p. 96 | Untitled article by W. A. COLCORD

Pacific Press Publishing Company · New York · March 8, 1894

The Gospel Not Force.

By W. A. COLCORD

REFERRING to the Lord’s work in the earth, Luther said: “It is not by the sword that he will have his gospel propagated.” Such were the words of the great reformer of the sixteenth century, and such is still the language of true Protestantism.

The sword is a carnal weapon; but the language of the true followers of Christ is, “The weapons of our warfare are not carnal:” the sword of the Spirit is our sword, and this, as Paul in Ephesians 6 says, is “the Word of God.” Upon one occasion, it will be remembered, one of the disciples of Christ attempted to defend him with the sword. The Master’s command was, “Put up again thy sword into his place: for all they that take the sword shall perish with the sword.”

D’Aubigne, in the “History of the Reformation,” speaking of the fallen condition into which the Church had lapsed by resorting to worldly power, says: “She had, from false policy, had recourse to earthly instruments and vulgar weapons. When once the Church had begun to handle these weapons, her spiritual essence was lost. Her arm could not become carnal without her heart becoming the same.” This is a solemn truth, and the principle herein involved is as true to-day as it ever was. The Church can no sooner call upon the State for aid and assistance than she loses her spiritual power. In this act she denies the gospel, which is the power of God unto salvation, rejects her lawful husband, the Lord, and unites herself, in adulterous connection

is the “wine of her fornication” referred to in the Scriptures, with which Babylon, the Romish Church, has made all nations drunk. And, sad to say, the harlot daughters, the apostate Protestant churches, are now seeking the same illicit union, as is manifest in their appeal to the State to enforce Sunday observance.

God constrains no one by means of force. He never forces nor attempts to force any one to believe. His moral government is not one in which he exercises force. To the creatures he has made he says, “Come, let us reason together.” He invites them all to come and take of the water of life freely, to come and be saved; but he compels no one. Neither will those who are godlike seek thus to constrain any one. Said Luther, “I am ready to preach, argue, write; but I will not constrain any one, for faith is a voluntary act.” But in all ages those who have assumed to take the place of God, and by law prescribe to men their religious duties, have acted very ungodlike. Because men would not believe and act in religious matters as they dictated, they have threatened them with the infliction of civil penalties, thrown them into dungeons, placed them upon the rack, and kindled around them the fires of persecution. Thus blindly and without reason have they sought to force their opinions and practices upon their fellow-men. But the men who do such things are not Christians, whatever their profession; neither is the church which upholds such actions and pursues such a course the Christian church, however much it may claim to be.

W. A. COLCORD.