p. 2 | THE TIME IS AT HAND by Alonzo Trévier Jones

Pacific Press Publishing Company · OAKLAND, CALIFORNIA · Apr 25, 1900

FromSigns of the Times, Vol. 26, No. 17.

'THE TIME IS AT HAND.'

By Alonzo Trévier Jones

CHRISTIANS, Israelites indeed, citizens of the heavenly kingdom, have no time to engage in the political affairs of this sinful world. Their Master says, "Follow Me," and the one who does that will have no time for political conflicts or controversies.

Jesus Christ was the busiest Man in the world during His ministry, and His time was all occupied in doing the will of the Father which sent Him. Yet He did not in any way concern Himself with the manipulation or the consideration of political matters. Then it was not the Father's will that He should do so; and the servant who steps aside to engage in these worldly conflicts, or to endeavor to reform in a political way the evils of this world's governments, is not following Christ, and, therefore, is not doing the Father's will.

"Jesus Christ came into the world to save sinners" (1 Tim. 1:15), and not to regulate their civil affairs, either public or private (Matt. 22:15-22; John 18:36, 37; Luke 12:13, 14; 10:40-42). That He had not time for anything but the work which the Father sent Him to do is manifest from the fact that His legitimate work crowded upon Him even on the Sabbath day. John 5:10-17. Yet He said, "I must work the works of Him that sent Me, while it is day; the night cometh, when no man can work." Chapter 9:4.

The work that He was sent to do was constantly pressing upon Him, so much so that at times He and His apostles had not time to eat; and when they attempted to take a day's recreation, the multitudes followed them and demanded their attention. Mark 6:30-44. But He finished the work that He was sent to do without doing any political work at all; therefore, aside from the fact that He had not time for it, we have this evidence that it was no part of His work.

In emphasis of this principle we have the further fact that He sent His disciples to labor just as He had. "As Thou [the Father] hath sent Me [the Son] into the world, even so have I also sent them [the disciples] into the world." John 17:18. The commission (Matt. 28:18-20; Mark 16:15-18) limits their work to the line in which the Master worked. The apostle Paul said to the Ephesians, "I have not shunned to declare unto you all the counsel of God" (Acts 20:27), but he had said nothing about political duties. He, like the Master, finished his work (2 Tim. 4:7) without taking any part in politics or attempting any political reformation. Furthermore, His last advice to Timothy, and through him to other ministers, was, "Preach the Word."

Now if, in the time of Christ's earthly ministry, His time was necessarily all absorbed in the work the Father sent Him to do, because the time was coming when no man could work, how much nearer is that time now! And how much greater need for the people of God to give themselves exclusively to the work which the Master has commissioned them to do,—the work of saving individual souls, who may have a place in His kingdom when He comes to destroy (not to reform) all earthly governments, and to establish His own. "The time is at hand."