The Witness

THE WITNESS

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God is invisible. He hides Himself and we are commanded to seek Him. Although He remains mysterious and inaccessible, God has issued a testimony of who He is, what He is, what His will is, what His ways are, what His purpose is, what pleases Him, and what displeases Him. We can see that this testimony, the Divine witness of God, is all-important. Apart from it mankind is ignorant and stands in peril of being destroyed by Divine judgment and wrath.

The Lord Jesus Christ is the only true Witness of God. We can behold the invisible God in the Person of Christ. We can learn about God from who and what Christ is. We can learn about God from what Christ says. We can learn about God from what Christ does. What Christ is, says, and does constitute the witness, the testimony, the expression, the Word of God.

He who does the will of God abides forever. He is a faithful and true witness because God in Christ has entered him and the true Light now shines from him. The hidden, invisible God has found another witness of Himself. Another place of abode in the Father’s House (which is Christ) has become occupied for eternity.

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And without controversy great is the mystery of godliness: God was manifested in the flesh, justified in the Spirit, seen by angels, preached among the Gentiles, believed on in the world, received up in glory. (I Timothy 3:16)

God is invisible. He hides Himself and we are commanded to seek Him. It appears most of the angels were not able to behold Him prior to His appearing in Christ.

No man can see God. Those who would enter presumptuously into the Presence of God are in danger of death, as in the case of the two sons of Aaron, and also Uzzah who sought to steady the Ark of the Covenant.

Although He remains mysterious and inaccessible, God has issued a testimony of who He is, what He is, what His will is, what His ways are, what His purpose is, what pleases Him, and what displeases Him.

We can see that this testimony, the Divine witness of God, is all-important. Apart from it, mankind is ignorant and stands in peril of being destroyed by Divine judgment and wrath.

The Lord Jesus Christ is the only true Witness of God. Christ is the Way of God. Christ is the Truth of God. Christ is the Life of God. No person can come to the Father except through the Lord Jesus Christ.

We can behold the invisible God in the Person of Christ. We can learn about God from who and what Christ is. We can learn about God from what Christ says. We can learn about God from what Christ does. What Christ is, says, and does compose the witness, the testimony, the expression, the Word of God.

No one has seen God at any time. The only begotten Son, who is in the bosom of the Father, He has declared Him. (John 1:18)

Christ is the Testimony, the Witness, the Word of God made flesh.

God is wrapped in mystery. He is a Spirit. He is hidden, unapproachable, impossible to comprehend. Yet God is seeking to make every creature and element of the universe an expression of Himself through Christ. It is God’s will to be All in all in His creation through Christ.

Now when all things are made subject to Him, then the Son Himself will also be subject to Him who put all things under Him, that God may be all in all. (I Corinthians 15:28)
that in the dispensation of the fullness of the times He might gather together in one all things in Christ, both which are in heaven and which are on earth—in Him. (Ephesians 1:10)

God has expressed the mystery of Himself in Christ. Christ remains a Divine Mystery to the world. The world cannot see Him, hear His voice, understand His sayings, or comprehend His works.

The elect are learning to know Him, to hear His voice, to understand His sayings, and to comprehend His works.

who alone has immortality, dwelling in unapproachable light, whom no man has seen or can see, to whom be honor and everlasting power. Amen. (I Timothy 6:16)

Man was made in the image of God. The creation of Adam and Eve was the beginning of the revelation of the invisible God. God does not resemble an animal or any of the other images demon-worshiping men have carved out for themselves. God showed us His image and likeness when He created Adam and Eve.

Adam reveals the capacity for rulership and judgment that are in God’s Nature. Eve shows the beauty and fruitfulness in God’s Nature. Taken as one, Adam and Eve portray in themselves the image and likeness of God. Together they were entrusted with the responsibility of multiplying the image of God and with the authority to rule the works of God’s hands.

Man is the image of God, has the capacity for union with God and with others of his kind, and has been commissioned to be fruitful and also to govern the works of God’s hands. None of these endowments is true of any animal. None of these is true of any order of angels.

However, Adam and Eve were but a faint image and testimony of who and what the invisible God is and does. If people are to be faithful and true witnesses of Almighty God, many Divine operations must be performed on them after they are born into the world, and God Himself and Christ must enter them.

In Adam and Eve we gain a glimpse of the Father in Heaven. But the way of God, the truth of God, and the Life of God are not portrayed in Adam and Eve.

The nation of Israel was selected from among the descendants of Adam and Eve to be the witness of God’s Person and will. Other nations of peoples were deemed expendable so the testimony could be brought forth through Israel.

But now, thus says the LORD, who created you, O Jacob, and He who formed you, O Israel: “Fear not, for I have redeemed you; I have called you by your name; you are Mine. (Isaiah 43:1)
For I am the LORD your God, the Holy One of Israel, your Savior; I gave Egypt for your ransom, Ethiopia and Seba in your place. (Isaiah 43:3)
“You are My witnesses,” says the LORD, “and My servant whom I have chosen, that you may know and believe Me, and understand that I am He. Before Me there was no god formed, nor shall there be after Me. (Isaiah 43:10)

Israel was the light, the testimony, the witness of God for a season. After the ministry of John the Baptist, the true Light of God, Christ, appeared for three short years. Then the lamp was passed to the Christian Church.

From God’s Word to Abraham, and to other patriarchs, prophets, and apostles, we understand the Kingdom of God is coming to the earth, that His will shall be done in the earth. The true witness of God, the true herald of the dawn, the true morning star, is the one who brings the light of that Kingdom to us.

Physically the morning star is Venus, a bright planet. The problem is, there are two spiritual morning stars, two sons of the dawn. He who would come to know the Father and enter the true Kingdom of God must choose between the two morning stars. Meanwhile the Father remains hidden. Each of us is required to make his choice, to decide which of the two morning stars truly is reflecting the Person and will of the God of Heaven and earth (the Light whom no man can approach).

“How you are fallen from heaven, O Lucifer [day star], son of the morning! How you are cut down to the ground, you who weakened the nations! (Isaiah 14:12)

In Isaiah, the Spirit of Christ addresses Satan as a morning star, a herald of a new day. Satan convinced Eve his way was best, that he was bringing the true light, the true Kingdom of God, so to speak. But Satan failed to convince the Lord Jesus that worshiping him was the true way of life, the correct manner in which to gain everlasting fruitfulness and dominion.

Christ refers to Himself as the Bringer of the true Light, as the true and faithful Witness of the invisible God.

“I, Jesus, have sent My angel to testify to you these things in the churches. I am the Root and the Offspring of David, the Bright and Morning Star.” (Revelation 22:16)

There are two morning stars that claim to be the heralds of the Day of God. Satan is a morning star. Our Lord and Savior Christ also is a morning star.

We understand the struggle for image, fruitfulness, and dominion is not a struggle of power, for Christ possesses all power, all authority in Heaven and on the earth. Rather, it is a struggle concerning light, concerning truth. Each creature must decide who is faithfully and truly revealing the morning of Divine Glory that is at hand.

Who today is truly portraying the invisible God? Are the Christian churches bearing a true and faithful witness of the Person and way of God? Are you bearing a true witness of God? Am I?

The Pharisees of Jesus’ day were certain they were bearing a true witness of God. But they were, in fact, bearing Satan’s witness. Satan was dwelling in them and giving his testimony, his light. He was bearing his witness in the works, words, and personalities of the teachers of the Law of Moses. These “bringers of the light of God” murdered the true Morning Star when He appeared.

Are we Christians of today bearing a true witness of God and of His Christ?

There are three ways in which each person bears witness of God and of the coming Kingdom of God: by what he does, by what he says, and by what he is.

Every human being, every descendant of Adam and Eve, was created in the image and likeness of God. He or she is bearing witness of who and what God is, what His ways are, what His will for man is, what He blesses and what He curses.

We are bearing witness of God to the heavens and to the earth by what we do, by what we say, and by what we are. Whether or not we are part of a religious organization, we are bearing witness of God. We are testifying—giving our version, our opinion, concerning the Day of God that is coming, concerning what God will be like when we behold Him. We are not neutral. We are gathering with Christ or we are scattering what Christ is attempting to gather.

We who are Christians have been chosen from the ranks of mankind to bear witness of the invisible God in a special way. The Holy Spirit has been given to us so what we do, say, and become as a person may reveal the true Person and will of God. Satan is more interested in us than he is in the peoples of the world. Satan desires to be the morning star—the revealer and God of all that is true, all that is desirable.

Satan schemes night and day in order to find an entrance into the Christian churches so his witness may be borne. He has been successful in numerous instances. Consider the works, words, and character of the Christian organizations over the past two thousand years!

Satan regards himself as the morning star. He gave Eve his version of the ways of God. He impresses on the peoples of the earth the values and “truth” he esteems. He infiltrates the Christian churches and seduces the believers until they portray his nature rather than the Nature of God.

God does not prevent Satan from attempting to deceive people, because it is necessary for the building of the Kingdom of God that each member of his own will choose the true witness; and he must choose the truth while the consequences of his choice cannot be seen (except by faith in the Word of God).

Satan constantly is bearing witness of his version of what is true, what is righteous, what is proper, what is of worth, what will bring peace and joy, how man, who is in God’s image, should look, should dress, should think, should speak, should behave. The communication media and educational systems of our day are devoted to bearing Satan’s witness of the invisible God. The morning star has risen in world civilization but it is the wrong morning star.

The works of Satan can be seen in the world and in the churches. The sins of the flesh are practiced on every side. In many instances the “saints” testify by their deeds, words, and personalities that as long as they are alive on the earth it is expected and necessary they sin; it is expected and necessary they worship Satan. All sin is the worship of Satan. The believers in Christ without realizing it bear the testimony of the fallen morning star.

The believers in Christ lie, steal, lust, hate, criticize, and do a number of other things alien to the Nature of the invisible God. The believers are commanded to be the image of God and they profess the name of the Lord Jesus. But by their conduct they are bearing a false witness of God’s Person, Word, and will.

What is the world’s impression of God after nearly two thousand years of the witness of the Christian churches? Does the world understand by the behavior of the leaders of the churches the righteousness and holiness of God?

It may be true that the peoples of the world learn more of God from conscience and nature than they do from those who bear the name of Christ. Satan has been quite successful in seducing Christians to burn other Christians at the stake, in inciting competition among Christian denominations until one scorns the other as being “of the devil.”

The words of Satan can be heard in the world and in the churches. The False Prophet of the satanic trinity is the spirit of religious delusion. Most of the inhabitants of the earth are quite religious. They have been deceived into worshiping demons. Unnumbered millions of people speak words of religion throughout each day; but more often than not they are Satan’s verbal testimony concerning truth, concerning who and what is the true God and eternal life.

Theology is the churches’ substitute for Divine truth. Theology tends to divide and slay the work of God.

Divine Truth is Christ. Truth is not a collection of facts, it is a Person.

Divine truth is in the Spirit of God. When we possess the Spirit of truth we understand the faithful sayings of the hidden God. God cannot be comprehended by the brain of man. The brain of man is able to collect and label the facts associated with God and with the plan of redemption. But these systems and labels are at best only partly true. Spiritual truth cannot be understood by human logic and reasoning.

The Holy Spirit is the Spirit of Truth. He bears a true witness of God and God’s Christ. The individual in whom Christ is abiding possesses the Truth of God, not necessarily or always in his head but necessarily and always in his heart.

The believer who is filled with the Spirit of God speaks the Words that are coming from God. Also, through the Spirit he is able to understand the Scriptures. The Scriptures did not originate in the mind of men; holy men spoke as they were moved by the Spirit of truth. The Scriptures can be understood only by holy people as they are moved by the Spirit of truth.

The Christian churches describe the testimony to the best of their ability. They give their opinion of what is true about God and Christ. Such a “testimony” is borrowed light and often is polluted by the flesh.

In some instances the Christian spokesman is seeking his own glory, not the glory of Him whom he is attempting to represent. He speaks in a manner designed to impress and gain favor with people. He bears a false witness because he does not reflect in his personality the Personality of God and he does not in his teaching convey accurately both the goodness and the severity of God.

He who is seeking to win people will speak what the people desire to hear. He bears a false witness. He who is seeking to please God will speak by the Spirit of God. He bears a true witness.

Christ has shed upon us the Holy Spirit so we can bear a true witness of His atoning death, His triumphant resurrection, and His soon coming to redeem His elect and to judge the works of people.

What Satan is can be seen in Antichrist. Antichrist is the personification of the self-will of people. People who are motivated by their self-will, their self-centeredness, are revealing in themselves the nature of Satan. Antichrist is the fulfillment, the supreme, climactic example, of man making himself God. Antichrist is the final result of the social and educational philosophies of the twentieth century.

The works of the flesh, such as fornication, murder, and greed, are Satan’s imitation of the Person and work of God. Religious delusion, the attempt to move in the spirit realm apart from the Holy Spirit, apart from the cross of the Lord Jesus or the personal cross of the believer, is Satan’s imitation of the Holy Spirit of God. Man’s self-centeredness, self-seeking, self-love, self-will, are Satan’s imitation of Christ.

Both in the world and in the Christian churches can be found the false witness of the hidden, invisible God, the false herald of the dawn, the false morning star. The false witness of God consists of the works of our sinful flesh, religious delusion, and self-centeredness. The character and behavior of the large nations of today are Satan’s witness of what is true, what is desirable, what leads to glory, to peace, to joy.

There is only one Person who truly knows the hidden, invisible God, who sees Him, who is able to reveal Him, who is the faithful and true witness of who God is, what God is working, what God is saying. Every other person is a liar and is seeking his own glory.

Christ, and Christ alone, is the true and faithful Witness of the invisible God. Christ alone is able to truly portray the works, the words, and the Person of the invisible God.

We can endeavor to learn about Christ and God and then attempt to bear a true witness of God before the peoples of the earth.

But there is a better way.

Christ Himself is the Way to God and the Way of God. God’s Way is the Lord Jesus Christ. As the Holy Spirit forms Christ in us, and as Christ and the Father come to make Their abode in what has been formed in our personality, then the Way of God has been formed in us and is abiding in us.

As the Way, Christ, is formed in us and is abiding in us, our works reveal the invisible God. When our life is hidden with Christ in God, and as our adamic nature is being crucified, our works become a true witness of the invisible Father in Heaven. It no longer is we who are living and working but Christ, the Way of God, the Witness of God, who is living and working in our personality.

“Let your light so shine before men, that they may see your good works and glorify your Father in heaven. (Matthew 5:16)

Christ is the Way to God and the only Way to God. When Christ lives in us the Way of God can be seen in our behavior in the world. As He is, so are we in the world. We become part of the only true and faithful Witness to the heavens and the earth of the invisible God. We are revealing in ourselves the truth of God, the Day of God, the coming Kingdom of God (which is the doing of God’s will in the earth as it is in Heaven).

Christ is the Divine Morning Star, the Son of the Dawn, the Sun of righteousness. He desires to give us the Morning Star that He Himself is—the one true Herald of the Day of the Lord (II Peter 1:19; Revelation 2:28).

Christ Himself is the Truth of God.

“All things have been delivered to Me by My Father, and no one knows the Son except the Father. Nor does anyone know the Father except the Son, and the one to whom the Son wills to reveal Him. (Matthew 11:27)

It is impossible to know God through the Scriptures alone. The careful, consistent study of the Scriptures is a wise, profitable, and necessary pursuit. The holy Scriptures are a light shining in a dark place. But only Christ Himself can reveal the Father to a human being.

As we come into union with Christ Himself, dying to our old nature and ways of behaving, He—Christ—reveals the Father to us. Our entrance into the Divine rest, into the Presence, will, and knowledge of the Father, enables us to speak the Words that are from the Father. Also, the Holy Spirit guides us so we speak as the oracles of God.

The knowledge of the Father increases in us as Christ is formed in us—command upon command, rule upon rule, here a little and there a little. We cannot embrace God all at once. As our old nature is brought down in weakness and death, Christ, the true Day Star, arises in our heart. Then we know more of God and speak what God Himself is speaking. This is the true witness to the heavens and the earth.

Christ Himself is the Way, the Truth, and the Life. No person can come to the Father, the invisible God, except through Christ. It is only as the Life of Christ is formed in us and is abiding in us that we can be a true witness of God.

When we seek to save our life we lose it. We can attempt to save our life by spending all our days in the effort to find and portray God, but our quest may prove to be of little value. In fact, religious striving soon is so filled with Satan’s works, words, and life that the testimony becomes false and misleading.

The only path that leads to our goal is union with Him who alone is the faithful and true Witness of God. We are to obey the Holy Spirit as He cleanses the sin and self-seeking from our nature. We are to keep the righteous commandments of Jesus as God gives us wisdom and strength.

Little by little the Word of God works in us until we “fall backward, and be broken, and snared, and taken” (Isaiah 28:13). Our religious self is confronted by the Lord Jesus. Self-will, self-love, self-seeking, are stripped from our personality. All cunning and deviousness must be removed from us.

We consent to the weakness, the death of the cross. We enter eternal union with Christ. We choose to abide in Jesus and He in us. Life merges with Life for eternity. The wall between us and God is dissolved permanently. God in Christ becomes All in all in us forever.

The deepest prayer of the true saint is that he always will be found in Christ; that he will be with Him and in Him wherever He is. The desire to gain from God, or to accomplish something in the name of Jesus that can be seen by other people, is burned away as the disciple becomes willing to let go of everything else and seek Christ alone.

Our pilgrimage through this valley of the shadow of death has served its purpose when God Himself has become our Goal, when we count all our personal gain as loss for Christ, when every other ambition is regarded as relatively worthless. When this is true of us we have entered the Divine rest, the Fullness of God, and are abiding in His will.

He who is at rest in God, in His will, is an eternal witness to the heavens and the earth of the will, the works, the words, and the Person of God. All true witnesses of God are eternal. Noah, Daniel, and Job are bearing witness to this day and will continue to do so forever.

No one born only of Adam can behold the hidden God. We must be born again of the Spirit of God.

The human being who will give back to God all he does, all he says, and all he is, will abide in Christ and Christ in him. He will become an eternal part of the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit.

The inevitable, assured result and reward of our becoming one in Christ in God is that we shall bear forever a true witness of God, and forever we shall behold the Face of the hidden, invisible God (Revelation 22:4).

(“The Witness”, 3416-1)