I find that some are beginning to get a
little perplexed by not doing what we agreed to the first night,
or else they did not get here in time to agree to that. The first
night, you know, we agreed to stand by that text of Scripture,
and say it is so, that "If any man thinketh he knoweth anything,
he knoweth nothing, yet as he ought to know." Some who have
perhaps come in since these lessons began, and others who have
not remembered fully to stick to the text, have begun to say
like this: "Well now, all these things are plain that you
have set forth, but I do not see how they are going to fit"
such and such things that we have held before.
05-002 Don't be a bit afraid. If these things
are plain--and they say they are--then look at them. If they
are new- -don't try to put new wine into old bottles. To all
such who may think these things are new, I say, Do not try to
put new wine into old bottles. You cannot do that. Do not get
concerned about what you thought before. I am not talking at
random on these things at all. I know what I am saying and I
know some other things that are coming besides. If you have been
thinking right before, this will fit; and if you have not been
thinking right, it ought not to fit. Let us study these things
together. Have I brought any matters before you that are not
actual facts? [Audience: "No"].
All we are studying this week is that
one text we started with. Many other things are going to come
that we have not yet taken a text for, but we are studying this
week this text: "The people who will now see what is soon
to come upon us by what is being transacted before us, will no
longer trust in human inventions and will feel that the Holy
Spirit must be recognized, received, presented before the people."
Now so far we have got along pretty well
in seeing what is being transacted before us and some of the
things that are soon to come upon us. Let us take what we have
and make the most of it, and the rest will take care of itself
when it comes.
Now tonight I am going to take up another
study right in the same line--of what is being transacted before
us. I will simply call attention to facts--things that you can
see and things that everybody in the world can see who reads
the common daily events as they appear in the daily papers of
the world. You can see them, and everybody else can see them.
Have we brought up anything in these lessons yet as to what is
being transacted before us, that everybody cannot see? [Audience:
"No."] As to what is coming upon us, we can tell them.
They may not believe what is soon to come, of course, but they
cannot help seeing what is before them.
Four years ago last fall I was appointed
to write a reading for the week of prayer on "Our present
Standing and Work." In that I mentioned some of the thoughts
that I referred to the other night, but I call attention to this
one particular thought now for our study tonight. Here it is:
Under our Constitution as it is, the total
separation of Church and State and the perfect religious liberty
thereby assured, have been a beacon-light of progress to all
other nations for a hundred years. The American principle of
the liberties and rights of men had an irresistible influence
upon other nations in all parts of the earth. This is the genuine
principle of Protestantism, which is, in short, the principle
announced by Christ, that men should render to Caesar only that
which is Caesar's and unto God that which is God's.
Against this principle the papacy has
constantly maintained that no State could exist without alliance
with the church; in fact, that States exist only for the support
and for the sake of the church. It is true that the American
principle has not been adopted in its clearness by any other
nation, but yet its influence has been untold in turning the
minds of men from the influence of the papal theory. But just
now, when the other nations in their perplexity are courting
the support of Rome, the papacy takes advantage of this to reassert
the papal theory and to claim that these things are an acknowledgement
on the part of rulers and governors that her theory is correct.
Now in view of all this, and just at this
time, in fact this very year, 1888 [Here I mentioned the proposed
Constitutional Amendment and the National Sunday Bill, which
were then before the country, as proposed by Senator Blair, in
which Christianity as the religion of the nation and Sunday as
the sabbath were to be recognized and then continued as follows:]
When this is done, its influence in favor of the papacy will
be inestimable. Then it will be said that this nation, which
has made such great pretensions to religious liberty and which
has been set forth as the model for earthly governments, has
been compelled to reverse that which was supposed to be the enlightened
order and to adopt the principles which the church has all the
time maintained.
Then as this nation has been the model
of liberty, enlightenment, and progress to all others, so when
its principles shall have been reversed, when the liberties and
rights of men are denied, when the nation is carried back to
the principles of the papacy in the Dark Ages and persecution
for conscience's sake is carried on, the reaction upon other
nations will be such as will infinitely confirm and magnify the
claims and power of the papacy.
And so will be fulfilled the scripture:
'All that dwell upon the earth shall worship him, whose names
are not written in the book of life.' In this way power will
again be given to the papacy to make war with the saints of God,
even as the scripture shows: 'The same horn made war with the
saints and prevailed against them, until the Ancient of days
came, and judgment was given to the saints of the Most High,
and the time came that the saints possessed the kingdom.' Dan.
7:21, 22.
I had not then found this passage, which
I shall now read from Schaff's "Church and State."
Dr. Philip Schaff, having been in Europe, being a born European
himself, and not coming to this country until he was a man full
grown, being a graduate of European universities and understanding
European affairs better than any other person in the United States
and then coming over here and understanding the affairs of the
United States to a considerable extent, writes thus in his "Church
and State in the United States," page 83:
In conclusion we must briefly survey the
influence of the American system upon foreign countries and churches.
Within the present generation the principle
of religious liberty and equality, with a corresponding relaxation
of the bond of union of Church and State, has made steady and
irresistible progress among the leading nations of Europe and
has been embodied more or less clearly in written constitutions.
. . .
The successful working of the principle
of religious freedom in the United States has stimulated this
progress without any official interference. All advocates of
the voluntary principle [in the support of churches and religion]
and of a separation of church and state in Europe point to the
example of this country as their strongest practical argument.
Elder Lewis Johnson: We know that is so
in Scandanavia.
Elder Jones: Yes, it is known in all Europe.
But what we want to know is, that it is so in this country, that
that is the influence our country has borne hitherto, and this,
in order to see what its influence will be now that it has turned
about and is going the other way.
Here is Dr. Schaff's statement as to the
principles of the papacy in connection with the German Empire,
in 1871:
The Westphalia Treaty of 1648 confirmed
the equal rights of the two contending churches. But the pope
never consented to even this limited toleration and will always
protest against it. The papal syllabus of 1864 condemns religious
toleration among the eighty heresies of the age. The Roman Church
acknowledges no other church, and cannot do it consistently.
She knows no geographical and national boundaries and rallies
around the common center of the Vatican 'vice-gerent of God on
earth.' She must submit, of course, to hard necessity, but does
it under protest. pp. 91, 92.
So you see, according to that, the principles
of the papacy are directly opposed to the principles of the United
States Constitution.
I will read a few passages further concerning
the papal principles. I read from a book by Gladstone and Schaff,
entitled, "Rome and the Newest Fashions in Religion,"
page 113. It is declared to be an error and condemned as such
by the Pope to say that--
Every man is free to embrace and profess
the religion he shall believe true, guided by the light of reason.
That is an error condemned by the church
of Rome, but that is the doctrine of the government of the United
States; that is the doctrine of the Constitution of the United
States.
Another error condemned by Rome is to
say that--
The church has not the power of availing
herself of force or any direct or indirect temporal power. p.
115.
That is an error condemned by the Catholic
church. But that is the doctrine of the Constitution of the United
States. It is a fundamental principle of the Government of the
United States, that the churches shall have nothing to do with
the affairs of the government.
Another error condemned by the papacy
is to say that "The Church ought to be separated from the
State and the State from the Church." p. 123.
All these are condemned as errors by the
Catholic church. But all these express the very doctrine of the
Constitution of the United States, as its makers established
it and intended it to be. And nothing could show more plainly
how directly antagonistic are the principles of the papacy and
the principles of the Constitution of the United States government.
There is another word I will read. It
is the statement of Leo XIII in 1891 as to what the authority
of the church is, what her right is. Page 868 of "The Two
Republics." He is writing to all the world about the condition
of labor and the difficulties between labor and capital, governments
and workingmen, etc., and says:
It is the church that proclaims from the
gospel those teachings by which the conflict can be put an end
to, or at least made far less bitter; the church uses its efforts
not only to enlighten the mind, but to direct by its precepts
the life and conduct of men . . . and acts on the decided view
that for these purposes recourse should be had, in due measure,
and degree, to the help of the law and of State authority.
That is the very latest doctrine of the
papal church, officially set forth and as in every other, in
direct antagonism to the doctrine of the Constitution of the
United States as it reads and as it was intended to be, not as
it has been made to mean by the Supreme Court of the United States,
Feb. 29, 1892.
That is how it is that the influence which
this government has had upon the other nations has been to carry
them away from the doctrine of the papacy. And, as Dr. Schaff
says, this influence has been "steady and irresistible."
Well now in the Supreme Court decision, Feb. 29, 1892, and in
the legislation of Congress recognizing and establishing Sunday
as the Christian sabbath, the government of the United States
has reversed that order. The Constitution has been disregarded
and overridden entirely. The government of the United States
stands tonight in the hands of a hierarchy here, which, in order
to accomplish its purpose, joined hands with the papacy
specifically.
Well now as to the influence that this
will have upon the their nations, let me read from that testimony
that is now in No. 1 of the Bulletin, top of page 16. It touches
this question that is before us tonight and the Lord tells what
is the consequence of this reversal of the original order of
things in this government:
As America, the land of religious liberty,
shall unite with the papacy in forcing the consciences of men
to honor the false sabbath, the people of every country on the
globe will be led to follow her example.
How far then, brethren, is the influence
of this nation to go, now that it has turned about? To every
nation on the globe. What did the turning about of this nation
do? That made the image of the beast. Well then as in view of
that fact, other lessons that we have had bring us face to face
with the giving of that message in its express words and terms,
how far is that message to go? To every nation and kindred and
tongue and people. Then as this nation, having turned about,
will lead every nation on the globe in the wrong way, back to
the principles of the papacy in fact, so it is time for the third
angel's message to reach every nation on the globe.
That is the message now. Well then are
you ready to go? That being the message that is to go, does it
not become every professor of that message to hold himself in
readiness to go to the ends of the earth, when God calls him
to go? The influence of this is to lead every nation on the globe
back to the papacy. The work of the third angel's message is
to warn all nations of the earth against the worship of the papacy,
and this image of it which brings us back to the papacy. Just
as certainly as that influence reaches every nation on the globe,
so certainly this warning must go to every nation on the globe.
Then every man is unfaithful to the trust which God has given
us in the third angel's message, if he holds himself back from
the call of God to go anywhere on the globe, isn't he? Then that
brings us again face to face with such a consecration as there
has never been among Seventh-day Adventists. It brings us face
to face with such a consecration that home, family, property,
everything is surrendered into the hands of God to let him call
us and send us or such means as we have, whre he pleases and
do what he chooses with us. Are you ready? Isn't it time to get
ready?
[A. T. Jones Sermons Contents]