Christ Our Life by Editor

International Tract and Missionary Society · Oakland, California · Mar 4, 1886

Christ Our Life.

By Editor

"A REPLY to Rev. J. H. Brookes, D. D., on 'Annihilation,'" has been sent to us by the author, Professor J. H. Pettengell. The pamphlet is a rejoinder to an attack by Dr. Brookes on Professor Pettengell's work, "The Life Everlasting," and clearly shows both the absurdity and the wickedness of the position which would rob Christ of his chief title, that of Life-giver. In closing, Professor Pettengell thus clearly and vigorously states the point at issue, and the position taken by those who oppose the claims of Christ:—

"I am not specially anxious to defend myself or my writings from false representation. It is for the truth that I am concerned. I would be glad, if possible, to ignore all personal considerations, and all matters of mere opinion on doubtful points, and all side issues, and hold you to the real central question in dispute, viz.: Where do we get the eternal life for which we hope? Is it the gift of God through Jesus Christ, and only to be received by a new birth, as the Scriptures so emphatically, and in so many ways declare, or is it the natural inheritance of all men by birth from Adam, who forfeited it for himself and his posterity, as we are explicitly told? Does eternal life mean simply purity and happiness engrafted upon an immortality which is common to all men, or does it mean the divine life of the eternal God communicated to man in regeneration? Does death mean a state of miserable separation of immortal sinners from God, or does it mean the loss of life itself, which only is actual death? These, or rather this, is the real question between us. The Bible, not tradition, not philosophy, not sentiment, not Plato, not Satan, must be our authority in this matter; and to this I appeal. If you can find any authority in God's word which justifies you in disputing the claim of our Lord to be our only source of eternal life, and which sustains your abominable doctrine of endless sin and misery, a doctrine which reflects so terribly upon the justice, goodness, and mercy of our heavenly Father, which is so at war with every instinct of humanity, you ought to be able to produce it. If you and those of your school had any solid ground under your feet, any satisfying confidence of the strength of your position, you would not, I am sure, seek to avoid and to evade the main question, and try to beguile those who look to you for instruction into these various by-paths that lead away from it; nor would you waste your strength in petty skirmishing, in discussing irrelevant topics, in making false issues, in setting up men of straw only to knock them down, in misrepresentations and unworthy flings, and in expressions of contempt for those who differ from you only in their supreme loyalty to the word of God."