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but that others find their place in the `New Jerusalem', and yet others are
blessed with all spiritual blessings `in heavenly places', and that this
sphere of blessing is `where Christ sits at the right hand of God'. We might
moreover bring forward the prevalence of miraculous gifts and the persistence
of the hope of Israel right through the Acts of the Apostles to the last
chapter, and compare and contrast this state of affairs with the teaching of
the `Prison Epistles'. These, and many other studies, are a legitimate
approach to the Scriptures and fulfil the injunction `comparing spiritual
things with spiritual'. In this present study the key word is the word
`witness', and our contention is that every dispensational change is
accompanied by and inaugurated by an accredited witness. We are not left to
our own searchings or deductions, we have these witnesses at intervals along
the way, who declare in the name of Him that sent them, that this or that
change has now taken place. These witnesses stand like sign -posts to warn
that we are at a junction in the road. If this be so, then we should spare
no pains to become acquainted with so important a feature in the unfolding of
the Divine purpose.
The word `witness' (Anglo -Saxon), and the words `testimony' and
`testify' (Latin), together with `record' (Latin), `report' (Latin) and
`martyr' (Anglo -Saxon from the Greek), are employed in the New Testament to
translate the various verbal forms of the word martus and together present a
fairly comprehensive idea of the meaning of the original. Testimony or
witness, is that which is affirmed as something seen, heard or experienced,
or that has been made known by divine revelation, and which the testifier
would be prepared, if need be, to confirm by a `martyr's' death. The same
words ho martus ho pistos are translated `faithful witness' in Revelation 1:5
and `faithful martyr' in Revelation 2:13.
The words that will be employed in the following study are:
martureo
`to bear witness, to testify'.
marturia/on
`that which is testified'.
promarturomai
`to bear witness beforehand'.
epimartureo
`to bear witness, to make a deposition'.
diamarturomai
`to affirm with solemn protestation' and,
sunepimartureo
`to bear witness together', `to concur in testimony'.
The first thing we must do is to discover who and what are called
`witnesses' in the New Testament, and in order to avoid cumbering ourselves
with unwanted material, we shall ignore references to `false witnesses' or
those referred to that have no bearing upon the subject in hand. We are
concerned at the moment with those men who were raised up to announce like a
herald the dawn of a new era.
(1)
John the Baptist. `The same came for a witness' (John 1:7).
(2)
The Lord Jesus Christ. `To this end was I born' (John 18:37).
(a)
The Father bears witness of Christ. `The Father that sent
Me beareth witness' (John 8:18).
(b)
The Holy Spirit's witness of Christ. `He shall testify of
Me' (John 15:26).
(c)
The Scriptures bear witness of Christ. `They are they
which testify of Me' (John 5:39).
(3)
Supernatural Gifts and Signs.
(a)
To Christ. `The works that I do, bear witness of Me' (John
5:36).