JESUS CHRIST refused to accept the kingdoms of this world.
Once the people came to take him and make him a king by force; but he departed and hid himself from them. John 6:15.
Upon another occasion the devil offered him all the kingdoms of the world if he would fall down and worship him.
Jesus did not deny that the devil had the control of these kingdoms as he claimed. In fact, at another time he acknowledged the truthfulness of the claim, by referring to Satan as “the prince of this world.” John 14:30. But he refused the devil’s offer.
It is evident that if Christ had accepted this offer, he would have taken the kingdoms of the world under Satan. The devil would not have been destroyed, nor [98] his works. But it was to destroy the devil and his works that Jesus Christ came to earth as the Saviour of men. 1 John 3:8.
The works of the devil must be destroyed before Christ can accept the kingdoms of this earth. But so long as the devil lives, and wicked men exist upon the earth, the the [sic.] devil’s works will continue. For he is the spirit that “worketh in the children of disobedience.”
And there are only two possible ways in which the world can be freed of sinnners [sic.]. They can be destroyed, and they can be converted. If they refuse to be converted, then there remains but the one way of destruction.
And there is but one possible way in which sinners can be converted, and that is through faith, as revealed in the gospel.
It is therefore perfectly plain that no more chimerical project can be conceived than that of legislating the kingdoms of this earth, or any one of them, into the hands of Christ. He cannot accept them while the earth remains in its present state.
And it rests entirely with the Lord to remove sinners out of the earth, so that the works of the devil will be destroyed. His power alone can convert sinners, and to destroy sinners is his prerogative alone.
Now, in his love and forbearance, he is appealing to men by his Spirit to become converted and thus fitted for his eternal kingdom. But his Spirit will not always strive with man; and when its work is done,—when man’s probation shall have ended and the time of the appointed Judgment shall have come, then God will arise clad in the “garments of vengeance,” to do “his strange act,” of purging the earth of wickedness by the bolts of his wrath.
Then will be fulfilled the Apocalyptic prophecy (Revelation 11:15-18): “And the seventh angel sounded; and there were great voices in heaven, saying, The kingdoms of this world are become the kingdoms of our Lord and of his Christ; and he shall reign forever and ever…. And the nations were angry, and thy wrath is come, and the time of the dead, that they should be judged, and that thou … shouldest destroy them which destroy the earth.” Also that prophecy of the Psalms, in which God says to his Son, “Ask of me, and I shall give thee the heathen for thine inheritance, and the uttermost parts of the earth for thy possession. Thou shalt break them with a rod of iron; thou shalt dash them in pieces like a potter’s vessel.” Psalm 2:8, 9.
Yet notwithstanding the utterly chimerical nature of the project to legislate the kingdoms of earth into Christ’s hands, as made plain by the facts here considered, there are millions of people enrolled in religious societies in this land who are to-day calling upon Congress and the state legislatures for laws which will “regenerate society,” make this a “Christian nation,” and “enthrone Christ on Capitol Hill.”
Never by the remotest possibility can the movement succeed. It can never do any good; but it can—and will—do incalculable harm.