THEY SEE IT IN ROME by Editor

Pacific Press Publishing Company · Oakland, California · Jul 15, 1897

FromSigns of the Times, Vol. 23, No. 27.

THEY SEE IT IN ROME.

By Editor

Why Not in Themselves?

THE Christian Statesman of May 15, organ of the National Reform régime, has an article entitled "When Does Church Authority Become the Despotism of Romanism?" In that article, in speaking of "Romanism's attempt to escape from the inherent difficulty of the free government of free moral agents," the editor says:—

It is evident that this attempt leads directly to the denial of the completeness of the revelation of God's will as given in the Scriptures, for every infallible interpretation of moral law by papal authority must become a part of the revelation of the divine will. It makes the inspiration of the Word of God to count for nothing, for every irreformable papal definition must be as truly inspired as any part of the written Word. It strips every individual member of the church of the right of an orderly appeal to the Word of God—a right all the more strenuously to be maintained in the gospel dispensation since it was recognized as belonging to all while yet the canon of infallible Scripture was incomplete: "To the law and to the testimony; if they speak not according to this word, it is because there is no light in them." Isa. 8:20. Romanism denies this right of appeal and steps in between the divine law and the rational subjects of that law, and cuts off direct relations between them and the divine Lawgiver himself. This is the point at which church authority passes the limits of its proper exercise and becomes the despotism that finds its fullest development in the formulated dogma of infallibility.

And yet the thing charged against Romanism is just what the Christian Statesman is laboring for. The efforts may be put forth in different ways, but the result is the same. The theory of Romanism is that the "church" is infallible, and therefore all outside of her pale are in error, and that those who persistently remain in error, notwithstanding her efforts to win them, should be adjudged as heretics, and be turned over to the civil power to be punished, because such wilful heretics are enemies to the State. In doing this she is acting in God's place, and of course her decision is a part of the revelation of the divine will.

National Reformers do not claim infallibility; nevertheless, they interpret the divine will; they ask the State to become a "Christian State" by enacting into organic and statute law their interpretation of the divine will; and then the State, standing in the place of God, should proceed to execute against all those who will not submit to such legalized interpretation the sentence written,—fine, imprisonment, confiscation of goods, and death,—for the last penalty is involved in the first. Such legalized interpretation "makes the inspiration of the Word of God to count for nothing." "It strips every individual member of the church of an orderly appeal to the Word of God." This legalized interpretation "steps in between the divine law and the rational subjects of that law, and cuts off direct relations between them and the divine Lawgiver."

Does the reader ask for an instance of this?—It is found in the National Reform interpretation of the Fourth Commandment. God therein declares that "the seventh day is the Sabbath of the Lord thy God," but National Reformers say, "Nay, but that means the first day, and the Christian State should enforce that day as the Sabbath." Now if this does not as truly come in between man and God as Romanism does, we do not know where a parallel to Romanism can be found outside of the Roman Catholic Church. But the Statesman condemns one; will it condemn the other? If Romanism is to be condemned because it adds to the revelation of the divine will mere human interpretations as infallible and essential, is not National Reformism—tho it be called Protestant—to be condemned for adding to the revelation of the divine will its own interpretations enforced by a fiction called the "Christian State"? We wish our National Reform friends would show us the difference in the results, and wherein either is Christian.