FEDERATION OF CHURCHES by Alonzo T. Jones

Pacific Press Publishing Company · Mountain View, California · Jan 31, 1906

FEDERATION OF CHURCHES

By Alonzo T. Jones

A FALSE LEAD.

The Aim of the United Church.

IN the conference there was constantly held forth and urged as "the transcendent aim of the united church," and therefore of this Federation, "the conquest of the world for Christ, and the transformation of the state and kingdoms of the world into the kingdom of God on earth."

It was impossible not to see that this idea was the spring of the whole conception and design of the conference, and of the Federation that was established. The churches must federate, so that by their combined influence pressure can be brought to bear on the officials of city, county, state, and nation, and, logically and finally, of the world, in order that city, county, state, nation, and the world shall be "subdued to Christ." Federation must be accomplished so that the "combined influence" of the churches, "in all matters moral and social" "in every relation of human life" shall "promote the application of the law of Christ" to the conversion of every soul; and so the bringing of individuals, hamlets, towns, cities, counties, states, the nation, and the world, in subjection to Christ, and so to the full establishment of the kingdom of God on the earth.

Now this whole conception and aim is an utterly false lead. No evidence, no thought, of the Bible sustains it. The Scriptures from beginning to end are solidly against it.

What Christ Declared.

Christ said, "The good seed are the children of the kingdom; but the tares are the children of the wicked one." And of these two classes He said, "Let both grow together until the harvest." And of the harvest He said, "The harvest is the end of the world." By the explicit word of Christ therefore, "the children of the kingdom" and "the children of the wicked one" are to grow "together" in this world "until the end of the world." And then, and accordingly, He says, "As therefore the tares are gathered and burned in the fire; so shall it be in the end of this world." The tares are never gathered into the kingdom of God; they are "gathered and burned in the fire." It is "in the end of the world" that they are so gathered; and they grow in this world "together" with the children of the kingdom, "until the end of the world." Matt. 13:29, 30, 38-40.

The second coming of Christ, in His great power and glory, brings the "harvest," which "is the end of the world;" for so it is written: "I looked, and behold a white cloud, and upon the cloud sat one like unto the Son of Man, having on His head a golden crown, and in His hand a sharp sickle. And another angel came out of the temple, crying with a loud voice to Him that sat on the cloud, Thrust in Thy sickle, and reap; for the time is come for Thee to reap; for the harvest of the earth is ripe. And He that sat on the cloud thrust in His sickle on the earth; and the earth was reaped." Rev. 14:14-16.

Again, of that time it is written: "To you who are troubled rest with us, when the Lord Jesus shall be revealed from heaven with His mighty angels, in flaming fire taking vengeance on them that know not God, and that obey not the Gospel of our Lord Jesus Christ; who shall be punished with everlasting destruction from the presence of the Lord, and from the glory of His power; when He shall come to be glorified in His saints, and to be admired in all them that believe in that day." 2 Thess. 1:7-10.

That Scripture is literally impossible, with the conversion of the world. But "the Scripture can not be broken;" therefore the conversion of the world is neither promised nor contemplated in the Scriptures.

Again, of "that day" and the coming of the Lord, and the end, it is written: "I saw heaven opened, and behold a white horse; and He that sat upon him is called Faithful and True, and in righteousness He doth judge and make war. His eyes were as a flame of fire, and on His head were many crowns; and He had a name written that no man knew, but He Himself, and He was clothed in a vesture dipped in blood; and His name is called The Word of God. And the armies which were in heaven followed Him upon white horses, clothed in fine linen, white and clean. And out of His mouth goeth a sharp sword, that with it He should smite the nations; and He shall rule them with a rod of iron; and He treadeth the winepress of the fierceness and wrath of Almighty God. And He hath on His vesture and on His thigh a name written, King of Kings and Lord of Lords." Rev. 19:11-16.

Foes Against Christ to the End.

That Scripture also is impossible with the conversion of the world, and with the nations being subject to Christ in righteousness. And yet there is more to this passage of Scripture itself; for in the same connection, it is further

said: 'And I saw the beast, and the kings of the earth, and their armies, gathered together to make war against Him that sat on the horse, and against His army. And the beast was taken, and with him the false prophet that wrought miracles before him, with which he deceived them that had received the mark of the beast, and them that worshiped his image. These both were cast alive into a lake of fire burning with brimstone. And the remnant were slain with the sword of Him that sat upon the horse, which sword proceeded out of His mouth; and all the fowls were filled with their flesh.' Rev. 19: 19-21.

Instead of this world ending with all converted, or with all the nations the kingdom of God, it ends with false religion and the kingdoms of the earth and their armies in grand alliance under the leadership of unclean spirits, 'gathered together to make war on Him,' the Lord Christ, as He comes in His glory. And the power of deception of these unclean spirits is so great that they do actually deceive the nations into this thing. This gathering together of the nations is to Armageddon; for so it is written of these unclean spirits, that they come out of the mouth of the dragon, and of the beast, and of the false prophet, and 'go forth unto the kings of the earth and of the whole world, to gather them to the battle of that great day of God Almighty.' And the place of their gathering is stated: 'He gathered them together into a place called in the Hebrew tongue Armageddon.'

And then, the Word continues, 'The seventh angel poured out his vial into the air; and there came a great voice out of the temple of heaven, from the throne, saying, It is done. And there were voices, and thunders, and lightnings; and there was a great earthquake, such as was not since men were upon the earth, so mighty an earthquake, and so great. And the great city [Babylon] was divided into three parts, and the cities of the nations FELL; and great Babylon came in remembrance before God, to give unto her the cup of the wine of the fierceness of His wrath.'

Succeeding, Not Converting.

Such is the condition and the order of things in the earth and amongst the nations at the end of the world, when the kingdom of God in its fulness comes and is set up on the earth. And this is exactly the story of the Bible—Old Testament as well as New. In the book of Daniel it is declared that when the kingdom of God does come and shall be set up on this earth, it 'shall break in pieces and consume all these kingdoms;' that they become as the chaff of the summer thrashing-floor, and the wind carries them away and no place is found for them; and then the kingdom of God becomes a great mountain and fills the whole earth, 'and it shall stand forever.' Dan. 2: 34, 35, 44, 45. This is told also in Isaiah, in Jeremiah, in Ezekiel, in Micah, in Joel, in Zechariah, in Zephaniah, in the Psalms, in the Kings, in Judges, in Deuteronomy, in Genesis—in the whole Book of God.

Therefore again we say that this whole conception and aim, as designed, as advocated, and as formulated, in the Federation of Churches, is utterly a false lead. Yet these people believe that the world is to be converted, and turned into the kingdom of God on the earth, and that their Federation is to be the mighty means of accomplishing this. And they really believe it. No one could think for a moment of charging them with insincerity, with dishonest purposes, or with evil designs.

Unquestionably they mean well in what they are aiming at.

Nevertheless, still more unquestionably the thing which they are aiming at is altogether wrong in the sense that no such thing will or can ever be; and they are altogether wrong in it, in the sense that they are expecting, and working for, and toiling unto, a thing that is utterly a blank. It is a blank so far as the idea, the conception, their aim, and their hope, are concerned; but in the awful results of this mistaken notion and false lead, it is the farthest possible from being a blank, either to themselves or to any others.

Results to Follow the False Lead.

And the wickedness and the horror of the results is in nowise lessened by the fact that these people are entirely honest and sincere in their views and purposes. It is an impossible end that they seek. It is a false lead that they are following. And men can be just as honest and sincere in using false means in following a false lead to a mistaken end, as they can be in holding the mistaken view itself. For error never sanctifies; it only blinds the discernment and fosters the passions.

But beyond all this, these people are not building only for themselves, nor for a day. They are building for all time, and for others who shall follow them. And they simply can not guarantee that those who come after them in this Federation shall all be as honest and sincere as themselves now may be. Indeed, in view of the flood of accessions of selfish and designing men that will inevitably flow into the churches to become the most active life of the Federation, it can with perfect safety be guaranteed that those who shall come after these in the Federation, will not be as well meaning and sincere as these can readily be believed to be.

In this Federation, these men are building a machine that is to be operated in all the years to come. If it were to be operated only by themselves, it might be operated without much material damage to state or people. Yet even in that case there is no certainty, that it would be so operated; because it is so easy, so natural, and in so many ways deemed 'justifiable,' to operate it otherwise. But when it shall pass from the stage of infancy and from the hands of apparent innocency, to the stage of active maturity, and to the hands of hard, designing determination, then the machine will be operated only to the subversion of the state and to the misery of the nation. This is certain. It is so certain that there can be no just or reasonable doubt of it.

An Example of Old.

For this is not the first instance of federation. It is not even the first instance of federation for the conversion of the world and the turning of city, state, and nation into the kingdom of God on earth. All this now is only in the plain likeness of the procedure in the third and fourth centuries, by which the full-formed Papacy was developed. In the procedure at that time, the Emperor Constantine, according to the will and purpose of the 'combined influence' of the church-power, 'framed his earthly government according to the pattern of that divine original, feeling strength in its conformity to the monarchy of God:' 'by the appointment of the Caesars, fulfils the predictions of the holy prophets, according to what they uttered ages before; 'And the saints of the Most High shall take the kingdom;'' and 'by bringing those

whom He rules on earth to the only-begotten Word and Saviour, renders them fit subjects of His kingdom.'—Eusebius.

And the way in which Constantine brought to the Saviour those whom he ruled on earth, and made them fit subjects of the kingdom of God, is illustrated in the following:

Victor Constantinus Maximus Augustus, to the heretics. Understood now, by this present statute, ye Novatians, Valentinans, Marciorites, Paulicians, ye who are called Cataphrygians, and all ye who devise and support heresies by means of your private assemblies. . . . We give warning by this present statute that none of you henceforth presume to assemble yourselves together. We have directed, accordingly, that you be deprived of all the houses in which you are accustomed to hold your assemblies; and our care in this respect extends so far as to forbid the holding of your superstitions and senseless meetings, not in public merely, but in any private house or place whatsoever. Let those of you, therefore, who are desirous of embracing the true and pure religion, take the far better course of entering the Catholic Church, and uniting with it in holy fellowship, whereby you will be enabled to arrive at the knowledge of the truth. . . . For it is an object worthy of that prosperity which we enjoy through the favor of God, to endeavor to bring back those who in time just were living in the hope of future blessing, from all irregularity and error, to the right path, from darkness to light, from vanity to truth, from death to salvation.'—Eusebius's 'Life of Constantine,' Book III, chapters LXIV, LXV.

That which the federation at that time thus began, by Constantine, it completed by the Emperor Theodosius. Thus was the Roman empire 'converted;' thus that empire was made to be 'the kingdom of God on earth.' But it was no sooner well accomplished than ruin overtook it, because of its essential hypocrisy and iniquity, and swept it to eternal annihilation.

This Federation now will find its Constantine and its Theodosius. By these it will accomplish the 'conversion' of the nation, and by a world Federation will also accomplish the 'conversion' of the world, and the turning of the nation and the world into 'the kingdom of God on earth.' And when it shall be well accomplished, and they begin to congratulate themselves on the blessed 'peace and safety' assured by the grand success of their political gospel, then, because of the essential hypocrisy and iniquity of the whole thing at that time, 'sudden destruction shall come' (1 Thess. 5: 3) that shall sweep it all to eternal perdition, as shown in the scriptures quoted in the former part of this article.

The idea of the conversion of this world is a deception. The turning of the nations of this world into the kingdom of God on earth is a delusion. A federation to accomplish that thing is a snare. The people of this Federation of the Churches are in that deception; they are indulging that delusion, and they and multitudes of others will be caught by that snare.

There are thousands upon thousands of people in the nation who know the truth of the Scriptures concerning the kingdom of God and its coming on this earth. To all these who do know this truth, can there be any mightier incentive to make known to every soul that all-important truth, than is presented in the situation that has now been created by the formation and working of this Federation of the Churches in that deception, and led by the utterly false lead of that delusion?

May the Lord in His mercy again bring the

day when “the people that do know their God shall be strong and do exploits.” Dan. 11:32.

ALONZO T. JONES.

[The next article in this series discusses “The Fundamental Error.”]