivered unto the saints.
Rom. 1:16 For I am not ashamed of the gospel of Christ: for it is the power of God unto salvation TO EVERYONE THAT BELIEVETH…
Mark 16:16 He that believeth (the gospel) and is baptized shall be saved; but he that believeth not shall be damned.
Now, reader, do not run away with the delusion that one man can believe one gospel and another can believe another gospel; for
PROPOSITION 2.
There Is Only One Gospel That Will Save
That is, the gospel our Saviour commanded to be preached; the gospel – not a gospel; not any gospel you please, but the gospel is the power of God unto salvation. And think of this:
Gal 1:6 "I marvel that ye are so soon removed from him that called you into the grace of Christ unto another gospel; which is not another; but there be some that trouble you and would pervert the gospel of Christ. But though we or an angel from heaven preach any other gospel unto you THAN THAT WE HAVE PREACHED UNTO YOU, LET HIM BE ACCURSED."
PROPOSITION 3.
We Must Believe in the True God
"Now he that cometh to God must believe that he is, and that he is a rewarder of them that diligently seek him" (Heb. 11:6); and it is life eternal to know Thee the only true God, and Jesus Christ whom he has sent (John 17:3); and therefore it will not do to believe in any other God or in any other Christ, for that would be idolatry.
A TRIUNE GOD
Is what the religious world believes in, which is the same as to believe in a trinity of Gods, which, further is the same as to believe in three Gods; for they say that each is co-equal and co-eternal, and how can there be three co-equals and co-eternals unless there are three Gods? Reason, reader, you have a right to. God has invited you to reason, and it is only a false way out of a difficulty to say "it is irreverent to pry into these matters."
PROPOSITION 4.
God Is Not a Trinity of Persons, But One God
Proof:
Deut. 6:4; Mark 12:29 – Hear O Israel, the LORD our God is one LORD.
I Cor. 8:6 But to us there is but one God, the Father, of whom are all things.
Eph. 4:6 One God and Father of all, who is above all, and through all, and in you all.
John 17:3 And this is life eternal, that they might know thee the only true God…
Do you think that if Christ was co-equal and co-eternal with God, and therefore "God very God" He would have addressed the Father as the "only true God?" That would have been one "co-equal" telling another co-equal that He was the only true God. Where then would lie the co-equality?
PROPOSITION 5.
Jesus Christ
Jesus Christ Is Not A Third Part Of A Triune God, But The Son Of God By Begettal Of The Holy Spirit, and Son of Man By Birth
Son of God
Luke 1:35 The Holy Spirit shall come upon thee, and the power o/the Highest shall overshadow thee; therefore also that holy thing that shall be born of thee shall be called THE SON of GOD.
Matt. 3:17 This is my beloved Son, in whom I am well pleased
John 3:35 The Father loveth the Son,, and hath given all things into his hand.
SON OF MAN
Acts 2:22 Jesus of Nazareth, a man approved of God among you by miracles.
I Tim. 2:5 One mediator between God and men, the man Christ Jesus.
Gal 4:4 God sent forth his Son, made of a woman.
I Cor. 15:21 By man came death, by man came also the resurrection of the dead.
Rom. 5:15 The gift by grace, which is by one man, Jesus Christ, hath abounded unto many.
Jesus was not God, very God, as the creed of the religious world claims; for He Himself disavows any such claim. How could God be tempted like as we are? How could God die and be buried? Do not allow yourself to be deceived by the sophistry that it was His humanity that was tempted died and was buried, as if He Himself was not; for that would be admitting that He escaped temptation and death and that the "Christ" of popular religion did not die--could not die, being immortal; that only His body--not He--died. The Bible says Christ died, Christ was buried, etc.; and what is the use of perverting such language to suit a religion that is far astray from the Bible? Instead of Christ’s being "co-equal and co-eternal with God," "God very God," He
Was of Man's Nature and Depended Upon God
Heb. 2:17; 4:15 In all things it behoved him to be made like unto his brethren. * * *' He was in all points tempted like as we are, yet without sin.
John 5:30 I can of mine own self do nothing.
John 14:28 I go unto the Father, for my Father is greater than I
Heb. 5:7, 8 He was heard in that he feared; though he were a son, yet learned he obedience by the things which he suffered.
PROPOSITION 6.
The Holy Spirit
The Holy Spirit Is Not a Person, But It Is The Effluence That Proceeds From God, as the Light and Heat of the Sun Proceed from the Sun.
The Holy Spirit is not a third part of a Triune God, but God's power, effluence and influence. It is said that "God anointed Jesus of Nazareth with the Holy Spirit and with power." Now, reader, we appeal to your common sense. If each -- God, Christ and the Holy Spirit -- were "God very God, co-equal and co-eternal, how could the first be said to anoint the second with the third in order to impart "power" from the first to the second through the third? If they were co-equal, the imparting of power from one to another would destroy the "co-equality". If they were co-equal what "power" would one have to impart to. another that the other was not already in possession of? Will your common sense allow you to believe that one of three co-equals anointed a second co-equal with a third co-equal? Can you think for a moment that one person anointed a second person with a third person? Note the following testimonies:
Psa. 104:30 Thou sendest forth thy Spirit, they are created.
Job 33:4 The Spirit Of God hath made me, and the breath of the Almighty hath given me life.
Luke 1:35 The Holy Spirit shall come upon thee, and the power of the Highest shall overshadow thee: therefore that holy thing which shall be born of thee shall be called the Son of God.
Acts 10:38 God anointed Jesus of Nazareth with the Holy Spirit and with power…..
There is, therefore, only one God and Father of all; and Jesus Christ is the Son of God, having been begotten of God through the Holy Spirit. God was the one who begat; the Holy Spirit was the power or influence emanating from Him under the direction of His will in the begettal; and Christ was the Son of God begotten, who, alter growing in wisdom and stature, was made perfect by the things which he suffered (Heb. 2:10).
PROPOSITION 7.
The Nature of Man Man Is Mortal, a Creature of the Dust
Now, dear reader, I want to appeal to you upon another subject. You know that it is the belief of the religious world that man is an immortal soul, and that when death takes place the real man does not die -- he simply forsakes his body and continues to live without a body. If he has been a good man, he goes to heaven to live in happiness; if he has been a bad man, he goes to hell (supposed to be a place of torment) to live in misery. Now, just think for a moment. The Bible says there is to be a day of judgment.
Eccl. 3:17 I said in mine heart, God shall judge the righteous and the wicked; for there is a time there for every purpose and for every work.
II Cor. 5:10 For we must all appear before the judgment seat of Christ, that everyone may receive the things in body, according to that he hath done, whether good or bad.
This judgment, you must know, is not at death, but at the second coming of Christ:
II Tim. 4:1 I charge thee therefore before God and the. Lord Jesus Christ, who shall judge the quick and the dead at his appearing and his kingdom.
Matt. 25:31 When the Son Of man shall come in his glory, and all his holy angels with him, then shall he sit upon the throne of his glory; and before him shall be gathered all nations; and he shall separate them one from another as a shepherd divideth his sheep from the goats.
Here is proof that the judgment of good and bad is to take place when Christ comes back to the earth. So it follows they have not yet been judged. Now, then, to return to the point. If it be true that the good go to happiness when they die (and have to die to get there)! and the bad go to misery when they die, what is the judgment for? I appeal, reader, to your reason. Can you believe that God will reward and punish good and bad men for thousands of years and then call them to judgment? You will possibly say, "O well, God knows where to put them when they die as well as He will at the judgment day." Granted; but if it is a question of His knowledge, why has he provided a day of judgment at a set time? Do you not think there is something wrong with a theory that represents God as arranging in His plan for a day of judgment in which He will reward every man according as His work shall he (Rev. 22:12), and yet rewarding some for hundreds of years before that day of judgment arrives?
Now the Bible will help us out of this difficulty, and the first step is to believe that man is mortal, a creature of the dust.
I Cor. 15:47 The first man is of the earth, earthy.
Gen. 2:7 And the Lord God formed man of the dust of the ground.
Gen. 3:19 For out of it (dust) wast thou taken; for dust thou art and unto
dust shalt thou return.
Job 33:6 I also am formed out of clay
Gen. 3:23 Therefore the LORD God sent him (Adam) forth from the garden of Eden, to till the ground, from whence he was taken.
Gen. 18:27 And Abraham answered and said, Behold now, I have taken upon me to speak unto the Lord which am but dust and ashes.
Job 4:17 Shall mortal man be more just than God? Shall a man be more pure than his maker?
Job 10:9 Remember, I beseech thee, that thou has made me as the clay; and wilt thou bring me into dust again?
Psa. 103:14 For he knoweth our frame; he remembereth that we are dust.
Now do not forget that all this is said of man--not of the house that man is supposed to dwell in for a time, as if man were one thing and his body another. It was the man that was formed out of the dust.
It is the man that is of the earth, earthy. It is the man that is formed out of clay. It is the man that is dust and ashes. Now the second step out of the difficulty presented is to believe that
PROPOSITION 8.
Man, Who Is Mortal, Dies, and Is Dead After He Has Died
Job 30:13 For I know that thou bring me to death, and to the house appointed for all living.
Job 7:1 Is there not an appointed time to man upon earth? are not his days also like the days of an hireling?
Psa. 89:48 What man is he that liveth and shall not see death? Shall he deliver his soul (himself) from the hand of the grave?
Eccl. 3:19, 20 For that which befalleth the sons of men befalleth beasts; even one thing befalleth them. as the one dieth so dieth the other; * * *· all go to one place; all are of the dust and all turn to dust again.
Isa. 40:6 All flesh is grass, and all the goodliness thereof is as the flower of the field; the grass withereth, the flower fadeth; because the Spirit of the Lord bloweth upon it; surely the people is grass.
PROPOSITION 9.
In Death Man Is Unconscious
Eccl 9:10 Whatsoever thy hand findeth to do, do it with thy might; for there is no work, nor device, nor knowledge, nor wisdom in the grave whither thou goest.
Isa. 6:5 In death there is no remembrance of thee, in the grave who shall give thee thanks?
Eccl. 9:5 For the living know that they shall die; but the dead know not any thing.
Psa. 146:3, 4 Put not your trust in princes, nor in the son of man, in whom there is no help; his breath goeth forth, he returneth to his earth; IN THAT VERY DAY HIS THOUGHTS PERISH.
Isa. 38.18, 19 The grave cannot praise thee, death cannot celebrate thee: they that go down into the pit cannot hope for thy truth.
Now, you see, the Bible having taught us that, instead of death being a continuation of life somewhere off the earth, it is the cessation of life; and instead of men going to happiness or misery when they die, they go to the grave, we are helped out of the absurdity of believing that good and bad are rewarded and punished before they are judged. It is clear now that, instead of the faithful dead having gone to heaven to continue to live, these all died in the faith, not having received the promises (Heb. 11:13).
Now, dear reader, do not, like many, get angry and denounce this as "materialism", and say, "If a man in death is no better than the beasts--is as dead as the beasts are--there can be no future life;" for that is just what some in Corinth said; and Paul said they were fools for doing so.
Paul argued with the Corinthians that the dead were dead, and proved that if there was no resurrection even those who had died in Christ had perished (I Cor. 15:18), gone for ever--an impossibility if they had gone to a heaven of happiness.
Now if there is to be a resurrection of the dead and a "gathering", of those who are alive at Christ’s return to judge the quick and the dead, then our difficulty is gone, the wisdom of God shines brightly and the Bible is a book of consistency and beautiful harmony.
PROPOSITION 10.
Resurrection Is the Means of a Future Life for the Dead
Job 14:14 If a man die shall he live again?
Job 19:25, 26 1 know that my redeemer liveth, and that he shall stand at the latter day upon the earth, and though after my skin worms destroy this body, yet in my flesh shall I see God.
Psa. 49:15 But God will redeem my soul from the power of the grave.
Isa. 26:19 Thy dead men shall live, together with my dead body shall their arise. Awake and sing) ye that dwell in dust.
Dan. 12:2 And many of them that deep in the dust of the earth shall awake, some to everlasting life, and some to shame and everlasting contempt.
Phil. 3:10, 11 That I may know him, and the power of his resurrection, * * * if by any means I might attain unto the resurrection of the dead.
I Cor. 15:16, 18 For if the dead rise not, then is not Christ raised; * * * then they also which are fallen asleep in Christ ARE PERISHED.
While it is clear from the testimonies given that man is mortal and absolutely destitute of immortality, and that in death he is dead and therefore unconscious, our hope of immortality must be through the resurrection, and immortality is therefore a matter of hope for the righteous only, and not an inherent possession of saint and sinner alike. Immortality is Gods nature. He is "The King eternal, immortal, invisible" (I Tim. 1:17), "who only hath immortality" (I Tim. 6:16). It is therefore a holy nature befitting righteous beings only; for God would surely not impart His own holy nature to wicked and depraved
PROPOSITION 11.
Immortality Is the Gift of God to the Righteous Only
II Pet. 1:4 Whereby are given unto us exceeding great and precious promises, that by these ye might be partakers of the DIVINE NATURE, having escaped the corruption that is in the world through lust.
I John 3:2 Beloved now are we the sons of God, and it doth not yet appear what we shall be; but we know that when he shall appear, we shall be like him, for we shall see him as he is.
Phil. 3:20, 21 For our conversation is in heaven; from whence also we look for the Saviour, the Lord Jesus Christ, who shall change our vile body, that it may be fashioned ONTO HIS GLORIOUS BODY.
Luke 20:35, 36 But they which shall be accounted worthy to obtain that world, and the resurrection from the dead, neither marry, nor are given in marriage; neither can they die any more; for they are equal unto the angels and are the children of God, being the children of the resurrection.
Rom. 2:6, 7 Who (God) will render to every man according to his deeds; to them who by patient continuance in well doing seek for glory and honor and immortality, eternal life.
I Cor. 15:51-54 Behold I show you a mystery; we shall not all sleep, but we shall all be changed, in a moment, in the twinkling of an eye, at the last trump; for the trumpet shall sound, and the dead shall be raised incorruptible, and we shall be changed. For this corruptible must put on incorruption, and this mortal must put on immortality. So when this corruptible shall have put on incorruption, and this mortal shall have put on immortality, then shall be brought to pass the saying that is written, Death is swallowed up in victory.
Now the word "immortality" is found only six times in the Bible, and never once is used as a prefix to the word soul in the oft-repeated form we hear from men – "immortal soul". First, it is said that God is immortal (I Tim, 1:17). Second, that God only hath immortality (I Tim. 6:16). Third, that Christ abolished death (in Himself), and brought life and immortality to light through the gospel (II Tim. 1:10). Fourth, that we must by well doing seek for immortality (Rom. 2:7). Fifth, that immortality will be put on at the resurrection. And, sixth, that when it is put on death will be swallowed up in victory (I Cor. 15:53-57).
PROPOSITION 12.
Life As Now Possessed Is Not Eternal or Everlasting, But a Vapor That Soon Passeth Away
Job 14:1, 2 Man that is born of a woman is of few days, and full of trouble. He cometh forth like a flower and is cut down: he fleeth also as a shadow, and continueth not.
Psa. 39:5 Behold thou has made my days as a handbreadth; and mine age is as nothing before thee: verily every man at his best state is altogether vanity.
Psa. 103:15 As for man, his days are as grass; as the flower of the field so he flourisheth.
Psa. 144:4 Man is like to vanity; his days are as a shadow that passeth away.
I Pet. 1:24 For all flesh is as grass, and all the glory of man as the flower Of grass. The grass withereth, and the flower thereof falleth away.
Jas. 4:14 For what is your life? It is even a vapor, that appeareth for a little time and then vanisheth away.
PROPOSITION 13.
Everlasting or Eternal Life Is Not a Present Possession, but a Matter of Promise and Hope of the Righteous
I John 2:25 And this is the promise that he hath promised us, EVEN ETERNAL LIFE, through Jesus Christ.
II Tim. 1:1 Paul, an apostle of Jesus Christ, by the will of God according to THE PROMISE OF LIFE which is in Christ Jesus.