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WHAT CHRIST TAUGHT

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Pacific Press Publishing Company · Mountain View, California · Jan 2, 1907

FromSigns of the Times, Vol. 33, No. 1.

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WHAT CHRIST TAUGHT.

By Christian

MORE than nineteen hundred years ago Jesus Christ announced the doctrine of religious liberty in the following utterances:
"All things whatsoever ye would that men should do to you, do ye even so to them." Matt. 7: 12.
"If any man hear My words, and believe not, I judge him not; for I came not to judge the world, but to save the world." John 12: 47.
These utterances need no extended comment. Applied to the subject of religious faith and practise, or freedom of conscience, they grant the fullest liberty to believe or not to believe. If the Christian desires that his opposers should grant him the privilege of teaching, preaching, or practising the religion of Christ, it is the duty of the Christian to grant his opposers the privilege of teaching, preaching, or practising their religion, whether it be pagan, Jew, Mohammedan, Catholic, or Protestant. And as the Christian conscience would revolt at the idea of paying reverence or regard to the idolatrous forms of Paganism, and would feel that it was oppression or persecution were he required so to do, so he has no right, according to the teaching of Christ, to compel, or seek to compel, his opposers to pay reverence or regard for what he considers Christian ceremonies or observances. And this is true respecting all classes of religionists. The teaching of Christ makes it incumbent upon the Christian to act toward the devotees of all religions as he would that the devotees of these religions should act toward him were situations reversed.
The second scripture quoted above puts non-acquiescence in religious faith on the basis, not of privilege, but, as far as man is concerned, of right—the right to differ, the right to believe or not to believe, the right to worship or not to worship. And the positive declaration of Him who could read all hearts was that He would not judge or condemn the unbeliever. Have His erring followers the right to go beyond this? He said that all judgment, all condemnation, was to be left "to the last day." Have His followers the right to judge now? CHRISTIAN.