Christ Not a National Reformer by W. A. Colcord

Review and Herald Publishing Association · Tacoma Park Station, Washington, D. C. · Jul 26, 1906

Christ Not a National Reformer

By W. A. Colcord

THE following from chapter forty-five of “Desire of Ages” is a good refutation of national reformism:—

“Some of the Pharisees had come to Jesus demanding ‘when the kingdom of God should come.’ More than three years had passed since John the Baptist gave the message that like a trumpet call had sounded through the land, ‘The kingdom of heaven is at hand,’ and as yet the Pharisees saw no indication of the establishment of the kingdom. Many of those who rejected John, and at every step had opposed Jesus, were insinuating that his mission had failed.

“Jesus answered, ‘The kingdom of God cometh not with outward show,’ neither shall they say, Lo here! or, lo there! for, behold, the kingdom of God is within you.’ The kingdom of God begins in the heart. Look not here or there for manifestations of earthly power to mark his coming.”

“The kingdom of God comes not with outward show. The gospel of the grace of God, with its spirit of self-abnegation, can never be in harmony with the spirit of the world. The two principles are antagonistic. ‘The natural man receiveth not the things of the Spirit of God: for they are foolishness unto him: neither can he know them, because they are spiritually discerned.’

“But to-day in the religious world there are multitudes who, as they believe, are working for the establishment of the kingdom of Christ as an earthly and temporal kingdom. They desire to make our Lord the ruler of the kingdoms of this world, the ruler in its courts and camps, its legislative halls, its palaces, and market-places. They expect him to rule through legal enactments, enforced by human authority. Since Christ is not now here in person, they themselves will undertake to act in his stead, to execute the laws of his kingdom. The establishment of such a kingdom is what the Jews desired in the days of Christ. They would have received Jesus, had he been willing to establish a temporal dominion, to enforce what they regarded as the laws of God, and to make them the expositors of his will and the agents of his authority. But he said, ‘My kingdom is not of this world.’ He would not accept the earthly throne. “Now, as in Christ’s day, the work of God’s kingdom lies not with those who are clamoring for recognition and support by earthly rulers and human laws, but with those who are declaring to the people in his name those spiritual truths that will work in the receivers the experience of Paul: ‘I am crucified with Christ: nevertheless I live; yet not I, but Christ liveth in me.’ Then they will labor as did Paul for the benefit of men. He said, ‘Now then we are ambassadors for Christ, as though God did beseech you by us: we pray you in Christ’s stead, be ye reconciled to God.’”

Let the truth here stated be once recognized, and it will at once be seen that to attempt moral and religious reforms through legal enactments is not the work of the follower of Christ.

W. A. COLCORD.