"The blazing sun comprises in itself the daily light and warmth of the earth; and the fruitful seasons, and the brightness of day, all flow out directly from the sun. Just so the kingdom of God on this earth, the subjugation of the nations, the lifting of the curse from man, animals and material nature, the rectifying of earth's wrongs, and the filling of the world with the glory of God, all flow out from the Person and Presence of the Lord Jesus.
"As men drifted away from God, all their views became more and more impersonal and they talked of principles, laws, and forces. Hence we find Christian Scientists, Spiritualists and Free Thinkers ignoring a real personal Christ, but running off into a smoky haze of mystified thought in which they harp on the 'Christ Principle' and similar expressions of nonsense. But did we know that the church has committed this same blunder with regard to the Kingdom of God on this earth, making it to consist of a universal spread of impersonal teachings and a conglomerate mass of churchism, instead of the presence of the personal King Himself, upon Whose shoulder the government is laid, and out from Whose person the empire flows?
"Man has unwittingly put the church in the place of the Lord Jesus. There is a continual harping on working for the church, being sent out by the church, being loyal to the church, raising money for the church, guarding the interests of the church, being consecrated to the church, and making great sacrifices for the church. All the while our adorable Jesus, Redeemer, Savior, Sanctifier, Healer and coming King, is grieved to His heart to see how the nominal church has usurped His place in the hearts of men, and has assumed His throne and attempted to play the King in His stead.
"If in all the foregoing expressions, the word 'Jesus were used instead of the word church it would be according to Scripture. This putting the word 'church where the word Christ ought to be put is anti-christ, for anti-christ does not consist in a particular person, but in a vast multiplied system of the usurpation of the place of Jesus. While anti-christ may head up in some particular office as that of the Pope, yet it is spread out as a ubiquitous thing throughout fallen Christianity."
G. D Watson
_________________ Wayne Kraus
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