THE WORLD FOR CHRIST by W. N. G.

Pacific Press Publishing Company · Oakland, California · Nov 3, 1898

FromSigns of the Times, Vol. 24, No. 44.

“THE WORLD FOR CHRIST.”

By W. N. G.

For several years this has been the slogan of a large class of people who hope to win the world to Christ through political methods and various other schemes of purely human origin. First and foremost in the plans set in operation by the combination of organizations that claim to have this object in view, is the control of legislative bodies. Through these agencies they hope to bring the civil law to bear in a way to enforce the observance of certain religious institutions.

To practically carry out the schemes of this aggregation of unions, leagues, associations, etc., would be giving Christ over to the world, rather than winning the world to Him. Of course it would not be possible to give Christ to the world, for He overcame the world (John 16: 33); but it has been possible to deceive His disciples by religio-political methods and draw them over to the world. And what has been done in the past, in the way of corrupting the church by inducing it to adopt the world’s political measures, can be done again. And there never has been a time when the popular church was more susceptible to the deceptive influences of the adversary than it seems to be at the present time.

The increase of crime, as a result of intemperance, corruption in political circles, and covetousness of power, place, and wealth, regardless of the means used to gain these objects, indicates that despite the cry of “The world for Christ,” the very opposite condition is obtaining at a rapid rate. A plethora of civil law, altho a goodly proportion of our legislators, judges, and executive officers are nominally Christian, does not in any sense improve the political or moral atmosphere in any part of the country. All they that are looking to the law-making powers for the advancement of the cause of Christ are persistently ignoring the divine Word as spoken by Christ and His inspired apostles. What does Christ say of the condition of the world when He shall come again to take His people to Himself? Mark His own prophecy:—

“And as it was in the days of Noe, so shall it be also in the days of the Son of man. They did eat, they drank, they married wives, they were given in marriage, until the day that Noe entered into the ark, and the flood came, and destroyed them all. Likewise also as it was in the days of Lot; they did eat, they drank, they bought, they sold, they planted, they builded; but the same day that Lot went out of Sodom it rained fire and brimstone from heaven, and destroyed them all. Even thus shall it be in the day when the Son of man is revealed.” Luke 17: 26-30.

Only Noah and his family were saved from the flood; only Lot and part of his family were saved from the destruction of Sodom. In consonance with the prophecy just cited, Jesus also says, “Fear not, little flock; for it is your Father’s good-pleasure to give you the kingdom.” Chapter 12: 32. The kingdom will be inherited by “the little flock” when Christ comes again, “and all the holy angels with Him.” Matt. 25: 31-34. This is the same occasion referred to in Heb. 9: 28, where it is said that “unto them that look for Him shall He appear the second time without sin unto salvation.”

It will not be the world, nor even the professed Christians who are aiming to win the world to Christ through politics, that will be looking for Him when He comes. Why?—Because those who are working to convert the world with the world’s appliances do not expect Him to come until they have prepared the world to receive Him as king. But this they never can do; for it is not God’s plan of setting up His kingdom. He does not receive His kingdom from men, either through “the gateway of politics” or in any other way. His Father gives Him His kingdom in heaven (Dan. 7: 13, 14); and we learn from Dan. 2: 36–45 that when the kingdom is restored, the King comes to execute judgment upon all the kingdoms of the world. It is the Father in heaven that gives the world into the hands of His Son. Neither the religio-political societies of earth, nor the Legislatures nor city councils, nor boards of supervisors, nor Congress, nor the courts of whatever grade, nor kings, nor emperors, have anything to do in the matter. “The zeal of the Lord of hosts will perform this.”

We are also told through David that the possession of the earth is given to the Son by the Father, and not by any earthly power, religious or political. “I will declare the decree; the Lord hath said unto Me, Thou art My Son; this day have I begotten Thee. Ask of Me, and I shall give Thee the heathen for Thine inheritance, and the uttermost parts of the earth for Thy possession.” Ps. 2: 7, 8. The “uttermost parts of the earth” comprise all the earth, the so-called “Christian nations,” and all the rest. Then what is Christ to do with them when they shall have been turned over to Him? Are they then supposed to have been converted to Christ? The next verse tells: “Thou shalt break them with a rod of iron; Thou shalt dash them in pieces like a potter’s vessel.”

But out of it all will come the “little flock,” out of “every nation, and kindred, and tongue, and people;” “they that keep the commandments of God, and the faith of Jesus;” they that have “washed their robes, and made them white [not in the political whirlpool, but] in the blood of the Lamb.”

Turn again to the second psalm for the admonition in view of the doom of the world, and with it of those who link themselves to its destiny, in hope of bringing it bodily to Christ through the mazes of political deception, lighted by the “sparks of their own kindling.” Read verses 10–12, just following the former quotation: “Be wise now therefore, O ye kings; be instructed, ye judges of the earth. Serve the Lord with fear, and rejoice with trembling. Kiss the Son, lest He be angry, and ye perish from the way, when His wrath is kindled but a little. Blessed are all they that put their trust in Him.”

Then when and how can we have “the world for Christ”? Read 2 Peter 3 and Rev. 21: 1–8.

W. N. G.