Is Christianity a Religion of Physical Force?—“Ye Know Not What Manner of Spirit”—What About the “Christian Nations”?
By ALBERT E. PLACE
At one time, Christ had “set His face to go to Jerusalem.” He sent some disciples ahead to a Samaritan village “to make ready.” The Samaritans said, if He was going up to Jerusalem, to let Him go. They would not receive Him.
WOULD COMMAND FIRE FOR DESTRUCTION
James and John, fearing, doubtless, the effect this course might have upon the work of Christ, hastened to the Master with the question, “Wilt Thou that we command fire to . . . consume them?”
It seems that even some of the disciples of Christ, in their early experiences, were ready to call for force to settle with people who did not see fit to receive their views of religion. Are we engaged in this sort of work to-day? If so, the sooner we get out of the business, the better it will be for us, and for the world, and for the church.
DO NOT KNOW YOUR SPIRIT
There was a feud between Jews and Samaritans, so bitter that the Jews had “no dealings with the Samaritans.” This was in part at least over the question of the place to worship. The Jews said, “Jerusalem is the place where men ought to worship.” The Samaritans said Mount Gerizim was the place.
Jesus did not enter into their controversy, but used His efforts to give to each, truth winnowed free from fiction, tradition, and selfishness, that each might see his own duty and privilege. Therefore to these zealous disciples of force, the Master said, “Ye know not what manner of spirit ye are of.”
If Christ had at that time consented to their desires, physical force would have become a recognized factor in the Christian religion. But by His kindly worded rebuke, He condemned, for all time, this foul weed that has cursed so many ecclesiastical gardens and courts of “justice.”
No man can know how little of the Christian religion, and how much of selfishness and bigotry, is bound up in him, until he permits the Author of that religion to speak to his soul.
THE SPIRIT THAT CONTROLS
Man’s success or failure in religious life depends not so much upon the technique as upon the spirit that prompts and controls his actions.
Obedience to God’s commands is certainly essential, and God means what He says; but obedience that does not come as the result of God’s Spirit operating in the soul, can never be accepted as obedience.
The power and success that have attended the religion of Christ, and that will attend it to the end of time, are to be found not in human law or force, but only in that spirit which characterized the life and work of Christ.
IT WAS A DELIGHT
Religion has been defined as “man’s personal relation of faith and obedience to God.” If this is a proper definition—and I believe it to be—then the Christian religion must mean primarily, the personal relation of Jesus Christ to His Father, in the matter of faith and obedience. But let us note that not in one particular was His relation to God forced; for He said, “I delight to do Thy will, O My God.”
By doing God’s will from the standpoint of delight, and entirely free from earthly force, Jesus Christ established the Christian religion; and He did it without a Roman law or a Roman soldier, and in face of all the opposition and prejudice of the Jewish temple and the Roman Empire—yes, and of the devil himself. So surely as He established it in that way, and that only, that and that only is the Christian religion; and the results of that, worked out in men and women to-day, is Christianity. “And let all the people say, Amen.”
NOT A MATTER FOR THE STATE
In no sense, then, can religion be a matter of the state; for it is man’s personal relation to God, not to the state.
Thus, in any study or consideration of the Christian religion, we are brought face to face, not with precedent, not with man, not with man’s edicts, and hence not with either state or nation, but with Jesus Christ, and the life He lived, and the spirit He manifested in His dealings with His fellow men. Any other religious plan is not Christian; it is human and satanic.
“Force” or “majorities” have too often been the cry, and have actuated the spirit of both men and women in the church. Some men still live who are as ready to cry, “Fire! Fire!” as were James and John before that Samaritan village. Jesus Christ is saying to every such one, “Ye know not what manner of spirit ye are of.”
All persons claiming to be followers of Jesus Christ, be they ministers or laymen, who advocate “church and state,” or principles or acts leading in that direction, namely, legislation in religious matters, whether on baptism, or the Sabbath, or for the application of force in any way in the shaping of man’s religion—those persons must sooner or later face the rebuke of the Man of Calvary.
To the extent that we apply the force of human law or government in the carrying on of the gospel of Christ, to that extent we are denying the very vitalizing breath and spirit of the Christian religion, and are striking a blow at the life of both the church and the state.
SATANIC GIFT TO THE CHURCH
In accord with this, let me quote from “Church and State in the United States,” by Dr. Philip Schaff: “Secular power has proved a satanic gift to the church, and ecclesiastical power has been an engine of tyranny in the hands of the state.” These words seem to need no comment; but if any one desires corroboration, let him read history.
Jesus Christ spoke the death knell to “national Christianity” when He said to Pilate: “My kingdom is not of this world; if My kingdom were of this world, then would My servants fight.” Again He said, “Render to Cæsar the things that are Cæsar’s, and to God the things that are God’s.”
It was again sounded in the utter overthrow of the Jewish nation.
If you wish to hear another death knell sounded in our own day, look across the sea to the “Christian nations” of Europe, and you will view the most awful war tragedy3that was ever enacted upon any stage, or in any field, since the dawn of history.
Left: Teen En Fook, wife, and children. He was the first Seventh-day Adventist to enter Borneo, and is still doing evangelistic work in that field. Right: The Wong sisters. These are two of our Bible women of Sandakan, Borneo.
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What do these things prove? One proof seems to be plain,— that the days of highest civilization and culture, the days of the broadest professions of Christianity, the days of most marvelous opportunity, furnish to the world a climax of blood and carnage, carried on by “Christian nations,” and “in the interests of righteousness.” Another proof is made plain; that is, there is not and cannot be such a thing as a Christian nation in this present world.
Can you listen to-day to the cries and moans of dying men on the field of battle, in the trenches, and in the hospitals of Europe? Can you look upon the bodies of these slaughtered ones? Is your heart capable of being touched by the hopeless agonies and distress of hungry fatherless children and bereaved widows? Can you look upon the ruined cities and devastated fields? Can you see the results of the awful typhus fever following in the wake of carnage?
Can you look into the future years of unbearable taxation and untold deprivation and suffering resulting from this ungodly, unholy, inexcusable war? If so, then please remember that we are in the twentieth century; that these warring nations are called “civilized,” “cultured,” and “Christian.” Then you will see how weak is the force of men or nations, no matter how well organized they may be, to save men.
BUT ONE FORCE CAN SAVE
Let us face the great fact, then, that there is but one force capable of saving men, and that is the winning, wooing force in the spirit of Jesus Christ manifested in true Christianity. True Christianity never goes to carnal war. True Christianity goes to Gethsemane and Calvary. The General of Christianity said, “The Son of man is not come to destroy men’s lives, but to save them.”
If we are drawing a carnal sword in defense of Jesus Christ or His church, if we will listen, we will hear Him say to us what He said to Peter long ago, “Put up again thy sword.”
Do we need more civilization or culture to-day? Do we need more profession of Christianity? We may; but much more we need the spirit of Jesus Christ to make Christianity a reality, in evidence in the life, as truly as in the profession of humanity. Law cannot do this, but prayer and the application of the Golden Rule can.
We hear talk about “the Fatherhood of God, and the brotherhood of man”; but who does not know that this very important condition can only be realized to the extent that the spirit of devotion to others which characterized the life of Christ shall be enthroned, not in the state, but in the heart and soul of the individual?
True Christianity delivers its possessor from all desire to cause others to act what they do not believe. Jesus said, “If any man hear My words, and believe not, I judge him not.” In the place of the “arm of the law,” Christianity extends the “arm of salvation,” backed by divine, compassionate love. Jesus Christ never petitioned the state or the nation in the interests of His church work. Christianity petitions only the throne of the eternal God.
If the time and effort spent in petitioning and lobbying legislatures for “church interests,” were spent in the daily application of the Golden Rule to the ignorant and tempted members of humanity, we might soon witness another day of Pentecost for the church, and the greatest possible prosperity for both state and nation.
In conclusion: Does the nation have the Christian religion? Does the state have the Christian religion? Does the great “evangelical church” have the Christian religion? Do we have it? Do I have it? Here is the divine touchstone: “All things whatsoever ye would that men should do to you, do ye even so to them.”
