3. The First Two Witnesses

3. The First Two Witnesses - for Notes

3. The First Two Witnesses - PP

The First Two Witnesses
Abel and Enoch

Typically, we have put Abel together with Cain, not with Enoch. I see now we have missed God’s whole point.

Through [full assurance of] faith Abel offered to God a more valuable sacrifice than Cain; through which he received the witness of being just and innocent, God bearing witness to his gifts, and through them, he still speaks, though having died. Through faith Enoch was transferred and changed, not to perceive death, and he was not found, because God had transferred him over. Before being transferred, he was affirmed as having been well-pleasing to God (Hebrews 11:4-5).

Transferred. Some love to debate whether Enoch actually “died” or not. These people do not look for Christ, that’s why they prefer the serpent’s definition of word as intellectual ideas only.

If Enoch still had a physical body, he would be living on earth today. Since he’s not, that means he does not have a physical body. But does that mean he died?

That is not the point, however, the point is God setting forth right here at the beginning the meaning and testimony of the two witnesses of the Lord Jesus Christ. The point is the meaning for us of “transferred and changed,” the second part of the testimony of Christ. The word used does not mean death, but life.

Witnesses. Here are the two witnesses by this pattern. Life-laid down – Seized into God. The Lamb slain – the Life of Jesus made visible in our dying flesh. The two witnesses of Revelation 11 – The male child of Revelation 12.

Now, in order for us to understand the testimony spoken to us by Abel and Enoch, we must know the context and setting in which they gave their witness.

More than that, we must know the meaning and importance of this Greek word translated “witness” or “testimony,” or sometimes straight from the Greek as “martyr.”

Primary Words. In John’s vision, the defining term, of course, is apocalupsis, the cover being removed from all eyes so that Christ is now known as He is, in us His body.

Beyond that primary word, then, two other words are at the forefront of meaning in the vision, nike and martureo, that is “overcome” and “witness.” The first connection between Genesis and Revelation is the bringing forth of life, but the second connection is due process of law inside of a courtroom.

God is the one on trial and Christ Jesus is His evidence. Nonetheless, two or three witnesses are required. “Overcome” could even reference the burden of proof.

Crime and Evidence. God’s crime is revealing Himself through human flesh; the final proof of God is a people who have put the Lord Jesus Christ upon themselves and who stand firm in faith that God is telling us the truth.

Look at the larger context in Hebrews 11, verses 1 & 6. Now, faith is the substance and underlying reality of things hoped for, the proof of things not now being perceived. – Moreover, without faith one is incapable of pleasing God; indeed, it is required of the one approaching God [in the Holiest] to believe that God is and that He becomes the rewarder of those seeking out and requiring of Him.

John says that our faith overcomes – the accusation.

Every Word Established. The writer of Hebrews is placing Abel and Enoch as God’s two witnesses inside this trial of the faith of God. Then, Noah is also thrown in as a third witness. In the mouth of two or three witnesses every word will be established (2 Corinthians 13:1).

Now, we are not saying that Abel and Enoch are the proof of God to creation; rather, their testimony is for us.

Abel and Enoch as they are now cannot be the final evidence of God, for they have no present flesh in the earth. But as we embrace God’s meaning for us through Abel and Enoch, we know how to stand firm as God’s final proof.


Prosecution and Defense. The Crime: God manifest in the flesh.

The Two Witnesses for the Prosecution: (1) Adam and six thousand years of human rebellion filled with unbelief, dishonesty, and a refusal to hear. (2) The Christian Church and two thousand years of refusing God through her.

The Two Witnesses for the Defense: (1) Our assertive and absolute faith that Christ IS our only life, that we know our Father through Jesus in our hearts and that God enters into His creation through us. (2) Our love for one another, God among us.

There is no understanding of God-revealed-now apart from this critical metaphor. It has never been God accusing us, but humans accusing God.

Our Witness. Every knee shall bow… and every tongue shall speak the same word that is Jesus (Philippians 2).

Every individual human being, all of whom testify against God that His word is untrue, that man is not God’s image and that God does NOT show Himself through regular folk, each one will face, personally and head-on, the meaning and power of our witness that God-IS.

This includes most Christians. And this fact is illustrated for us through the testimony of Noah, coming up in the next lesson, that is, how the witness for God judges all prosecution of God.

From this perspective, then, let’s look first at Abel.

The First against the Second. Adam enters first, before Jesus. Cain comes first, before Abel. Ishmael comes first, before Isaac. Esau comes first, before Jacob. The nation of Israel comes first, before the Church of Christ. But, just as at that time, the one born according to flesh persecuted the one born according to Spirit, so also it is now (Galatians 4:29).

This is a fixed pattern of God, that He always rejects the first and places His calling upon the second. And that the first always then persecutes the second out of envy.

God has a purpose for this, which He might well show us. Out from this pattern, then, the writer of Hebrews establishes God’s total rejection of the Old Covenant.

A Hard Cain. Thus Cain enters the picture first, representing all humans who reject a God who shows Himself freely through human weakness. Cain worked hard, and he built his own world before God with his two hands.

The fruit of the earth was not the problem, however; the problem was Cain’s motivation and purpose. Cain connected fully with his father’s lust to be strong in self, right in self, dominating in self, and to worship an image of “God” that was arrogant.

Now Eve, representing the Church of Christ, is the victim in all this struggle. She trusted the anointed cherub, she trusted her husband, she trusted her firstborn son, and all of them abused her for their own selfish benefit.

A Desperate Eve. Consider Eve’s words after her third son, Seth, is born. “God has appointed another seed for me instead of Abel, whom Cain killed.”

That word, “another seed for me,” shows a desperate woman, holding tightly to the promise of God. Somehow, Eve knew that Cain would never be the one whom God had promised her before they were driven from the garden. It is evident that her heart had switched to Abel, and then, after he was murdered, to Seth.

And thus Cain represents the natural Judaic, who has stood behind all persecution of the Church from Stephen until now (as Paul said in Romans 11), as well as a Nicene ministry preaching into her the serpent’s gospel.

Two Mysteries. I am simply astonished at the action of God in severing His Church from all Nicene ministries all across the earth in this year of our Lord, 2020. This is His doing, and I am pondering what it means. In fact, I would suggest that you read this article by Pastor Chuck Baldwin, regarding a ministry pictured by Cain.

And so, Cain represents the mystery of iniquity, working out from Adam’s hard forehead, from then until now. And Abel represents the mystery of godliness, working out from the promise of Christ that Eve held in her heart, from then until now.

The contest between these two mysteries is the trial of God.

A Hard Vengeance. Then we see that Seth did, indeed, take Abel’s place, for through him came Enoch, and through Enoch, Noah, and through Noah, Abraham.

At the same time, Lamech, a descendant of Cain, expressed the arrogance of Adam mimicking Satan, which God hates, more definitely than any Bible character. “Wives of Lamech, listen to my speech! For I have killed a man for wounding me, even a young man for hurting me. If Cain shall be avenged sevenfold, then Lamech seventy-sevenfold.”

This type of hard vengeance has become a driving theme of the stories being told in our world today. It is also the root of the American psyche since January, 1942.

The Testimony of Abel. This, then, is the setting inside of which we understand God’s meaning for us of the testimony of Abel. God bearing witness to his gifts, and through them, he still speaks.

The “gift” Abel gave was a lamb-slain. Let’s think about this a minute. Abel offered to God the life of another. Sacrifice and offerings You did not desire, but a body You have prepared for Me (Hebrews 10).

Cain gave himself; Abel gave another. Notice where the attention is then placed - on self or on Christ. Abel was focused on God, not on himself.

The Gift of Another. Both Adam and Cain chose self for self. Cain’s “gift” was an exaltation of self.

But think of what this means. When I say, “I know that you love me more than I can know, regardless of any words or feelings you express against me, because I know that the love of God is already poured out in your heart,” I am placing the gift of ANOTHER as our connection together. But if I were to say to you, “God requires YOU to love me,” then I am placing you as “the gift,” something you were never made to be.

This is one of the great contentions of symmorphy, then, that we offer Christ to one another, and ourselves only through Him.

I Love As You. Then we change our understanding of the command of God in the New Testament, that we are to be just exactly like Christ. Love one another in exactly the same way that I love you.

We will now interpret the Greek word, , translated by me “in exactly the same way,” (or by most “as”), to mean something slightly different. It does not mean you and me copying Christ, but rather, Christ Jesus Himself, the Lamb-Slain, offered through us. “This is My full completion, that I love your brothers and sisters as you.”

Removing obligation means removing my eyes off of myself.

Offered to Us. We never offer ourselves to God or to one another; rather, it is Jesus whom we offer, and ourselves inside of Him.

We can see that a person-less “Christ,” representing a person-less “God,” is little more than the exaltation of self. “I am a Christed one.” “Christ as me” becomes little more than “ME.”

Yet we are speaking here entirely inside the framework of thinking that has long since eliminated all thought of the Sacrifice of Jesus as being an “appeasement” offered to an angry God. The Sacrifice of Jesus is the testimony of God-Love offered to our angry and frightened, hostile and lonely self.

The Way to Life. Jesus gave Himself for us, not “for God.” And He did so in order to win our hearts, for nothing else could have coaxed us out of our frightened and lonely selves. Why was Cain angry? Because he was frightened. Why was Cain hostile against God? Because he was lonely.

Abel was not actually any different, for they were brothers. But by placing Another, Jesus as the Lamb-Slain, between himself and God, and even between himself and Cain, Abel gave testimony to us of the WAY to the tree of life.
And thus Jesus in-between and FOR Father’s sake, is the only way out of the human dilemma. AND WE ALSO are committed to the same offering for our brothers and sisters in Christ.

The First and Second Witnesses. Here, then, is the first witness of Christ, the first proof of God’s innocence of the indictment against Him that He lies. By this we have known love, because He set forth His soul for us, and we also are committed to setting forth our souls for our brothers and sisters (1 John 3:16).

This is the testimony of sharing Hheart with God.

It was Abel’s death, then, that was the first witness of Christ, but it was Enoch’s life that was the second witness. Before being transferred, Enoch was affirmed as having been well-pleasing to God. I don’t fully understand it, but I perceive that this is the authority of Christ now through us.

Pleasing God. I have no doubt that you have heard much preaching on Hebrews 11:6, as I have, yet I have never heard verse 6 explained out from verse 5.

Through faith Enoch was transferred and changed, not to perceive death, and he was not found, because God had transferred him over. Before being transferred, he was affirmed as having been well-pleasing to God. Moreover, without faith one is incapable of pleasing God; indeed, it is required of the one approaching God [in the Holiest] to believe that God is and that He becomes the rewarder of those seeking out and requiring of Him (Hebrews 11:5-6).
 
“He becomes the rewarder of,” then, is referencing this second witness for the defense of God.

God Is; Therefore I Am. The death of Christ, witnessed to by Abel, is not sufficient to prove God true. A second witness is required, and that is the LIFE of Christ proven now through us. That the life of Jesus also may be made visible inside of our dying flesh (2 Corinthians 4:11).

This “LIFE” is made visible through our ABSOLUTE CONFIDENCE that what we are, in all that we are, is, in fact, Christ.

God is – God is – God is – God is – God is – God is – God is. Therefore I am what I am.

Because He Lives, I Am. This is really cool, for I see now that God does require a third witness. We will see that the testimony given by Noah will be for us this line. – Receive one another as I receive you, or, as Abel teaches us, “I, Jesus, receive your brothers and sisters as you.”

But here is the same meaning of Enoch’s witness. And her child was seized into God and into His throne (Revelation 12:5). This is the authority given to us to speak the same Word that is Christ as being all that we are.

It’s not “because He lives, I can face tomorrow”; it’s “Because He lives, I am.” As He is, I am (1 John 4:23).

The Clarity of the Pattern. The writer of Hebrews, however, places these two or three witnesses inside the context of the “full assurance of faith,” from Hebrews 10:19-22, by which you and I seize hold of everything we can lay our hands on inside ALL the FULLNESS of God filling us full.

The first witness, the witness of Abel, then, is “It’s not I, but Christ Jesus.” And the second witness, the witness of Enoch, is “As He is, I am. What I am is He.” Then the third witness, the witness of Noah, is, “I receive you as He.”

And as all three witnesses of God’s innocence step forth through you and me right now, so the Word God speaks is proven faithful and true. And that’s what it’s all about!

Reading for Next Time. For the next lesson, please read Hebrews 11:1-7 (again). As you read it this time, pay careful attention to every word and phrase in verse 7. Here it is in the JSV.

Through [full assurance of] faith, Noah, having been warned [by God] concerning the things not yet perceived, having been moved with caution, constructed an ark for the salvation of his household; through which he condemned the world and became heir of the just innocence that is according to faith.

Then read all of Genesis Chapters 6-9, keeping these thoughts in mind. Also read Genesis 18:20-33 and 2 Kings 13:14-19. The reading regarding Abraham and Elisha is to clarify God’s attitude towards the authority given to us.

Also read this article “Human Pre-History.”