20.4 The Witness of Christ
© 2017 Christ Revealed Bible Institute
In most places, a castle fortification was known as a place of protection and defense. But with the Norman conquest of the English people, the Norman castle became something entirely different. The castle was the most powerful offensive weapon used by the Normans to dominate the Saxons who vastly outnumbered them. Castles were like tanks. Part of the castle’s offensive power was certainly the defense it provided to the Norman forces. But the protection was only for the moment. From that castle, the Norman knights could go forth to influence and control all the neighboring Saxons. The Roman use of the fortified camp was for the same purpose. In fact a marching Roman army built a fort every evening.
Forward Positions. Communities of Christ scattered across this earth among the peoples are the same thing as the Norman castles; they are the witness, the proving of Christ.
That the world may believe that You sent Me – That the world may know that You Sent Me and that You have loved them as You have loved Me (John 17:21-23). As I look across the speaking of most Christians, it is clear to me that most see these words of Jesus as irrelevant nonsense. Thus they pull in their front line of defense – NOT until Jesus comes back, but then it won’t matter, because we are out of here.
Our life together, then, is the forward position of Christ proving to all that Jesus does fulfill in His Church all that He speaks.
Local Communities. Let’s picture each local Community of Christ as depicted in Symmorphy III: Kingdom, Chapter 19: The Tabernacles Church, as the Door, the Face of God outward. Yet picture each as a sphere, that is, the Face of Christ in His Church going in all directions. And thus we see that each local Community is the entirety of the Face of Jesus Christ out towards all their neighbors.
I am convinced that, from now forward, such Communities of Christ will be the light and salt of all human society for the next thousand years. They will be the Bread, the Light, and the Aroma of Christ to all peoples around them. Our task here is to place such a reality in the Covenant.
Seven Passages. Consider this. Why does God place seven passages, seven signings, seven agreements to be one with Him, in the passage of His Covenant?
To be sealed forever into incorruptibility, into the very expression of the Father’s Heart, is a big deal, a big deal for God and a big deal for each one of us. God WANTS, with all His Heart, to be One with those who WANT, with all their hearts, to be one with Him. God’s center is not Mind, but Heart, the merging of passion and dream, of compassion and boldness.
Here are two destinies – sharing Heart with God or being King over all creation. I choose the greater; I will be Father’s Heart.
Passages Going Out. I want to position the three passages going out, Veil, Door, and Gate, in our understanding. The Veil is clearly Jesus’ flesh, that is, Christ as each one of us, individually, as we share the Holy of Holies that we are with one another as the Church. The Door is clearly the face of Christ, that is, the glory of the Holy Spirit, with rivers of living water flowing out bringing joy and healing to all. Yet we see that Door as the expression of the corporate Church, all of us together in the Holy Spirit.
The Gate, then, as the resurrection of our bodies, is for Father. The Gate is the Body of God, God’s appearance forever inside His creation.
Scalability. Thus we see the Veil, the flesh of Christ as each one of us individually. We see the Door as local Communities of Christ, the expression of Christ in every place. But we see the Gate as the entire Church across the universe, the One Body of God, an entire living Being.
Let’s go back to Symmorphy II: Essence, and the nature of electricity. All electrical phenomena is scalable. That means that a static spark from your finger, a pillar of fire on the sun, and a mighty Birkeland Current powering billions of stars, are all the same thing, different only in scale. Thus we see that each of us as individuals, each local Community of Christ, and the entire Church are all the same revelation of God.
Three Levels of Revelation. Thus we are able to declare, with all truthful reality, three levels of Father’s revelation without one level hindering or diminishing any other.
He that has seen me, Daniel Yordy, has seen the Father. – He that has seen the local Community of Christ, of which I am a member, has seen the Father. – He that has seen the entire Church of God has seen the Father.
Now, I am saying all these things entirely inside of that incredibly overwhelming Covenant declaration, John 17:21-23. – That they may be one just as We are one: I in them, and You in Me; that they may be made perfect in one, and that the world may know that You have sent Me…
NOT the Witness of Christ. This lesson, however, is focused on the middle phrase – the local Community of Christ as the witness of Jesus in every local area.
I reject utterly the entire formula of modern evangelism. By saying that, I in no way discount the obvious fact that the Holy Spirit makes use of all things in His task of speaking to each individual heart whom the Father has given to Jesus. Nonetheless, this presentation of a “gospel” of a future salvation to be known only after death, of securing the “key” to the “pearly gates,” either by mental assent to the right ideas or correct pretend performance or both together, as presented by one speaking to one listening – this is NOT the witness of Christ.
No Rapture – No Violence. From the death of the apostles including the passing of John until today there has been very little witness of Christ upon this earth. There has been the continued working of the Holy Spirit, using everything at hand to woo individual people, most certainly, but little real witness of Christ. Look around, see the evidence; the world does NOT believe. But Jesus said that the world will believe and the world will KNOW.
There are two further “Christian” concepts that I also reject absolutely. God NEVER raptures, not ever; and there is no imposition of violence in the revelation of Jesus Christ.
One Step at a Time. Here is what that means to me. Never does God take anyone except by the hand, one step at a time.
Heaven is filled with confused pastors wandering around in their ignorance of God, not having found the fantasy they once preached. Whatever level of relationship with the Word God speaks that they insisted upon before their deaths is the same level of relationship in which they have walked from then until now. Certainly, they are carried entirely IN Christ Jesus. But they do not know God.
And in the full Kingdom of God released upon this earth, no violence is ever directed at anyone. EVER. God does NOT Force. God does not know such sin.
Loving One Another. The witness of Christ is the fullness of Salvation revealed now upon this earth through us. The witness of Christ is LIFE. The witness of Christ is a family of people, walking together, loving one another with a pure heart fervently. There is no other witness; there is no other Salvation. The witness and the Salvation are the same thing. “My, how those Christians love one another!”
There is NO “return of Christ” except by that witness NOW inside our present world – a witness that no one is expecting, a witness that convinces all that God sent Jesus.
A Rapid 50 Years. Yet here is where no rapture comes into our picture. It takes time to lead people, to guide them into all truth. It takes time to establish the mind, the thinking of Jesus in both individuals and all society. Such a transformation cannot happen quickly.
God is doing a quick work with us, most certainly. To go from my ignorance of God as a boy to my present knowledge of God happened blindingly fast – just 50 years. More than that, we will see and be a part of the overwhelming excitement of many whom God has prepared running into these Tabernacles expressions of Church, local Communities of brethren – through the next few years.
Rooted in Covenant. It has to be so, because the Words Jesus speaks, John 17:21-23 must be fulfilled in our lives on this earth and in this present age in ALL manifest fulness. We are rooted and grounded in Covenant.
And He will send His angels with a great sound of a trumpet, and they will gather together His elect from the four winds, from one end of heaven to the other (Matthew 24:31). – 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). This day is this Scripture fulfilled in our lives, this gathering together unto Jesus.
The Gathering Together. And this gathering together, this showing of the House to the House, happens at three levels simultaneously.
God is gathering you and I together into the Community that is Christ as a testimony of Tabernacles to all Jerusalem. And God is gathering all Jerusalem together as many Communities of Christ across this earth as a testimony of Christ to all Christians. And God is gathering all of His One Body together as the entire Community of Christ as His form made visible now to all creation.
Unto Him shall the gathering of the peoples be (Genesis 49:10). Gathered together unto Christ.