1) Can you please define your specific definition of the word “Andrewism”?

The errors that Bro. JJ Andrew taught are laid out in his pamphlet “The Blood of the Covenant” as well as in other writings such as the magazine “The Sanctuary Keeper”. These errors are summarized as follows:

(1) As a consequence of Adam sinning, his ‘sin’ or ‘offense’ was transmitted to his descendants as a physical form of sin called ‘Adamic sin’ or ‘inherited sin’ or ‘sin-in-the-flesh’. We are, therefore, “alienated” from God not only on account of “ignorance” and “wicked works” (Col 1:21), but on account of the nature that we bare.

“When Adam disobeyed, all his descendants were in his loins… They were [therefore], ‘made sinners’ (Romans 5:19) without any exercise of will on their part. That is to say, God, by accounting them to be in Adam when he sinned, and by defining their evil desire to be ‘sin’, has constituted them ‘sinners by birth’“.

“‘Sin-in-the-flesh. [the evil desire of the flesh] was the result of the ‘offense’ of Adam…”

“Through the possession of ‘sin-in-the-flesh’ men bare the ‘offense’ of Adam…”

“Sin has thus two aspects, or forms, moral and physical…”

“A violent death is the punishment due to the one as well as to the other.”

(2) Man requires a covering, justification, reconciliation, atonement, purging, cleansing, remission, redemption, purification, and forgiveness from BOTH his personal sins and from physical sin inherited from Adam.

“Man is a sinner by birth and by deed, and needs sacrifice to cover his sin…”

“Justification from the ‘offense’ of Adam [i.e. sin-in-the-flesh] is, therefore, necessary as well as justification from individual sins…”

“Blood-shedding is needed to cleanse from physical, as well as from moral defilement…”

“Sacrifice is as essential to take away sin in its physical, as in its moral, aspect.”

(3) Christ also possessed sin physically and required justification, reconciliation, atonement, purging, cleansing, remission, redemption, purification, and forgiveness from physical sin

“Christ only possessed sin physically, not morally, but all who are sprinkled with his blood possess sin in both forms…”

“He died to cleanse himself from Adamic sin; and this is accepted by God as the means of cleansing others from Adamic sin and also from their own sins. Thus the same death takes away personal and inherited sin.”

(4) We receive a covering or justification for both our personal sins and from physical sin by Christ’s shed blood (i.e. sacrificial death);

“Justification from individual sins. as well as justification from the ‘offense’ of Adam… is provided for in the sacrifice of Christ…”

“Animal sacrifice, circumcision and baptism, being representations of Christ’s death, have been appointed, in conjunction with that death, as a means of legal justification [ie. the nullification of God’s pronouncement or “Divine decree” upon Adam to death].”

“The death of the animal… averted a violent death thereby prolonging his life, and giving him a second probation.”

“Just as Adam’s descendants were in his loins when he partook of the tree, so were they in his loins when he was judged and condemned…”

Therefore, like Adam “they deserve, whether actual transgressors or not, a violent death in the execution of the Edenic law…” and “are liable as soon as they are born to be cut off by death.”

“As soon as Adam was clothed with animal skins he was justified… from the ‘offense’ he had committed and the ‘sin-in-the-flesh‘ which it had produced…”

(5) When we are baptised, we receive a covering or justification for both moral and physical sin. Consequently, the ‘offense of Adam’ is no longer imputed to us, the alienation that resulted from Adam’s sin is removed and our legal status changes from being “in Adam” to being “in Christ” and move from being under “the Law of Sin and Death” to “the Law of the spirit of Life”, and the “righteousness of Christ is imputed to us”.

Before baptism men “are still ‘sinners’ in Adam” and “the ‘offense’ of Adam… is imputed to them.”

But when believers are baptized they have “been transferred out of Adam into Christ…”

They are “‘justified by his blood’ (Romans 5:9) from ‘sin in the flesh’ as well as from their previous ‘wicked works’…”

They are “freed from the condemnation arising out of Adam’s offense…”

No longer are they “under the ‘law of sin and death'” but come “under the ‘law of the spirit of life’…” and “the righteousness of Christ is imputed to them.”

(6) Unless Christ received a covering or justification for physical sin he would have remained in the grave.

“When he came out of the grave he was ‘justified from sin’ though still flesh and blood…”

“Christ’s resurrection was the result of justification from inherited sin.”

(7) Only those who have been baptised for both moral and physical sin will, therefore, be raised to judgment.

“The resurrection of his ‘church’ is the result of justification from inherited sin and individual ‘wicked works’ (Colossians 1. 21).”

“Physical sin is as powerful to keep closed the gates of the grave as is actual transgression…”

“Christ will bestow eternal life only on those who have been ‘washed’ from all sin [i.e. moral and physical] by ‘the blood of the covenant’; and he will, in like manner raise only those who have been justified by the same blood from inherited and committed sin prior to probation. To extend his resurrection power outside the scope of his shed blood is to open the door for his lifegiving power to be also applied where his blood has had no efficacy.”

(8) All those who reject the calling to baptism remain “children of wrath” under condemnation of “the Law of Sin and Death” and are “perishing” and will not be raised to Judgment.

“Having decreed that all who live under ‘the law of sin and death’… ‘perish‘… it necessarily follows that when they pass into the grave… they must, in the grave, remain forever…”

“‘The law of sin and death’ contains no provision for justification from sin, and consequently no element, which counteracts the reign of death. All under it, are by birth, “children of wrath” (Ephesians 2:3)…”

They “die in their sins and therefore ‘perish’.”

It should also be recognised that Thomas Williams (Editor of The Advocate Magazine in the USA) essentially shared the same beliefs as JJ Andrew. It was Thomas Williams who changed the BSF to create the BUSF, such changes being designed to support his theory of Inherited Legal Alienation and Atonement for sin-nature. They both believed and taught the same teachings on the nature and sacrifice of Christ and the purpose of baptism, and they both taught that the basis of resurrection to judgement was ‘covenant relationship’ through baptism. Where the two differed fundamentally was that while JJ Andrew said that God would not and could not raise those who had not been baptized, Thomas Williams said that God could, but not on the same basis as those who had been baptized. The underlying doctrine that led to the belief that baptism formed the basis of resurrection to judgment, was the false teaching in atonement for sin-nature which removed the legal alienation that came about as a result of Adam’s sin.

The following statements of Thomas Williams show how similar the teachings were with those of JJ Andrew, both of whom drew incorrect conclusions regarding the nature and sacrifice of Christ and the question of Resurrectional Responsibility:

We are said (in Rom. 5:12, see margin) to have sinned in Adam. Does sin need forgiveness? ANS: Yes … to remit that which placed us in a condition needing reconciliation is to forgive the sin.

(Advocate, Vol. 9, p. 233)

Adam’s sin must be removed, remitted, pardoned, or whatever term is thought most expressive, before reconciliation to God can be accomplished.

(Advocate, Vol. 9, p. 10)

The grounds of guilt are first Adamic sin, and second, an aggravation of Adamic sin by the wickedness of his descendants.

(Advocate, Vol. 9, p.233)

If it is this sin (that is, Adam’s) that has placed us in alienation, does it not follow that it (i.e. Adam’s sin) must be removed, remitted, pardoned, or whatever term is thought the most expressive, before reconciliation to God can be accomplished.

(Advocate, Vol. 9, p. 10)

I believe that federally and racially we are held guilty of original sin.

(Thomas Williams, from Sin and Sacrifice by W.M. Smallwood, p. 84).

Christ’s blood was shed for the remission of sins. (I John 1:7) It was shed for himself, and he being without personal sins, the sin remitted, cleansed, pardoned, or covered must be of necessity Adamic.

(Advocate, Vol. 10, p. 334)

An adult devoid of personal transgression would, upon being baptized into Christ, be forgiven Adamic sin.

(Advocate, Vol. 9, p. 9)

That baptism is primarily for the remission, removal or pardon of Adam’s sin, although it includes the remission of personal sins, which latter remission is only an incident.

(Advocate, Vol. 9, p. 9)

It is evident that if an infant could become an adult without committing a personal sin, baptism for the remission of sin (Adamic) would be necessary.

(Advocate, Vol. 9, p. 234)

The passing out of Adam into Christ changes our relationship, but does not change our nature. Therefore since the design of baptism is for this purpose its root is to be found in the Adamic sentence of death and burial; and its effect is the removal of this so that the sentence may be deprived of its power to hold us in death and dust, and thereby the resurrection becomes the means of final physical escape from the results of Adam’s sin.

(Adamic Condemnation, page 14)

The first thing for us to consider here is the discrimination between the sentence and the execution of the sentence. Why is it important to distinguish between the sentence and its execution? Because we claim that the sentence is the “condemnation”, known as “Adamic condemnation”; and the execution is the physical effect of the sentence, Here is our first issue, and it is an important one in its bearing upon the doctrine of baptism; for if the “sentence” or “condemnation”, is not distinguished from the physical effects, the design of baptism to remove the sentence, yet leaving us to wait for the “redemption of the body”, cannot be understood.

(Adamic Condemnation, p.3)

We are not personally responsible for Adam’s personal sin and are not therefore baptized for it in that sense; but federally we are all under Adam’s sin, and are baptized to remove the condemnation which came thereby, and to place us in Christ reconciled to God. Since it is known that we believe we are baptized for our personal sins, it is needless to state it. Adamic condemnation brings a physical disability inherited from Adam. We are freed from this federal condemnation and reconciled to God at baptism, but we are not freed from physical disability till the change of body.

(Adamic Condemnation, pages 14, 15)

Is not the first Adam a state of sickness, sorrow, pain and death; and if a death state a condemned or alienated state? If Jesus was included in the Adamic race then he must have been estranged from God as a mere flesh and blood being.“

(Advocate Supplement 1900)

He (Jesus) must die according to God’s law. To die according to law is legal; and to die legally is to be “worthy” of death in the legal sense. He was not “worthy” of death legally for any personal sin of his own. What sin was it, then, that made the death of Christ just? Racial sin or personal sin? Federal sin or individual sin? Racial and federal is the only answer the case will admit of; and that is to say that primarily Christ died to redeem himself from the sin and its effects that was committed by Adam, “in whom all – Christ included – have sinned.” When he met the demands of God’s law and drank that cup that no righteous law would allow to pass from him, he paid the demands of that law and its penalty; and being a righteous man he was free – led captivity captive and thus purchased gifts unto men, who could not purchase them for themselves.

(Chicago Defence, p. 72)

Another man is more careful. He counts the cost and concludes the way is too straight for his weak nature; and he decides not to identify himself with the name that he fears he may disgrace and he stands back; here is prudence. Now it does not seem right that this man should be raised from the dead to be punished at the tribunal of Christ for his prudence.

(Advocate, Vol. 9, p. 202)

In summary:

Bro. Andrew taught that there were two ‘forms‘ or categories of ‘sin’: (1) sin which is moral – i.e. disobedience or transgression, and (2) sin which is physical – i.e. our physical flesh and blood natures. He reasoned that mankind has inherited Adam’s sin in a physical ‘form’ (our flesh and blood natures) which he called ‘Adamic Sin’, ‘the offense of Adam’, ‘inherited sin’ or ‘sin-in-the-flesh’. He went on to reason, that while a man is not personally responsible or guilty for this ‘form’ of sin inherited from Adam, federally or racially Man is guilty on account of the nature that he bears, since Adam was the ‘federal head’ of our race and all men were in Adam’s loins when he sinned. Consequently, he reasoned, we are ‘alienated’ from God and ‘sinners’, not just by our actions, but by the mere fact that we are born. In other words, Bro. Andrew taught that it is as much of a sin for us to have been born as it is to transgress God’s law! He also saw the ‘law of sin and death’ spoken of by Paul as being the pronouncement or “Divine decree” of God.s Law of Condemnation in the Garden of Eden, i.e. “Thou shalt not eat”, rather than the language of Scripture used to describe the “law within our members” which came as a result of Adam and Eve sinning. In order to be released from this Law of Condemnation, he reasoned that a man requires ‘justification’ from both forms of sin – ‘moral’ and ‘physical’. This, he argued, was accomplished as a result of “reconciliation, atonement, purging, cleansing, remission, redemption, purification, and forgiveness” by Christ’s blood. Consequently, because our moral and physical sin had been atoned for, covered, reconciled by the blood of Christ, baptism brought about a change in our legal status before God. No longer are we under the (legal) condemnation of the Law in the Garden of Eden (i.e. liable to an immediate and, therefore, violent death). Rather, we move from being “in Adam” to being “in Christ” and our ‘legal’ status changes from being under ‘the Law of Sin and Death’ to coming under ‘The Law of Spirit of Life’. Consequently, we are no longer confined to the grave, liable to “perish” but will be raised from the dead at the return of Christ.