p. 4 | A SPECIOUS GARB by W. N. G.

Pacific Press Publishing Company · Oakland, California · Aug 12, 1897

FromSigns of the Times, Vol. 23, No. 31.

A SPECIOUS GARB.

By W. N. G.

In a recent discourse on the topic, “See That the Republic Receive No Harm,” Rabbi J. Leonard Levy, of Philadelphia, said, “We can not wish the church to be political, but we do desire politics to be religious.” A great many people are to-day uttering in substance this same absurdity. The sentiment is born of a desire to hide the fact that clerical and church manipulation of political affairs is in principle a union of Church and State, as is also governmental interference with religious institutions. It is a sentiment that beats around the Church-and-State bush while disclaiming any desire to concentrate upon that principle. No one who proclaims such a sentiment can honestly point to any other religion which he would recognize in politics than the religion which he himself or his own church would indorse. Whence is politics to imbibe the desired religion but from some church? The desire expressed by the learned rabbi never is publicly uttered in this country except by professed Christians and occasionally by a Jew. Then if the politics of this republic become religious, the religion must come from the professed Christian or Jewish Church. How then can the church impart the spirit of its religion to politics unless it become political? There must be a union of the two principles in order to produce a practical influence. That any system of politics may be imbued with the religion of any church, there must be a connection between that system and that church, just as there must be a connection between any machine and the power that propels it. On the other hand, politics is the science of government; there can be no such thing as politics without some kind of recognized human government. Then for the politics of a people to be religious, their civil government must be religious. We have shown, logically and conclusively, that for the politics to be religious it must be connected with the church or other source which promulgates the religion. Then if the politics be connected with any church, the government of which that politics is the system is also connected with that church. It follows, then, without any room for cavil, that if any political principle and any religious principle be united, there must be a union between the government that espouses the one and the church which promulgates the other. Hence, try to disguise it as we may, religious politics, or political religion, is Church and State union to whatever degree it may be applied.

In this elucidation we have used the term “professed Christian” church, for the reason that the true Christian church never was and never will be united with any State. No State ever will espouse the true religion of Jesus Christ. That religion is practically, in its human aspect, comprehended in the Golden Rule, “All things whatsoever ye would that men should do to you, do ye even so to them.” No physical government in a sinful world could long stand on such a principle as that; nor on this: “I say unto you, That ye resist not evil; but whosoever shall smite thee on thy right cheek, turn to him the other also. And if any man will sue thee at the law, and take away thy coat, let him have thy cloak also.” No government of this world would espouse the religion of Jesus Christ for the reason that the world hates that religion. The interests of the true church and of the world are inimical. Says Christ, “I have given them thy Word; and the world hath hated them, because they are not of the world, even as I am not of the world.” John 17:14. Says the apostle Paul, “All that will live godly in Christ Jesus shall suffer persecution.” 2 Tim. 3:12.

Again, the true church of Christ never will unite itself with a government of this world, because it is already united to the kingdom of Christ, which is “not of this world.” The kingdom of this world, that is, civil government in general, exists solely as the result of sin, while the kingdom of Christ is a kingdom of righteousness. “What concord hath Christ with Belial?” For the church of Christ to unite with an earthly government, in any way to enter the political arena, would be to make an unholy alliance with the world. It would be to forsake the calling of God for the calling of the world. It would be to desert the army of Christ, and lay down the spiritual armor of the soldier of Christ, and take up the carnal weapons of the world’s warfare, trusting in the arm of flesh.

Therefore, any religion that joins hands with the politics of any earthly government under the guise of Christianity is a fraudulent religion; it is not the religion of Jesus Christ. And any church that unites its forces with the forces of any earthly government, under the pretense of being the Christian church, is a fraudulent church. Whatever its name, whatever its profession, whatever its combination of names or professions or pretexts, it can not be the church of Christ. There is nothing in all his teaching that indorses any such adulterous union.

The desire that politics become religious is not fulfilling the injunction to “see that the republic receive no harm;” for no greater harm could come to the republic than to depart from its fundamental principle of the separation of Church and State. It matters not whether the union be in name or hidden under some specious garb, the harm is the same.

W. N. G.