Hassell On Interpretation

Elder Sylvester Hassell (1842-1928)

"The Literal Interpretation of Scripture"

The Gospel Messenger--February 1893

(SEE HERE)

Wrote Elder Hassell (highlighting mine):

"It seems to me that there is among Primitive Baptists an urgent need of a recurrence to the true principles of Scripture interpretation. (Boy, is that not true! And, if true at the end of the 19th century, how much more so now with the Hardshells! - SG) The greatest dangers to the Church of Christ have always been those from within, and not those from without. Our enemies cannot really hurt us if we do not hurt ourselves. It is a matter of painful interest to the thoughtful minds among us to notice the widespread and profound operation of the elements of doctrinal and practical disintegration in our ranks. (Notice that - "among us" and "in our ranks"; what does that say about the state of the PBs in the 1890s? - SG) In various sections of our extended country we see--some of these errors more operative in one section, and some in another--a tendency to dualism and fatalism, and to relapse into something like old heathen pantheistic Hindoo, Egyptian, Greek, Gnostic, Cabalistic doctrine of the pre-existence, metemphycosis, or transmigration of souls; to deny the immortality (in the sense of everlasting duration), the regeneration, and even the very existence of the soul, the responsibility of man (all elements of Two Seedism - SG), and the Second Personal Coming of Christ, the resurrection of the body, the general judgment, and hell, and heaven; a tendency to eliminate from the Scriptures the essential distinction between the elect, the believing, the saved, on the one hand, and the non-elect, the unbelieving, the lost, on the other hand; a tendency to evacuate the Scriptures of their future eternal meaning, to confuse the divinely established order of events, to push back all the events of time into the past eternity, and the events of the future eternity into time; to evaporate Christianity into a futile and barren philosophy, and pass it off in a dissolving view; and a tendency to return to the medieval darkness of conditionalism and instrumentalism, and to degrade the religion of pure and living love into pharisaic ceremonialism."

Observations

Again, if Hassell were alive today to see how this "tendency" to pervert scriptures among the PBs who followed him, he would be deeply saddened. We here at the Old Baptist Test blog are calling our PB brothers to return to the place where they have departed and become actually what they pretend to be now in name, i.e. real primitive, old school, or simply "Old Baptists."

Notice again how Hassell links all these errors to the Two Seed element within the PB denomination, even as late as the end of the 19th century. And, although our Hardshell brothers will not concede the obvious, and as I have often asserted, Two Seedism, in some of its several elements, still plagues the "Primitive Baptist Church."

Notice again (as was talked about in Hassell's other words on this subject and posted in the preceding post) that Hassell sees a great danger in how the Hardshells at the time had gone away from the beliefs of their forefathers and had a "tendency to eliminate from the Scriptures the essential distinction between the elect, the believing, the saved, on the one hand, and the non-elect, the unbelieving, the lost, on the other hand." Is that not a common feature of today's Hardshell hermeneutics?

Hassell continued:

"The advocates of these various forms of error, like the two hundred denominations now professing Christianity, claim to derive their views from the Scriptures. The all-important question, therefore, arises, What is the proper interpretation of the Scriptures?

To rescue the true meaning of the Scriptures from the ruinous despotism of Roman Catholic dogmatizers and allegorizers, the Protestant Reformers, Luther, Calvin, Melanchthon, and others, in the sixteenth century, under the direction of the Spirit who indited the sacred volume, insisted upon the critical examination of the original text, (Hardshells of today do not believe this but believe that the KJV is inspired and so there is therefore no need to know the original languages or to second guess the KJV translators - SG) and a faithful adherence to the natural and grammatical sense, (Most of today's Hardshells do not practice a such a "faithful adherence" - SG) and recognized the Bible as "God's message to their souls, as the only rule of faith and life, which was to be interpreted by itself--a message conveyed in historical form, and needing the appliances of language and history in order to read it, and yet a spiritual message, the full reception of which could come only by spiritual enlightenment." Luther says: "Mystical and allegorical interpretations are trifling and foolish fables, with which the Scriptures are rent into so many and diverse senses that silly, poor consciences can receive no certain doctrine of anything. When I was a monk, I allegorized everything; but now I have given up allegorizing, and my first and best art is to explain the Scriptures according to the simple sense; for it is in the literal sense that power, doctrine, and art reside." Calvin says: "The true meaning of Scripture is the natural and obvious meaning, by which we ought resolutely to abide; the licentious system of the allegorists is undoubtedly a contrivance of Satan to undermine the authority of Scripture, and to take away from the reading of it the true advantage." And Melanchthon says: "The one and certain and simple sense of the Scriptures is everywhere to be sought according to the precepts of grammar, logic, and rhetoric." The Protestant Reformation emphasized "the exclusive sufficiency of Scripture, its perspicuity under the use of the ordinary methods and with the teaching of the Holy Ghost, its possession of a sense which is one and not manifold, and its interpretation by itself."

It is right to get true information from any source. The Holy Spirit does not encourage us in our laziness or covetousness or pride by inspiring us with a supernatural knowledge of English, Greek, or Hebrew, or of ancient customs."

Amen!

If one reads the comments and letters that came into The Gospel Messenger after Hassell published these words, he will then see how the words "it is right to get true information from any source" did not set well with some PBs. Poor Hassell! Having to deal with such contentious souls!

Hassell on Interpretation of Prophecy

"In regard to the interpretation of prophesy, I must add, on account of its uniqueness, some special paragraphs.

Anthony Collins (1676-1729), a leading deistical writer of the 18th century, sought to undermine the whole system of revealed religion by arguing that the fulfillment of prophecy is the only valid proof of Christianity, and that, as all the prophecies are allegorical, and not even one of them literal, the whole argument from prophecy, and with it the whole system of Christianity, falls to the ground; just as his successor, Thomas Woolston (1669-1733), assailed the literal truth of the miracles of Christ as incredible and absurd, in order, as he claimed, to vindicate their allegorical and spiritual meaning as representing the course of natural religion in the soul of man--denouncing the opponents of his views as "slaves of the letter," "Baal priests," "blind leaders of the blind."

Of course the literal interpretation of the Scriptures, like all other proper things, may be carried to an idolatrous excess, as was done by the Jewish Rabbis, both before and after the coming of Christ, pretending to find everything they wished to find in the Old Testament, by their subtle, absurd, and outrageous permutations, combinations, transpositions, substitutions, and numerical equivalents and power of letters. But whoever would disparage or deny the proper literal interpretation of the Scriptures should remember the dreadful anathema at the close of the sacred volume:

"IF ANY MAN SHALL TAKE AWAY FROM THE WORDS OF THE BOOK OF THIS PROPHECY, GOD SHALL TAKE AWAY HIS PART OUT OF THE BOOK OF LIFE, AND OUT OF THE HOLY CITY, AND FROM THE THINGS WHICH ARE WRITTEN IN THIS BOOK.--Re 22:19.

We rarely have problems with theologians going too far in "literal interpretation" of the Scriptures, but we have all sorts of problems with those who are allegorizers and "spiritualizers" of God's word. When Paul spoke of those who "handle the word of God deceitfully" (II Cor. 4:2) and who "corrupt (dilute by admixture) the word of God" (II Cor. 2:17) he surely had such theologians in mind.

Prophecy is nearly always given in literal language and is always fulfilled literally.

"The Spiritual Interpretation of Scripture" 

The Gospel Messenger--April 1893

(SEE HERE)

"It is especially in what claims to be the spiritual interpretation of the Scriptures that these ultra, wild, chilling, deadening, bewitching, confusing, dividing, and ruinous errors prevail among us."

"Prevail among us"? Do they still prevail among the PBs? Yes, sad to say.

Hassell continued:

"We have been so inattentive and dormant (what a confession! - SG) that the Lord righteously permits us to be afflicted, deceived, and desolated by false spirits, "transformed as the ministers of righteousness,." {2Co 11:14-15} Hyper, or Pseudo-Spiritualism, denying the truth or the importance of the literal meaning of the Scriptures, and thus sapping the very foundation of Christianity, now threatens, above every other danger, to be our ruin. May the God of Israel speedily arouse us all to a sense of this imminent peril, and restore us to the primitive purity of faith and practice, and preserve us, by His almighty power, from these "destructive heresies," whether heathenish or Jewish, of which we are solemnly forewarned in His written Word, and which are now assailing us. {2Pe 2:1; Col 2:8; 1Co 15:12-58; Ac 17:31; Heb 9:27; Re 20:11-15; 1Th 4:14-18; 2Th 1:7-10; 1Ti 1:4,19; 4:1; 6:3-5,20-21; 2Ti 1:13; 2:14-19,23-26; 4:1-4; Jas 1:13-15; 1Pe 4:17; 2Pe 3:1; Joh 4:1-3; 2Jo 13; Jude 25,25,25,25; Re 22:18-19}"

Again, what happened to the warnings of Hassell? About the same thing that happened to the warnings of Watson?

Hassell continued:

"And who that properly reverences the Divine Teacher will presume to say that there is the slightest falsehood in the past tenses of the verbs that He uses in Lu 16:19-31, wherein He tells of the Rich Man and Lazarus, or in the future tenses of the verbs that he uses in Mt 25:31-46, wherein He tells of His coming in final judgment to the world? In fact, neither of these passages is a parable, nor anywhere called so in Scripture, though misnamed such by a few uninspired men. The passage in Luke is a literal history, and that in Matthew is a literal prophecy--the latter being emphatically distinguished from the preceding parables of the Virgins and the Talents in the same chapter by the adversative conjunction de, but, at the beginning of the 31st verse ("But when the Son of man shall come in His glory, etc."), this conjunction being unwarrantably omitted by the King James translators, but properly expressed by the Victorian Revisers. Some of the parables seem prophetic, or predictive of future events; and I have shown in my article in the March number of the GOSPEL MESSENGER that the prophecies of Scripture are both literally and spiritually true."

Hassell saw that the figurative interpretation of the Rich Man and Lazarus (as being non literal, a parable, and not teaching what happened when these two men died) was a clear violation of proper hermeneutics and symptomatic of the sad state of things with the Hardshells at the end of the nineteenth century. As I recounted in the early chapters of my book "The Hardshell Baptist Cult," Hassell's view, the historic view of his Baptist forefathers, was declared to be heresy, and I was asked my views on it when I was re-ordained as an elder in the Bear Creek Association. Of course, I weaseled my way through it but never did I deny that it taught that the Rich Man went to Hades when he died.

Notice also how Hassell did not believe the KJV was inspired. He even believes (as I do) that there are serious errors in the KJV.

Hassell continued:

"But, in this department of interpretation, we must be careful not to substitute imposition for exposition, not to read our ideas into the Scriptures, but to read their ideas out of them. The ruinous abuses of false methods of spiritualizing the Scriptures, as exhibited for our warning in the Scriptures themselves, as well as in subsequent church history, I propose, with the Divine permission, to consider in the next number of the GOSPEL MESSENGER."

Well, amen to that brother! We have often shown how our modern PBs have been guilty of this very thing. So few of them want to come here and honestly discuss these things because they know that we will uncloak their mishandling of the word.

In Part Two (May 1893) Hassell said:

"Wisely did Elder and Doctor John M. Watson, of Nashville, Tenn., thirty years ago, solemnly warn all Old Baptists of extremists, ultraists, as their worst enemies. Unless checked, the dangerous extremes prevalent among us, in some parts of our country, will, if inspiration and history be true, result in our increasing confusion, division, disintegration, and ruin."

Are you hearing the beloved Hassell, my PB brothers?

Hassell, under "Abuses and Extremes" (The Gospel Messenger--May 1893) wrote:

"I now enter upon the consideration of the ruinous abuses in what falsely professes to be the spiritual interpretation of the Scriptures, as exhibited, for our solemn warning, in the Scriptures themselves, and also in subsequent church history. The present sad condition of the church, which has been brought about by these unwise, unscriptural, and destructive extremes, emphasizes the great importance of this subject, and has been the leading cause of the preparation of this series of articles."

He had to be hitting his counterpart (Elder C.H. Cayce) for leadership among the Hardshells (at the end of the 19th century) hard in this series, for Cayce was a gross allegorizer or spiritualizer.