THAT “CHRISTIAN CITIZENSHIP LEAGUE.”
By W. N. G.
The organization known as the National Christian Citizenship League is becoming a prominent factor in the now popular idea of religious reform through civil law. The object of the league, as announced, is threefold: (1) To reveal Jesus Christ as the Saviour of the nation as well as of the individual. (2) To make Christian principles operative in public affairs. (3) To unite the followers of Christ in consistent, harmonious, and aggressive action, not as church-members, but as Christian citizens, for the following purposes:— “(1) To prevent, by personal effort, the nomination and election of corrupt candidates, and the enactment of corrupt laws in city, State, and nation. “(2) To secure fidelity on the part of officers entrusted with the execution of the laws. “(3) To exterminate the saloon as the greatest enemy of Christ and humanity. “(4) To preserve the Sabbath. “(5) To purify and elevate the elective franchise. “(6) To promote the study of social wrongs and the application of effective remedies. “(7) In general, to seek the reign of whatsoever things are true, honest, just, pure, lovely, and of good report.” We respectfully submit that any endeavor to “reveal Jesus Christ as the Saviour” of any earthly nation, is to reveal Him in a false light. There is no intimation in the Word of God that any earthly nation is to be saved. The Lord rules in the kingdom of men, no matter how wicked they are (Dan. 4:17), to carry out His purposes, and He will do that, not by force of human leagues, but in spite of them. There will be “nations of them which are saved” (Rev. 21:24), but they are made up of individuals redeemed to God by the blood of Christ, “out of every kindred, and tongue, and people, and nation” (chap. 5:9). The rulers of these nations of the saved will be the twelve apostles, for so the Lord made promise: “Verily I say unto you, That ye which have followed Me, in the regeneration when the Son of man shall sit in the throne of His glory, ye also shall sit upon twelve thrones, judging the twelve tribes of Israel.” Matt. 19:28. The names of the twelve apostles will be upon the New Jerusalem, the capital of the new earth, and the names of the twelve tribes will be on the twelve gates. See Revelation 21. The redeemed will inherit the kingdom prepared for them “when the Son of man shall come in His glory, and all the holy angels with Him.” Matt. 25:31–34. As to making “Christian principles operative in public affairs,” no human league can do that. Only the Spirit of God can make Christian principles operative, and that only in the heart submissive to His will. No one can manifest Christian principles in the life, unless those principles be imbedded in the heart. Therefore, no political league, or political machinery of any kind, can enforce such principles in “public affairs.” Again, only the Spirit of God can “unite the followers of Christ in consistent, harmonious, and aggressive action.” To unite them “not as church-members, but as Christian citizens,” for political purposes, would be a very inconsistent union; for the Christian’s “citizenship is in heaven” (Phil. 3:20, R.V.); he is “a soldier of Christ,” whose “kingdom is not of this world.” “Thou therefore endure hardness, as a good soldier of Jesus Christ.” 2 Tim. 2:3. The soldier of Christ will follow Christ, and if he follow the Captain, he will do as the Captain did, and take no part in the matter of enforcing the fidelity of officers of the law. “No man that warreth [as a soldier of Christ] entangleth himself with the affairs of this life; that he may please Him who hath chosen him to be a soldier.” Verse 4. But in the detail of objects the one numbered 4 in the foregoing list is especially striking. “To preserve the Sabbath” is a decided assumption—just as tho anything God has sanctified would need the ingenuity of a human political league to preserve it. Why, all the creatures of the universe combined could not hurt the Sabbath. If a mad hornet were to dash against the rock of Gibraltar, which would be hurt? So when the enemies of the Lord’s Sabbath, tho they be the great majority, trample upon its sacred hours, who is hurt?—Verily, it is the Sabbath-breaker, and not the Sabbath, that is damaged. “The wages of sin is death” to the sinner, and not to the violated law or the disregarded institution. The power and dignity of Christ were in no way deteriorated by His rejection and crucifixion. Rather, He was glorified by the resurrection, and given “a name that is above every name.” So with the Sabbath of the commandment; it will continue as an eternal institution, co-existent with the new earth. See Isa. 66:22–24. So the Sabbath of the Lord needs no human league to “preserve” it. It is the Sabbath-breaker that needs to be saved, delivered from the result of his sin; and no civil law can do that. The only remedy is in the Gospel of Christ; “for there is none other name under heaven given among men, whereby we must be saved.” Acts 4:12. Any so-called sabbath that needs such a preservative must be of human origin, and therefore antagonistic to the Sabbath of the Lord. Then any league for the preservation of such a sabbath can not be “consistent” in its claim to being a “Christian” league. The promoters of this Christian Citizenship League say, “We do not wish for a union of Church and State; nor do we seek to govern the State through the Church.” Well, if that is not what they mean, it would be difficult, from the standpoint of the title and principles of the association as outlined by themselves, to divine what they do mean. Very few professedly Christian societies have yet come out better designed to ensnare people of good intentions under cover of ostensibly good purposes. It is quite evident that this movement is being forwarded by those who are blind to the sinister results that must inevitably follow its success. It is a sugar-coated prescription (for the infection of political corruption) which inwardly contains the virus of religious tyranny. W. N. G.