CHURCH AND STATE by R. F. Cottrell

Seventh-day Adventist Publishing Association · Battle Creek, Mich. · Dec 7, 1876

CHURCH AND STATE.

By R. F. Cottrell

The connection of the church with earthly governments is the great sin of Babylon. The church is espoused to Christ, who is her head. 2 Cor. 11: 2. She becomes a harlot by seeking the friendship of the world and patronage from the State. Says an apostle, “Ye adulterers and adulteresses, know ye not that the friendship of the world is enmity with God?” Jas. 4: 4. And of Babylon it is said, “The kings of the earth have committed fornication with her.” See Rev. 17: 2; 18: 3.

The evils of a union of church and State, as developed in past history, were seen, in a measure, by the founders of our American government; and Congress was prohibited by constitutional law from legislating for an established religion, or from prohibiting any in the free exercise of their religious rights.

But the time has come, when it is openly demanded that such an amendment of the constitution shall be secured as shall “place all Christian laws, institutions, and usages, in our government, on an undeniable legal basis in the fundamental law of the nation.” And this centennial year (which is also leap year, when the feminines may do the wooing) witnesses the organization of a party in politics, and puts a presidential candidate in the field, pledged by their platform to enforce the observance of what is called the Christian Sabbath.

The church is symbolized by a woman. This woman is “contrary” to other women, in that she hires her lovers and gives a reward, and no reward is given to her. Eze. 16: 30–34. The reward she offers to the corrupt politicians of our degenerate times, is the honors, emoluments, and spoils of office. If the rulers of the State will legislate in behalf of the church and promote her schemes, the church will sustain these rulers in preference to all others. These are the terms of the contract through which she forsakes the Lord and forfeits his protection, preferring the protection of the State. Thus she commits abomination “with the kings of the earth.”

For some years past the American church has been whispering her love in gentle words like these: “I infer, therefore, that the civil magistrate may not be called upon to enforce the observance of the Sabbath, as required in the spiritual kingdom of Christ; but when Christianity becomes the moral and spiritual life of the State, the State is bound through her magistrates to prevent the open violation of the Christian Sabbath, as a measure of self-preservation. She cannot, without injuring her own vitality, be recreant to her duty in this matter.”—Dr. Durbin.

“The principle that Christianity is recognized by the State as something which essentially belongs to it, gives us, we think, the true and simple basis, upon which the laws relating to the observance of the Sabbath are to be enforced. The law throws its protection round the sacredness and quiet of the first day of the week, not because it recognizes it as a sacred day in itself considered, but for other reasons.”—N. Y. Evangelist, 1854.

“The United States is founded on the principle of the sanctity of the Sabbath, and if its observances are disregarded, the nation is doomed to early destruction.”—Rev. J. W. Erdman.

“Unless the sacredness of the day is respected, the liberties of the American people will not endure.”—Rev. Mr. Hickey.

The above are samples of the approaches of the church; but now she puts the question squarely, offering the bribe of power and gain to those who will be corrupt enough to break

down the barriers which the wisdom of our fathers, under God, reared for the protection of religious liberty, and legislate in favor of the “laws, institutions, and usages,” of a corrupt church, especially such as have no foundation in Scripture, and consequently cannot be sustained by any argument so logical as that of force. R. F. COTTRELL.