be a Church - State Empire or a State - Church Empire. Church 

Centralization in the name of Christianity is unjustifiable. Propagating 

the Gospel through the law is contradictory to its core principle of 

individual consent to the government of Christ. Involuntary union with 

the imperial church posed a conflict between the spirit and the letter of 

the Gospel, and between spiritual liberty and ecclesiastical law. 

Ecclesiastical tyranny would evoke revolt as much as any political 

tyranny had in ancient times. The Christian mind, however, had yet to 

learn to execute the Gospel governmentally.  Providence worked to 

develop the ecclesia with the capacity to effect social, political and 

economical progress in the world.  Such progress would not occur 

until, first, the Word of God had access to the individual.