THE RELATION OF THE RELIGIOUS LIBERTY WORK TO THE PRESENT MESSAGE.
By C. P. Bollman
The present message is the message of the third angel of Revelation 14:6–12. This threefold message, for such it really is, calls upon all men to “worship him that made heaven, and earth, and the sea, and the fountains of waters,” and warns against the worship “of the beast and his image.” The “beast” was formed by the union of a church that had apostatized from correct religious principles, with a state apostatized from correct political principles. The early church, as established by Christ, was, Godward, a pure theocracy: “One is your master, even Christ.” Matt. 23:8. Touching its business affairs and human relations, it was a pure democracy: “All ye are brethren.” The Roman state in its incipiency was, avowedly at least, a government of the people, by the people, and for the people. The early church apostatizing from her one Lord, and from the broad principle of the brotherhood of man, became first a spiritual despotism of many, then of a few, and then of one—the bishop of Rome. In like manner, the Roman state, apostatizing from correct political principles, became in turn a despotism of many, of few, and then of one—the emperor of Rome. The union of these two apostate powers formed the beast. But God reserved to himself a remnant that had “not bowed the knee to Baal.” These constituted the woman that fled into the wilderness. (Rev. 12:14), from which she emerged in the Reformation of the sixteenth century, still measurably true to the principle of supreme love to God and equal love to fellow men—“One is your Master, even Christ; and all ye are brethren.” And nowhere was this principle ever so fully exemplified by the church since the earlier days of Christianity, as in our own country. In like manner, in America, as nowhere else, has the true principle of civil government been reduced to practice. But we have seen history repeating itself in both church and state. First, the Protestant church apostatized from the true principles of Protestantism; and now, bending under her seductive influence, the American state is swerving from its allegiance to correct political principle, and the image of the beast is being rapidly developed. The present message is a warning against this latter-day apostasy in both church and state. And the religious liberty work is the giving of this message from the standpoint of human rights, as well as from the standpoint of true Christianity. The object in thus giving the message is to reach, if possible, many minds that have been closed against the gospel because they have been taught to believe that much of the Old World despotism is due to the influences of Christianity and of the church. The object of the religious liberty work is to teach such the true principles of genuine Christianity. Therefore the religious liberty work is simply one phase of the work of giving the third angel’s message to the world. And never should this fact be lost sight of for a moment.