WHAT SHALL WE PREACH? by G.

Pacific Press Publishing Company · Mountain View, Cal. · Jun 13, 1906

FromSigns of the Times, Vol. 32, No. 23.

WHAT SHALL WE PREACH?

By G.

The answer of the Spirit is very explicit, “Preach the Word.” The command of the Master Himself is equally plain, “Go ye into all the world, and preach the Gospel to every creature.” Yet the strong tendency of the present time is to substitute something more sensational, more in the line of the world’s affairs. A San Francisco clergyman once expressed it in these words:

“Yes, the pulpit has a duty, a practical duty, and if the supervisors go astray, it is the duty of the pulpit to call them back.”

This is on the erroneous supposition that the pulpit is set for the judgment and correction of the official acts of “the powers that be” in the realm of the world’s affairs. If this be true, then Paul must have misunderstood the duty of the pulpit. He visited and preached in the greatest cities of his time, cities fairly teeming with political corruption, yet in no instance do we read of any “municipal reform” movement on his part, or by any of his contemporary laborers. Corinth was a very wicked city, and Paul lived and labored there at one time for a year and a half, but he made no direct effort at municipal reform. Writing to the brethren afterward, he said:

“I determined not to know anything among you, save Jesus Christ, and Him crucified. . . . And my speech and my preaching was not with enticing words of man’s wisdom, but in demonstration of the Spirit and of power; that your faith should not stand in the wisdom of men, but in the power of God.” 1 Cor. 2:2-5.

The minister of Christ who will have his preaching accompanied by the Spirit and power of God, must give his attention to the one grand theme of “Jesus Christ, and Him crucified.” If he will preach Christ faithfully, he will have no time to devote to the regulation or reformation of the governments of this world, municipal or national; for Christ has expressly said that His kingdom is not of this world. And Paul, with all his diversified gifts, had the one purpose in view, from which he never deviated. That purpose is expressed in these words, “I press toward the mark of the prize of the high calling of God in Christ Jesus.”

The minister of Christ is an ambassador (2 Cor. 5:20), not to civil officials as such, but to individuals as sinners, endeavoring to reconcile them to God. If this purpose can be accomplished, the individual so changed will be a more faithful person in every capacity consistent with Christian duty. But the commission of the Gospel ambassador contains no prerogative

to compel any one either in religious duty or civil function. His message to sinful man is, “We pray you in Christ’s stead, Be ye reconciled to God.” He can do nothing further in Christ’s stead, for Christ Himself went no further than to offer salvation to those who would accept it. We have no record of His endeavoring to compel civil officials to perform their duties.

The apostle Paul is also very emphatic in regard to the duty of the minister to continue the work of the Gospel on the principle enunciated by him. Writing to the churches in Galatia, he says:

“There be some that trouble you, and would pervert the Gospel of Christ. But tho we, or an angel from heaven, preach any other Gospel unto you than that which we have preached unto you, let him be accursed. As we said before, so say I now again, If any man preach any other Gospel unto you than that which ye have received, let him be accursed.”

It is the Gospel of the kingdom of God which the ambassador of Christ is to preach, and not the patching up of the corrupt governments of this world, which are soon to be broken in pieces and consumed by the coming and kingdom of our Lord Jesus Christ. This sin-cursed earth and its sin-laden governments are soon to pass away, and “we, according to His promise, look for new heavens and a new earth, wherein dwelleth righteousness.” The only legitimate correction the Gospel minister may have for the civil officer is to warn him as an individual sinner before God; to reason with him, as Paul did with Felix, of righteousness, of temperance, and the judgment. With the regulation of civil office, the “pulpit”—the Gospel ministry as such—has no legitimate concern. “Let the dead bury their dead; but go thou and preach the Gospel.” G.