everlasting-gospels.gif

Adventism In Time Of War-1
letter-text.gif
line.gif
guide_img.gif

June 19 - Adventism In Time Of War-2

 guide_img.gif

 

line.gif

Render therefore to Caesar the things that are Caesar's, and to God the things that are God's. Matt. 22:21, RSV.

How should a Christian relate to the military? That was the issue Jaems White had raised on August 12, 1861. His first response was straighforward enough: Adventists could not volunteer for military service because such an act would place them in a position in which they made a choice to break at least two of the Ten Commandments.

But what about if the government drafted a person? What if that individual has no choice, but is merely following the laws of the nation? To those questions James White put forth an unexpected and controversial suggetion. "In the case of drafting," he penned, "the government assumes the responsibility of the violation of the law of God, and it would be madness to resist. He who would resist until, in the administration of military law he was shot down, goes too far, we think, in taking the responsibility of suicide. . .For us to attempt to resist the laws of the best government under heaven, which is now struggling to put down the most hellish rebellion since that of Satan and his angels, we repeat it, would be madness."

So there we have James's answer to the complex issue of how Adventists can render to both God and the government. In a nutshell:
1. Adventists are loyal citizens.
2. Adventists can't volunteer because that would place them where they chose to break God's law.
3. But if they were drafted, the breaking of the law became the government's responsibility, and Adventists should submit to taking up arms and killing, even on the Sabbath day.

How do you feel about his argument? What biblical evidence can you marshal for and/or against his logic? How are we to act if the commands of the government conflict with the commands of God?

Now, we should remember that at this time the United States had not yet passed a draft law. It was merely a possibility. But it was one that the young Adventist Church, still in 1862 without a General Conference to represent it to the government, had to contemplate seriously, as the "meat grinder" of a vicious conflict continued to destroy lives.

As Christians we are citizens of two kingdoms. We all face the challenge of how to be faithful to both.

         line.gif
guide_img_bottom.gif guide_img_bottom.gif

But the good-ground hearer, in receiving the word, accepts all its conditions and requirements. His habits, customs, and practices are brought into submission to God's word. In his view the commands of finite, erring man sink into insignificance beside the word of the infinite God(COL, 60).
line.gif
이 게시물을...