I am a member of the Good Templars, a religious temperance society. We are great at fighting publicans, brewers, and so forth; in fact, we go for anything connected with the liquor traffic. Now somehow from reading Present Truth, I begin to think we are spending our energy in a wrong way, and that our business is not to fight brewers, but to persuade men and women by our lives. Will you kindly enlighten me?
I am sure you have come to a right conclusion. And this I say not of myself but from the word of God. "For our wrestling is not against flesh and blood, but against principalities, against the powers, against the world rulers of this darkness, against the spiritual hosts of wickedness in heavenly places." (Ephesians 6:12)
Therefore: "Though we walk in the flesh, we do not war after the flesh (for the weapons of our warfare are not carnal, but mighty through God to the pulling down of strongholds); Casting down imaginations, and every high thing that exalts itself against the knowledge of God, and bringing into captivity every thought to the obedience of Christ." (2 Corinthians 10:3-5)
Reclamation, Not Denunciation
Our mission to sinners is not denunciation, but reclamation. "God sent not His Son into the world to condemn the world; but that the world through Him might be saved. ... This is the condemnation, that light is come into the world." (John 3:17,19)
Therefore the only way that we can condemn the world is to let the light shine. Noah condemned the world by being a preacher of righteousness. (Hebrews 11:7; 2 Peter 2:5)
Jesus said, "I am come a light into the world, that whosoever believes on me should not abide in darkness. And if any man hear my words, and believe not, I judge him not: for I came not to judge the world, but to save the world." (John 12:46-47)
Read 2 Corinthians 5:18-20. "God was in Christ, reconciling the world unto himself, not imputing their trespasses unto them; and has committed unto us the word of reconciliation." (2 Corinthians 5:19)
Therefore, "We are ambassadors on the behalf of Christ, as though God were beseeching by us ... in Christ's stead." (2 Corinthians 5:20)
Whenever we lose sight of this fundamental truth, and seek to advance the cause of truth by denunciation, we are sure to fail. "The wrath of man works not the righteousness of God." (James 1:20) "The servant of the Lord must not strive; but be gentle unto all men, apt to teach, patient, In meekness instructing those that oppose themselves; if God peradventure will give them repentance to the acknowledging of the truth." (2 Timothy 2:24-25)
I know that the idea is becoming almost universally prevalent in the Church, that Christians must deal with existing evils, in what is termed "a practical manner," namely through the machinery of the State. Modern reformers have not the patience to wait the result of preaching the Word, they want to see people converted in a body. This shows that they have not learned either the Scripture or the lesson of history.
The heathen Saxons were baptized in a mass, as a token of submission to Charlemagne, but that baptism did not constitute them Christians. Nothing but the Spirit of God working on the heart of man can effect true reformation; and therefore every use of any other means, is but a hindrance to the progress of the Gospel.--Present Truth, February 19, 1903.