A DANGEROUS PRINCIPLE by George B. Wheeler

Pacific Press Publishing Company · Oakland, California · Dec 15, 1898

FromSigns of the Times, Vol. 24, No. 50.

A DANGEROUS PRINCIPLE.

By George B. Wheeler

THE principle that allows any part of the religious community, however large, to place their interpretation upon God's law, or upon any part of it, and then get power from the State to compel all dissenters to conform to it, regardless of their own convictions or interests, is a most dangerous one. The carrying out of this principle has caused all of the persecution for conscience' sake that has ever cursed this world, and it has been one of the mightiest instruments in the hands of Satan in his warfare against the people of God.

God gave mankind freedom to act as they chose in the matter of obeying or disobeying Him; He never used force, altho He had infinite power. Christ said, "If any man hear My words, and believe not, I judge him not." John 12:47. Therefore those who do enforce religious conformity by law assume the blasphemous position of placing themselves above God, and say to the world practically that they are wiser than God. The apostle Paul, in 2 Thess. 2:4, speaking of the great representative of this principle, says, "Who opposeth and exalteth himself above all that is called God." Any manifestation of this principle is the manifestation of the man of sin, and is therefore antichristian. Neither does it alter the case to apply some other reason, like the "civil reason," for enforcing conformity in religious observance, in order to conceal the real purpose.

This idea of enforcing conformity in religious observance has survived in this country in the principle embodied in our Sunday laws, which recognizes the right of that part of the religious community who believe Sunday to be a sacred day to get power from the State to enforce their views of its sacred character upon all others, regardless of their convictions or interests. And the great number of reform societies and the proposed federation of the young people's societies for the purpose of enforcing Sunday observance upon all, is calling into life a principle that will only end with the subversion of the liberties of the country.

GEORGE B. WHEELER.