In reading a bit after Elder Cayce, I found that Cayce did seem to contradict himself on Romans 10:17. In his editorials, he made this statement:
""The word here is the speech of God. God speaks to the sinner who is dead in sins, and by the power of that speech the sinner is made alive in Christ, made alive from the dead..." (Cayce's Editorials, Volume 5, pages 123, 124)"
But he made this statement here:
"The faith referred to in this text is, we think, the historical, or rather, the doctrinal faith produced by hearing the gospel or doctrine of Christ preached or proclaimed in its purity and simplicity. But that does not produce hearing. “The word” that “is nigh thee, even in thy mouth, and in thy heart,” produces or gives the hearing. Unless the hearing has been given by the Word of God, the character does not hear the preaching understandingly-hence no faith."
Perhaps he changed his mind from the latter statement in 1907. Nevertheless, the context of this latter quote was addressing the question of perseverance in the regenerate, and he seemed to understand of Romans 10:1 that the true, spiritual Israel (which Paul defined in Romans 9:6-16) were regenerate but denied Christ. As I have stated previously on this blog, this position is certainly tenable as long as one views this peculiar circumstance as judicial and special blindness (Romans 11:25), and does not assert this as the norm of all the effectually called, which would contradict a goodly portion of the New Testament (2 Thess. 1:7-9, 1 John 2).
Cayce goes further and states:
"We think some of the Lord's children have died in sin or disobedience. See (Hebrews 3:7-19). Turn to your Bible now and read the entire chapter. Verse 17 says, “But with whom was He grieved forty years? was it not with them that had sinned, whose carcasses fell in the wilderness?” These were God's chosen people-national Israel-and they were a type of God's spiritual Israel. They died in rebellion in the wilderness."
The author of Hebrews, who seems to me to have been Paul, does state in Hebrews 4:2, "For unto us was the gospel preached, as well as unto them: but the word preached did not profit them, not being mixed with faith in them that heard it."
The problem then becomes are we prepared to say of Aaron and Moses that they were unregenerate because they, and that whole generation with whom the Lord was grieved, fell in the wilderness? This passage (Hebrews 3 and 4) does seem to suggest that evangelical trust and faith is to some degree separable from a true state of grace unless the Arminian view is accepted that faith can be altogether lost.
Note what Gill states in his commentary:
"Ver. 3. For we which have believed do enter into rest,.... Not eternal rest; all believers shall enjoy this, and they only; but this is not now, or at present enjoyed, unless things future may be said to be present, because of faith in them, and the certainty of them, but spiritual rest in Christ under the Gospel dispensation"
And again on Hebrews 4:11:
Ver. 11. Let us labour therefore to enter into that rest,.... Not eternal rest; this is not to be entered into now; nor is an entrance into it to be obtained by labour; salvation is not by works; eternal life is a free gift; good works do not go before to prepare heaven for the saints, but follow after: nor is the saints' entrance into it a precarious thing; God has promised it, and provided it for his people; Christ is in the possession of it, and is preparing it for them; and the Spirit of God is working them up for the self same thing, and Christ will give them an abundant entrance into it: but the Gospel rest is here meant, that rest which believers now enter into, and is at this present time for them, Heb 4:3 and though true believers are entered into it, yet their rest, peace, and joy in Christ, is not full; they enter by degrees into it, and by believing enjoy more of it:"
Dr. Gill definitely seems like a Primitive Baptist here.
This is obviously something one could not enjoy through not laboring to enter into it (Heb. 4:11). It seems to be a sense of spiritual blessings in time that true children of God can fail to enjoy as much as other children of God.
Now, how can the gospel faithlessness of that generation be accounted for in coming to an idea of the degree of faith preserved/persevered in those truly effectually called? It is evident from these scriptures and from John Gill's application that true children of God can possibly fail, at least to a large degree, to enter into gospel rest, as that faithless generation. So how can this harmonize with what is asserted by John in 1 John 4:4 or 5:3-5?
Does not John, himself, assert the principle of harmony? 1 John 5:5, "Who is he that overcometh the world, but he that believeth that Jesus is the Son of God?" Notice that John does not say that the one who overcomes is one who publicly confesses, becomes baptized, and lives to every full measure of discipleship, though these are things necessary for epistemic warrant. It is an inward, fundamental, true belief in the name of Christ that overcomes the world. Now, it is evident folly to interpret John in 1 John 3:10 in an absolute sense that would contradict any sin in the regenerate.
So the truth seems to be, from the passage considered by Cayce, that evidences of gospel belief that are shown in entering into the gospel rest are variable in the children of God, and the absence of them do not conclusively demonstrate unbelief to the degree of the unregenerate. This should not be shocking, as the Christian is shackled to his body of death until Christ returns. Did not King Josiah die in disobedience to God?
I want to end by emphasizing that, while we admit the preceding, it should not be presumed that this is the preponderant testimony of the New Testament in terms of what is stated to be characteristic of those truly effectually called. It is useful to consider the nadir of faith established in scripture of the children of God so that the doctrine of preservation can be rationally asserted, which must be only "some degree of faith and holiness". More than this we are not authorized by scripture.
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