TWO PRINCIPLES | AdventAI

Pacific Press Publishing Company · Oakland, California · Dec 11, 1893

TWO PRINCIPLES.

TWO RELIGIONS.

TWO METHODS.

The Method of Antichrist.

THE method of Christ in controlling men we considered very briefly last week. It is by love; and as Christ represented God to the world, and as he in fact is the only one who has properly revealed, declared, or represented God to the world, it follows that God's method of controlling and dealing with men is just what was manifested through Christ while here upon earth. For as God was then manifest in Christ, and as God is unchangeable in character, therefore God's method of controlling men has always been the same. God is love, he always has been, and always will be; he wins by love; he gives man free choice. He, in love for man, points out the sad consequences of sin, the inevitable doom of the unrepentant, and appeals to man from the depths of his eternal love to turn and live; but he will not compel man.

Whatever power, therefore, has manifested, in its dealings with men, opposite purposes, motives, and methods, is not of God, but is

of the evil one. In other words, it is antichrist, it is the mystery of iniquity.

Force has ever been characteristic of all false religions, all of which have the same general basis. For familiar examples before Christ we need only to turn to the Bible. God gave to Nebuchadnezzar the kingdoms of the world, and made him ruler over them all, calling the Babylonian king his "servant." See Jer. 27:5, 7. God's grant to Nebuchadnezzar, however, only contemplated civil rule or power. Within the province of civil government, Nebuchadnezzar had unlimited sway; but any exercise of power outside of that was on his part a usurpation. The duty between man and God, or religious duty, God reserved to himself.

Nebuchadnezzar concluded, as many have since, that the faith or worship of his subjects fell within his purview. He therefore set up a great golden image in the plain of Dura, and made imperial proclamation that all should fall down and worship it on hearing the music of the royal band. Conspicuous in that vast throng, when the music burst forth, were three young men clad in official robes, holding high offices in the empire, but they bowed not before the image. They were summoned before the king on the complaint of jealous priests, courtiers, and magi. In his supposed clemency the king offered them another opportunity to worship; if not, the burning fiery furnace. But the offer was useless. The three men who so nobly stood by their God-given right to worship or not to worship made reply:—

"O Nebuchadnezzar, we are not careful to answer thee in this matter. If it be so, our God whom we serve is able to deliver us from the burning fiery furnace, and he will deliver us out of thine hand, O king. But if not, be it known unto thee, O king, that we will not serve thy gods, nor worship the golden image which thou hast set up." Dan. 3:16-18.

Brave and noble answer, which God vindicated, thereby showing to the world forever that any earthly ruler, God's servant though he might be, and receiving his power and kingdom from God, had no right or authority from God to compel or enforce worship. Nebuchadnezzar was a worshiper of the sun and the gods of nature.

We give from the Inspired Record another example where another "servant" of God in matters civil, attempted to prevent worship of any kind save that of himself. It was not demanded that men should bow down to some object of worship, but they must not ask any petition of any god or man for thirty days, save of the king, on penalty of being subjected to cruel death. The whole thing was based on selfishness. The princes were selfishly jealous of Daniel. They induced the king to decree the senseless blasphemy through flattery of himself. The result was that the only man involved, the only criminal which the law produced, was the best man in the kingdom, one who served the empire well, because he truly served God. But he went on just as he had been doing, and prayed to his God three times a day. He disturbed the zealous patriots; Daniel was led before the king, and, contrary to the king's desire, was, by the law which the flattered and deluded monarch had ratified, cast into the lions' den. But God again vindicated his truth, and showed that earthly rulers had no power over the hearts and consciences of men.

And this principle would have been just as sacred if the worship desired to be enforced were the worship of the true God, or the worship desired to be prevented were the worship of false gods. For force on the part of man is always an evidence of a lack of the Spirit of God. It is always an evidence that the principle behind it is selfishness, not love; that the power behind it is Satan, not God, for he who is of God knows God, and will do the works of God, as manifest in Jesus Christ.

But upon this we will have more to say in the future.