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(II Thess. 2:). The overcomers who repudiate the lie stand on mount Zion; those who
cannot enter into the city, the holy Jerusalem, include everything common or that maketh
an abomination and a LIE. Those written in the Lamb's book of life alone have access.
Only those thus written are able to refuse the mark of the beast:--
"And all that dwell upon the earth shall worship him, each one whose name hath not
been written from the foundation of the world in the book of life of the Lamb slain"
(Rev. 13: 8).
While truth wears different aspects and presents itself under different forms according
to the dispensation under which it appears, it is nevertheless one; the same is true of
error. The truth had ever been the mark of God's children, and the lie the mark of the
devil's; "the devil.......is a LIAR, and the father of IT" (John 8: 44); God is "a God of
truth, and without iniquity" (Deut. 32: 4); He is a God that cannot lie (Titus 1: 2). The
apostasy of the Revelation is spoken of in Isa. 28: 15 as a covenant with death and an
agreement with hell and a refuge of lies. The poor and needy of that day, the Lord's own
flock, they find in the Lord "a refuge from the storm" (Isa. 25: 4). "His truth shall be
their shield and buckler" (Psa. 91: 4). The doctrine of the Antichrist is summed up by
John in his first epistle as a lie, and those who teach it as liars:--
"I have not written unto you because ye know not the truth, but because ye know it,
and that NO LIE is of the truth: who is THE LIAR, but he that denieth that Jesus is the
Christ? This is THE ANTICHRIST, that denieth the Father and the Son" (2: 21, 22).
If we turn to the epistles of the Mystery the same teaching is present:--
"But you have not thus learned Christ, if indeed you heard Him, and were taught by
Him, as the TRUTH is in Jesus (namely) to have put away from you the former manner
of life, the old man which is corrupt according to the deceitful lusts, and to be renewed in
the spirit of your mind; and to have put on the new man which according to God has been
created in holiness and righteousness of TRUTH; wherefore, having put off THE LIE,
speak every man TRUTH with his neighbour" (Eph. 4: 21-25).
Here the lie is the old man and his deeds. This is fundamental. The blasphemy of the
beast, the denial of the antichrist, the well-nigh universal apostasy of the end, are all so
many manifestations of MAN as he is. The regeneration of Israel, the overcomers who
enter the city, the membership of the One Body, these are various manifestations of the
new man, the new creation. Rev. 14:, therefore, while speaking primarily of that future
day of trial, speaks to us now. All that goes to make up the lie we must repudiate, all the
truth we must embrace. Our armour will be useless if our loins are not first girded with
truth, our gospel will be powerless if it is not "the word of truth, the gospel of our
salvation". Righteousness and holiness will be fictitious if they be not of the truth. The
worldliness of modern Christendom is the lie, and those who are of the truth have no
place other than OUTSIDE. We are not to assume to ourselves the blessings and
privileges of the 144,000, but we have our own victory and its blessed results in view.
Where we are at one with all people of God through all dispensations is in our attitude
towards the truth, the lie and the overcoming.