p. 300 | Untitled article by Rev. W. B. Judd

Pacific Press Publishing Company · New York · September 25, 1890

FromThe American Sentinel, Vol. 5, No. 38

Christianity and the State.

By Rev. W. B. Judd

WHETHER we view the relation of Christianity and the State historically or practically, we are forced to the conclusion that it is a question interwoven with the very fabric of national life.

When Christ came, though surrounded by the ritualistic service of the Jew, and the magnificence of Roman rule in civil affairs, he taught a spiritual worship freed alike from priestly and civil control. He established his kingdom not on coercion, but on love. When the Holy Ghost was poured out, Christianity, free from the shackles of State control, took giant strides forward. A new power had come into the world, and so great was its progress, that one hundred and six years after the ascension of Christ, Justin Martyr wrote: “There is not a nation of Greek or Barbarian, or of any other name, even of those who wander in tribes and live in tents, amongst whom prayers and thanksgiving are not offered to the Father and Creator of the universe by the name of the crucified Jesus.”

From that time the Roman Empire and the kingdom not of this world were in deadly struggle for supremacy. Christianity taught the meaning of manhood, crossed local boundaries and united unsympathetic peoples. The world thrilled with moral electricity. Notwithstanding her obscure origin, her imperfect organization, by the enthusiasm of her followers for the divine truth she contained, the Church triumphed over the empire and reached the throne of the Cæsars. The prophetic visions of Isaiah seemed fulfilling,—“Darkness shall cover the earth, and gross darkness the people: but the Lord shall rise upon thee, and his glory shall be seen upon thee. And Gentiles shall come to thy light, and kings to the brightness of thy rising.”

Constantine embraced Christianity because he saw the waning power of the old gods, and the growing power of Christ. He united Church and State to the detriment of both. Its results were evil, and that continually. Christianity was made popular and the Church became filled with unconverted heathens. The State fixed the standard of orthodoxy, spirituality became paralyzed, and men sought by flattery and intrigues to rise to places of power. Missionary enterprises became fewer, the theology of the Church introduced works as a part of the system of salvation, and the Dark Ages threw their shadow athwart the path of progress. The Inquisition with its cruelties came from the union of Church and State, as effect from cause. For when the Papacy had arisen and asserted supremacy over the governments of Europe, the State became the tool of the Church to punish heretics in property and person. The worst feature of European history for twelve hundred years came from that union. It was also a standing menace to free inquiry and reform.—Rev. W. B. Judd, Drew Theological Seminary, Madison, N. J., in Converted Catholic.