CHRISTIAN

PATRIOTISM

Alonzo T. Jones

1
 Introduction
Christian patriotism, loyalty to the law and
government of the Most High, is the loftiest
aspiration that can ever come to any soul.

The separation of religion and the State is one

of the most important questions that any people can
ever be called upon to consider in connection with
Christian patriotism; because the union of religion
and the State has marked the greatest apostasies
from God, and has caused more misery than any
other thing in all history.

The complete separation of religion and the

State is Christian. Unswerving loyalty to this
principle is Christian patriotism. This is not a mere
sentiment or side issue of Christianity; it is one of
the fundamental principles and chief characteristics
of Christianity.

The Bible, not merely the New Testament, but

the whole Book, is the Book of Christianity. The
New Testament is not a revelation new and distinct
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from the Old; it is the culmination of the revelation
begun in the Old Testament.

The Old Testament and the New are one

book—one consistent, harmonious revelation of
God through Jesus Christ; because Jesus Christ is
the revelation of God before the world was made,
when the world was made, and through all the
history of the world from beginning to end.

The first chapter of Genesis is Christian as

certainly as is the first chapter of John. The book of
Genesis is Christian as really as is the book of
Revelation or any other book in the Bible. We
repeat, therefore, that the whole Bible is the Book
of Christianity, the Book of the Christian religion,
the revelation of God through Jesus Christ.

And the separation of religion and the State is

one of the great thoughts of this great Book. It is
one of the leading principles of that Book which
for man is the source of all sound principle.

Many people think that the two or three

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expressions of Christ as recorded in the New
Testament are all that the Bible contains on the
subject of the separation of Church and State; and
many others are disposed even to argue against
these passages, and to modify them by other
passages from the Old Testament. But separation
of religion and the State is one of the original
thoughts of the Bible, and reaches from the
beginning to the end of the Book; and neither the
Book nor this subject can be fairly understood in
reference to this matter till this is clearly defined in
the mind.

We purpose here to give a series of studies of

the Bible from beginning to end, on this great
subject of Christian patriotism or the separation of
religion and State.

Being one of the great thoughts of the Bible,

one of the great thoughts of God and of our Lord
Jesus Christ, this subject is of vital importance to
men everywhere in their relations to God, and not
merely in their relations to the State. It is a
principle that is involved in the daily experience of

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the Christian in his relation to God; and not merely
an abstract question that man can stand, as it were,
apart from and view simply as a speculative
question of the relations between religion and the
State.

The ways of God are right. His Word is the

only certain light, the only sure truth. The
principles which He has announced are the only
safe principles for the guidance of men. We hope,
and shall seriously endeavor, to make each study so
plain that every reader can easily see and readily
grasp the truth of it in very principle. We shall
begin at the beginning.

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 Chapter 1

The First of all the

Commandments
“The first of all the commandments is, Hear, O
Israel, The Lord our God is one Lord; and thou
shalt love the Lord thy God with all thy heart, and
with all thy soul, and with all thy mind, and with
all thy strength. This is the first commandment.

“And the second is like, namely this, Thou

shalt love thy neighbor as thyself. There is none
other commandment greater than these.”

“On these two commandments hang all the law

and the prophets.”

These two commandments exist in the very

nature, and circumstances of existence, of any two
intelligent creatures in the universe. They existed
thus in the existence of the first two intelligent
creatures that ever had a place in the universe.

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 When the first intelligence was created and
there was no creature but himself; as he owed to
his Creator his existence, as he owed to God all
that he was or could be, heart, soul, might, mind,
and strength; it devolved upon him to render to
God the tribute of all this, and to love God with all
his heart, and all his soul, and all his mind, and all
his strength. And this is the first of all the
commandments. It is first in the very nature and
existence of the first, and of every other, intelligent
creature.

But the second of these would have no place if

there were but one intelligent creature in the
universe; for then he would have no neighbor. But
when the second one was created, the first of all the
commandments was first with him equally with the
other one; and now the second great commandment
exists in the very nature and existence of these two
intelligent creatures, as certainly as the first great
commandment existed in the nature and existence
of the first one.

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 Each of the two created intelligences owes to
the Lord all that he is-or has, and all that he could
ever rightly have. Neither of them has anything that
is self-derived. Each owes all to God. There is
between them no ground of preference. And this
because of the honor which each owes to God;
because to each, God is all in all. Therefore the
second great commandment exists as certainly as
the first; and it exists in the nature and
circumstance of the very existence of intelligent
creatures. Consequently, “there is none other
commandment greater than these.”

These two commandments, then, exist in the

nature of cherubim, seraphim, angels, and men. As
soon as the man was created, the first of all the
commandments was there, even though there had
been no other creature in the universe. And as soon
as the woman was created, these two great
commandments were there. And there was none
other commandment greater than these.

Now, if these two great commandments had

been observed by man on the earth, that is, had

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man never sinned, there always would have been
perfect and supreme religion; and there never
would have been a State. God would always have
been by every one recognized as the only Ruler,
His law as the only law, His authority as the only
authority. There would have been government, but
only the government of God. There would have
been society, but only the society of saints. But
there would have been, and could have been, no
State.

Therefore it is certain that the observance of

these first two of all the commandments, at any
time and everywhere, which is simply Christian
loyalty, means the absolute separation of religion
and the State, in all who observe them. And thus
the principle of separation of religion and the State
inheres in the very existence of intelligent
creatures.

But man did sin. And, having sinned, having

departed from God, mankind did not love God with
all the heart nor their neighbor as themselves.
Christianity was introduced to bring man back to

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the position, and the original relations, which he
had lost. “For we are His workmanship, created in
Christ Jesus unto good works, which God hath
before ordained that we should walk in them.”
Ephesians 2:10. And Christ hath suffered for us,
“the Just for the unjust, that He might bring us to
God.” 1 Peter 3:18.

It being, then, the one great purpose of

Christianity to restore man to his original condition
and relation to God, its purpose is to restore him to
the condition in which he can love God with all the
heart, with all the soul, with all the mind, and with
all the strength, and his neighbor as himself. It is to
restore him to obedience to these first two of all the
commandments. It is to restore him to perfect and
supreme religion.

We have seen that such a condition maintained

from the beginning would have been the absolute
separation of religion and the State; because, then,
there never could have been any State. And now, as
the one great purpose of Christianity is to restore
man completely to that condition, it follows with

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perfect conclusiveness that Christianity in its very
essence, from the beginning to the end, and
everywhere, demands the absolute separation of
religion and the State in all who profess it.

And it must not be forgotten that the complete

separation of religion and the State in those who
profess religion, can be maintained only by these
persons themselves being separated from the State.
For it is so plain as to be indisputable that if the
professor of religion is himself a part of the State,
then in him there is at once a union of religion and
the State.

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 Chapter 2

The Origin of the State

It is certain that if the two greatest of all the
commandments had always been observed by all
men, there never could have been a State on the
earth.

There would have been society, but no State.

The government would have been altogether the
government of God; He, the only King, the only
Governor, on earth even as in heaven.

There would have been society, but no State.

Because, men loving God with all the heart, and all
the soul, and all the mind, and all the strength, and
their neighbors as themselves, the will of God
would have been done on earth even as in heaven.
All would have been one united, harmonious,
happy, holy family.

There is an essential distinction between

society and the State.
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 “Society is the union which exists between
men, without distinction of frontiers—without
exterior restraint—and for the sole reason that they
are men.

“The civil society or State is an assemblage of

men subject to a common authority, to common
laws,—that is to say, a society whose members
may be constrained by public force to respect their
reciprocal rights. Two necessary elements enter
into the idea of the State: laws and force.”—Janet,
Elements of Morals, p. 143.

This distinction, however, though clear and

easily evident, is seldom recognized. Indeed, it is
not recognized at all by those who are anxious to
secure the union of religion and the State.

But men did not observe these two “first of all

the commandments.” They would not love God
with all their heart; they would not love their
neighbors as themselves. They rejected God as
their only ruler, their only sovereign, and became

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ambitious to rule over one another. And thus
originated politics and the State.

The Scripture outlines the story of this: “When

they knew God, they glorified Him not as God,
neither were thankful, but became vain in their
imaginations, and their foolish heart was darkened.
Professing themselves to be wise, they became
fools, and changed the glory of the uncorruptible
God into an image made like to corruptible man,
and to birds, and four-footed beasts, and creeping
things.” “And even as they did not like to retain
God in their knowledge, God gave them over to a
reprobate mind.” Romans 1:21-25, 28.

Note that at the first men did know God. But

they chose not to glorify Him, not to honor Him,
not to give Him the first place in all their thoughts
and actions. Knowing God, they did not like to
retain Him in their knowledge.

The next step was that they became vain in

their own imaginations. They professed themselves
to be wise, of themselves. The consequence was

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that they became fools; and their foolish heart was
darkened.

In their vain imaginations they made gods of

their own. And then to assist themselves in their
worship, they made images of the gods which they
had imagined.

The image was always the outward, tangible

form of the god which they had already conceived
in the imagination. Imagining is simply mental
image-ing. The outward form of the god, whether it
be the shining sun in the heavens or a hideously-
shaped block of wood or stone, is only the outward
form of the image-ing that has already been
performed in the imagination.

Thus, from the knowledge of the true God, they

went to the worship of false gods. From the light,
they went into darkness. From righteousness, they
went to wickedness.

This is the truth. And the records of the earliest

nations witness to it. The earliest records—those of

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the plain of Shinar—witness that the people at first
had a knowledge of the true God. The records of
the next two of the earliest nations, Egypt and
Assyria, bear witness to this same thing.

In all these places the earliest records testify

that the gods were their first rulers and the real
kings; while men, in the places of authority, were
but the servants, the viceroys, of the gods who
were held to be the real kings.

For instance, one of the earliest records from

Shinar runs thus: “To [the god] Ninridu, his King,
for the preservation of Idadu, viceroy of Ridu, the
servant, the delight of Ninridu.” Another: “To [the
god] Ninip the King, his King, Gudea, viceroy of
[the god] Zirgulla, his house built.” Another: “To
Nana, the lady, lady splendid, his lady, Gudea,
viceroy of Zirgulla ...raised.”—Empires of the
Bible, chap. 6, par. 3, 4.

These are not only the earliest of the records

that have been found in that land, but they
themselves show that they are of the earliest

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records that were made in that land. And they
clearly testify of a time when there were no kings
amongst men. The gods were the kings; and the
men in authority claimed only to be the viceroys of
the gods who were held to be the real kings.

And all this testifies of a time further back,

when the people knew and recognized God as the
only king and rightful ruler of men. They show
also that this knowledge of God was so recent, and
still so strong upon the minds of the people, that
men who stood in places of authority had not the
boldness to assume the title of king, even though
they held the power.

The records of Egypt and Assyria testify

precisely to these same things. And at that time,
also, there was no State. There was society.

There came a time, however, when even this

lingering knowledge of God as king and the only
rightful ruler, was cut off; and the man himself
assumed the full title and prerogatives of king.

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 The first man to do this was Nimrod. Nimrod
was the first man in the world who had the
boldness to take to himself the title and prerogative
of king, in the face of the yet lingering idea of God
as king. And the name which he bears itself
testifies to the fact that his action in this was
considered by men, and also by the Lord, as
precisely the bold thing which is here indicated.
The word “Nimrod” “signifies rebellion,
supercilious contempt, and is equivalent to ‘the
extremely impious rebel.’”

The Bible record of Nimrod is that “he began to

be a mighty one in the earth.” Another translation
reads: “Cush begat Nimrod, who was the first to be
a despot on the earth. He was an overbearing tyrant
in Jehovah’s sight; wherefore the saying, Even as
Nimrod, the overbearing tyrant in Jehovah’s sight.”
Genesis 10:8, 9.

That is, Nimrod was the first one to establish

the might, the power, the authority, of human
government, in the form of an organized State. He
was the first man to assert the power and

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prerogatives, and assume the title, of king over
men. “And the beginning of his kingdom was
Babel, and Erech, and Accad, and Calneh, in the
land of Shinar.”

Consequently: “With the setting up of

Nimrod’s kingdom, the entire ancient world
entered a new historical phase. The oriental
tradition which makes that warrior the first man
who wore a kingly crown, points to a fact more
significant than the assumption of a new ornament
of dress, or even the conquest of a province. His
reign introduced to the world a new system of
relations between the governor and the governed.
The authority of former rulers rested upon the
feeling of kindred; and the ascendancy of the chief
was an image of parental control. Nimrod, on the
contrary, was a sovereign of territory, and of men
just so far as they were its inhabitants, and
irrespective of personal ties. Hitherto there had
been tribes—enlarged families—society: now there
was a nation, a political community—the state. The
political and social history of the world henceforth
are distinct, if not divergent.”—Empires of the

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Bible, chap. 6, par. 7.

Such was the true origin of the State. The State

was, and is, the result of the apostasy of men from
God. Such only could possibly be its origin; for if
all men had always observed the two “first of all
the commandments,” it would have been
impossible for there ever to have been any State.
There could have been no human authority
exercised. All would have been equally subject to
God; He would have been the only sovereign.

Before Nimrod there was society. Respect of

the rights of persons and of their property was
maintained. It was only when the apostasy grew,
and men got farther and farther from God, that the
monarchical idea was established and personified
in Nimrod.

Let no one misunderstand. This is not to say,

nor even to imply, that there should now be no
human government, that there should be no State,
nor even that there should be no monarchy. It is
simply to say that which is the truth, that if there

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never had been any apostasy from God, there never
could have been on earth a State, nor any human
government.

It is true that these things are the consequences

of the apostasy from God. But men having
apostatized from God, these things all, even to such
monarchy as that of Nimrod or of Nero, became
necessary, just in proportion to the degree of
apostasy.

It is better that there should be a government,

bad as it may be, than that there should be no
government at all. Even such a government as
Nimrod’s or Nero’s is better than none at all. But
without apostasy there could never have been any
human government at all; and without the apostasy
having gone to a fearful length, there never could
have been any such government as Nimrod’s or
Nero’s.

Nimrod’s example was eagerly followed by all

the tribes around, until they were all absorbed in it.
Society had passed away, and only States

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remained; and these universally idolatrous. In all
that region, only Abraham believed God, even his
own parents being idolaters. “They served other
gods.” Joshua 24:2.

God chose Abraham then to be the father of all

them that believed God; the father of all who will
have God alone to be their God. Abraham
represented then the religion of God, the beginning
of the church of God.

And from that State God separated Abraham.

He said to Abraham, “Get thee out of thy country,
and from thy kindred, and from thy father’s house,
into a land that I will show thee.” Genesis 12:1.

And in thus separating Abraham from that

State, from his country, God taught the people
then, and through all time, the separation of
religion and the State, the separation of Church and
State.

And it must not be forgotten that in the case of

Abraham, this universal example, the separation of

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religion and the State, was the separation of the
individual believer from the State. And as
Abraham was at that time the church, and he was
separated from the State, in this it is plainly taught
that the true separation of Church and State is in
the separation of the individual church-member
from the State. Besides, it is perfectly plain in itself
that where the same individual is a member of the
Church and of the State at the same time, there is at
once in him a union of Church and State.

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 Chapter 3

The Separation of Church

and State
When God said to Abraham, “Get thee out of
thy country, and from thy kindred, and from thy
father’s house, unto a land that I will show thee,”
Abraham “went out, not knowing whither he
went.” Hebrews 11:8.

God had not yet showed to him the land or

country into which he was to go, and which was to
be his. So far, the Lord had only promised to show
it to him.

There were three things, however, which

Abraham must do before he could fairly expect
God to show him the country which He had
promised, and which was to be his. First, he was to
get out of his country; secondly, from his kindred;
thirdly, from his father’s house.

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 He left his country; but when he did so, his
father and his kindred went with him to Haran, and
dwelt there. There his father died; and now,
separated from his father’s house, he went on to the
land of Canaan.

But there accompanied him yet one of his

kindred—Lot, his brother’s son. While Lot was
with him, and he was thus not separated from his
kindred, though separated from his country and his
father’s house, the time could come for God to
show to him the land, nor the country which He
would give him.

But there came a day when Lot should be

separated from him. Lot chose all the plain of the
Jordan, and journeyed east, and “they separated
thus, one from the other.” Genesis 13:11.

And just then it was that God showed to

Abraham the land which He had promised to show
him, the country which should be his. “And the
Lord said unto Abraham, after that Lot was
separated from him, Lift up now thine eyes, and

25
look from the place where thou art northward, and
southward, and eastward, and westward; for all the
land which thou seest, to thee will I give it, and to
thy seed forever.” Genesis 13:14, 15.

And the country which the Lord then showed to

Abraham, and which He there promised him
should be his for an everlasting possession—that
country embraced the world; for “the promise, that
he should be the heir of the world, was not to
Abraham, or to his seed, through the law, but
through the righteousness of faith.” Romans 4:13.

Therefore, when at the word of the Lord

Abraham lifted up his eyes to see what the Lord
would show him, he saw “the world to come,”
which is to be the everlasting possession of all
them which be of faith. For “if ye be Christ’s, then
are ye Abraham’s seed, and heirs according to the
promise.” Galatians 3:29.

And from that day forward Abraham

“sojourned in the land of promise as in a strange
country,” looking for “a better country, that is, an

26
heavenly,” and looking “for a city which hath
foundations, whose builder and maker is God.”
Hebrews 11:9, 16, 8. For, though God promised
that He would give to Abraham that land, and to
his seed after him, yet as long as he was in this
world God really “gave him none inheritance in it,
no not so much as to set his foot on.” Acts 7:5.

Now note: God had called Abraham out of his

original country, and thus had separated him from
that. Then He gave him not even so much as to set
his foot on in any other country in this world.

Abraham at that time represented the religion

of God. The Lord in His dealing thus with
Abraham and in recording it, has shown, for all
time and to all people, that it is His will that there
should be an absolute separation of His religion
from any State. And in thus showing the complete
separation of His religion from any State, He
shows that this separation consists in the separation
of the individual believer of His religion, from any
State. Are you walking “in the steps of that faith of
our father Abraham,” the friend of God? Romans

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4.

Abraham, representing at that time the church

of Christ, being thus totally separated by the Lord
from every State and country on the earth, there is
thus shown to all people, as an original truth of the
Gospel of Christ, that there should be total
separation of Church and State, and that the church
of Christ can never have any country in the world.
And in thus showing that the church of Christ can
never have any country in this world, He shows
that the individual members of the church of Christ
can never have any country in this world; for that
which composes the church of Christ is the
individual membership.

So also dwelt Isaac and Jacob, heirs with

Abraham of the same promise, accepting with
Abraham separation from every earthly State and
country, confessing “that they were strangers and
pilgrims on the earth,” looking for the country
which God had prepared for them, and the city
which hath foundations, whose builder and maker
is God.

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 And that they accepted this freely of their own
choice, by faith in God, is shown by the fact, as
recorded: “Truly, if they had been mindful of that
country from whence they came out, they might
have had opportunity to have returned. But now
they desire a better country, that is, an heavenly;
wherefore God is not ashamed to be called their
God, for He hath prepared for them a city.”
Hebrews 11:15, 16.

This dealing of God with Abraham, and the

record of it, were for the instruction of all the
people who would believe God, from that time to
the world’s end. For Abraham was the called, the
chosen, the friend, of God, the father of all them
that believe. And all “they which be of faith are
blessed with faithful Abraham.” Galatians 3:9. And
not the least element of instruction in this account
of God’s dealings with Abraham, is the great
lesson it teaches that the religion of God means
separation of religion and the State. Are you
walking in the steps of that faith of our father
Abraham? Have you gotten out of your country?

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Or have you still a country in this world? Is there in
you a union of religion and the State?

Further: “Now to Abraham and his Seed were

the promises made. He saith not, And to seeds, as
of many; but as of one, And to thy Seed, which is
Christ.” Galatians 3:16. Therefore the promises
recorded and referred to in the scripture, “To
Abraham and his Seed,” are always to Abraham
and Christ, and to Abraham in Christ. And,
therefore, “if ye be Christ’s, then are ye Abraham’s
seed, and heirs according to the promise.”
Galatians 3:29.

And when Christ, that promised Seed, came

into the world a man amongst men, then in Him, as
formerly in Abraham, there was represented the
religion of God and the church of Christ. And as
such He ever maintained the same principle of
separation of religion and the State which He
Himself had set before the world in the life and
record of Abraham.

He refused to recognize, even by a sign, the

30
wish of the people to make Him king. John 6:15.
He refused, when requested, to act the part of a
judge or a divider over men as to the rights of
property. Luke 12:13-15. He refused to recognize
the national lines of distinction, the wall of
partition, which Israel in their exclusiveness had
built up between themselves and other nations. He
refused to judge, or to allow any others to judge,
any one for not believing on Him. John 12:47, 48.
He distinctly declared that, though He is a king, yet
His kingdom is not of this world, and that it is not
in any way connected with this world. John 18:36.
He distinctly declared the separation of His religion
from the State. “Render to Caesar the things that
are Caesar’s, and to God the things that are God’s.”
Mark 12:17. And when He sent forth His disciples
with His heavenly commission to preach the
Gospel of His kingdom, He sent them not to one
particular nation, but to “teach all nations,
baptizing them in the name of the Father and the
Son and the Holy Ghost.” He sent them to preach
the Gospel; not to one particular, favored,
exclusive people, but “to every creature.”

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 Thus it is seen again that in every phase of the
fundamental principle of the religion of God and
the church of Christ, from the beginning to the end
of the world, there is required the absolute
separation of religion and the State—the total
disconnection of His church from every State and
country in the world, and from the world itself.

And this total disconnection of His church from

every State and country in this world, and from the
world itself, is, and can be, accomplished only by
the total disconnection of the individual members
of His church from every State and country in the
world, and from the world itself. “Ye are not of the
world; for I have chosen you out of the world.”
“They are not of the world, even as I am not of the
world.” John 15:19; 17:16. Are you?

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 Chapter 4

The Renunciation of Egypt

In the beginnings of Egypt the same course was
followed as in the beginnings of Babylon and
Assyria.

At first they knew the one true God; and He

was their only King, their only Ruler.

But they did not like to retain God in their

knowledge; and therefore they went into idolatry,
and from idolatry into monarchy.

The Egyptian records state that the first rulers

of Egypt were the gods; after them the demigods;
and after these the kings.

In Egypt, however, the king was not content, as

in Assyria, to call himself the viceroy of his god;
he claimed to be the very embodiment of the god
itself—the god was personated in the king; from
him, it was declared, the people “received the
33
breath of their nostrils;” he was “the giver of
life.”—Empires of the Bible, chap. 7, par. 38, 44.

And thus, though Nimrod was the first man to

establish monarchical authority and assume the
kingly title and crown, yet in Egypt his example
was followed to the greatest lengths, as Egypt was
undoubtedly the most idolatrous nation that ever
was on the earth. There apostasy of every kind
culminated, so that throughout the Bible the one
word “Egypt” symbolizes everything that is
contrary to God.

When the power of monarchy had filled the

Mesopotamian plain, God called Abraham out of
that country into the land of Canaan, where he
could be free, and thus made a separation of
Church and State, and preached the same to all
people.

But in process of time, and by Egypt, the power

of monarchy was spread over all countries, from
Ethiopia to Ararat and central Asia. Then, as His
people were obliged to live under the power of

34
monarchy anyhow, the Lord put them where they
could do the most possible good—He placed them
at the very seat of the world’s empire, in Egypt
itself.

And there, through all the time of the

supremacy of the Egyptian Empire, with Joseph
and Moses beside the throne, and Israel amongst
the people, of Egypt, God held before all nations
the knowledge of Himself. And as soon as the time
came when the Egyptian Empire must fall, God
would place His people once more in Canaan, the
pivot of the highways of the nations.

To this end there must be again taught to the

world the separation of religion and the State, the
separation of Church and State. God’s people must
be called out of Egypt, in order that they and all the
nations might be instructed in the great principles
of the Gospel, of supreme allegiance to God, of the
separation of religion and the State, of church and
country.

Moses understood this, and therefore he

35
“refused to be called the son of Pharoah’s
daughter.” Hebrews 11:24. Moses was the adopted
son of Pharaoh’s daughter. Pharaoh’s daughter was
Pharaoh’s chief wife, and queen. Moses, therefore,
by the most complete claim, was heir apparent to
the throne of Egypt. And as the king was then more
than eighty years old, it could be but a little while
till Moses would possess and throne of Egypt. The
throne of Egypt was at that time the throne of the
world; for the power of Egypt then ruled the world.
It was the supreme State, the governing empire
over all. See “Empires of the Bible,” chapter 7.

For Moses to refuse to be called the son of

Pharaoh’s daughter was therefore to renounce the
throne of Egypt. To renounce the throne of Egypt
was to renounce the power of empire. It was
definitely to disconnect from the State.

At that time Moses was called to have charge

over “the house of God, which is the church of the
living God.” Hebrews 3:2, 5; 1 Timothy 3:15. It
was in obedience to this call that he renounced the
throne of Egypt and the power of empire. It was

36
because of this that he definitely disconnected
himself from the State. And in recording it, God
designed to teach all people that conformity to His
will means the separation of Church and State; that
it means the renunciation of the throne and the
power of earthly empire—the total separation of
religion and the State. In recording it God designs
to teach, and does teach, that union with His church
means separation from the State.

And it was through the faith of Christ that

Moses did all this. It was “through faith” that
“Moses, when he was come to years, refused to be
called the son of Pharaoh’s daughter; choosing
rather to suffer affliction with the people of God
than to enjoy the pleasures of sin for a season;
esteeming the reproach of Christ greater riches than
the treasures in Egypt.” Hebrews 11:24-26.

Therefore, from that day to this, it has been

made plain to all people that faith in God, the faith
of Jesus Christ, the original principle of the Gospel
and of the church, means the absolute separation of
Church and State; the renunciation of the throne

37
and power of earthly dominion; the total separation
of religion and the State; and that uniting with the
church of Christ means separation from the State
and countries of this world.

And this is what faith in God, the faith of Jesus

Christ, the fundamental principle of the Gospel and
of the church, means to all people in the world to-
day.

38
 Chapter 5

The Singular Nation :

Choosing a King
Forty years the Lord led and fed His people in
the wilderness.

All this time He was teaching them the way of

allegiance to Himself—the way of faith.

This He did in order that His purpose might be

fulfilled through them in the land whither they
were going to possess it.

At the end of the forty years they were

encamped in the plain of Moab, opposite Jericho,
preparatory to entering the land of their possession.

While there encamped, the will of God

concerning them was declared by an irresistible
inspiration upon the prophet Balaam, and in words
of instruction to His people for all time.

39
 And the words are these: “Lo, the people shall
dwell alone, and shall not be reckoned among the
nations.” Numbers 23:9.

At that time the Lord’s people composed “the

church in the wilderness” (Acts 7:38); and in thus
declaring that they should dwell alone and not be
reckoned among the nations, He plainly declared
His will that His church should be forever
separated from every State and nation on the earth.

God never intended that His people should be

formed into a kingdom, or State, or government,
like the people of this world; nor that they should
in any way be connected with any kingdom, or
State, or government, of this world.

They were not to be like the nations or the

people around them. They were to be separated
unto God “from all the people that are upon the
face of the earth.” Exodus 33:16. The people were
to dwell alone, and were not to be reckoned among
the nations.

40
 Their government was to be a theocracy pure
and simple—God their only King, their only Ruler,
their only Lawgiver. It was indeed to be a church
organization, beginning with the organization of
“the church in the wilderness,” and was to be
separated from every idea of a State. The system
formed in the wilderness through Moses, was to
continue in Canaan; and was intended to be
perpetual.

“The government of Israel was administered in

the name and by the authority of Jehovah. The
work of Moses, of the seventy elders, of the rulers
and judges, was simply to enforce the laws that
God had given. They had no authority to legislate
for the nation.” For God had declared plainly, “Ye
shall not add unto the word which I command you,
neither shall ye diminish aught from it.”
Deuteronomy 4:2.

Thus the principles of their government were

solely those of a pure theocracy. And such “was
and continued to be the condition of Israel’s

41
existence as a nation.” In any government it is only
loyalty to the principles of the government, on the
part of its citizens, that can make it a success.
Consequently, on the part of Israel, it was only
loyalty to the principles of a pure theocracy—God
their only King, their only Ruler, their only
Lawgiver—that could possibly make that
government a success.

But loyalty to these principles demanded that

each one of the people should constantly recognize,
and court, the abiding presence of God with him as
the sole King, Ruler, and Lawgiver, in all the
conduct of his daily life. Yet it is “by faith” that
God dwells in the heart and rules in the life. And
“without faith it is impossible to please Him.”
Therefore the existence of the original government
of Israel, and the existence of Israel as a nation,
depended upon a living, abiding faith in God, on
the part of each individual of the people of Israel.

And just here, the only point where Israel could

fail, Israel failed. The people did not abide in faith.
They did not remain loyal to God as their King.

42
And “Joshua the son of Nun, the servant of the
Lord, died, being an hundred and ten years old....
And also all that generation were gathered unto
their fathers; and there arose another generation
after them, which knew not the Lord, nor yet the
works which He had done for Israel.” “And the
children of Israel did evil in the sight of the Lord,
and served Baalim; and they forsook the Lord God
of their fathers, which brought them out of the land
of Egypt, and followed other gods, of the gods of
the people that were round about them, and bowed
themselves unto them, and provoked the Lord to
anger. And they forsook the Lord, and served Baal
and Ashtaroth.” Judges 2:8-13.

Then all the evils that came upon them only as

the result of their apostasy and idolatry, they
charged back upon the government of God. In their
unbelief and apostasy, they could see in the
continued raids of the heathen, by which their
country was sacked, and themselves were
oppressed, only evidence that for all practical
purposes the government of God had failed.

43
 They therefore reached the conclusion “that in
order to maintain their standing among the nations,
the tribes must be united under a strong central
government. As they departed from obedience to
God’s law, they desired to be freed from the rule of
their divine Sovereign; and thus the demand for a
monarchy became widespread throughout Israel.”
Accordingly, they said to Samuel, “Make us a king
to judge us like all the nations.” 1 Samuel 8:5.

As their hearts were fully set on having a king

like all the nations, and as practically they were
much like all the nations anyhow, the best thing the
Lord could do for them was to let them have their
king. Nevertheless, He said to Samuel, “Protest
solemnly unto them.” 1 Samuel 8:9.

Samuel did so, but still they insisted: “Nay; but

we will have a king over us; that we also may be
like all the nations; and that our king may judge us,
and go out before us, and fight our battles.” 1
Samuel 8:19, 20.

And of it all the Lord said to Samuel, “They

44
have not rejected thee, but they have rejected Me,
that I should not reign over them.” And Samuel
said unto them, “Ye have this day rejected your
God,” and “have said unto Him, Nay; but set a king
over us.” 1 Samuel 8:7; 10:19.

It was the same story of Babylon, Assyria, and

Egypt, over again. When they knew God, they
glorified Him not as God. And as they did not like
to retain God in their knowledge, the arch-deceiver
seduced them into idolatry, and from idolatry into
monarchy, in order that he might gain supremacy
over them, and by wordly influence entire them, or
by force prohibit them, from the service of God.

It was to save them from all this that the Lord

had said of them, “The people shall dwell alone,
and shall not be reckoned among the nations.”

If they had remained faithful to this principle,

there never would have been amongst Israel a State
or a kingdom.

Therefore, in announcing this principle, God

45
intended forever that they should be completely
separated from any such thing as a State or
kingdom on the earth.

And as when that word was spoken they were

“the church,” it is absolutely certain that in
announcing that principle, God intended to teach
them and all people forever that His plainly-
declared will is that there shall be a complete
separation between His church and every State or
kingdom on the earth; that there shall never be any
connection between His religion and any State or
kingdom in the world.

And, further: As that people were then the

church, and as the Lord said they rejected Him
when they formed that State and kingdom, it is
perfectly plain by the Word of the Lord that
whenever the church forms any connection with
any State or kingdom on the earth, in the very
doing of it she rejects God.

But it is impossible for the church ever to form

any connection with any State except by the

46
individual members of the church forming a
connection with the State. Therefore, as the church
in forming such connection rejects God, and as it is
impossible to do this except by the individual
members of the church, it is perfectly plain that the
teaching of the Word of God is that for members of
the church to form connection with the State is to
reject God.

And from ancient time all this was written for

the admonition of those upon whom the ends of the
world are come. Will the people to-day be
admonished by it?

47
 Chapter 6

"Like All the Nations"

God had said of Israel, “Lo, the people shall
dwell alone, and shall not be reckoned among the
nations.” Numbers 25:9.

But, contrary to His expressed will, and against

His solemn protest, Israel set up a kingdom and
established a State.

They did this, they plainly said, that they might

be “like all the nations.” Contrary to all the Lord’s
wishes, the people would “be reckoned among the
nations.”

But Israel was the church, while all the nations

were States. Israel, therefore, could not be like the
nations without forming themselves into a State.

But Israel, being the church, could not possibly

from themselves into a State without at the same
time, and in the very doing of it, forming a union of
48
Church and State.

They did form themselves into a State, and did

thus unite Church and State. But as this was
contrary to the Lord’s plain Word, and against His
solemn protest, it certainly stands as the truth that
any union of Church and State is against the plain
Word and the solemn protest of God.

Israel as “the church,” which is “the pillar and

ground of the truth,” was the depository and the
representative of the true religion in the world.
Then when Israel formed themselves into a State,
this was nothing else than a union of religion and
the State. And as their forming of a State was
contrary to the expressed will and the solemn
protest of the Lord, it is clearly the truth that any
connection between religion—and above all the
true religion—and the State is positively against
the expressed will and the solemn protest of God.

And as Israel, the depository and representative

of the true religion, in order to form a union of
religion and the State, had to reject God, it is

49
certainly true that every other people, in forming a
union of religion and the State, do, in the very
doing of it, reject God.

Nothing can be plainer, therefore, than that the

God of heaven and earth, the God and Father of our
Lord Jesus Christ, is eternally opposed to a union
of religion and the State. He will never be a party
to any such transaction.

This is why He desired that “the people should

dwell alone.” This is why He would have it that
they should “not be reckoned among the nations.”
He desired that they should abide with Him, and
have Him their only God, their only King, their
only Ruler, their only Lawgiver—their “all in all.”

God wanted not only that Israel, but that all

people on the earth, should know that He is better
than all other gods, that He is a better King than all
other kings, that He is a better Ruler than all other
rulers, that He is a better Lawgiver than all other
lawgivers, that His law is better than all other laws,
and that His government is better than all other

50
governments.

For this reason He would station Israel in

Palestine, at the pivot of the highways of the
nations; with the God of heaven as their only King,
Ruler, and Lawgiver; with His law their only law,
and His government their only government; the
people dwelling alone and not reckoned among the
nations—a holy, happy people; a glorious church.

Dwelling thus in the sight of all the nations that

had forgotten God, those nations would be
constantly taught the goodness of God and would
be once more drawn to Him. Accordingly He told
them: “Behold I have taught you statutes and
judgments, ...that ye should do so in the land
whither ye go to possess it. Keep therefore and do
them; for this is your wisdom and your
understanding in the sight of the nations, which
shall hear all these statutes, and say, Surely this
great nation is a wise and understanding people.”
Deuteronomy 4:5, 6.

But Israel would not have it so. Israel would

51
“be reckoned among the nations.” Israel would be
“like all the nations.” And so it has been, from that
day to this. God has never been allowed by His
professed people to reveal Himself to the world as
He really is. His church has always been too
willing to “be reckoned among the nations,” too
willing to be “like all the nations.” She has always
been too willing to be joined to the State, to be a
part of the State, to have religion a matter of State
and government, “like all the nations.” And so it is
with the church in all the world to-day.

“‘Like all the nations.’ The Israelites did not

realize that to be in this respect unlike other nations
was a special privilege and blessing. God had
separated the Israelites from every other people, to
make them His own peculiar treasure. But they,
disregarding this high honor, eagerly desired to
imitate the example of the heathen.

“And still the longing to conform to wordly

customs and practices exists among the professed
people of God. As they depart from the Lord they
become ambitious for the gains and honors of the

52
world. Christians are constantly seeking to imitate
the practices of those who worship the god of this
world. Many urge that by uniting with worldlings
and conforming to their customs, they might exert
a stronger influence over the ungodly.

“But all who pursue this course thereby

separate from the Source of their strength.
Becoming the friends of the world, they are the
enemies of God. For the sake of earthly distinction
they sacrifice the unspeakable honor to which God
has called them, of showing forth the praises of
Him who hath called us out of darkness into His
marvelous light.

“The days of Israel’s greatest prosperity were

those in which they acknowledged Jehovah as their
King—when the laws and government which He
established were regarded as superior to those of
all other nations.”—Patriarchs and Prophets, chap.
59, par. 8-13. And such will be the days of any
people’s greatest prosperity.

God’s laws, just as they stand, without any re-

53
enactment, without any adding to or diminishing
from, are superior to all other laws. His
government, administered by Himself through the
operation of His own eternal Spirit in each
individual heart, is superior to every other
government.

But how shall the people know this, who know

not God, so long as His own people will not have it
so? How shall the nations know this, when His
own professed church will not recognize it nor
have it so?

Instead of holding fast God’s laws and

government as superior to those of all States and
nations, the professed people of God consider that
they must enter the politics and shape the policies,
that they must tinker the laws and manipulate the
governments, of the States and nations of the
world.

Instead of magnifying God’s laws and

government before all the world, as superior to the
laws and governments of all the nations, and

54
showing unswerving allegiance to them as such,
the people of the professed churches of God seek to
mingle heavenly citizenship with earthly
citizenship; and to bring down from their superior
place the laws and government of God, and mix
them up with the laws and government of all the
nations in an unseemly and ungodly union of
religion and the State.

And thus the people of the professed churches

of God, of the young people’s societies and leagues
professing Christianity—of all the combined
church elements of the land—are following
directly in the track of the church of ancient Israel;
they will not dwell alone; they will be reckoned
among the nations; they will be like all the nations;
they will join themselves to the State; they will
form a union of religion and the State; they will
reject God, that He should not reign over them.

55
 Chapter 7

Result of Being
"Like the Nations"
Israel would form a State, and have a king, that
they might be “like all the nations.”

All the nations were heathen. To be “like all the

nations,” then, was only to be like the heathen.

All the nations became heathen by rejecting

God. Then when Israel would be “like all the
nations”—like all the heathen,—they could do so
only by rejecting God.

It was therefore but the simple statement of a

fact when the Lord said, “They have rejected Me,
that I should not reign over them.”

When Israel formed a State, they thereby

created a union of religion and the State. But they
had to reject God in order to form a State.

56
Therefore they had to reject God in order to form a
union of religion and the State.

It follows, therefore, plainly, that no people can

ever form a union of religion and the State without
rejecting God.

But though Israel had rejected God, yet He did

not reject them. He still cared for them; and,
through His prophets, still sought to teach and
guide them, ever doing His best to save them from
the evil consequences which were inevitable in the
course which they had taken.

Long before the days of Samuel and Saul,

Israel had been taught what would be the outcome
of forming themselves into a State and choosing a
king; for the formation of a kingdom in the days of
Saul was but the culmination of a long-cherished
desire in that direction.

After the great victories of Gideon, a hundred

years before the day of Saul, “the men of Israel
said unto Gideon, Rule thou over us, both thou, and

57
thy son, and thy son’s son also; for thou hast
delivered us from the hand of Midian.” Judges
8:22.

This was nothing else than a proposition to

establish at that time a kingdom, with Gideon as
the first king, and the kingship to be hereditary in
his family. But Gideon refused the offer, and “said
unto them, I will not rule over you; neither shall
my son rule over you; the Lord shall rule over
you.”

Gideon knew that such a proposition meant the

rejection of God; and he would have no part in any
such thing. But the desire still lurked among the
people; and forty years afterward, upon the death
of Gideon, it was manifested openly in the men of
Shechem making Abimelech, a son of Gideon, king
in Shechem.

But in a parable, Jotham, the only son of

Gideon who had survived the slaughter wrought by
Abimelech, mapped out plainly to the people what
would be the sure result of their venture.

58
 Jotham stood on the top of Gerizim and called
to the people of Shechem, and said:—

“The trees went forth on a time to anoint a king

over them; and they said unto the olive tree, Reign
thou over us. But the olive tree said unto them,
Should I leave my fatness, wherewith by me they
honor God and man, and go to be promoted over
the trees? And the trees said to the fig tree, Come
thou, and reign over us. But the fig tree said unto
them, Should I forsake my sweetness, and my good
fruit, and go to be promoted over the trees? Then
said the trees unto the vine, Come thou, and reign
over us. And the vine said unto them, Should I
leave my wine, which cheereth God and man, and
go to be promoted over the trees? Then said all the
trees unto the bramble, Come thou, and reign over
us. And the bramble said unto the trees, If in truth
you anoint me king over you, then come and put
your trust in my shadow; and if not, let fire come
out of the bramble, and devour the cedars of
Lebanon. Now therefore, if ye have done truly and
sincerely, in that ye have make Abimelech king,

59
...then rejoice ye in Abimelech, and let him also
rejoice in you; but if not, let fire come out from
Abimelech, and devour the men of Shechem, and
the house of Millo; and let fire come out from the
men of Shechem, and from the house of Millo, and
devour Abimelech.” Judges 9:8-20.

And so it came to pass; for in three years the

distrust and dissension had so grown between the
parties to the transaction respecting the kingship,
that open war broke out, which ended only with the
death of Abimelech; and, with that, the end of their
experiment at setting up a kingdom.

Now all this was held up before all Israel who

should come after, as a solemn warning and a
forcible admonition of what would inevitably be
the result of any attempt at setting up a kingdom.
And when, in disregard of all this, and against the
Lord’s open protest, they did at last again set up a
kingdom, this very result, though longer delayed,
did inevitably come.

Almost all the reign of Saul, their first king,

60
was spent by him in envy and jealousy of David
and a steady seeking to kill him. The reign of
David was marred by his own great sin, which he
never could have carried out if he had not been
king; and was also disturbed by the treason of his
chief counselor, and the insurrection of his son
Absalom. The latter half of the reign of Solomon
was marked by his great apostasy, and was cursed
by the abominable idolatries that came in with his
heathen wives—all “princesses,” the daughters of
kings—and which in turn brought heavy burdens
and oppression upon the people.

At the end of the reign of these three kings, the

nation had been brought to a condition in which it
was not well that they should continue as one; and
they were therefore divided into two—the Ten
Tribes forming the kingdom of Israel, and the two
other tribes forming the kingdom of Judah.

And from that day, with the Ten Tribes there

was continuous course of apostasy, of contention,
and of regicide, till at last, from the terrors of
anarchy, they were compelled to cry out, “We have

61
no king.” Hosea 10:3. Then the Lord offered
Himself to them again, saying: “Thou hast fled
from Me.” “O Israel, thou hast destroyed thyself.”
“Return unto Me.” “I will be thy King.” Hosea
7:13; 13:9, 10. But they would not return, and
consequently were carried captive to Assyria, and
were scattered and lost forever.

When this happened to the kingdom of Israel, it

could yet be said of Judah, “Judah yet ruleth with
God, and is faithful with the saints.” Hosea 11:12.
But this was only for a little while. Judah, too, went
steadily step by step downward in the course of
apostasy, until of her too the word had to be given:
“Remove the diadem, take off the crown; ...exalt
him that is low, and abase him that is high. I will
overturn, overturn, overturn it; and it shall be no
more, until He come whose right it is, and I will
give it Him.” Ezekiel 21:25-27.

Thus Judah too was obliged to say, We have no

king. And Judah had to go captive to Babylon, with
her city and temple destroyed, and the land left
desolate. Thereafter the Lord was obliged to

62
govern His people by the heathen powers, until He
Himself should come. And even when He came,
because He would not at once set Himself up as a
worldly king and sanction their political
aspirations, they refused to recognize Him at all.
And when at last even Pilate appealed to them,
“Shall I crucify your King?” they still, as in the
days of Samuel, insisted on rejecting God, and
cried out, “We have no king but Caesar.” John
19:15.

And this was but the direct outcome, and the

inevitable logic, of the step that they took in the
days of Samuel. When they rejected God and chose
Saul, in that was wrapped up the rejection of the
Lord and their choosing of Caesar. In rejecting God
that they might be like all the nations, they became
like all the nations that rejected God.

And such was the clear result of the union of

Church and State among the people of Israel. And
it is all written precisely as it was worked out in
detail, for the instruction and warning of all people
who should come after, and for the admonition of

63
those upon whom the ends of the world are come.

Will the professed people of God to-day in the

churches, societies, leagues, unions, and
associations of all sorts, everywhere, learn the
lesson taught thus in the Word of God of the
experience of the people of God of old who would
have a State, and so rejected God?

64
 Chapter 8

The True Principle

Taught to Babylon
God had delivered His people from Egypt, and
had united them to Himself in order that they might
be separated from all the nations. And having
brought them out of Egypt, and joined them to
Himself, He said of them, “The people shall dwell
alone and shall not be reckoned among the
nations.” Numbers 23:9. It was only by remaining
faithful to their union with God that they could be
separated from all the nations. Exodus 33:16.

Israel was then the church,—“the church in the

wilderness.” Acts 7:38. That church was united to
God in solemn covenant, upon which the Lord
said, “I am married unto you,” and, “I was an
husband unto them.” Thus was that church united
to God. And in this there was the complete
separation of Church and State.

65
 But Israel was unfaithful to God. She rejected
Him and set up a State, and thus formed a union of
Church and State. The result was the complete ruin
of the State which they had formed; the scattering
of the people in captivity among the nations; and
the desolation of their land. In their captivity and
their trouble they sought the Lord in contrition; and
joined themselves again in faithfulness to Him.
And this brought them back to their original
position of being the church only, and so to their
original condition of total separation of Church and
State.

God had planted Israel—His church—in

Canaan to be the light of the world, to give the
knowledge of the true God; as at that time and for
ages afterward Palestine was the pivot of the
known world. By their being faithful to Him and
having Him abide with them, He intended that they
should influence all the nations for good. But they
revolted and became not only “like all the nations,”
but even “worse than the heathen.” Therefore the
land became sick of them, and spewed them out, as
it had spewed out the heathen before them.

66
Leviticus 18:25, 28; 20:22.

As by their apostasy and union of Church and

State, Israel had frustrated God’s purpose to
enlighten all nations by them in the land where He
had planted them, He would fulfill His purpose,
nevertheless; and, separating them again entirely
from the State, would enlighten all the nations by
them in the lands where He had scattered them.
Israel, by becoming like all the nations, had lost the
power to arrest and command the attention of all
the nations, that the nations might know God, and
be taught of Him. Nevertheless, God would now
use them to enlighten those who, under Him, had
acquired the power to arrest and command the
attention of all the nations. Thus by them still He
would bring to all the nations the knowledge of the
true God, and teach them that “the Most High
ruleth in the kingdom of men, and giveth it to
whomsoever He will.” Daniel 4:17. This is the
whole philosophy of the captivity and subjection of
Israel and Judah to Assyria, Babylon, Medo-Persia,
Grecia, and Rome.

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 God conveyed to the kings and people of these
mighty empires, the knowledge of Himself and of
His truth for people and kings. And, as we have
found over and over in these studies that the
separation of religion and the State is one of the
fundamental principles of the truth of God for
kings and nations, this is one of the great truths
taught to the kings and people of these great
empires. And this instruction was written out in the
Word of God for the instruction of all kings and
people until the world’s end.

In the second year of his reign alone, to King

Nebuchadnezzar there was shown in a dream a
great image, whose head was of gold, his breast
and arms of silver, his sides of brass, his legs of
iron, and his feet and toes part of iron and part of
clay. By the word of the Lord through Daniel this
was explained to Nebuchadnezzar as signifying the
course of empire from that time until the end of the
world.

This dream was given to Nebuchadnezzar

because that, while upon his bed, thoughts had

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come into his mind as to “what should come to
pass hereafter.” From what came to pass afterward
with him, it is evident that his thoughts upon that
question were to the effect that the mighty
kingdom of Babylon, which he ruled—the head of
gold—would in its greatness and glory continue on
and on indefinitely. To correct this view, and to
show him the truth, was the purpose of the dream.

The instruction in the dream, through the divine

interpretation, was that the golden glory of his
kingdom would continue but a little while, and then
another would arise, inferior to his, and another,
and another, and then there would be division, with
all these descending in a regular scale of
inferiority; and then, at last, “the God of heaven”
would “set up a kingdom,” and this alone would be
the kingdom that should stand forever, and not be
given to other people.

But Nebuchadnezzar would not accept this

view of the subject. Accordingly, he formulated his
own idea in a great image, about a hundred feet
tall, all of gold from head to feet. This image he set

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up in the plain of Dura, in the province of Babylon,
to be worshiped, and called all his princes,
governors, sheriffs, captains, rulers of the
provinces, and people generally, to worship it.

This was a positive setting up of his own idea

against that of God. This was to declare to all
people that his golden kingdom was to endure
forever; that there was to be no such thing as
another kingdom arising separate from his and
inferior to it, and after that others, descending so
low as iron mixed with miry clay. No! there should
be only his golden kingdom of Babylon, and it
should never be broken nor interrupted; but should
stand forever.

In a number of points this was an open

challenge to the Lord. It was the assertion that
Nebuchadnezzar’s idea of the kingdoms of men
should be accepted as the true and divine idea, as
against that of God’s, which had been given. It was
the assertion that the embodiment of this opposing
idea should be worshiped as God. As the idea and
the embodiment of it was altogether

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Nebuchadnezzar’s, this was simply the putting of
Nebuchadnezzar himself in the place of God, as the
ruler in the kingdom of men, the head of all
religion, and the director of all worship.

A great day was set for the dedication of

Nebuchadnezzar’s idea, and the inauguration of the
universal worship of it. A great multitude was
assembled of many peoples, nations, and languages
of his wide realm. When all were assembled, a
herald proclaimed: “To you it is commanded, O
people, nations, and languages, That at what time
ye hear the sound of the cornet, flute, harp,
sackbut, psaltery, dulcimer, and all kinds of music,
ye fall down and worship the golden image that
Nebuchadnezzar the king hath set up: and whose
falleth not down and worshippeth shall the same
hour be cast into the midst of a burning fiery
furnace.”

In the great assembly were three young Jews—

Shadrach, Meshach, and Abed-nego. And when all
the others fell down and worshiped, these stood
bolt upright, paying no attention to the law that had

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just then been proclaimed, nor to the image. They
were at once reported and accused to the king.
Then the king “in his rage and fury” commanded
them to be brought before him. It was done. He
asked them if it was true and of purpose that they
had not worshiped. He then repeated his decree and
the dreadful penalty. But they answered: “O
Nebuchadnezzar, we are not careful to answer thee
in this matter. If it be so, our God whom we serve
is able to deliver us from the burning fiery furnace,
and He will deliver us out of thine hands, O king.
But if not, be it known unto thee, O king, that we
will not serve thy gods, nor worship the golden
image which thou hast set up.”

The furnace was heated seven times hotter than

usual, and they were bound and cast into it. But
suddenly the king rose up in astonishment from his
throne and cried to his counselors, “Did not we cast
three men bound into the midst of the fire? They
answered and said unto the king, True, O king.”
But he exclaimed, “Lo, I see four men loose,
walking in the midst of the fire, and they have no
hurt; and the form of the fourth is like the Son of

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God.”

Then the king called them forth, and said in the

presence of all: “Blessed be the God of Shadrach,
Meshach, and Abed-nego, who hath sent His angel,
and delivered His servants that trusted in Him, and
have changed the king’s word, and yielded their
bodies, that they might not serve nor worship any
god, except their own God.”

God had commanded all nations to serve King

Nebuchadnezzar, and that whatsoever nation would
not serve him, that nation the Lord would punish.
Yet here He wrought a wondrous miracle to deliver
the men who had openly and directly refused to
obey a plain and direct command of the king. How
could this consistently be?—Easily enough. This
command, this law, of the king was wrong. He was
demanding a service which he had no right to
require. In making him king of the nations, the
Lord had not made him king in the religion of the
nations. In making him the head of all the nations.
God had not made him the head of religion.

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 But being an idolater, and having grown up
amid idolatrous systems, Nebuchadnezzar did not
know this. With idolaters, religion always has
been, and still is, a part of the government. In
heathen systems, religion and the governments are
always united; while in the true system, the
genuine Christian system, they are always separate.

And this was the lesson which God there taught

to Nebuchadnezzar. In a way in which it was
impossible not to understand, the Lord showed to
that king that he had nothing whatever to do with
the religion, nor with the directing of the worship,
of the people. The Lord had brought all nations
into subjection to King Nebuchadnezzar as to their
bodily service; but now, by an unmistakable
evidence, this same Lord showed to King
Nebuchadnezzar that He had given him no power
nor jurisdiction whatever in their souls’ service.

The Lord thus showed to King Nebuchadnezzar

that, while in all things between nation and nation,
or man and man, all people, nations, and languages
had been given to him to serve him, and he had

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been made ruler over them all; yet in things
between men and God, the king was plainly and
forcibly given to understand that he had nothing
whatever to do. The God of heaven there taught to
that king, and through him to all kings, rulers, and
people forever, that in all matters of religion and
worship, in the presence of the rights of conscience
of the individual, the word of the king must
change; the decree of the ruler is naught.

And this was written for our admonition upon

whom the ends of the world are come. This is
important instruction and present truth to-day. For
throughout the whole English-speaking world to-
day King Nebuchadnezzar’s example of arrogance
is being followed—and that even by those who
profess to know God and to be guided by the Bible.
Nebuchadnezzar’s offense was in setting up his
own idea and forming it into a decree and then
enforcing it as the law. And throughout these
nations to-day, there are people who profess to
know God and to be guided by the Bible, who have
set up their own or some other one’s altogether
human idea of the Sabbath against God’s idea of

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the Sabbath-Sunday against the Sabbath of the
Lord—and have secured the framing of it into a
decree, and are having it enforced as the law. But it
is all wrong, just as Nebuchadnezzar’s assumption
was wrong. And every one who will be faithful to
God must say, We will not serve thy gods nor
worship the image of the Sabbath which thou hast
set up. And in the presence of the rights of
conscience of the individual to-day, the word of the
ruler must change; such laws are simply naught.

Nebuchadnezzar learned his lesson. And this

truth was spread to all the nations and languages in
that day; and it must be spread to all in this day.
Will all who to-day are following his wrong
course, learn this lesson and correct their ways, as
did he?

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 Chapter 9

The True Principle

Taught to Medo Persia
The night in which Babylon fell Daniel had
been appointed by King Belshazzar “the third ruler
in the kingdom,” because of his interpretation of
the terrible handwriting on the wall. The reason
that the highest honor that could be bestowed on
him was that of third ruler was that Belshazzar was
only associate king with his father. This gave two
kings, and so a first and second ruler; and another
could not be higher than third ruler.

Thus it was with Daniel; and when that same

night Babylon fell, Belshazzar was slain, and his
father was a prisoner, and no longer king; this left
Daniel the chief official, with whom the
conquerors could communicate in rearranging the
affairs of the Babylonian State. Because of this,
and more particularly “because an excellent spirit
was in him,” the king of conquering Media and

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Persia thought to set him over “the whole realm.”
Thus “this Daniel was preferred above the
presidents and princes.”

When all the other presidents, princes,

governors, and captains saw that Daniel, a captive
Jew, was preferred before themselves, who were
high and mighty Medes and Persians, they were
much dissatisfied.

And when they discovered that he was likely to

be yet further promoted, they determined to break
him down utterly. Therefore they formed a
conspiracy, and diligently “sought to find occasion
against Daniel concerning the kingdom.”

But with all their diligence, and with all their

suspicions and prejudiced care, “they could find
none occasion nor fault; forasmuch as he was
faithful, neither was there any error or fault found
in him.” There was, however, one last resource,
which, by a trick, they might employ. They knew
that he feared God. They knew that his service to
the Lord was actuated by such firm principle that,

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in rendering that service, he would not dodge, nor
compromise, nor swerve a hair’s breadth, upon any
issue that might be raised.

“Then said these men, We shall not find any

occasion against this Daniel, except we find it
against him concerning the law of his God.” But
even in this there was nothing upon which they
might “find” an “occasion.” In order to find it they
must create it; and create it they did. Pretending to
be great lovers of their king and country, and to
have much and sincere concern for the honor of the
king and the preservation of the State, “they
assembled together to the king,” and proposed “to
establish a royal statute, and to make a firm
decree,” that whosoever should ask any petition of
any god or man for thirty days, save of King
Darius, should be cast into the den of lions. They
presented the case in such a plausible way, and
with such evident care for the public good, that
Darius was completely hoodwinked, and “signed
the writing and the decree.” Thus the invention of
the conspirators became “the law of the land.”

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 Daniel knew that the writing was signed. He
knew that it was now the law—the law of the
Medes and Persians too, which could not be
altered. Yet, knowing this, “he went into his house”
and “kneeled upon his knees three times a day, and
prayed, and gave thanks before his God, as he did
aforetime.” He knew perfectly that no law of the
Medes and Persians, nor of any other earthly
power, could ever, of right, have anything to say or
do with any man’s service to God. He went on just
as aforetime, because, practically, and in principle,
all things were just as aforetime. So far as
concerned the conduct of the man who feared God,
any law on that subject was no more than no law at
all on that subject.

In the Medes and Persians a new set of men

had come upon the world’s stage; the power of
empire had passed into new hands. And these new
rulers, as well as Nebuchadnezzar, must be taught
the truth of the separation of religion and the State.
And in order that they should have opportunity to
learn this, Daniel, who was the possessor and
representative of this great truth, must stand,

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unswervingly, to the principle. And so he did.

“Then these men assembled, and found Daniel

praying and making supplication before his God.”

They expected to find him praying that was

exactly what they “assembled” for. And Daniel
was not afraid that they would find him doing so.
They immediately hurried away to the king, and
asked him, “Hast thou not signed a decree, that
every man that shall ask a petition of any god or
man within thirty days, save of thee, O king, shall
be cast into the den of lions? The king answered
and said. The thing is true, according to the law of
the Medes and Persians, which altereth not. Then
answered they and said before the king, That
Daniel, which is of the children of the captivity of
Judah, regardeth not thee, O king, nor the decree
that thou hast signed, but maketh his petition three
times a day.”

Then the king suddenly awoke to the fact that

he had been duped. And “he was sore displeased
with himself, and set his heart on Daniel to deliver

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him; and he labored till the going down of the sun
to deliver him.” But it was all of no avail; the
conspirators were persistent to frustrate every
effort which the king could make. And they had a
ready and conclusive argument against everything
that might be proposed. That argument was “the
law:” “Know, O king, that the law of the Medes
and Persians is, That no decree nor statute which
the king establisheth may be changed.” There was
no remedy; the law must be enforced. Accordingly,
though most reluctantly, “the king commanded,
and they brought Daniel, and cast him into the den
of lions.”

The king passed the night in fasting and

sleeplessness, and very early in the morning went
in haste to the den of lions, and “cried with a
lamentable voice, ...O Daniel, servant of the living
God, is thy God, whom thou servest continually,
able to deliver thee from the lions?” To the infinite
delight of the king, Daniel answered: “O king, live
forever. My God hath sent His angel, and hath shut
the lions’ mouths, that they have not hurt me;
forasmuch as before Him INNOCENCY was found

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in me; and also before thee, O king, have I done no
hurt.”

That is divine testimony, published to all the

world, that innocence before God is found in the
man who disregards any human law that interferes
with his service to God. It is also divine testimony
that the man who disregards such laws, in so doing
does “no hurt” to the king, to the State, nor to
society.

Thus God taught to the rulers of the Medo-

Persian Empire the separation of religion and the
State; that with men’s relationship to God, rulers
and States can have nothing whatever to do. And it
was written for the instruction of all rulers and
States unto the world’s end.

In these two experiences recorded in the book

of Daniel—the one of Nebuchadnezzar and the
worship of his great golden image, the other of the
conspirators against Daniel’s service to God—all
people are taught in the most impressive way, that
the God of heaven forbids any ruler to require His

83
subjects to conform to His ideas in religion, and
forbids all people to frame any law on any subject
touching men’s relation to God. In these two
experiences the God of heaven, in the strongest
possible way, teaches all people, and particularly
His own people, that in the presence of the rights of
conscience, in the presence of men’s relationship to
God, and in all matters of religion, the word and
authority of every king or ruler must give way; that
all laws framed, which touch in any manner men’s
relationship to God, which touch any matter of
religious observance, are simply naught—are no
more than no law at all on such subject. In it all,
the God of heaven also teaches to all that He
vindicates and declares innocent all who refuse
obedience to such decrees of kings and rulers, all
who utterly disregard all such laws; and also
certifies to all kings, rulers, and people that those
who do disregard all such laws do “no hurt” to
either king, ruler, or people.

And these lessons need to be perseveringly

taught everywhere to-day. In almost every country
in the world, and especially in the English-

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speaking countries, the schemes and inventions of
men in matters religious, and particularly as to the
observance of Sunday, are crowded into the law
and so forced upon all the people. These men
profess to be jealous guardians of religious liberty
and the rights of conscience. They “do not believe
in enforcing religion upon anybody.” Yet all the
time they are steadily working to get religious
dogmas and institutions recognized and fixed in the
law, and then demand obedience to the law, and
throw upon the dissenter the odium of
“lawlessness, and disrespect for constituted
authority,” while they pose as the champions of
“law and order,” the “conservators of the State, and
the stay of society;” exactly as did the conspirators
against Daniel.

Sunday, not only according to their own

showing, but by every other fair showing that can
be made, is a religious institution, a church affair,
only. This they all know. And yet, in almost every
land, those people are working constantly to get
this church institution fixed, and more firmly fixed,
in the law, with penalties attached that are more

85
worthy of barbarism than of civilization; and then,
when anybody objects to the enforcement of such
laws, they all cry out: “It is not a question of
religion at all; religion hasn’t anything to do with
it; it is simply a question of regard for law. The
law! The law! It is the law of the land! We are not
asking any religious observance by anybody; all
that we ask is respect for the law!” But the lessons
in the book of Daniel teach to all people that no
religious or ecclesiastical institution or rite has any
right to any place in the law. And that when against
right it is put into the law, it gains no force
whatever from that, and is to receive no respect nor
recognition whatever.

And thus by the word and work of God in the

book of Daniel, there is taught to all kings and all
people unto the end of the world, the total
separation of religion and the State.

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 Chapter 10

Christ the Example

Jesus Christ came into the world to bring to
men the true knowledge of God; for “God was in
Christ reconciling the world unto Himself.” 2
Corinthians 5:19. He came to reveal to men the
kingdom of God,—to enunciate its principles, to
manifest its spirit, to reveal its character. Of it He
said: “My kingdom is not of this world.” John
18:36. “Except a man be born again, he can not see
the kingdom of God.” John 3:3. And His apostles
declared, “The kingdom of God is ...righteousness
and peace and joy in the Holy Ghost.” Romans
14:17.

“My kingdom is not of this world.” Every

kingdom, every State, every government of men, is
altogether of this world and of this world alone.
How then can anybody be of any earthly kingdom
or State and of the kingdom of God at the same
time? Those who are of the church are of the
kingdom of God, because the church is the church
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of God, and not of this world—it is composed of
those who are “chosen out of the world.” Those
who are of the State are of this world, because the
State is altogether and only of this world.

And, indeed, were not “all the kingdoms of the

world and the glory of them” offered to Jesus for
His very own? Why did He not take them and rule
over them and convert them and thus save them—
He could not, because to have taken them would
have been to recognize “the god of this world,” by
whom they were offered. Luke 4:5-8. And so is
ever, the kingdom of this world is offered ever only
by Satan; and all who are Christ’s will refuse it, as
did our Example, and as did Moses, His chosen
forerunner runner and type.

Christ was and is the embodiment of the church

and of all Christianity. Therefore, and thus, in the
Word of Christ, in the very principles of the cause
of Christ, there is taught the separation of
Church—of Christianity—and State as complete
and as wide as in the separation between the
kingdom of God and the kingdoms of this world;

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and that is as complete and as wide as is the
separation between God and this world.

Accordingly, Christ says in another place,

“Render therefore unto Caesar the things which are
Caesar’s and unto God the things that are God’s.”
Matthew 22:21. In that time the head of the Roman
Empire, the personification of the world’s power,
was Caesar. And in that Roman world-system it
was claimed that whatsoever was Caesar’s was
God’s; because to all the people of that world-
system Caesar was God. He was set before the
people as God; the people were required to worship
him as God; incense was offered to his image as to
God. In that system the State was divine, and
Caesar was the State. Therefore that system was
essentially a union of religion and the State.

In view of this, when Jesus said, “Render

therefore unto Caesar the things which are
Caesar’s; and unto God the things that are God’s,”
He denied to Caesar, and so to the State, every
attribute, or even claim, of divinity. He showed that
another than Caesar is God. Thus He entirely

89
separated Caesar and God. He entirely separated
between the things which are due to Caesar and
those which are due to God. The things that are due
to Caesar are not to be rendered to God. The things
due to God are not to be rendered to Caesar. These
are two distinct realms, two distinct personages,
and two distinct fields of duty. Therefore, in these
words Jesus taught as plainly as it is possible to do,
the complete separation of religion and the State;
that no State can ever rightly require anything that
is due to God; and that when it is required by the
State, it is not to be rendered.

Again: Jesus is the Example whom God has set

to be the Guide to every person in this world in
every step that can be taken in the right way. Any
step taken by anybody in a way in which the Lord
Jesus did not go is taken in the wrong way. He hath
left us “an example, that ye should follow His
steps.” 1 Peter 2:21. Whosoever saith that he
“abideth in Him ought himself also so to walk,
even as He walked.” I John 2:6. And Jesus never,
in any manner nor to any degree, took any part in
political matters nor in any affairs of the State.

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Jesus was then, and is forever, the embodiment of
true religion. Therefore, in His whole life’s conduct
of absolute separation from everything political,
from all affairs of the State, there is taught to all
the world, and especially to all believers in Him,
the complete separation of the religion of Christ,
and of all who hold it, from everything political
and from all affairs of the State.

So faithfully did He hold to that principle that

when a man asked Him only, “Speak to my
brother, that he divide the inheritance with me,” He
refused, with the words, “Man, who made Me a
judge or a divider over you?” and then said to them
all, “Take heed and beware of covetousness; for a
man’s life consisteth not in the abundance of the
things which he possesseth.” Luke 12:13-15. Oh, if
only all who have professed to be His followers
had held aloof from all affairs of politics and the
State, how vastly different would have been the
history of the Christian era! What a blessing it
would have been to the world! What floods of
misery and woe mankind would have been spared!

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 And why was it that Jesus thus persistently kept
aloof from all affairs of politics and the State? Was
it because all things political, judicial, and
governmental were conducted with such perfect
propriety, and with such evident justice, that there
was no place for anything better, no room for
improvement such as even He might suggest?—
Not by any means. Never was there more political
corruption, greater perversion of justice, and
essential all-pervasive evil of administration, than
at that time. Why, then, did not Jesus call for
“municipal reform”? Why did He not organize a
“Law and Order League”? Why did He not
disguise Himself and make tours of the dives and
the gambling-dens, and entrap victims into
violation of the law? And why did He not employ
other spies to do the same, in order to get against
the representatives of the law evidence of
maladministration by which to arraign them and to
compel them to enforce the law, and thus reform
the city, regenerate society, and save the State, and
so establish the kingdom of God? Why? The
people were ready to do anything of that kind that
might be suggested. They were ready to cooperate

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with Him in any such work of “reform.” Indeed,
the people were so forward and so earnest in the
matter that they would have actually taken Him by
force and made Him King, had He not withdrawn
Himself from them. John 6:15. Why, then, did He
refuse?

The answer to all this is, Because He was

Christ, the Saviour of the world, and had come to
help men, not to oppress them; had come to save
men, not to destroy them. “The government under
which Jesus lived was corrupt and oppressive; on
every hand were crying abuses—extortion,
intolerance, and grinding cruelty. Yet the Saviour
attempted no civil reforms. He attacked no national
abuses, nor condemned the national enemies. He
did not interfere with the authority or
administration of those in power. He who was our
Example kept aloof from earthly governments—
not because He was indifferent to the woes of men,
but because the remedy did not lie in merely
human and external measures. To be efficient, the
cure must reach men individually and must
regenerate the heart.

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 “Not by the decisions of courts, or councils, or
legislative assemblies, not by the patronage of
worldly great men, is the kingdom of Christ
established; but by the implanting of Christ’s
nature in humanity through the work of the Holy
Spirit. ‘As many as received Him, to them gave He
power to become the sons of God, even to them
that believe on His name; which were born, not of
blood, nor of the will of the flesh, nor of the will of
man, but of God.’ Here is the only power that can
work the uplifting of mankind. And the human
agency for the accomplishment of this work is the
teaching and practising of the Word of God.”—
Desire of Ages, chap. 55, par. 12.

Now Christ is the true Example set by God for

every soul in this world to follow. The conduct of
Christ is Christianity. Conformity to that Example
in the conduct of the individual believer—this and
this alone is Christianity in the world. The conduct
of Christ, the Example, was totally separate in all
things from politics and the affairs of the State.
Christianity, therefore, is the total separation of the

94
believer in Christ from politics and all the affairs of
the State, the total separation of religion and the
State in the individual believer.

Accordingly, Jesus said to His disciples

forever, “Ye are not of the world, but I have chosen
you out of the world.” John 15:19. And to His
Father He said of His disciples forever, “They are
not of the world, even as I am not of the world.”
John 17:16. Every Christian in this world, then,
must be in the world as Christ was in the world.
“As He is, so are we in this world.” I John 4:17. “It
is enough for the disciple that he be as his Master.”
Matthew 10:25. The Master was always, and in all
things, and by fixed design, completely separated
from all affairs of politics and the State. And it is
forever enough “that the disciple be as his Master.”

The following passage from a sermon by the

late Thomas Hewlings Stockton presents an
infinity of truth, and is worthy to stand forever in
letters ablaze with eternal glory:—

“There was one sacrifice too great for Christ to

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make. He was willing to leave the throne of the
universe for the manager of Bethlehem; willing to
grow up as the son of a poor carpenter; willing to
be called the friend of publicans and sinners;
willing to be watched with jealous eyes, and
slandered by lying tongues, and hated by
murderous hearts, and betrayed by friendly hands,
and denied by pledged lips, and rejected by
apostate priests and a deluded populace and
cowardly princes; willing to be sentenced to the
cross, and to carry the cross, and be nailed to the
cross, and bleed and groan and thirst and die on the
cross. But he was not willing to wear an earthly
crown or robe, or wield an earthly scepter, or
exercise earthly rule. That would have been too
great a sacrifice. He did, indeed, endure the crown
of thorns and the cast-off purple and the reed, and
the cry, ‘Hail, King of the Jews!’ But this was
merely because he preferred the mockery to the
reality; so pouring infinite contempt on the one, not
only by rejecting it in the beginning of his ministry,
but also by accepting the other at its close.”

This is the Christianity of Jesus Christ, as

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respects the great question of religion and the State.
And, as in all the instruction from God from the
beginning of creation down, it calls always for the
complete separation of religion and the State in all
things and in all people, in order that the Christian
may enjoy infinitely higher things.

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 Chapter 11

"The Powers That Be"

In the thirteenth and fourteenth chapters of
Romans is one of the strongest of the many strong
treatises that there are in the Bible upon the total
separation of religion and the State—the separation
between that which is due to God and that which is
due to Caesar.

First is a recognition of the right of the State to

be, and to require subjection and tribute: “Let every
soul be subject to the higher powers.” “The powers
that be are ordained of God.” “For this cause pay
ye tribute also.” “Render therefore to all their dues:
tribute to whom tribute is due; custom to whom
custom; fear to whom fear; honor to whom honor.”

Next is marked the sphere of men’s relation to

the State: “Owe no man anything, but to love one
another; for he that loveth another hath fulfilled the
law. For this, Thou shalt not commit adultery,
Thou shalt not kill, Thou shalt not steal, Thou shalt
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not bear false witness, Thou shalt not covet; and if
there be any other commandment, it is briefly
comprehended in this saying, namely, Thou shalt
love thy neighbor as thyself.”

Now everybody knows, and Paul knew as well

as anybody ever knew, that there are other
commandments—other commandments of the very
law from which he quoted these. There is the
commandment: “Thou shalt have no other gods
before Me. Thou shalt not make unto thee any
graven image; ...thou shalt not bow down thyself to
them, nor serve them; for I the Lord thy God am a
jealous God, visiting the iniquity of the fathers
upon the children unto the third and fourth
generation of them that hate Me; and showing
mercy unto thousands of them that love Me, and
keep My commandments. Thou shalt not take the
name of the Lord thy God in vain.” “Remember the
Sabbath day, to keep it holy. Six days shalt thou
labor, and do all thy work; but the seventh day is
the Sabbath of the Lord they God; in it thou shalt
not do any work; ...for in six days the Lord made
heaven and earth, the sea, and all that in them is,

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and rested the seventh day; wherefore the Lord
blessed the Sabbath day, and hallowed it.”

With these commandments standing as a part,

and, indeed, the first part, of the very law which he
was citing, why did he leave these entirely out and
say, “If there be any other commandment, it is
briefly comprehended in this saying, namely, Thou
shalt love thy neighbor as thyself”? Why?—For the
simple reason that he was writing of men’s
relationship and responsibility to the powers that
be, to the State; and he was laying down the
principle that when men have recognized the right
of the State to be, have paid the required tribute,
and have fulfilled all obligations to their neighbors,
there is nothing more for them to render to the
State; there is no other commandment in that
sphere, and therefore no other duty to be performed
toward the powers that be.

This is made certain by the next verse: “Love

worketh no ill to his neighbor; therefore love is the
fulfilling of the law:” which shows conclusively
that it is only the relation of man with man—of

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man to his neighbor—that is considered in the
passage under consideration. The passage is simply
an enlargement, an exposition, indeed, of the
principle announced by Jesus, “Render to Caesar
the things that are Caesar’s, and to God the things
that are God’s.” When men have recognized the
authority of the State, have paid their tribute, and
work no ill to their fellow-men, the only
relationship or obligation after that is to God. The
only commandments outside of that sphere are
those which mark men’s duty towards God.

Thus the Scripture distinctly sets the limit of

the jurisdiction or the requirements of the State, at
recognition of right to be, tribute, and the
relationship of man to man in working no ill to his
neighbor. Beyond this the State has no right to go.
Outside of this there is nothing for any man to
render to the powers that be.

But the Word of the Lord does not stop here; it

positively prohibits the powers that be from
touching the relationship or obligation of men to
God.

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 “Every one of us shall give account of himself
to God.” Romans 14:12. And that the emphasis is
upon the word “himself” and not upon the word
“account,” is certain from the context in the whole
chapter. It is not that “every one of us shall give
account of himself to God,” nor is it “every one of
us shall give account of himself to God.” That is all
true enough; but that is not the thought expressed
in the text.

The one thought particularly expressed is that

“every one of us shall give account of himself to
God.” And thus, by the Word of God, all powers
that be, all men, and all combinations of men, are
positively prohibited from touching, in any way,
any man’s relationship to God. That rests with man
alone; and for his responsibility there, he is to give
account himself to God.

Again: “One man esteemeth one day above

another; another esteemeth every day alike. Let
every man be fully persuaded in his own mind. He
that regardeth the day, regardeth it unto the Lord;

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and he that regardeth not the day to the Lord he
doth not regard it.” Romans 14:5, 6. The matter of
the observance of a day, the duty to esteem one day
above another, is not comprehended in that part of
the law which relates to neighbors; nor is it
comprised in the duties designated as marking the
sphere of the powers that be. It is in that part of the
law which, by the words “if there be any other
commandment, it is briefly comprehended in this
saying, namely, thou shalt love thy neighbor as
thyself,” is definitely excluded from all cognizance
of the powers that be.

The observance of a day, the duty to esteem

one day above another, is due solely to God. For
“he that regardeth the day, regardeth it unto the
Lord,” not to men. It is comprehended in that part
of the law which details man’s relationship to God
alone, and concerning which to God alone every
one is to give account himself. Therefore, the
powers that be, all men, and all combinations of
men, are definitely commanded by the Lord to let
every man alone in the matter of the observance of
a day. On that subject all are commanded to “let

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every man be fully persuaded in his own mind.”
And this because that is an obligation due solely to
God, and “every one of us shall give account of
himself to God.”

How different are the ways of professed

Christians to-day from the Christianity of the New
Testament! The vast mass of professed Christians
to-day, in hunting for another commandment in the
sphere of the powers that be, would inevitably
write it thus: If there be any other commandment, it
is briefly comprehended in this saying, namely,
Thou shalt do no work on the first day of the week,
commonly called Sunday.

But the Christianity of the New Testament, in

defining the sphere of the powers that be, says, “If
there be any other commandment, it is briefly
comprehended in this saying, namely, Thou shalt
love thy neighbor as thyself;” and then, as to the
observance of a day, commands the powers that be,
and all men, and all combinations of men: “Let
every man be fully persuaded in his own mind. He
that regardeth the day, regardeth it unto the Lord;

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and he that regardeth not the day to the Lord he
doth not regard it.” And “every one of us shall give
account of himself to God.” “Who art thou that
judgest another man’s servant?”

The day to be esteemed above others is the

Sabbath of the Lord. “Render therefore ...to God
the things that are God’s.” And any man who does
not esteem that day above others, who does not
regard it unto the Lord, but esteems every day
alike, is responsible to God alone and must render
account of it himself to God, and not to man. While
the thing that he does is wrong, it is a kind of
wrong for which he is responsible to God, and not
to the powers that be.

All this also conclusively shows that any

movement on the part of the powers that be, or of
men or combinations of men through the powers
that be, to require the observance of a day or to
cause men to esteem one day above another, is a
plain joining together of what is God’s and what is
Caesar’s, is a positive union of religion and the
State. It is written, “What therefore God hath

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joined together, let not man put asunder.” And by
the same token it can be authoritatively written,
What God hath put asunder, let no man, nor any
combination of men, join together.

Again: This treatise in Romans 13 and 14, on

the separation of religion and the State, the
separation of what is due to God from what is due
to the powers that be, closes with the mighty
sentence, “Whatsoever is not of faith is sin.”

Whatsoever is of the Word of God is of faith;

for faith comes by the Word of God; and “without
faith it is impossible to please Him.”

Religion is due solely to God; it is “the duty we

owe to our Creator, and the manner of discharging
it.”

Therefore, for the powers that be, or any men

by the powers that be, to require anything that is
due to God, is only to subvert faith and require men
to sin.

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 For the powers that be, or any men through the
powers that be, to require of any man anything that
is due to God, is, in the very act, to unite religion
and the State. And as thus to require of men
anything that is due to God, is to subvert faith and
to require men to sin, it is certain that any
connection whatever between religion and the State
is sin. And, therefore, the greatest example of it
that has ever been in the world is aptly and justly
designated “the man of sin.” 2 Thessalonians 2:3,
4.

And since to “love the Lord thy God with all

thy heart, and with all thy soul, and with all thy
strength, and with all thy mind; and thy neighbor as
thyself”—the keeping of the first two of all the
commandments—is complete separation from sin,
this brings us again to the truth with which we
began,—that the first two of all the
commandments, and the keeping of them, are the
basis and the surety of the universal and eternal
truth of the separation of religion and the State.

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 Chapter 12

Christian Patriotism
What is Christian patriotism in itself?

Patriotism itself is love of country. And the

country the love of which is patriotism, is the
country of one’s birth, or of one’s adoption by
naturalization.

Christian patriotism, then, being Christian love

of country, can be nothing else than the Christian’s
love of the country of his Christian birth.

But the Christian birth is the new birth; it is the

being “born again,” which is being “born from
above.” And this “above,” the place from which
the Christian is born, is heaven.

Heaven, then, is the Christian’s country. And

even so saith the Scripture: “If ye be Christ’s, then
are ye Abraham’s seed, and heirs according to the
promise.” Galatians 3:29. And to Abraham it was
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said, “Get thee out of thy country, ...into the land
that I will show thee.” “He ...obeyed,” and
thenceforth he and all his “confessed that they were
strangers and pilgrims on the earth. For they that
say such things declare plainly that they seek a
country. And truly, if they had been mindful of that
country from whence they came out, they might
have had opportunity to have returned. But now
they desire a better country, that is, an heavenly;
wherefore God is not ashamed to be called their
God; for He hath prepared for them a city.”
Hebrews 11:13-16.

Patriotism, then, being love of one’s country,

and the “heavenly country” being the Christian’s
country, Christian patriotism is nothing else than
love of the heavenly country.

True patriotism is the love of one’s country

above all other countries: so much so that the true
patriot willingly lays down his life for his country.
Christian patriotism, then, is the love of the
heavenly country above all other countries: so
much so that the true Christian will willingly lay

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down his life for that country.

True patriotism is “the spirit that, originating in

love of country, prompts to obedience to its laws;
to the support and defense of its existence, rights,
and institutions; and to the promotion of its
welfare.” The Christian’s country being only the
heavenly country, Christian patriotism is nothing
else than the spirit that prompts to obedience to its
laws; to the support and defense of its existence,
rights, and institutions; and to the promotion of its
welfare.

The spirit that, as to the Christian, originates in

the love of the Christian’s country, is none other
than the Holy Spirit. For without being born again,
there can be no Christian; and there being no
Christian, there can be no love of the Christian’s
country—no Christian patriotism. Being born again
is to be born of the Spirit. Therefore without the
Holy Spirit’s creating the new creature and the new
life, there can be no Christian patriotism.

Are you a Christian patriot? Do you love the

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Christian’s country above all other countries? Have
you the spirit that prompts to obedience to the laws
of that country, above all other laws; that supports
and defends its existence, rights, and institutions
above and against those of all other countries?

But may not Christian patriotism, this support

and defense of the rights and institutions of the
Christian’s country, involve fighting?—It not only
may, but it certainly does. Read: “Fight the good
fight of faith.” “The weapons of our warfare are
not carnal,” yet they are “mighty through God to
the pulling down of strongholds; casting down
imaginations, and every high thing that exalteth
itself against the knowledge of God, and bringing
into captivity every thought to the obedience of
Christ.” 2 Corinthians 10:4, 5.

“Wherefore take unto you the whole armor of

God, that ye may be able to withstand in the evil
day, and having done all, to stand. Stand therefore,
having your loins girt about with truth, and having
on the breastplate of righteousness; and your feet
shod with the preparation of the gospel of peace;

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above all, taking the shield of faith, wherewith ye
shall be able to quench all the fiery darts of the
wicked. And take the helmet of salvation, and the
sword of the Spirit, which is the Word of God;
praying always with all prayer and supplication in
the Spirit, and watching thereunto with all
perseverance and supplication for all saints.”
Ephesians 6:13-18.

Are you a Christian patriot?

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 Chapter 13

Christian Naturalization
PATRIOTISM is not only love of the country
of one’s birth, but also love of the country of one’s
naturalization.

Christian patriotism, therefore, is not only love

of the country of one’s Christian birth, but also of
one’s Christian naturalization.

Naturalization is that procedure through which

persons born in another country—aliens,
foreigners—become citizens of a certain country of
their choice.

Is there, then, anything in Christian experience

that corresponds to naturalization? Is there such a
thing as Christian naturalization? Read Ephesians
2:11: “Wherefore remember, that ye being in time
past Gentiles in the flesh, who are called
Uncircumcision by that which is called the
Circumcision in the flesh made by hands; that at
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that time ye were without Christ, being ALIENS
from the commonwealth of Israel, and
STRANGERS from the covenants of promise,
having no hope, and without God in the world.”

Aliens become citizens of a government by

naturalization. And when in the act of being
naturalized they take the oath of allegiance to the
new government, the new sovereign, here are the
specifications—copied from a gentleman’s
certificate of naturalization. You and I were aliens.
We have become naturalized into the
commonwealth of Israel, the kingdom of God. And
now what is involved? Read:—

“This is to certify, etc., that J—B—’on being

admitted to citizenship by this court, took the oath
to support the Constitution of the United States of
America, and that he then did absolutely and
forever renounce and abjure all allegiance and
fidelity to every foreign prince, potentate, State, or
sovereignty whatsoever, and particularly to the
emperor of Germany,’ etc., etc.”

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 If he had been a British subject, it would have
read, “and particularly to the queen of Great Britain
and empress of India.”

How much did he have to renounce?—“All

allegiance and fidelity to every foreign prince,
potentate State, or sovereignty whatsoever.” And
what in particular?—“And particularly to the
emperor of Germany.”

And how fully? and for how long?—

“Absolutely and forever renounce and abjure all
allegiance and fidelity.” Thus he is to turn his back
“absolutely” upon all his former “allegiance and
fidelity to every foreign prince, potentate, State, or
sovereignty WHATSOEVER.” That is in general.
And in particular, to the one to whom he was
particularly subject. That is, in earthly
governments, the way aliens are naturalized.

Now how is it with us, who “were aliens”?—

“Now therefore ye are no more strangers and
foreigners, but

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 FELLOW-CITIZENS with the saints [not
fellow-citizens with sinners but “with the saints,”
Deuteronomy 33:2; Jude 14] and of the household
of God; and are built upon the foundation of the
apostles and prophets, Jesus Christ Himself being
the chief corner-stone.” Ephesians 2:19, 20. Thank
the Lord!

That certificate of naturalization declares that,

whatsoever the man may be, he, “on being
admitted to citizenship, ...did absolutely and
forever renounce and abjure all allegiance and
fidelity to every foreign prince, potentate, State, or
sovereignty whatsoever, and particularly to the”
sovereignty to which he had formerly been
particularly subject.

In becoming a citizen of the commonwealth of

Israel, a fellow-citizen with the saints, did you
“absolutely and forever renounce and abjure all
allegiance and fidelity to every foreign prince,
potentate, State, or sovereignty whatsoever, and
particularly to the” one to which you were formerly
subject, as every alien must do to become a citizen

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of an earthly government?

If not, then do you count citizenship in the

commonwealth of Israel, fellow-citizenship with
the saints, of as much value as any alien must count
citizenship in an earthly government? Do you
count fellow-citizenship with the saints of as much
value as an alien counts fellow-citizenship with
sinners?

In truth and in fact, is citizenship in the

commonwealth of Israel, is fellow-citizenship with
the saints, of as much value as is citizenship in an
earthly government, as is fellow-citizenship with
sinners?

If citizenship in heaven, if citizenship in the

commonwealth of Israel, if fellow-citizenship with
the saints, if to be of the household of God, is
indeed as valuable as is citizenship in an earthly
government, then in order to be truly a citizen of
the commonwealth of Israel, just as certainly as to
be a citizen of an earthly government, it is required
that every such one shall “absolutely and forever

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renounce and abjure all allegiance and fidelity to
every foreign prince, potentate, State, or
sovereignty whatsoever, and particularly to the”
one to whom, when an alien, he is subject, which is
“the prince of this world.”

And if this is not done, what then? If all

allegiance to every prince, potentate, state or
sovereignty whatsoever, other than that of the
commonwealth of Israel, other than that of heaven,
other than that of the saints, other than that of the
household of God, is not absolutely and forever
renounced and abjured, then there is certainly
attempted a divided allegiance.

But will a divided allegiance answer? Will a

divided allegiance be accepted? Will any earthly
government accept a divided allegiance? If any
alien asking to become a citizen of an earthly
government should refuse to make that
renunciation, full and complete as it is; if he should
ask to have the renunciation divided, that he might
retain and show some fidelity, only a little, to some
foreign prince, potentate, State, or sovereign;

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would he be accepted? Everybody knows that he
would not, for even a moment. How, then, can it be
supposed that such reserved, such divided,
allegiance could be accepted in any one asking to
be a citizen of the commonwealth of Israel?

It is not enough, however, to inquire whether a

divided allegiance will be accepted. The true
question is, Can there really be any such thing as a
divided allegiance? And the true answer is, No; for
it is written, “No man can serve two masters.”

It is therefore certain that no alien, seeking to

be a citizen of the commonwealth of Israel, can
ever expect to carry with him there any shadow of
allegiance to anything in this world or of this
world. It is written: “Love not the world, neither
the things that are in the world. If any man love the
world, the love of the Father is not in him.” 1 John
2:15. Princes, potentates, States, and sovereignties
are only of this world. To retain allegiance or
fidelity to any of these, is to retain allegiance and
fidelity to the things that are only of this world,
and, so, to the world itself.

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 Christian citizenship is citizenship in heaven;
for “our citizenship is in heaven.” Philippians 3:20.
Another translation reads, “For our country [the
State to which we belong, of which we by faith are
citizens] is in the heavens.”—Alford. Another, an
interlinear, word for word, translation gives it, “For
of us the commonwealth in the heavens exists.”

Christian citizenship is citizenship in the

commonwealth of Israel; for we are no more
“aliens from the commonwealth of Israel,” “no
more strangers and foreigners, but fellow-citizens
with the saints, and of the household of God.”
Ephesians 2:12, 13, 18, 19.

Christian patriotism is love of the country of

one’s citizenship. And true citizenship is the
absolute and everlasting renunciation and
abjuration of all allegiance and fidelity to every
other prince, potentate, State, or sovereignty
whatsoever.

Is yours a true Christian citizenship? Are you a

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Christian patriot?

ADDENDA

Paul’s use of Roman citizenship, in which he

was born, does not in any sense conflict with the
principles of this chapter. For it is to be observed
that after he became a Christian, Paul never made
any use whatever of that citizenship, nor even
mentioned it, except when a prisoner in the hands
of the Roman power.

So certainly is this so that he allowed himself to

be three times beaten with Roman rods, once to be
stoned and dragged out of the city of Lystra, and
left for dead, beside many other indignities that
could not lawfully be put upon a Roman citizen;
and yet nowhere in it all did he so much as mention
his Roman citizenship.

But when he was in the hands of the Roman

officers and authorities, and they would beat him,
as at Jerusalem (Acts 22:25), he said, “Is it lawful
for you to scourge a man that is a Roman, and

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uncondemned?” Or when, held by Caesar’s power
at Caesar’s judgment-seat, it was proposed to
subject him to the judgment of the Jews, and this to
please the Jews who were clamoring for his life, he
said: “I stand at Caesar’s judgment-seat, where I
ought to be judged; ...no man may deliver me unto
them. I appeal unto Caesar.” Acts 25:8-11. Or
when he and Silas had been unlawfully beaten and
put into prison and in the stocks, and the
magistrates sent word to let them go, he returned
answer to them, “They have beaten us openly
uncondemned, being Romans, and have cast us into
prison; and now do they thrust us out privily? nay
verily; but let them come themselves and fetch us
out.” Acts 16:35-37.

Seeing, then, that he never made use nor any

mention at all of his Roman citizenship except
when he was a prisoner, and then only to insist that
the authorities should proceed according to the law
which bound them, and to the strict observance of
which it was perfectly proper that he should hold
them, it is evident that what little reference he did
make to that citizenship does not conflict with the

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principle inculcated in his writings, as well as
throughout the whole Bible, that the Christian’s
citizenship is heavenly and not earthly.

Nor does the conduct of either Daniel in

Babylon or Joseph in Egypt conflict with the
principles here developed from the Scriptures.

Daniel was a captive, and therefore in the

condition of a slave, in Babylon. And, though
placed in high position and given great
responsibility, he was not in any sense a citizen of
the kingdom or commonwealth of Babylon, or of
Medo-Persia. His patriotism was not in any sense
love of the country of Babylon, or of Medo-Persia,
but only of Jerusalem, the city of God, and the
Lord’s holy mountain. Witness his deep anxiety to
know when the time would expire and the
desolations of Jerusalem be accomplished. Witness
his wonderful prayer that God would cause His
face to shine upon His sanctuary, and bring His
people once more to their beloved Zion. Daniel 9.
And witness “his windows being open in his
chamber toward Jerusalem,” and his prayers there

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“three times a day.” Daniel 6:10. Witness his
loyalty to the law and government of God, against
those of Babylon and Medo-Persia. He was a
servant of the kings of Babylon and of Medo-
Persia: a highly-honored servant, it is true, yet
always only a servant; and even when he was in his
most exalted position, he was still referred to as
“that Daniel, which is of the children of the
captivity of Judah.” He served the kings where he
was a captive, as he and all his people were
commanded by the Lord to do (Jeremiah 29); but
through it all he was of those who mournfully
chanted:—

“By the rivers of Babylon,

There we sat down, yea, we wept,
When we remembered Zion.
Upon the willows in the midst thereof
We hanged up our harps.
For there they that led us captive required of us
songs,
And they that wasted us required of us mirth,
saying,
Sing us one of the songs of Zion.

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 How shall we sing the Lord’s song
In a strange land?
If I forget thee, O Jerusalem,
Let my right hand forget her cunning.
Let my tongue cleave to the roof of my mouth,
If I remember thee not;
If I prefer not Jerusalem
Above my chief joy.”
Psalm 137:1-6, R. V.

It was in principle the same with Joseph.

Originally, in Egypt, Joseph was a bought-and-sold
slave. And though from prison exalted to the place
next to the throne, he was ever only a servant of the
king of Egypt, and was never a citizen of Egypt.
His patriotism was not love of the country of
Egypt, but of the country promised to his fathers,
Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob. Witness the impressive
fact that he would not allow so much as that even
his bones should be buried in Egypt; and his dying
and solemn admonition, accepted on oath by his
brethren, which was faithfully observed and
fulfilled a hundred and forty-four years afterward:
“I die; and God will surely visit you, and bring you

125
out of this land unto the land which He sware to
Abraham, to Isaac, and to Jacob. And Joseph took
an oath of the children of Israel, saying, God will
surely visit you, and ye shall carry up my bones
from hence.” Genesis 50:24, 25; Exodus 13:19;
Joshua 24:32.

Thus Daniel and Joseph both being originally

slaves in the respective countries of their captivity,
their standing and relationships, even in the exalted
places to which in the providence of God they were
brought, were far different from what these would
have been had they been citizens of the respective
countries where they were. And what they both
would have done had the providence of God
brought them through such changes as would have
given them the standing and relationships of
citizens indeed of the respective countries where
they were,—what then they both would have done,
we know perfectly from what was actually done by
Moses, the great exemplar of their era, and the
prototype of the greater Exemplar of our era and of
all eras. Moses was in very deed a citizen of Egypt.
He was of the royal family, and indisputable heir to

126
the throne. The responsibilities, with the honors, of
Egyptian citizenship were upon him, in the fullest
sense of the word. But he absolutely and forever
renounced and abjured that citizenship, for
naturalization in the commonwealth of Israel, for
fellow-citizenship with the saints. He left it all, to
go with “the people of God.” “The reproach of
Christ,” and even “affliction with the people of
God,” were to him of far more worth than were all
the honors and treasures that attached to Egyptian
citizenship.

This being what Moses, the great exemplar of

that era, did, and Daniel and Joseph being of the
same spirit and character, we know by it precisely
what they would have done had they in their
respective places been citizens instead of slaves.
But, being only servants of the kings where they
were, they, like all God-fearing men, were
respectful, obedient, and faithful to their “masters
according to the flesh.”

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 Chapter 14

The Land of Our Fathers

PATRIOTISM is the love of one’s country—
the country of one’s birth—because it is the land of
his fathers.

Christian patriotism, then, is the love of the

country of the Christian’s birth, because it is the
land of his Christian fathers.

The country of the Christian’s birth is the

heavenly country, because the Christian is born
only “from above.” The heavenly country, then, is
the land of the Christian’s fathers.

People are Christians only because they are

Christ’s people. “And if ye be Christ’s, then are ye
Abraham’s seed, and heirs according to the
promise.” Galatians 3:29. And the country of our
father Abraham was “an heavenly” country only.

Abraham was once a Gentile, was of the

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nations; but he was born again, was born from
above. He was once an alien; but he was
naturalized into the kingdom of God, and became a
fellow-citizen with the saints.

In becoming naturalized into the kingdom of

God, on being admitted into the heavenly
citizenship, Abraham was required to get out of his
country. Genesis 12:1. This requirement he at once
accepted, and he “then did absolutely and forever
renounce and abjure all allegiance and fidelity to
every foreign prince, potentate, State, or
sovereignty whatsoever.” He obeyed and went out,
“not knowing whither he went,” only knowing that
he went with God, which was enough for him; and
so he became the “father of all them that believe.”
Romans 4:11.

When God called Abram out of that country,

He also called him into another country, a better,
even a heavenly.

Ever after that day, Abraham looked to that

country. That is Abraham’s country. Wherever he

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was in this world, he was “in a strange country;”
and in this strange country he dwelt “in tabernacles
with Isaac and Jacob, the heirs with him of the
same promise; for he looked for a city which hath
foundations, whose builder and maker is God.”
And “these all died in faith, not having received the
promises, but having seen them afar off, and were
persuaded of them, and embraced them, and
confessed that they were strangers and pilgrims on
the earth. For they that say such things declare
plainly that they seek a country. And truly, if they
had been mindful of that country from whence they
came out, they might have had opportunity to have
returned. But now they desire a better country, that
is, AN HEAVENLY; wherefore God is not
ashamed to be called their God; for He hath
prepared for them a city.” Hebrews 11:9-16.

We “are all the children of God by faith in

Christ Jesus.” “And if ye be Christ’s, then are ye
Abraham’s seed, and heirs according to the
promise.” As Abraham is the father of all them that
believe, and as that heavenly country is Abraham’s
country, then that heavenly country is the

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Christian’s country. As Christian patriotism is love
of the Christian’s country, the country of the
Christian’s fathers; and as that country alone is the
Christian’s country, is the country of the
Christian’s fathers; so Christian patriotism is love
of the country of Abraham, Isaac, Jacob, and
CHRIST,—the heavenly country, “the world” of
the new earth, the country which God gave in
faithful promise to our father.

Are you, now, a true Christian patriot? Is that

truly your country? Do you love that country above
all other countries that can ever be named or
thought of?

And what a country! The wilderness like Eden,

and the desert as the garden of the Lord: with only
joy and gladness found therein, thanksgiving and
the voice of melody. Isaiah 51:3. A country where
the light of the moon shall be as the light of the
sun, and the light of the sun shall be sevenfold, as
the light of seven days; and where even then the
moon shall be confounded and the sun ashamed in
the presence of the glorious Lord who reigns in

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Mount Zion and in Jerusalem and before His
ancients gloriously. Isaiah 30:26; 24:23. A country
whose capital city is built all of gold and precious
stones and pearls, every several gate of one pearl; a
city that has no need of the sun nor the moon to
shine in it, because the glory of God lightens it and
the Lamb is the light thereof; and the nations of
them that are saved shall walk in the light of it, and
the gates of it shall not be shut at all by day; for
there shall be no night there. Revelation 21:10-25.
A country in which the inhabitants shall never say,
I am sick; for the people that dwell therein shall be
forgiven their iniquity. Isaiah 33:24. A country
where the people shall all be righteous (Isaiah
60:21); and where the wilderness and the solitary
place shall be glad for them, and the desert shall
rejoice and blossom as the rose; where the eyes of
the blind are opened, and the ears of the deaf
unstopped; where the lame man shall leap as a hart,
and the tongue of the dumb sing; where in the
wilderness, waters break out, and streams in the
desert; where the ransomed of the Lord shall come
to Zion with songs and everlasting joy upon their
heads; and where they shall obtain joy and

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gladness and sorrow and sighing shall flee away.”
Isaiah 35:1-10. A country so quiet and so secure
that the people can dwell safely in the wilderness,
and sleep in the woods; where the people and the
very places round about shall be a blessing; and
where there shall be showers of blessing. Ezekiel
34:25, 26. A country where the very land itself
shall rejoice even with joy and singing; where for
very joy the mountains and the hills shall break
forth into singing, and all the trees of the field shall
clap their hands. Isaiah 55:12. A country in which
the tabernacle of God shall be with men, and “He
will dwell with them, and they shall be His people,
and God Himself shall be with them, and be their
God. And God shall wipe away all tears from their
eyes; and there shall be no more death, neither
sorrow, nor crying, neither shall there be any more
pain; for the former things are passed away.”
Revelation 21:3, 4. A country where “we shall ever
feel the freshness of the morning, and shall ever be
far from its close.”

That is the Christian’s country. That is the

country of our Christian fathers—of Abraham, our

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father; of Jesus Christ, the last Adam, and so “the
everlasting Father;” and of God, the universal
Father, “our Father which art in heaven.” Christian
patriotism is love of that country.

Who would not be a Christian patriot?

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 Chapter 15

Through the Christian Era

The book of Revelation in prophetic symbol
portrays the fatal consequences, and all history
since the book of Revelation was written gives the
terrible facts, of the disregard of these principles of
divine truth.

There is seen Death, on a pale horse, and Hell

following with him, riding forth to kill with sword,
and with hunger, and with death, and with the
beasts of the earth, souls who were faithful to the
Word of God and the testimony which they held.
Chap. 6:8-11.

There is seen a great city, “spiritually called

Sodom and Egypt,” where again “our Lord was
crucified.” Chap. 11:8.

There is seen a great red dragon persecuting to

the death “the woman which brought forth the man
child” who “was caught up unto God, and to His
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throne;” and persecuting “the remnant of her seed,
which keep the commandments of God, and have
the testimony of Jesus Christ.” Chap. 12:13-17.

There is seen a great and dreadful beast in

alliance with the dragon, “speaking great things
and blasphemies;” opening “his mouth in
blasphemy against God, to blaspheme His name,
and His tabernacle, and them that dwell in heaven;”
making “war with the saints;” exercising his
baleful power “over all kindreds, and tongues, and
nations,” and demanding of them the worship that
is due to God only. Chap. 13:1-7.

There is seen an “image of the beast” in

alliance with the dragon and the beast, exercising
“all the power of the first beast;” deceiving them
that dwell on the earth by means of miracles which
he had power to do; causing “all, both small and
great, rich and poor, free and bond, to receive a
mark in their right hand, or in their foreheads; and
that no man might buy or sell, save he that had the
mark, or the name of the beast, or the number of
his name;” and causing “that as many as would not

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worship the image of the beast should be killed.”
Chap. 13:11-17.

There is seen a “great whore” “with whom the

kings of the earth have committed fornication, and
the inhabitants of the earth have been made drunk
with the wine of her fornication,” sitting “upon a
scarlet-colored beast, full of names of blasphemy,”
the woman “arrayed in purple and scarlet color,
and decked with gold and precious stones and
pearls, having a golden cup in her hand full of
abominations and filthiness of her fornication,”
upon her forehead a name “written, Mystery,
Babylon the Great, the Mother of Harlots and
Abominations of the Earth,” and she herself
“drunken with the blood of the saints, and with the
blood of the martyrs of Jesus.” Chap. 17:1-6.

Yet over all—death and hell, dragon beast and

false prophet, lewd woman and harlot daughters—
the saints of God obtain the everlasting victory.

That victory is gained “by the word of God and

the testimony which they held,” “by the blood of

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the Lamb and the word of their testimony,” by “the
everlasting gospel.”

Their faithfulness is manifested in keeping the

commandments of God and holding the testimony
of Jesus Christ (chap. 12:17), by keeping the
commandments of God and the faith of Jesus
(chap. 14:12).

Therefore upon them is pronounced the divine

blessing, and to them there is given the eternal
reward: “Blessed are they that do His
commandments, that they may have right to the
tree of life, and may enter in through the gates into
the city.” Chap. 22:14. And from the eternal throne
goes forth the royal command, “Open ye the gates,
that the righteous nation which keepeth the truth
may enter in.” Isaiah 26:2.

“And I saw as it were a sea of glass mingled

with fire; and them that had gotten the victory over
the beast, and over his image, and over his mark,
and over the number of his name, stand on the sea
of glass, having the harps of God. And they sing

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the song of Moses the servant of God, and the song
of the Lamb, saying, Great and marvelous are Thy
works, Lord God Almighty; just and true are Thy
ways, thou King of saints. Who shall not fear Thee,
O Lord, and glorify Thy name? for Thou only art
holy; for all nations shall come and worship before
Thee; for Thy judgments are made manifest.”
Chap. 15:2-4.

“And I saw thrones, and they that sat upon

them; and judgment was given unto them; and I
saw the souls of them that were beheaded for the
witness of Jesus, and for the word of God, and
which had not worshiped the beast, neither his
image, neither had received his mark upon their
foreheads, or in their hands; and they lived and
reigned with Christ a thousand years.”

“And I saw a new heaven and a new earth; for

the first heaven and the first earth were passed
away; and there was no more sea. And I John saw
the holy city, New Jerusalem, coming down from
God out of heaven, prepared as a bride adorned for
her husband. And I heard a great voice out of

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heaven saying, Behold, the tabernacle of God is
with men, and He will dwell with them, and they
shall be His people, and God Himself shall be with
them, and be their God. And God shall wipe away
all tears from their eyes; and there shall be no more
death, neither sorrow, nor crying, neither shall
there be any more pain; for the former things are
passed away.”

“And there shall be no more curse; but the

throne of God and of the Lamb shall be in it; and
His servants shall serve Him; and they shall see His
face; and His name shall be in their foreheads. And
there shall be no night there; and they need no
candle, neither light of the sun; for the Lord God
giveth them light; and

“They shall reign forever and ever.”

Thus is vindicated the loyalty of men to

Christian principle; and this is the reward of
Christian patriotism.

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 Chapter 16

Christian Loyality
Everything that the Lord has ever done for
mankind since the sin of Adam, has been done
solely to bring man back into harmony with His
law.

The establishment of ordinances; the giving of

His law; the sending of His prophets; the sending
of His Son, “that Prophet” greater than all; the gift
of His Holy Spirit; and the gifts of the Spirit—all,
everything, that has been given, established, or
employed by the Lord, has been to bring men to
obedience to His law.

In bringing men to His law He is bringing them

to Himself; for it is written: Thou “testifiedst
against them, that Thou mightest bring them again
unto Thy law,” and “testified against them to turn
them to Thee.” Nehemiah 9:29, 26. Read carefully
the whole chapter, and see the object of all that He
did. Bringing men to His law is only turning them
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to Himself; because “God is love,” and this is the
love of God, that we keep His commandments.”

No higher attainment than the love of God can

ever be reached by any soul in the wide universe.
And since it is the love of God, and only the love
of God, “that we keep His commandments,” it is
the very certainty of truth that no higher attainment
than the keeping of the commandments of God can
ever be reached by any soul in the wide universe.

Jesus said, “I have kept My Father’s

commandments, and abide in His love,” and “I and
My Father are one.” There can not possibly be any
higher nor any better attainment than oneness with
God: than likeness to Christ, who is one with God.
And as He kept the Father’s commandments and
abode in His love, and abode in His love by
keeping His commandments, so there is no higher
nor better thing that could possibly be attainable
than the keeping of the commandments of God.

The greatest gift of God to men is the gift of

His only-begotten Son, Jesus Christ. Yet with this

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wondrous gift to men, even in Christ nothing avails
on the part of men “but faith which worketh by
love.” Faith is the gift of God, and, working by
love, works only by the love of God. And “this is
the love of God, that we keep His
commandments.” Therefore it is certain that the
one great object of the very gift of Christ, and of
faith in Him, is to bring men to the keeping of the
commandments of God, to faithful obedience to
His law.

The greatest gift God can bestow on men

through Jesus Christ, the only means of this gift to
men, is His Holy Spirit. Yet in this gift all that He
does, all that He can do, is to cause men to know
the love of God: for “the love of God is shed
abroad in our hearts by the Holy Ghost which is
given unto us.” Romans 5:5.

And since it is “the love of God, that we keep

His commandments,” and “love is the fulfilling of
the law,” it is perfectly plain that the one purpose
of this greatest gift of God through Christ is the
keeping of the commandments of God, faithful

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allegiance to His law.

All the working of the Spirit of God, through

all the diversities of operations, is to bring souls
unto charity, the bond of perfectness, which is
perfect love, the love of God. And “this is the love
of God, that we keep His commandments.”
Therefore all the working of the Spirit of God,
through His many gifts and operations, is solely to
bring men to the keeping of the commandments of
God.

By all this therefore it is certain that the

keeping of the commandments of God is the
greatest blessing, the highest honor, and the richest
gift that even God can bestow upon any soul. All
other blessings honors, and gifts are subordinate to
this; they are given only to be conducive to this one
thing; and they are to be used only as means of
attaining this.

For any person to use any of the gifts of God

for any other purpose than to make himself a true
keeper of the commandments of God, is for that

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person to miss the will of God, and to frustrate the
object of the very gift which he would use. To be
willing to use the Word of God, to use God’s gift
of His dear Son, to use the gift of the Holy Spirit,
or any of the gifts of the Holy Spirit, with any other
aim than the perfect keeping of the commandments
of God, is to miss the will of God, and to pervert
the purpose of that Word, or that gift. That one
aim, and that alone, is true Christianity.

This is what Christian patriotism means. So to

honor the law of God is what it means to be a true
citizen of the commonwealth of Israel. This is what
means loyalty to the government of God, and
allegiance to the constitution the supreme law of
the Most High.

Now are you a Christian patriot? Is the keeping

of the commandments of God your one single aim?
Are all the gifts and blessings of God counted by
you as only contributory to this one single object?
These questions are important. This whole subject,
as here presented, is of vital importance to every
soul; for the loyalty of every soul to God, to His

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government, to His law, is to be tested to the
uttermost in this time, when “the hour of His
judgment is come,” and when, of all who shall
stand in the judgment and be saved, it is declared
from heaven, “Here are they that keep the
commandments of God, and the faith of Jesus.”
Revelation 14:6-12.

Here are the commandments of God, His holy

law:

“I am the lord thy god, which have brought

thee out of the land of egypt, and out of the house
of bondage.

“Thou shalt have no other gods before me.

“Thou shalt not make unto thee any graven

Image, or any likeness of anything that is in heaven
above, or that is in the earth beneath, or that is in
the water under the earth; thou shalt not bow down
thyself to them, nor serve them; for 1 the lord thy
God am a jealous God, visiting the iniquity of the
fathers upon the children unto the third and fourth

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generation of them that hate me; and showing
mercy unto thousands of them that love me, and
keep my commandments.

“Thou shalt not take the name of the lord thy

god in vain; for the lord will not hold him guiltless
that taketh his name in vain.

“Remember the sabbath day, to keep it holy.

Six days shalt thou labor, and do all thy work; but
the seventh day is the sabbath of the lord thy god;
in it thou shalt not do any work, thou, nor thy son,
nor thy daughter; thy man servant, nor thy maid
servant, nor thy cattle, nor thy stranger that is
within thy gates; for in six days the lord made
heaven and earth, the sea, and all that in them is,
and rested the seventh day; wherefore the lord
blessed the sabbath day, and hallowed it.

“Honor thy father and thy mother; that thy days

may be long upon the land which the lord thy god
giveth thee.

“Thou shalt not kill.

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 “Thou shalt not commit adultery.

“Thou shalt not steal.

“Thou shalt not bear false witness against thy

neighbor.

“Thou shalt not covet thy neighbor’s house,

thou shalt not covet thy neighbor’s wife, nor his
man servant, nor his maid servant, nor his ox, nor
his ass, nor anything that is thy neighbor’s.”

These commandments are summed up in the

following two; because “on these two
commandments hang all the law and the
prophets“:—

“Hear, O Israel: The Lord our God is one Lord;

and thou shalt love the Lord thy God with all thy
heart, and with all thy soul, and with all thy mind,
and with all thy strength.”

“Thou shalt love thy neighbor as thyself.”

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 This alone is Christian patriotism; and
Christian patriotism is, in every individual who
possesses it, the total separation of religion and the
State.

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