Spirit of Prophecy Counsels Relating To Church-State Relationships

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When God’s Law And Man’s Laws Conflict

The kings and rulers of the earth, however great their power, are to consider themselves under a Ruler who owns the world. No earthly ruler is to be looked upon as above the Ruler who made the world in six days, and rested on the seventh day, sanctifying and blessing it, and giving it to man to be set apart as holy, and observed to the glory of His name. But priests and rulers have set up the first day of the week to be observed by the beings God has made. They compel His creatures to transgress the law of their Creator. Man has set himself above the Lord of heaven, and has turned human beings aside from the observance of the day that God, as their Creator, declared to be kept holy, as a sign between Him and them throughout their generations forever. SPCCSR 34.1

We are every one of us to look from finite man to the Omnipotent God, who has the ownership of all to whom He has given life. They are under His government, and when finite rulers make laws that conflict with a plain, “Thus saith the Lord,” we are to obey the law of God. Shall man dare to take the place of God, setting aside the laws of the Ruler of the universe, and placing in their stead human enactments? Shall he dare to compel obedience to these human laws... SPCCSR 34.2

Christ has a supreme right to present to the world the law that must be obeyed. Those who transgress this law, however high their position in this world, shall be called the least in the kingdom of heaven.—Letter 38, 1906. SPCCSR 35.1