Hassell on The Divine Order

“There is no salvation, no eternal life, no enjoyment of heaven, without the renewing power of the Holy Ghost and the atoning death of the Son of God; and, unless we are first regenerated, or born again, or born from above, or born of God, or born of the purifying power of the Holy Spirit (called by Paul "the washing of regeneration and the renewing of the Holy Spirit," Titus 3:5), we will never truly repent or believe or obey or enter heaven; and, if we are thus born of God, we will certainly repent, believe, obey, and inherit the fullness of eternal life” (Gospel Messenger, 1896)

Sylvester Hassell penned these words a little over a century ago. He is generally held in high esteem among the Primitives today, having compiled along with his father a History of the Church of God. This statement of his, though, is very significant. It was part of an article entitled ‘The Divine Order of Salvation’ which you may find here.

Hassell definitely sets forth an ordo salutis as the title of the article implies. Whether he was right or wrong in his supposed order of salvation, it is not now our present task to decide. The thing to note is that he does feel that repentance, faith, obedience would in fact follow the divine quickening of God! He says that those born again will CERTAINLY do those things! But this is an attack against the very heart and soul of the contemporary time salvation doctrine, which claims that these things are optional to the regenerate family of God. We have not read all of Hassell’s writings, but if he did in fact consistently advocate the position indicated above, then he could not be a supporter of time salvation in the modern sense of the term. Elsewhere in his writings he does condone the teaching, which makes me think that he believed it, but not in the ultimate connotation which the heresy carries today! If this is true, then it would not strike me strange at all! The evolving of ideas is nothing new among today’s extremists.

We are pleased that Elder Hassell could make this statement. I only wish that more of my former acquaintances could do the same. It would be a step in the right direction.