It is quite common to speak of Israel as a theocracy. This is indeed what God designed it to be, and what it should have been, but what in the truest sense it never was. Least of all was Israel a theocracy when the people demanded an earthly king, “that we also may be like all the heathen,” for in so doing they rejected God as their King. It is passing strange the people will refer to what Israel did in direct opposition to the wishes of God, as a warrant for similar action on the part of the church now, and to their rejection of God as evidence that they were ruled by His power.AMS July 29, 1897, page 470.1

The word “theocracy” is a combination of two Greek words, and means literally, “the rule of God.” A true theocracy, therefore, is a body in which God is sole and absolute ruler. Such a government has rarely been seen on this earth, and never to any great extent. A true theocracy existed when Adam was first formed and placed in Eden, when “God saw everything that He had made, and, behold, it was very good.” Genesis 1:31. God formed Adam of the dust of the ground, and set him over the works of His hands. He was made ruler “over the fish of the sea, and over the fowl of the air, and over the cattle, and over all the earth, and over every creeping thing that creepeth upon the earth.” Genesis 1:26. He therefore had all power given to him. But at his best state, when crowned with glory and honor, Adam was but dust, with no more power in himself than the dust on which he walked. Therefore the mighty power that was manifested in him was not his own power at all, but the power of God working in him. God was absolute Ruler, but it pleased Him, so far as this earth was concerned, to reveal His power through man. During Adam’s loyalty to God there was therefore a perfect theocracy on this earth.AMS July 29, 1897, page 470.2

Such a theocracy has never existed since, for man’s fall was the acknowledging of Satan as the god of this world. But individually it existed in its perfection in Christ, the second Adam, in whose heart was God’s law, and in whom dwelt all the fullness of the Godhead bodily. When Christ shall have renewed the earth and restored all things as in the beginning, and there is but one fold and one Shepherd, one king in all the earth, that will be a perfect theocracy. The will of God will be done in all the earth as it now is in heaven.AMS July 29, 1897, page 470.3

But now is the time of preparation. Christ is now gathering out a people in whom His character will be reproduced, in whose hearts He will dwell by faith, so that each one of them, like Himself, may “be filled with all the fullness of God.” Ephesians 3:17-19. These gathered ones constitute the church of Christ, which, as a whole, is “the fullness of Him that filleth all in all.” Ephesians 1:22, 23. So while the true theocracy is first of all in the heart of individuals who day by day sincerely say to their heavenly Father, “Thine is the kingdom,” the multitude of them that believe-the church-when perfectly joined together in the same mind by the Holy Spirit, constitutes the only true theocracy that has ever existed in this earth. When the church is apostate, it seeks by alliances with the world, by assuming kingly power, to exhibit a theocratic form of government, but it is only a counterfeit form, with no Divine power, whereas God’s true followers, few in number, scattered throughout the world, and unknown to the nations, furnish an example of a real theocracy.AMS July 29, 1897, page 470.4

Through the prophet who opened his mouth to curse, but who instead uttered blessings, God said of His people Israel, “The people shall dwell alone, and shall not be reckoned among the nations.” Numbers 23:9. The people of God are in the world, not of it, for the purpose of showing forth the excellency of Him who has called them out of darkness. But this they can do only as they acknowledge God to be supreme. The church is the kingdom in which God rules alone, and its only law is God’s law of love. It is God’s voice alone that it hears and follows, and it is God’s voice alone that speaks through it.AMS July 29, 1897, page 471.1

July 7, 1897

September 2, 1897