Time, Place, and the Law

God has allotted six thousand years to mankind here on this earth in which they can try out all methods of living which they think will bring them happiness. Look at the world today for the results! Now'in this very end time'man is writing a finish to a history of his poor attempt to rule himself without God's help'a history that all may profit by when they have their first chance. The world today is feverishly preparing to drench itself in a blood bath. (Worldwide Church of God 1972, 3)

According to their theology the eventual outcome of human history will be possible: "When Jesus Christ returns to earth in full supreme power and glory of the Creator God, he is coming, this time to save the world, spiritually (Mystery, 344). This belief in a literal Second Advent is combined with a belief that the authentic Christian community should not fully participate in civil society. To fully understand the relationship of Commandment Keepers to Old Testament laws, it is necessary to state that many commandments deal with matters that generally throughout history have been handled by civil governments, by secular administrators. These matters include the protection of life, limb and property. To properly understand the Commandment Keepers' perspective on these laws, it is necessary to understand how they view their role in society, their relationship to the civilization around them, the outside world in which their lives are conducted.       The community has a heritage of being apolitical and of avoiding military service. H. Richard Niebuhr's theology would describe the approach of these Commandment Keepers as a "Christ against culture" paradigm. The community sees itself in history as a permanent diaspora until the Messianic age. It intends to remain marginalized in terms of the power to effect structural changes in society. Benevolent acts to relieve suffering are encouraged, even required. These acts of kindness are part of Christian life for the Commandment Keepers, but, generally speaking, political and military action are not.

      Since the New Testament Church is viewed in purely ecclesiastical terms, no political or military effort is made to promote sectarian positions or to bring about a theocratic nation. The laws of ancient Israel that require civil governments and physical force are viewed as worthwhile for study and meditation, but are not enforceable in the church in pre-millennial times. Their enforcement would require a level of coercive authority that the New Testament church should not possess until the millennium. Their enforcement might also involve changes in the overall political, economic, and social structure of society. The sectarians would feel free to recommend such changes, but not to bring them about by ballot, and certainly not by bullet.

      Disciplinary measures such as slavery for debtors, and such as corporal or capital punishment, depending on the specific offense, are not considered by Commandment Keepers to be applicable as part of their religious life. The discarding of such measures flows from the nature of the New Covenant Church. The principles behind these procedures are seen as still valid, but are not in effect in a community that does not, on principle, exercise civil authority.

      The same approach is taken regarding laws of tribal inheritance of land, since Christians, according to this perspective, do not have a country of their own. Such a perspective does not require extreme behavior that is confrontational. Commandment Keepers are loyal, respectful, and generally law abiding citizens. However, their religious beliefs often inspire them to avoid voting and jury duty. In America, for example, it is not against the law to refrain from voting. Moreover, it can be argued that the Bill of Rights allows for non-involvement in juries on religious grounds.

      In the sectarian, Commandment-keeping communities much social interaction is expected to take place among its members. Ideally, socializing among co-religionists should create peer pressure reinforcing adherence to religious norms. As previously explained, the main source of discipline is to exclude those members who are chronic, flagrant sinners from participating in the communal activities that are unique to the Church.

      Church leaders are ecclesiastical authorities who do not aspire to political power in the larger society. Generally, the public preaching in the Sabbath-keeping churches which use forms of the title Church of God, emphasizes the coming of a future utopia. The churches believe that their members should live their lives anticipating the return of Jesus Christ and the millennial rule of the saints. It can be noted again that spiritually speaking, the members are ambassadors of another government.

      Herbert W. Armstrong writes:

God's master plan calls for offering salvation and eternal life to every person ever born, but his plan calls for doing that in a time order. Those called out of the world and into the Church at this time are called for a specific purpose and a specific work. This specific work was to make possible the spiritual training to aid in the conversion of humanity as a whole. They are called at a time when they are persecuted and fought against by Satan and by the rest of the world. The rest of the world will be called at a time when Satan is removed and they are aided and helped by Christ and the saints then made immortal in the kingdom of God. (1985, 215)

    As mentioned in Chapter Four, in the contemporary world, authentic disciples of Jesus Christ are, in a sense, resident aliens. To restate an implication for Commandment Keepers: they generally hold that certain Old Testament commandments such as the redistribution of land every fifty years cannot be enforced until a divinely imposed theocracy miraculously establishes its reign. The Church cannot compel society to radically alter its economic system.

      The Church certainly can recommend the carrying out of Old Testament property laws. It may advocate such an approach but would consider inappropriate attempts to force others to comply. The Church in this age is apolitical and does not attempt to coerce non-members to adopt practices that reflect its world- view. If biblical-type legislation were to be enacted in the civil realm, the decision would have to be made in such a way that it would not have been in any sense imposed upon civil society by the Church.

      In Acts 24, the Apostle Paul is described by a lawyer as, "the ringleader of the Nazoraion (h)aireseos" (NASB-NIV 1986, 423). The phrase is translated in the New Revised Standard Version as, "the sect of the Nazarenes" (NRSV, 151). The original first century Christian Church does fit the description of a sect as we encounter the use of the term by Ernst Troeltsch in his classic study, The Social Teaching of the Christian Churches. Troeltsch informs his readers that " . . . during the early centuries the Church itself fluctuated between the sect and the Church-type; indeed, it only achieved the development of the Church-type with the development of sacerdotal and sacramental doctrine . . ." (Volume 1, 333).

      After two centuries of Christianity, a transition begins to occur as the historic Church comes to be led by clerics who go "from martyrs to inquisitors" (Latourette 1975, 65). For that matter, we have already seen that warnings against apostasy occur throughout the New Testament (2 Thessalonians 2:3, 7 and 2 Timothy 4:3-4). In Chapter Three it was shown that even the canonical epistle of Jude exhorts Christians to " . . . contend for the faith that was once for all entrusted to the saints" (Jude 3). One might expect that a watering down of the original zeal of church members would occur as years and decades passed.

      It would be useful here to review an important principle covered earlier. In the first volume of his two volume work on church history, Kenneth Scott Latourette suggests that Christianity was "radically different" from Judaism (19), but concedes that it " . . . was built on Jewish foundations . . ." (19) and that " . . . In one sense Christianity was the outgrowth of Judaism" (18). He also reminds us that " . . . At the outset it appeared to be another Jewish sect, although very small . . ." (18). There is New Testament evidence for seeing early Christianity as originally a sect within Judaism. This perspective is supported by the discussion between Pontius Pilate and Jesus according to the Gospel of John 18:33-35, where the perception of the Roman procurator is that he was dealing with a squabble among Jews. We can also note the Lukan account in Acts 25 where Governor Porcuis Festus states concerning the prisoner, Paul, that:

      When the accusers stood up, they did not charge him with any of the crimes that I was expecting.

    Instead they had certain points of disagreement with him about their own religion and about a certain Jesus, who had died, but who Paul asserted to be alive. (Acts 25: 18-19)

According to Paul Johnson, "The truth seems to be that both Jesus and Paul had their roots in Palestinian Judaism" (130). These roots would have included the apocalyptic tradition (124-5, 128).

      In Magic and the Millennium, Bryan R. Wilson, the eminent British sociologist of religion, seeks to refine the "Troeltschean typifications of church and sect . . ." (12) and explains his very useful approach: "The principal criterion of classification is in terms of a movement's response to the world . . . (19, his emphasis). Wilson describes some sects as thaumaturgical in nature, offering an individual supernatural relief from specific ills (24-5). He states that " . . . within the world-view of those who count themselves Christians, thaumaturgical elements of the old style may persist" (502). If New Testament Christianity is viewed as a whole, I would categorize the primitive church as a Wilsonian "revolutionist" sect which is described as taking the following position: " . . . No subjective reorientation will affect the state of the world: its objective condition must be recognized. It will be changed only by divine action" (23).

      A revolutionist sect can have a sustainable social ethic as long as it remains content with minority status. Wilson said of "Christian millennialism" that in its religious form it was flourishing " . . . among minority sects such as Jehovah's Witnesses" (Wilson 1973, 503). In its present form the Witnesses' religious community endured for most of the twentieth century and continues to be a vibrant organization today. There is solid historical evidence to assume that given enough time a sect will tend to denominationalize. However, it cannot be demonstrated that such evolution is inevitable (12). It is my contention that a careful and objective reading of the New Testament will reveal a consistent presupposition of its authors that their religious community would retain a sectarian status vis-a-vis the surrounding civilizations, a status that would be difficult to sustain, but would continue until the eschaton. The view can be summarized by citing Luke 12:32, "Do not be afraid, little flock, for it is your Father's good pleasure to give you the kingdom."

      Troeltsch shows that early Christianity did not attempt to alter the social organizations encountered by its members but rather to be an ideal community and to practice what we would term today as philanthropic activity (Volume I, 80-1). This can be called a lack of a social ethic, but in fact, it is a social ethic, a sectarian social ethic. A devout follower of New Testament teachings would place a priority on the spiritual over the physical (Matthew 6:33; Luke 9:23-25; and John 6:63). S/he would live a life based on faith (Hebrews 11).

      New Testament writings promise that Christ's triumphal Second Advent will lead to a resurrection of the saints (1 Corinthians 15:50-57). Death is like sleep (1 Thessalonians 4:13-15). Once a true practitioner of biblical Christianity dies, the next conscious moment will be lived in the millennial kingdom (1 Thessalonians 4:16-18 and Philippines 1:21-24). Since no one knows the hour of his or her death, the eschaton is, in a sense, only a moment away. Since an optimist can reasonably expect to live about eighty years (Psalms 90:10), a thirty year old believer, for example, can think of Christ's return as being fifty years away. Such thinking can sustain a revolutionist, sectarian social ethic. I would dare say that a similar mode of thought preserved Judaism from the second century CE to the Enlightenment period.

      Christianity's relationship to human governments has been described as:

passive submission to the State where necessary, indifference where possible, and nonviolent resistance where the State made demands that would compromise the Christian's prime allegiance to God." (Beach and Niebuhr 1973, 49)

    As has already been noted, Ernst Troeltsch in his very influential study, The Social Teaching of the Christian Churches distinguished between the church-type and the sect- type (328-335). We can infer from his writing that the Christian sectarian movements that emerged in Western Europe during the Middle Ages were, in a sense, a throwback to the religious behavior pattern of the primitive Church (328-329). Earlier historical precedents have already been noted.

      While the historic Church developed into the Troeltschean church- type before the middle of the fourth century CE, we should not forget that alternative interpretations of Christianity continued to exist, albeit at times very tenuously. The Protestant Reformation ultimately produced a political and cultural climate in which sects could co-exist with a dominant church or with mainline denominations.

      It is not intellectually irresponsible or necessarily theologically incorrect to argue that any given sect may more closely resemble, in its beliefs and practices, the original, apostolic church. To some people the issue may not be particularly significant; to others, it may be. In the writings which the historic Church has accepted as canonical, the original Christian movement is described as highly controversial and disruptive (Matthew 10:34ff; Acts 17:6). The Christian lifestyle differed radically from many societal norms. Christians, after all, were looking to a climactic, divinely caused cataclysmic end to the civilization around them. Their physical lives were an opportunity to develop character and to develop an intimate relationship with God (Romans 8). They could then anticipate a resurrection from the dead, eternal life in the spirit realm, and the opportunity to play a role in permanently solving this world's ills. They were promised, as an initial incentive, future participation in creating an earthly paradise which, in its initial stage, would last a thousand years (1 Corinthians 15 and Revelation 19, 20).

      J. Gordon Melton reminds us in The Encyclopaedia of American Religions that "Apocalypticism was part of the lifestyle of the early church . . ." (77). It is true that "Since the beginning of Christianity various groups have arisen sporadically to preach a type of faith that has been called apocalyptic, chiliastic, or millennial . . ." (77). Historical evidence coupled with an element of faith would contest that Christianity's apocalyptic flame was ever totally extinguished, but rather at times was very dim, at other times burned more brightly. One could easily surmise that a consistent sectarian eschatology continued to be present in those alternative Christian communities that have existed through history.

      The teaching of the New Testament presupposes that those who follow its teachings most closely would remain a relatively small minority, vulnerable to persecution. In effect they would become spiritual Jews (Romans 2:29), diasporized in the sense that their primary focus of attention was a kingdom to be realized in the future (Hebrews 11). Their relationship to society was thus to be similar to that of diaspora Jews. They were to be good neighbors, and law abiding citizens, but in certain ways distinct.

      The Commandment Keepers see themselves as part of a spiritual organism. They are not an ethnic group, nor are they part of a specific ecclesiastical organization, such as the Roman Catholic Church, with a clear history. As Chapter Three of this dissertation illustrates, Commandment-keeping Church historians, in their writings, compare their beliefs and practices with those of earlier Christian sects. They search for historical antecedents, for spiritual ancestors.

      There does seem to be a discernible history of the transmission of Commandment-keeping, sectarian Christianity from Western Europe to the British Isles. Historians can clearly trace a history of Christian groups with Judaistic practices from the seventeenth century in North America. During the past century, these groups gained many adherents in the developing nations. Commandment Keepers would acknowledge that their history is extremely disjointed. Numbers of adherents have waxed and waned. Beliefs and practices have been difficult to sustain for generations among one ethnic group or in any specific region. Few adherents came from the upper strata of society. Of course, in earlier centuries formal education was far less widespread.

      Communications between these dissenting communities, often living in more backward areas, was extremely difficult. Groups had disparate backgrounds without an organic link back to a common heritage except those teachings of the Bible on which they agree. They did not have the capacity to develop and preserve a portable, codified, civil infrastructure such as the Jewish Talmud. Currently these groups prefer to try to apply the Bible as best they can in an ad hoc manner. Members also strive to obey the civil laws of the secular society that do not directly conflict with basic religious obligations.

      Even in sacred matters, Commandment Keepers acknowledge that their community has not been entrusted with the preservation and transmission of the Scriptures. They look to the consensus in the Jewish community to determine the Old Testament canon. In discussing the traditional Jewish canon, J.N.D. Kelly writes:

The official list, said to have been finally ratified by the so-called synod of Jamnia, A. D. 90-100, was virtually closed by the apostolic age, and it was natural that the Church should appropriate it. (52)

Commandment Keepers are in harmony with that stance.

      As previously mentioned, most Commandment Keepers utilize the standard Jewish calendar for biblical observances rather than attempt to develop their own biblically based system for determining when the holy days should be kept. As in the matter of the Old Testament canon, the overwhelming majority of sectarians with a Worldwide Church of God heritage accept rabbinical authority in such matters as intercalary years, sometimes called leap years, and new moon calculations.

      Regarding the New Testament canon, J.N.D. Kelly also reminds his readers that:

The first official document which prescribes the twenty-seven books of our New Testament as alone canonical is Athanasius's Easter Letter for the year 367. (60)

In an analogous fashion, to the Hebrew speaking community, it is to the consensus in the Greek speaking world that Commandment Keepers generally defer concerning which books are legitimately included in the New Testament canon. Readers of this dissertation who are familiar with the New Testament, will recall the phrase thrice written in Paul's Epistle to the church in Rome, ". . . to the Jew first, and also to the Greek . . ." (Romans 1:16; 2:9-10). Moreover, the Book of Revelation, dealing with eschatological matters, although written in the style of Jewish apocalyptic writings, is addressed to seven churches in Greek-speaking Asia Minor (Revelation 1:10; 2:1-3:22).

      Many ethicists have argued that Christianity originally proscribed participation in government and in the military. As late as the time of Origen, the historic Church was declining political participation in the world outside of the confines of the Christian community:

And it is not for the purpose of escaping public duties that Christians decline public offices, but that they may reserve themselves for a diviner and more necessary service in the Church of God--for the salvation of men. And this service is at once necessary and right. (Roberts and Donaldson 1989, 668)

    Regarding the payment of taxes, the instruction is clear. For example, ". . . Give therefore to the emperor the things that are the emperor's, and to God the things that are God's" (Matthew 22:21). But over and over again the New Testament writers stress that the disciples of Jesus are representatives of a kingdom yet to come and are not fully a part of the civilization around them (John 17:15-16; 18:36; 2 Corinthians 6:17).

      I cite a passage from the 1984 version of the article, "How Would Jesus Vote For President?"

Nations send ambassadors to other nations. They reside for a time in those nations. Christians in the world today are in the same relative position as ambassadors in other nations. (Worldwide Church of God 1972, 3)

Members of the Christian community of New Testament times were told that each of them had a citizenship in heaven (Ephesians 2:19 and Philippians 3:20), which was to so occupy their loyalty and attention as to preclude political involvement with other politics.

Jesus did not enter into this world's politics, nor did his disciples. He did not try to reform or overthrow Caesar's government. Rather, he preached about a radically different world to come--and called his followers out of participation in this world's imperfect, humanly devised politics! (Worldwide Church of God 1985, 2)

    The magazine traditionally has taken the following position:

The Plain Truth is government affiliated, but not with any human government of this world. It represents and announces the coming of a new age, a new civilization and a new government, when all peoples will learn the way that brings peace and prosperity (2).

The attitude toward politics articulated in the quotations just cited has already been addressed in Chapter Two of this dissertation. It is still the predominant view of the religious movement, which from 1934 through the early 1990's, was represented by The Plain Truth magazine.

      From the perspective of the Christian sectarians which I have labeled Commandment Keepers, they will need to have the whole loaf before they have any of it. It is the commitment of their members to live in such a way that they can be part of a future government in which divine laws will be divinely administered. They are generally not a participatory segment of the Christian Right.

      The community does concern itself with exposing and condemning evil practices and approaches:

Go through the city, through Jerusalem, and put a mark on the foreheads of those who sigh and groan over all the abominations that are committed in it. (Ezekiel 9:4)

Commandment Keepers' spokespersons use the modern electronic and print media to give concrete advice calculated to increase a person's health and happiness and the ultimate stability of society, playing a role comparable to the ancient Hebrew prophets.

Shout out, do not hold back! Lift up your voice like a trumpet! Announce to my people their rebellion, to the house of Jacob their sins. (Isaiah 58:1)

    Open criticism of commonly held beliefs, practices, or of personal conduct typical of many people is an approach not to be taken lightly. Wisdom is involved and a sense of the flow of history. Public criticism of societal behavior can easily attract persecution. As already noted, such criticism for the sectarians would not take the form of the endorsement of one political figure over another. Nor would it take the form of promoting or condoning specific legislation. It should be emphasized that confrontations such as just described do not involve political or military action. They are consistent with the non-violent stance of the Commandment-keeping community.

      Commandment Keepers generally forego the pursuit of a political platform. On December 15, 1992, Pastor General Joseph W. Tkach addressed the membership of the Worldwide Church of God through its newspaper. He stated:

We do not believe God has commissioned us to force sinners not to sin or to physically prevent every injustice in this world; rather, he has called us to tell them what sin is and how they can be forgiven and converted. In addition, we do not believe we should take sides in politics or partisan issues. (Tkach, 6).

Tkach continued by reminding his followers that:

The kind of social action we should be involved in would include such things as promotion of mutual understanding between cultures, promotion of education and skills-training for underprivileged people, and involvement in curriculum development and safety in schools. (6)

    He went on to note that the church addresses some social issues in its publications and in its radio and television programs (6). He added:

For some social concerns, our members can get involved personally or in groups in volunteer programs that help bring about positive moral and environmental changes in their local communities. (6)

This approach to civil administration is still generally followed by the scattered remnants who dissented from the transformation to so-called orthodoxy by the Worldwide Church of God. These dissenters are philanthropic, but they do not seek a humanly instituted theocracy.

      As mentioned earlier in this chapter, Commandment Keepers do not attempt to impose a redistribution of property every fiftieth year on their host societies or in their own community. Neither do they enforce release of debts every seven years. Such laws are seen as civil or political in nature. They are not thought to be required of a scattered, relatively small, minority community functioning in an economic and political system whose regulations are not in conformity with many of the laws recorded in the Bible.