| The Christian Life | October 1940 |
Witnesses for Jesus
“And I saw the souls of them that were beheaded for the witness of Jesus, and for the Word of God, and which had not worshiped the beast, neither his image, neither had received his mark upon their foreheads, or in their hands; and they lived and reigned with Christ a thousand years.”—Revelation 20:4
THE twentieth chapter of Revelation follows what is depicted in the preceding chapters as the final overthrow of all that has been associated with Satan and his empire, particularly the false church, as represented by the harlot woman. There also is shown the overthrow of the forces instrumental in destroying the false “woman.” Beginning with the twentieth chapter there is shown another series of events having to do with the establishment of a new rulership on the earth, and the inauguration of true religion, based upon the knowledge of the true God. The “tabernacle of God” is at last seen to be with men—He deals with them, and they become His people.
In the opening verses of Chapter 20 those are identified who will reign with Christ in the new Kingdom. The marks of identification are very interesting, being summed up under two headings: (1) They were “beheaded for the witness of Jesus, and for the Word of God.” In this witness work they are shown not to have been in any way associated with the false systems that had gone before. They had been witnesses for Jesus even unto death. Everything they possessed, even their own lives, they cast aside and accepted Jesus as their Head and thus they died.
(2) They were “holy.” (Rev. 20:6) The formula for attaining holiness, as suggested by Jesus, is a proper application of the Word of Truth. Jesus prayed that His church might attain holiness—entire devotion to the cause of God. He said to His Father, “Sanctify them through Thy Truth: Thy Word is Truth.” (John 17:17) As the sanctifying power of the truth lays hold upon the individuals who make up this class, it brings about a condition of true holiness. When this condition of holiness is attained, these individuals find themselves in the position of being witnesses for Jesus and for the Word of God—co-laborers with God.
THESE QUALIFICATIONS STILL NECESSARY
These then, are the qualifications by which we today as followers of the Master, may hope to be among those who will live and reign with Christ a thousand years. And inasmuch as it is our privilege to be living at the very time when the destructive forces outlined in the preceding chapters are tearing down Satan’s rulership over the earth, how very important it is now to give consideration to the conditions upon which we may have a part with Christ in His Kingdom.
Jesus Himself was a faithful witness. He laid down His life bearing witness of His Father, and declaring the Word of Truth, the gospel of the Kingdom. In doing this, He was carrying out the commission that had been given to Him by the Holy Spirit. This comes to our attention very early in the experiences of the Master when He was in the synagogue at Nazareth, and was given the Old Testament Scriptures to read as was the custom. He turned to Isaiah’s prophecy (Chapter 61), and, reading a portion of the first two verses, claimed that this statement was the authority for the ministry upon which He was then embarking. We quote:
“The Spirit of the Lord God is upon Me; because the Lord hath anointed Me to preach good tidings unto the meek; He hath sent Me to bind up the broken-hearted, to proclaim liberty to the captives, and to open the prison to those who are bound; to proclaim the acceptable year of the Lord.”
Jesus did all of these things, and did them because He was commissioned to do so by the Holy Spirit. The footstep followers of the Master are members of His body. This is why the Revelator saw them as those who were beheaded for the witness of Jesus. They had accepted Him as their Head, in place of their own, and thus had become members of His body. The anointing of the Spirit, therefore, that came upon the Head, is effective for every member of His body. Hence, this royal commission from heaven applies to us even as it applied to Jesus. This means that if we, as followers of the Master, desire to live up to all of our spiritual privileges, we must obey this commission of the Spirit.
Sometimes we may be inclined to think that to the extent we busy ourselves in witnessing for the Truth, we are jeopardizing our spiritual interests. This is not true. The spiritual life of the Christian is made up of a number of elements. We are begotten of the Spirit—there is an energy in us, a new hope of life, which the Holy Spirit begets, nourishes, and builds up. The Holy Spirit is said also to seal us. That is to say, the promises of God that are recorded in His Word, under the operation of the Holy Spirit, give us God’s guarantee of victory. The Holy Spirit is also said to bear witness with our spirits that we are the children of God. What a rich spiritual blessing there is in the realization that if we live up to our privileges we do have this witness of the Spirit. But, the Holy Spirit of God also anoints us, and if we neglect this anointing influence we are not living up to all of our spiritual opportunities.
Notice how this witnessing commission reads: “The Spirit of the Lord God is upon Me.” This would mean that if we are not living up to what the anointing signifies, the Spirit of the Lord is not fully ours. To ignore this anointing, or to count it as of secondary importance, or upon the basis of some fanciful theory which we develop to decide that the anointing of the Spirit no longer is effective in the Christian life, means that we are resisting the power of God, quenching the Holy Spirit of God in our lives.
The term “anointing” is the Bible illustration by which the Lord tells us that He authorizes us by His Holy Spirit to go to work for Him—to be His co-workers. In bearing witness to the Truth, we are partners with God in the great plan of salvation by which the whole world is to be reconciled to Him.
PREACHING TO THE MEEK
“The Lord hath anointed me to preach unto the meek.” Notice, we are commissioned to preach glad tidings only to the meek. We are not to force these glad tidings upon anyone. We are not to do violence to the laws of the land in order to impose this message upon the consciences of the people. We are merely to preach good tidings to the meek, that is, to those who are willing to listen. How are we to do this? The Scriptures give us the proper methods of procedure. We are to “sow beside all waters.” We are also informed that in the morning we are to sow the seed and in the evening to withhold not our hands. The Lord has made it plain that if we thus proclaim the glad tidings as far and wide as we possibly can, then He will direct the issue as to the number of meek ones who will be reached and blessed thereby. Yes, we are to proclaim the glad tidings even in the evening. We are pretty far into the “evening” now, but this is no excuse for ceasing to bear witness to the truth.
Inasmuch as the Lord thus gives us the commission to continue preaching even at the very time when the dark night is settling down upon the world, it evidently means that there are still some meek ones to be found. We may not know where these are to be found, but if we sow the truth beside all waters, God will see that it reaches those whom He desires to call—“the Lord giveth the increase.” It is for us to be faithful in broadcasting the message by every means possible, to sow the seed in the morning and in the evening, and beside all waters, everywhere, and let the Lord take care of the results. This is God’s command through His Word, and it has a direct application upon our being “beheaded for the witness of Jesus and for the Word of God.”
Some may say, what good does it do to bear witness to the Truth? This is not the time for converting the world. True, this is not the time for converting the world, but it is the time to witness to the world, and this witness is to be given to the world whether they hear or whether they forbear. We might just as well ask what good did Jesus do? Jesus laid down His life witnessing for the Truth, as He was commissioned to do; but not because He expected immediate results. We are to do the same, because the royal commission of God likewise applies to us. How blessed it is to be conscious of the fact that we are guided and strengthened by the same instructions of the Holy Spirit as was our Master and Head.
Jesus bore witness to the Truth right down to the very end. When Pilate asked Him if He were a king, He replied, “To this end was I born, and for this cause came I into the world, that I should bear witness unto the Truth.” On Calvary’s cross, with His last breath almost spent, Jesus preached a wonderful sermon on restitution. Throughout the years of His ministry He used His strength to perform those remarkable miracles that illustrated the message He was proclaiming.
So we might well ask what good did Jesus do? Did He convert the Jewish masses? No, He did not. Just five days before His crucifixion He wept over Jerusalem, saying, “O Jerusalem, Jerusalem, which killest the prophets, and stonest them that are sent unto thee; how often would I have gathered thy children together, as a hen doth gather her brood under her wings, and ye would not! Behold, your house is left unto you desolate.”—Luke 13:34,35
Did Jesus convert Pilate? No! But He witnessed to Pilate! Did He convert the gainsaying crowd that heaped ridicule upon Him as He hung upon the cross? He certainly did not, but He bore witness to them nevertheless. After the Master had said that the hour of darkness had come, still He continued to fulfill the terms of His anointing, even unto death. It was only His death that stopped Him from witnessing.
We are also to work until the “night cometh wherein no man can work.” And this doesn’t mean that we are to arbitrarily decide when the night comes, and on this basis conclude that it is time to stop witnessing to the Truth. The Divine plan is to keep on until “no man can work.” And we are not to be concerned about how much good it will do. We are not to expect reward for our service this side of the veil. If we are willing to serve the Lord only if He shows us immediate results for our labors, then we do not have the spirit of Christ. The Lord does not want this kind of service.
THE HOPE OF RESURRECTION
“He hath sent me to bind up the broken-hearted, to proclaim liberty to the captives, and the opening of the prison to them that are bound.” In these expressions, while they are telling us of to whom it is our privilege to bear witness, yet we also have outlined in them the nature of the message we are to proclaim. As we analyze these statements they are found to reveal that one of the great fundamentals of the Kingdom message is the fact that it holds out a hope of resurrection from the dead.
If we should remove from our message the fact of the resurrection of the dead, we would have no message at all worth talking about. We would have no message of comfort for the church, and nothing wherewith we could bind up the broken-hearted in the world—nothing that would imply “liberty to the captives.” The apostle says that if there be no resurrection of the dead, then is our faith vain, our preaching in vain, and we are found “false witnesses.”—I Cor. 15:13-15
Thus the apostle informs us that the true witnesses of the Lord are those who proclaim the message of the resurrection of the dead. This is true not only concerning our hope, the hope of the church, but it is equally true respecting hope for the dead world of mankind, because Paul outlines the fact that in our suffering with Christ, in our being held in jeopardy every hour, it is because we are being baptized with Jesus on behalf of the dead world. If the dead world is not to be resurrected, then this death-baptism of the true witnesses is in vain.
Certainly the Kingdom message which we are commissioned to preach is one that must, if it has God’s approval, have incorporated in it the hope of restitution, “spoken by the mouth of all God’s holy prophets since the world began.” (Acts 3:21) This is the glorious hope of resurrection for the world of mankind.
THE ACCEPTED TIME
Jesus was also anointed to preach the acceptable year of the Lord. Here is that part of the message that has to do with the church. Jesus began the preaching of the acceptable year of the Lord. So far as He was concerned it began at the time of His consecration; for the church it began at Pentecost. And while the dark night is now closing in upon some parts of the earth, it has not reached this country sufficiently to prevent us from still enjoying the privilege of proclaiming the acceptable year of the Lord.
Proclaiming the acceptable year of the Lord simply means holding out the hope of the high calling, which is based upon the fact that during the Gospel age God accepts the sacrifices of His saints, counting them “holy and acceptable,” because they are offered through Christ; and also because they are offered in the “acceptable year.” Paul says, “Now is the accepted time.”—II Cor. 6:2
Are we still to preach this? Yes, of course, there is nothing in the Scriptures that cancels this part of the commission; nothing at all except that when that work is completed the night will settle down when no man can work. In our study of the divine plan, we have learned to know enough about God to realize that He is a God of order; that He is a God of power, and that He has His entire plan completely in hand. We can note with what definiteness the high calling was opened up to the early church. There was no guesswork about it. This work of sacrifice was begun so definitely that there was no doubt in the minds of the early church about it.
Can we suppose that at the end of the age God would withdraw His overruling providence with respect to His message of Truth, and permit His zealous people to continue preaching the acceptable year of the Lord after He had closed the door? Would He permit any to have engendered in their hearts this hope of winning the prize if there were no such hope? Would God allow Himself to be placed in a position where He would need to explain that His people had no right to preach the high calling, hence that He had no place in the church for those who had thus been inspired by His Truth?
Can we imagine God running His affairs like this? No! The gospel message pertaining to the acceptable year of the Lord started out definitely just when God wanted it to. And when this acceptable year is fully ended, and there is no further opportunity for spirit-begetting, we may expect it to stop just as definitely. God will not permit us to preach the Truth when that door is closed. The very fact that we find dear ones still offering themselves in full consecration to the Lord, means that we are to continue preaching this acceptable year of the Lord. It is still a part of our commission!
THE DAY OF VENGEANCE
The Master did not quote further from the commission of Isaiah 61:1-3, and advisedly so; because the next part did not apply to Him in the flesh. It reads, “To declare the day of vengeance of our God.” This “day of vengeance” was outlined in the prophecies as the period of trouble at this end of the age, that brings about the overthrow of Satan’s empire. It was not due in Jesus’ day. But we are now living in that day of vengeance. The hand of God is heavy upon the nations, and because it is we see throughout the world exactly what the Master stated would be the condition, namely, that all the tribes of the earth are mourning because of Him. It is these mourning ones that we are to endeavor to comfort with the Kingdom message.
However, to declare the day of vengeance does not at all imply the thought of pronouncing vengeance—“vengeance is mine, saith the Lord.” Our proclaiming of the day of vengeance is simply giving the Bible explanation of the significance of what is taking place in the world: that the time has come for God to establish His Kingdom. It is the hope of this glorious remedy that brings comfort to those who otherwise would be bewildered and mourning. And when we get this viewpoint it is seen that the day of vengeance message is the most blessed, the most happifying, the most cheering one that God’s witnesses ever had the privilege of proclaiming.
MOURNERS IN ZION
There is still another part of the commission, namely, to “appoint unto them that mourn in Zion, to give unto them beauty for ashes, the oil of joy for mourning.” (Isa. 61:3) If we apply this to the nominal church, we would all agree that there is plenty of mourning going on there—perhaps more than at any previous time, because nominal churchianity is failing. The question is being propounded from every quarter of the church, by laymen and ministers alike, Has Christianity failed? Millions who have had the idea that the church would convert the world, and that civilization was reaching ever higher levels, are losing faith. They are seeking an answer to the unexpected developments in the world. Today, dear friends, orthodoxy means very little, because these disillusioned ones realize it cannot furnish the answer to their problems. Present truth does furnish the answer, and it is our privilege to proclaim it to as many of these mourning ones as we can.
But there is even a more vital application of this commission to those who “mourn in Zion,” and that is to the true Zion, the Lord’s true people. The prophet has outlined that which has actually happened down here at this end of the age; namely, that God’s own people, harvested by the message of present truth, have had temporarily drawn over their eyes a veil of blindness which, today, has resulted in a condition among them of mourning such as we can hardly imagine. And it is to these, especially, that we are commissioned to “appoint beauty for ashes, the oil of joy for the mourning, the garment of praise for the spirit of heaviness.”
Ashes are a symbol of destruction, as well as of humiliation and disfigurement. As truth people, having been brought together by the message of present truth, we had built up in our minds a sort of castle in the air. We had been harvested out of Babylon, gathered together as a people. Many thought that we would go into the Kingdom as one body—as one happy people. But this air castle fell like ashes around us, and there still are many who are mourning because of it.
Many of these already have been caused to rejoice by the Truth being restored to them, but there are still others of the Lord’s people throughout this country and other countries as well, that do not now rejoice; yet they are our brethren. It is our privilege to give to these “beauty for ashes”: that is, to restore to them the Truth, We are not to give them the false beauty of human conception, but the real beauty that God first gave to us, and that is the beauty of the Truth. It is our privilege in carrying out this commission to reach these dear ones as fast as we can, with every self-sacrificing effort we can put forth, and to remind them that the Truth is, indeed, still the Truth. We are to make it plain that this thing that came crashing down like ashes was not the Truth, but simply the trappings which men attempted to attach to the Truth.
Some may say, Yes, I would be glad to help my brethren, but where will I find them? That is just it. The Lord has not given us the addresses of His people who are mourning. If He had, there would be no necessity for us to sacrifice very much in order to help them. God’s plan for finding and helping these mourners in Zion is the same as for reaching the other classes, and that is, to sow beside all waters. We are to proclaim the message as far and wide as possible, and the Lord in His love and His providence will see that some of the seeds get to the right addresses. In order to broadcast the Truth it is necessary that we make a sacrifice. The Lord has given us the hardest way, in order that we may have the opportunity to demonstrate our love for Him and for His people and that we may, by doing the hard things, show that we are of the sort that He can use in the Kingdom.
That these dear ones now mourning in Zion are the Lord’s people, is shown in the fact that they are called “trees of righteousness, the planting of the Lord, that He might be glorified.” (Isa. 61:3) Yes, they are the planting of the Lord—the remnant of the “wheat” class—and were harvested by the Lord’s message. Surely we can’t conclude that the great majority of those thus harvested by the sickle of present truth will, in the final picture, turn out to be merely tares; but rather that God is permitting this final test to come upon all His people. In this final testing He is teaching each one of us the lesson of individual obedience apart from any human props or instrumentalities. He is teaching us to stand alone with Him in this hour of trial.
Some have already gotten up on their feet, but there are still others who need a helping hand—the helping hand it is our privilege to extend to them in this hour of their trial. Let us not conclude that those who still may be mourning in Zion are not the planting of the Lord. It is our privilege to lay down our lives for these because they are our brethren. Indeed, we have a glorious privilege now to carry out the commandment of Jesus, to love one another as He loved us.
If we are faithful in doing this, and in witnessing the Truth to all as we have opportunity, the Lord will bless us; and in such a course of faithfulness to Him we can have the consciousness that this is what the Holy Spirit has commissioned us to do. Obeying this commission in the true spirit we will be among those who are “beheaded for the witness of Jesus and for the Word of God,” and who will “live and reign with Christ a thousand years.”