Beheaded for the witness of Jesus

And so it is written, The first man Adam was made a living soul; the last Adam was made a quickening spirit. (I Corinthians 15:45)

The life-giving spirit is the Lord from Heaven. We are nothing apart from Jesus. We are being created of Him and in Him. This is the true Kingdom of God, the Servant of the Lord, the Israel of God, the new Jerusalem. It is the Light that will govern the nations of saved peoples of the earth. It is the Throne of God and of the Lamb. It is the Branch. It is the eternal Temple, the Tabernacle of God.

It is this eternal Tabernacle of God that will at first enforce obedience on the nations of the saved, and after that will create inner obedience in people until everyone dwelling on the new earth has a portion of Christ in himself and will obey God from an obedient heart. The Kingdom of God is as a tiny seed that grows until it is the greatest of the trees. It will be as an immense mountain, a government that will fill the whole earth. This is the nature and significance of the Judaic-Christian salvation.

The servant of the Lord is beheaded.
. . . 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 worshipped the beast, neither his image, neither had received his mark upon their foreheads, or in their hands; . . . (Revelation 20:4)

The believers who attain the first resurrection will have been "beheaded." This may be referring just to those who were decapitated for their testimony, or to all the Christian martyrs. Another interpretation, which is figurative, is that they permitted the Spirit to do away with their fleshly minds so they could follow the Lord by faith and trust.

To do the will of God we must experience a transformation of the mind. The religionist uses his mind in order to practice his religion. The saint is led by the Spirit of God, his mind serving to insure that he is being directed according to the righteousness commanded by the Scriptures.

To be a member of the Body of Christ, part of the Servant of the Lord, we must be "blind" and "deaf" in the world so we may be able to see the Lord and hear His voice. It is impossible to serve the Lord properly, obeying Him faithfully in every detail, until our human mind has been replaced by the mind of the Spirit of God.

The sons of God are led by the Spirit, not by human reasoning. If we would bear a true witness of the Lord Jesus and be an expression of the Word of God we must be "beheaded."

Those who are of the world walk by the light of the world. But those who are of the Lord walk by His light. The saints who rule with God will have no need of the light of the sun for God will illumine them.

And there shall be no night there; and they need no candle, neither light of the sun; for the Lord God giveth them light: and they shall reign for ever and ever. (Revelation 22:5)

And the smoke of their torment ascendeth up for ever and ever: and they have no rest day nor night, who worship the beast and his image, and whosoever receiveth the mark of his name. (Revelation 14:11)

The worship of the Beast. The worship of the Beast (Antichrist) and the image of the Beast are the great issues of the last days. According to the Book of Revelation, one of the primary tasks of the saints of the end-time is to overcome the Beast and his image.

As we have stated previously, the Beast is Antichrist, that is, the desire of man to be his own God. The False Prophet is the attempt of people to gain the power of Christ apart from union with Christ. There is no doubt that these abominations will be a mixture of the world and Christianity. They will represent the maturing of what already is prevalent in the wealthy nations of the earth, the attempt to set up a system that speaks the words of morality, of faith, of hope, of love (even in the name of Jesus) but which is motivated by human reasoning and objectives.

It is our point of view that the "faith" and "prosperity" movements are of the False Prophet. The "Reconstruction" movement appears to be an attempt of Christian people to use the power of Jesus to gain control of civil government. Then too we see Christian leaders attempt to persuade the world leaders to "accept Christ" according to the "four steps of salvation." They do not seek to convince the politicians to walk in obedience before God, to take up their cross and follow the Lord, but to be "born again" in the sense of a shallow mental and verbal acknowledgment of the Christian redemption. Such teaching will not cause the political leaders to tremble, as did Felix. Paul did not talk to Felix about grace or being born again but concerning righteousness, self-control, and judgment to come.

In addition the Christian leaders stress the value of a democratic form of government (which does not of itself result in godly behavior, as evidenced in the United States, France, England, and West Germany) and free-enterprise capitalism as an economic system. We are not certain that it is the Holy Spirit who is sponsoring these attempts to bring the Divine salvation into the political arena.

Antichrist and the False Prophet will attempt to use the things of Christ to solve the problems of the world. It seems these two members of the satanic trinity are with us already.

There may be a day when people are forced to have some sort of mark in their hand or on their forehead in order to participate in the world economic system. Our concern is that today the actions of the believers and their thinking reveal they already are part of the world system. With their hands they serve the God of the world and their minds think like the world.

The believers are worshiping the demons of covetousness, lust, violence, drunkenness, and occult practices as they watch their televisions. They are seeing on the television what Antichrist desires they see. The believers sit in a mental torpor, allowing Satan to stamp their minds with covetousness, lust, murder, reveling, and sorcery. The Christians do not have the strength to resist the entrance of Satan into their homes. This is because they have been taught that Christ desires to forgive them, rather than the truth of the Gospel which is that Christ wants to change them. Salvation is moral transformation. Apart from moral transformation there is no salvation.

To be continued...
R. Thompson