BEFORE we leave the study of the eleventh chapter of Revelation, with its important topic of the witnesses, studied two weeks ago, let us apply God's law of witness to the church. There is instruction and comfort in the truth. What is the truth regarding the witnessing church? In this study we shall be able to offer only the merest outline, suggestions so to speak, of the great amount of evidence God has given in the twofold witness of His Word.
Many of our readers are acquainted with the claim that is made by our Roman Catholic friends; namely, that the Roman Catholic Church is the one witnessing, living church through all the centuries. As the Rt. Rev. John Milner, D.D., F.S.A., in his "End of Controversy," page 95, expresses it, "There is but one inquiry to be made; namely, 'Which is the true church?' . . . By solving this question, 'Which is the true church?' you will at once solve every question of religious controversy that ever has been or that ever can be agitated." In the same connection he declares the true church to be the Roman Catholic as evidenced by "the Scriptures, both Old and New, from the Apostle's Creed, and from constant tradition."
Before we enter upon this study direct let us recall the law of God's witness, which we place in the form of the following self-evident or easily demonstrated propositions:
1. God's witness which He offers in confirmation of a fact is always reliable and infallible.
2. This witness is at least twofold, a double agreeing witness so to speak, witnesses which in the very nature of the case are not and can not be collusive; that is, there has not been nor can there be any secret agreement between the witnesses to testify together to uphold a claim.
3. In all positive truth God writes His Word at least twice in such a way and at such distances apart that the Word itself becomes an infallible witness of itself; and these testimonies are multiplied and cumulative in force throughout the ages. His precepts He writes again in character. His predictions He writes again in fulfilment. To this proposition the ages bear multiform testimony.
4. In His power and wisdom God makes His enemies, the traitors to His truth, the apostasies in His church, the crime and sin of all ages, testify to the truth of His Word, while they are proclaiming error. He does this by the "sure word of prophecy" uttered many times centuries before fulfilment, and always with that particularity in detail that its clear application may be seen by the honest seeker after truth.
5. The human claim to be the people or church of God is nothing; for even Satan appears as an angel of light. The apostate Jews declared themselves to be Abraham's seed; but John declared them to be a "generation of vipers;" and Jesus, children of "the devil." Matt. 3: 7-10; John 8: 39-44.
6. God's church and people have ever consisted not of the great mass, unless the mass stood right, but of the faithful remnant, those who stood for His truth when all others wandered, drifted, rebelled, apostatized.
7. The vital, true, infallible witness is ever that of the Word of God, not the word of men; and the true power in the church of God is the power of the living message she bears in consecrated lives, not in tradition, or a passing from man to man some blessing or commission given of God centuries before. The one thing that God regards above all others is truth. He is the "God of truth," and therefore "just and right is He." Deut. 32: 4. "All His works are done in truth." Jesus said to Him, "Thy Word is truth." The psalmist: "Thy law is the truth." "All Thy commandments are truth." He "keepeth truth forever." "The truth of the Lord endureth forever." "His truth endureth to all generations." His Word being the expression of His truth. Inspiration declares, "Thou hast magnified Thy Word above all Thy name." Therefore as to the human, "Behold, Thou desirest truth in the inward parts." Jesus prays, "Sanctify them through Thy truth: Thy Word is truth." His ministers are to "preach the Word" of truth; and "the lip of truth shall be established forever." And in that day when all things earthly fail, He declares to His trusting child, "His truth shall be thy shield and buckler."
Jesus Christ came to "bear witness unto the truth." John 18: 37. Not in triumph and prosperity always, but in hardship, adversity, and seeming defeat. Even so His church should bear witness to Him. "Ye are My witnesses." And therefore John the Baptist "bare witness unto the truth," and upon His apostles He placed "the Spirit of truth," that they also should "bear witness." The witness they bear, the power they possess, would be in the God-given message. So Jeremiah, responsive to God's call, bearing God's message, was set "over the nations and over the kingdoms, to root out, and to pull down, and to destroy, and to throw down, to build, and to plant." But the doing of the one or the other rested not in the man, but in his message, and the attitude which the nations and peoples assumed toward his message. Jer. 1: 10; 18: 7-10. So to Peter and the other apostles was given power to bind or loose, but the power rested not in the mere men or their successors, but in the Gospel message of truth they bore, and how men related themselves to it. Matt. 16: 19; John 20: 23; Mark 16: 16; 2 Cor. 2: 15, 16. And even so it was with Jesus the Son of God. He was built up who received His word; he was listed for destruction who would not receive it. Matt. 7: 24-27.
One other thing that God regards as of pre-eminent worth in men is loyalty, the true, perfect, devoted heart. Therefore "the eyes of Jehovah run to and fro throughout the whole earth, to show Himself strong in the behalf of them whose heart is perfect toward Him." 2 Chron. 16: 9. God is not demanding perfect knowledge or perfect wisdom or errorless conduct; but He does demand the perfect heart, the heart obedient to all the light it has; and the people with such a heart constitute God's church, or people, wherever found.
This is in harmony with the original term from which "church" comes; namely, ekklesia, the classical meaning of which, according to Liddell and Scott, is "an assembly of citizens summoned by the crier, opposed
