In the article in this department last week we showed that a religious despotism was at the foundation of all the great world-wide despotic powers of the past. The despotism of Babylon, and of Medo-Persia, and of Greece, and of pagan Rome, was essentially a religious despotism. But in the case of those empires of antiquity the religious despotism was essentially pagan. And indeed any religious despotism that could ever arise would in the very nature of things have to be essentially pagan in reality, even tho it might assume some other name.
Following those despotisms in which there was no pretense above the adoration of the gods of their own creation, there arose another despotism that claimed to carry the banner of the Prince of Peace and to be His representative upon this earth. This new despotism under this new form and new name promised to do great things; it would fit men for eternity.
Fitting men for the eternal world finally became such a blind passion that existence in this life was regarded of so little consequence that men would put unseemly and unnatural burdens upon the body in order that they might thus purify the soul, even tho the body was prematurely destroyed by indescribable sufferings. Thus there arose in the early ages of the Christian era what was called a "Christian empire," but which was in reality the same old heathen despotism under a new name. The gods of Babylon, Greece, and Rome were supplanted by other gods that were said to represent the Christ and His divine Father.
You will find many defenders of this régime of "Christian empire" all through the history of the time since it was started. Many men still think that it is necessary for the State to prescribe some form of religion for the rank and file of humanity. We still have State religions in the various nations of the world outside of the United States, and there are many men even here who would like to have a State religion enforced upon us.
And we would not have you get the idea that we have in mind alone the Catholic papal State religion. There have been nations in which the Protestants have placed the forms of their religion in the State, and in their attempts to enforce them they have been just as despotic as have been the papists. It is an easy matter for the professors of the Protestant religion to pass over what they have done when they have got the State to endorse them. It is much more congenial to point the finger away from themselves to the Catholics, and show what they have done with the Inquisition and such like. And in similar manner it is more congenial for the Catholic to point to the Protestant in the bloody persecutions that they have inflicted on themselves and on Catholics as well, than to acknowledge their own shortcomings in this respect. But what we must do if we win out in the end, is to throw away our partisan spirit and look at facts as they actually exist.
In looking at actual facts, it might be well in the outset to inquire, through His Book, of the great Author of Christianity Himself whether or not He has ever designed that there should be a "Christian empire" on this earth in the sense in which men usually regard the subject of empire. Hear some of His words on the subject:
Jesus answered, My kingdom is not of this world: if My kingdom were of this world, then would My servants fight, that I should not be delivered to the Jews: but now is My kingdom not from hence. John 18:36.
Now he that betrayed Him gave them a sign, saying, Whomsoever I shall kiss, that same is He: hold Him fast. And forthwith he came to Jesus, and said, Hail, Master; and kissed Him. And Jesus said unto him, Friend, wherefore art thou come? Then came they, and laid hands on Jesus, and took Him. And, behold, one of them which were with Jesus stretched out his hand, and drew his sword, and struck a servant of the high priest's, and smote off his ear. Then said Jesus unto him, Put up again thy sword into his place: for all they that take the sword shall perish with the sword. Thinkest thou that I can not now pray to My Father, and He shall presently give Me more than twelve legions of angels? Matt. 26:48-53.
And one of the company said unto Him, Master, speak to my brother, that he divide the inheritance with me. And He said unto him, Man, who made Me a judge or a divider over you? Luke 12:13, 14.
In this connection the foregoing scriptures deserve more than a mere passing notice. They should be studied faithfully. And as they are studied, it will be readily seen that Christ explicitly says, "My kingdom is not of this world." If His kingdom were of this world, says the Master, "then would My servants fight." And in the quotation from Matthew it will be seen that the Master's servants were not all included in the little handful of disciples that were with Him when He was betrayed and taken. He could have prayed the Father, and "more than twelve legions of angels" would have been at His command. If the Saviour had come to establish a kingdom of force, all the forces of the universe were His. He was not confined to human beings. He gave a suggestion to all His followers in all succeeding ages when He told the warlike disciple that was with Him on the night of betrayal, "Put up again thy sword into his place: for all they that take the sword shall perish with the sword."
The foregoing scriptures are abundantly clear in showing that Christ wholly disavowed having anything to do in the way of having His church or His kingdom become a part of the States or empires of this earth. When the Master says, "My kingdom is not of this world," what right has any mortal to say that it is? What right has any mortal to say that men may be formed into a "Christian empire" or a Christian State, when the great Head of all true Christianity has decreed the exact opposite? It is shown in the study of the prophecy of Daniel, in another department of this paper, that Christ's kingdom will not be one of the kingdoms of this earth, ruled by sinful men, but it will supersede all earthly kingdoms by their everlasting destruction at His coming.
In view of the plain scriptures that tell of the purpose of the Master in regard to the relation His work was to sustain to the kingdoms of this world, it becomes interesting to inquire how it came about that men became possessed of the idea that Christianity should be united with the State, and finally, in the name of Christianity, persecute those who should differ from this plan.
The source from which this "Christian empire" would come into a world where Christ said He would have no such kingdom as the empires of this world have built up, was clearly foretold before it arose. Some of the scriptures that tell the story are the following:
Let no man beguile you in any wise: for it will not be, except the falling away come first, and the man of sin be revealed, the son of perdition, he that opposeth and exalteth himself against all that is called God or that is worshiped; so that he sitteth in the temple of God, setting himself forth as God. Remember ye not, that, when I was yet with you, I told you these things? And now ye know that which restraineth, to the end that he may be revealed in his own season. For the mystery of lawlessness doth already work: only there is One that restraineth now, until He be taken out of the way. And then shall be revealed the lawless one, whom the Lord Jesus shall slay with the breath of His mouth, and bring to naught by the manifestation of His coming. 2 Thess. 2:3-8.
But the Spirit saith expressly, that in later times some shall fall away from the faith, giving heed to seducing spirits and doctrines of demons, through the hypocrisy of men that speak, lies, branded in their own conscience as with a hot iron; forbidding to marry, and commanding to abstain from meats, which God created to be received with thanksgiving by them that believe and know the truth. 1 Tim. 4:1-3.
And from Miletus he sent to Ephesus, and called to him the elders of the church. And when they were come to him, he said unto them, . . . Take heed unto yourselves, and to all the flock, in which the Holy Spirit hath made you bishops, to feed the church of the Lord which He purchased with His own blood. I know that after my departing grievous wolves shall enter in among you, not sparing the flock; and from among your own selves shall men arise, speaking perverse things, to draw away the disciples after them. Acts 20:17-30.
The foregoing quotations are all from the same New Testament writer, the apostle Paul. All of the quotations show that he knew, doubtless both from the study of the ancient prophecies and from revelations that had been given to him, that there was to be a great apostasy. The quotation from Thessalonians is an unmistakable reference to the eleventh chapter of Daniel, where the prophet is describing in minute detail the leading characteristics of the great empires that were to arise. And thus do we see that this "falling away" is something that Paul learned from the study of the Old Testament prophets, a deeper and broader meaning being gained, doubtless, through the gift of prophecy that Paul possessed in himself.
The "falling away" could be nothing else than an apostasy in the ranks of professing Christians themselves. And this apostasy, or "falling away," had already commenced in Paul's own time, for he says, "The mystery of lawlessness doth already work."
In his letter to Timothy, the apostle speaks with emphasis of the "falling away." He says the "Spirit saith expressly, that in later times some shall fall away from the9faith," thus showing that a general apostasy would follow.
This "falling away," or general apostasy, is presented in another way still in his exhortation to the elders, or bishops, of Ephesus, as recorded in Acts. "From among your own selves shall men arise, speaking perverse things, to draw away the disciples after them." In other words, leading men, the elders, the bishops, were to become perverse, and seek to lead the disciples to themselves.
Then to sum up the Scripture evidence presented in these paragraphs, we learn that Christ disavows the authorship of any kingdom that is likened to the kingdoms of this world. His kingdom is not a kingdom of the sword—a kingdom of force. And while this is His plain teaching, He nevertheless inspired both a prophet and an apostle to tell of a great apostasy, a "falling away," a defection among the bishops, or elders; and in this falling away we may look for the despotism that in the name of Christianity took possession of the State and sought to reverse the words of Christ, "My kingdom is not of this world."
It will be our endeavor in the next issue to show the reality that is called for in these predictions. T.
