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Religious Liberty, November 19
Acts 4:1-22
But Peter and John answered and said unto them, Whether it be right in
the sight of God to hearken unto you more than unto God, judge ye. For
we cannot but speak the things which we have seen and heard.
Acts 4:19,
20
.
On the day following the healing of the cripple [
Acts 3
], Annas and Caiaphas,
with the other dignitaries of the temple, met together for the trial, and the
prisoners [Peter and John] were brought before them. In that very room and
before some of those very men, Peter had shamefully denied his Lord. This
came distinctly to his mind as he appeared for his own trial. He now had an
opportunity of redeeming his cowardice....
But the Peter who denied Christ in the hour of His greatest need was impul-
sive and self-confident, differing widely from the Peter who was brought before
the Sanhedrin for examination. Since his fall he had been converted. He was no
longer proud and boastful, but modest and self-distrustful. He was filled with the
Holy Spirit, and by the help of this power he was resolved to remove the stain of
his apostasy by honoring the name he had once disowned
The principle for which the disciples stood so fearlessly when, in answer
to the command not to speak any more in the name of Jesus, they declared,
“Whether it be right in the sight of God to hearken unto you more than unto God,
judge ye,” is the same that the adherents of the gospel struggled to maintain in
the days of the Reformation....
This principle we in our day are firmly to maintain. The banner of truth
and religious liberty held aloft by the founders of the gospel church and by
God’s witnesses during the centuries that have passed since then, has, in this last
conflict, been committed to our hands.... We are to recognize human government
as an ordinance of divine appointment, and teach obedience to it as a sacred
duty, within its legitimate sphere. But when its claims conflict with the claims
of God, we must obey God rather than men. God’s word must be recognized as
above all human legislation. A “Thus saith the Lord” is not to be set aside for a
“Thus saith the church” or a “Thus saith the state.” The crown of Christ is to be
lifted above the diadems of earthly potentates
[330]
42
The Acts of the Apostles, 62, 63
.
43
Ibid., 68, 69
.
342