The king as the highest representation of a nation has his dignity, again the prophet and the preacher of the gospel as the proclaimer of God's word to the world has his dignity. The dignity of the king is worldly, but that of the preacher of God is eternal. The former has the majesty of earthly power, the latter, that of the called one of the Megalosyne en Hypselois (the majesty in heaven). (Heb. 1,3) This is how the church stands in relation to the state. Not with earthly power, but shimmering with the majesty of the divine, which it is called to offer. When Jesus stands before Pilate, Pilate, as the representative of the Roman emperor, is in possession of all power, including the power over the death and life of Jesus. Jesus has no earthly power. He, who could do all miracles, who could bring the dead to life, who could still the sea storm, was not able to kill Pilate by a miracle. For he could only do miracles with the will of God the Father. But here the will of God and therefore also of the Son was that the Son of God should be subject to Pilate, that he should be condemned by him and that he should not descend from the cross, but die and rise again. But this rabbi from Nazareth, so powerless in the face of the representative of Caesar Augustus, had power and has power to open and close eternity. So he stands before Pilate - invisible for human eyes - shimmered by the "glory of God", which shimmer is only wondered upon and believed by the called ones.
As Nathan stands before David, as Jesus stands before Pilate, so the ecclesia of God stands before the res publica of the nation. It has no legion to compel the state and the people according to its will; it has nothing but the proclamation of the gospel and the presentation of the grace of God. But in this very thing it has a power that no state and no nation has. The power of the State is that it has the power to dispose of the life and death of men. The power of the Church is faith in the eternal God and the offering of the Kingdom of Heaven. If there is to be a kingdom of heaven, there must also be hell. Therefore, the church has power only where people suspect and fear the infernal powers. For a nation that no longer trembles before hell, the church is powerless. Such a nation kills the messengers of God, it kills God's own Son until the Lord Himself comes and passes judgment on the arrogant. That the humane Christianity of the Enlightenment, which "finally" lets "all people" "go to heaven", because the eternal chastisement would be very unloving, that democratic Christianity, which is frightened by the election of the believers, as if a "privilege" had been established with it, cancels itself. For if everything finally goes to heaven indiscriminately, if not only a few but all are chosen to the kingdom of God, if hell is not a metaphysical reality but only a horror idea of dark brains, then what is the use of the birth of a Savior and the redemption through death on the cross and faith in it? Then faith and non-belief would become one in the same! The state has then no task to regard the church as something else than a cultural association for the embellishment of family celebrations and funerals for such minds, which set so much value on a particular mood that the fees for it are inclined to spend. But the true church of Christ is based on the metaphysical fact of heaven and hell, of the election and of the redemption of the elect. Only such a Christianity, and therefore only such a church, behind which the eternity of damnation and the eternal bliss are shudderingly and blissfully imagined, may claim a higher dignity than that of the nation.
As Nathan stands before David, as Jesus stands before Pilate, so the ecclesia of God stands before the res publica of the nation. It has no legion to compel the state and the people according to its will; it has nothing but the proclamation of the gospel and the presentation of the grace of God. But in this very thing it has a power that no state and no nation has. The power of the State is that it has the power to dispose of the life and death of men. The power of the Church is faith in the eternal God and the offering of the Kingdom of Heaven. If there is to be a kingdom of heaven, there must also be hell. Therefore, the church has power only where people suspect and fear the infernal powers. For a nation that no longer trembles before hell, the church is powerless. Such a nation kills the messengers of God, it kills God's own Son until the Lord Himself comes and passes judgment on the arrogant. That the humane Christianity of the Enlightenment, which "finally" lets "all people" "go to heaven", because the eternal chastisement would be very unloving, that democratic Christianity, which is frightened by the election of the believers, as if a "privilege" had been established with it, cancels itself. For if everything finally goes to heaven indiscriminately, if not only a few but all are chosen to the kingdom of God, if hell is not a metaphysical reality but only a horror idea of dark brains, then what is the use of the birth of a Savior and the redemption through death on the cross and faith in it? Then faith and non-belief would become one in the same! The state has then no task to regard the church as something else than a cultural association for the embellishment of family celebrations and funerals for such minds, which set so much value on a particular mood that the fees for it are inclined to spend. But the true church of Christ is based on the metaphysical fact of heaven and hell, of the election and of the redemption of the elect. Only such a Christianity, and therefore only such a church, behind which the eternity of damnation and the eternal bliss are shudderingly and blissfully imagined, may claim a higher dignity than that of the nation.