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He Did Not Interfere With Those in Power, May 19
Jesus answered, My kingdom is not of this world: if my kingdom
were of this world, then would my servants fight, that I should not
be delivered to the Jews: but now is my kingdom not from hence.
John 18:36
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Today in the religious world there are multitudes who, as they believe,
are working for the establishment of the kingdom of Christ as an earthly
and temporal dominion. They desire to make our Lord the ruler of the
kingdoms of this world, the ruler in its courts and camps, its legislative
halls, its palaces and market places. They expect Him to rule through
legal enactments, enforced by human authority. Since Christ is not now
here in person, they themselves will undertake to act in His stead.... The
establishment of such a kingdom is what the Jews desired in the days of
Christ.... But He said, “My kingdom is not of this world.” He would not
accept the earthly throne.
The government under which Jesus lived was corrupt and oppressive;
on every hand were crying abuses,—extortion, intolerance, and grinding
cruelty. Yet the Saviour attempted no civil reforms. He attacked no national
abuses, nor condemned the national enemies. He did not interfere with the
authority or administration of those in power. He who was our example
kept aloof from earthly governments. Not because He was indifferent to
the woes of men, but because the remedy did not lie in merely human and
external measures. To be efficient, the cure must reach men individually,
and must regenerate the heart.
Not by the decisions of courts or councils or legislative assemblies,
not by the patronage of worldly great men, is the kingdom of Christ
established, but by the implanting of Christ’s nature in humanity through
the work of the Holy Spirit. “As many as received him, to them gave
he power to become the sons of God, even to them that believe on his
name.
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The Desire of Ages, 509
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