The Dais
Chapter Nine
Endure and Reign
THOSE WHO ENDURE shall reign with Christ for the eons
(2 Tim.2: 12). It is a great pity to make this everlasting. Eonian life
will, indeed, never end, because death itself shall be abolished at the consummation.
Therefore it is unwise to over-tress that the word eon does not denote endlessness
in relation to our life in Christ, for it does involve it. But reigning is a
different matter. All will be made alive eventually, but by its very nature, all
cannot reign. Some must be subject. Reigning implies submission to
intermediaries, and insubordination to God. When the kingdom is handed over to the Father,
God cannot be All in all so long as some of His creatures reign over others. All rule,
even that of Christ, shall cease when all authority is transferred into the hands of the
Father, and political power gives place to paternal authority.
Endurance now is the
proper preparation for reigning with Christ in the future. How different would rule
be today if every office holder had to undergo a thorough course of training in patient
suffering! A prominent medical specialist in Europe tried to express a similar thought
when he said that every physician ought to be thrown out of the window before he should be
allowed to practice on a patient. He should know what suffering is, to deal with it
sympathetically and successfully. So it is with governing. Only one who has felt the pains
and penalties of mortality, and has endured the consequent suffering and shame, is fitted
to rule. Only such a one will reign so successfully that ruling will eventually be ruled
out.
The reason why all mortal
government must be a comparative failure lies in the unnatural conditions under which it
operates. It arose from the estrangement of man from the Creator, and is only a temporal
brake on his activities until he is in harmony with God again. Nature demands the
submission of the lower creation to the higher and of man to God, not of man
to man. All the futile aspirations and bloody battles for freedom arise from this
faulty relationship. No mortal, save the rejected Son of God, is sufficiently superior to
his fellows, or so free from sin, or so fully in fellowship with God as to the purpose of
man’s creation, as to provide a perfect rule. Man is given dominion by God to teach
him his own incapacity by a vast and varied demonstration, from the deluge to the
consummation.
The almost continuous clash
between liberty and tyranny is much misunderstood because it is never absolutely one or
the other, but always a mixture. Where there is government by man no one can be utterly
free. The limits of liberty are not determined by the form of government alone, or even by
its administrators, but by conditions and environment. One person, alone in the wilds, far
from his fellows, is not under the same restraints as another who lives in the midst of a
metropolis. He may shoot a gun in every direction without interference by the political
authorities, whereas such a course would be criminal in a crowded place, and he might be
executed for murder.
All forms of government are
needed in God’s great demonstration of human incompetence. Little as we may like some
of them, let us recognize God’s wisdom even in their faults, and be thankful for the
lessons that they teach. The idea that authority resides in all the people who are
mature, which the Greeks called the demos, has given rise to democracy.
Theoretically this is the rule of the populace, but it is really the rule of the majority,
and the subjection of the minority. Because of its impracticability in the case of
great masses of men or the largeness of lands, it is usually modified by the choice of
representatives who act instead of their constituents, which is better named a republic.
Usually, these forms allow the most individual liberty. Yet, like all the others, the
administration and the administrators determine the measure of freedom, rather than the
written form. Especially in emergencies this may be evaded or ignored.
The kind of control of
human over humans which is sanctioned in the Scriptures is that of a father over
his family. This is to teach us of God’s final place in the consummation. In both
cases it is based on natural ties, creation and generation. Then there is that of the husband
over the wife, which is based on the fact that he is her head. This is also used to
illustrate Jehovah’s relationship to Israel. Elders were to have the rule in
the communities in Israel and in the ecclesia, due to their maturity and experience. Kings
are a temporary interlude, from the deluge to the consummation. Even Christ reigns only in
the last two eons. The superior authorities of the present are God’s
ministers, carrying out His intention, but they are artificial and unnatural, so have very
limited basic qualifications for their positions.
Experience with evil,
and character are the requisites for reigning. Neither great works nor success,
neither great gifts nor the approval of others will prepare us for it. These will also
bring a reward of some kind. Even prolonged patience is not enough. It is necessary for a
ruler in that day to have stood his ground in faith, not only under the onslaughts of men,
but under assault by the fiery arrows of the powers of darkness. The mailed warrior of the
sixth of Ephesians, who stands against these wicked spirits while on earth may come to
rule over them in the heavenly kingdom in that day.
Our experience in seeking
to bring God’s unadulterated revelation to the people offers a good illustration of
the vast difference between patience and endurance. The drudgery of forming
the vocabulary, revising the grammar, making and copying the text of the original,
inserting the sublinear and the version, making the concordances, with repeated checking,
has called for an unbelievable amount of patience, and will take much more. But the
vicious attacks on the work—such, for instance, that only a lazy man would use this
method, and that it is done in order to uphold certain heresies—which have been
repeated again and again, and still persist, these call for much more than patience. They
hurt, they harm, they rankle like burning arrows in the flesh. They require more than
patient plodding, year in and year out. They require endurance, not only long patience
but long suffering, a stand in spite of opposition and calumny, against the
callousness and cruelty of the cohorts of Satan.
Far more trying than these
are the calumnies of false friends, accusations the exact contrary of the truth, being
excessively gracious, and then being denounced as being ungracious. I once thought that
such a one as Paul, through whom the saints received the truth, and who was its chief
champion, would be exempt from assaults by those who had been helped by him. But the
contrary was the case. Some did him much evil, and he had to beware of them. So also, I
once thought that if I devote my life to the recovery of the truth and works which would
enable the saints to enjoy the pure Word of God, and do this without recompense, none of
those benefitted by my labors would hinder or harm, for they would only be injuring
themselves. But long experience has shown that even those who have tasted of God’s
grace are prone to bite the hand that feeds them, and slander the one who has served them.
The selfishness and deceit which characterize the last days make it almost impossible to
recover and preserve the truth of grace, for the very word is used to camouflage
opposition to it. Selfish, social and soulish things appeal to the saints far more than
the spiritual, so that, even after the truth is recovered, few, indeed, care if it is
corrupted.
The same kind of a
character and experience is needed by the rulers in the messianic kingdom on earth. Our
Lord told His disciples: “You are those who have continued with Me in My trials.
And I am covenanting a covenant with you according as My Father covenanted a kingdom to
Me, that you may be eating and drinking at My table in My kingdom. And you will be
seated on thrones, judging the twelve tribes of Israel” (Luke 22:28-30). That
part of their preparation which they least enjoyed was the most essential. Many others
were with Him at first, but they did not continue in trial. This
disqualified them for any official position in the coming kingdom. So it is with us today.
Our failure to endure does not affect our salvation, for that is altogether and directly
the result of His sacrifice. But rule in the eonian kingdom is only for those who
have been tried and who have stood the test.
The fact that physical
well-being sometimes seems more desirable than individual freedom of action has led to
so-called “socialist” forms of government. In this form, society, or rather, the
state, controls much that is usually left to the individual. In the case of overcrowded
countries, whose resources need to be carefully conserved, this may be a vast advantage,
but only in the hands of a capable and unselfish administration. The fatal defect in this
is its antichristian attempt to bring blessing to men apart from Christ, and in
independence of God. The goal set is far too low. As our Lord said, “Seek first
His kingdom and righteousness, and these all shall be added to you” (Matt.6:33).
The physical blessings of the earthly kingdom come from submission to and worship of God,
not in planned economies or in the use of technology.
Even an ideal form of
government, a heavenly utopia, would fail to function as it should in the hands of mortal
men. The millennium will be headed by immortals, and the celestial realms by death-defying
saints. No man lives long enough to accumulate the necessary wisdom. Even while he lives
he is continually harassed by the operation of death in his body, so that he is prone to
do evil and sin. The subjects of the best of states are by no means ideal. They form one
long funeral procession of decaying flesh. And, not only the ruler’s body, but all of
his accomplishments, are doomed to sink down into ruin and corruption.
In the divine chronicles of
Israel’s kings we are shown what is the vital factor in human government. When the
people and the king submitted themselves to Jehovah God, then all went well. When
they turned against Him, all went ill. The Jews are a living example of this during the
succeeding centuries, until this very day. The highest point in the history of their
kingdom was reached when Solomon and the people exhausted their energies and wealth in
building the house of Jehovah. This did not impair their power or lower their standard of
living, but quite the reverse. And so it was in Israel on other occasions. A return to
Jehovah involved a revival of prosperity. This is not so evident among the nations today,
for God is not judging now, and He demonstrates such matters by means of the people He has
chosen to dominate the earth, when they are in fellowship with Him.
A good definition of endure,
would be suffer evil with patience or fortitude. In the original it
literally means UNDER-REMAIN, or remain behind, as when our Lord stayed in
Jerusalem after His parents had left it to return to Nazareth (Luke 2:43). The meaning endure
is a faded figure. It is a great pity that the A.V. alters it to suffer in the
passage before us, and there only. This spoils the very striking contrast between the
evangel of the kingdom and that of Paul. Our Lord told His disciples, “he who endures
to the consummation, he shall be saved” (Matt.10:22). But now salvation does
not depend on endurance, so Paul writes to Timothy, “if we are enduring we shall be reigning”
(2 Tim.2:12). In one case salvation depends on holding out to the end. In the other
salvation is not in question, but reward. Endurance is requited with a place of rule.
For the sake of those whose
minds are filled with the A.V. renderings we will quote some passages which they have
rendered patient, or patience, which should be endure or endurance,
in order that we may see, from the contexts, what is expected of those who wish to reign:
Rom.12:12, enduring affliction, for “patient in tribulation;” 5:3,
affliction is producing endurance, yet endurance testedness, for
“tribulation worketh patience and patience experience;” 8:25,
“we with patience wait for [it],” for we are awaiting it with endurance;
15:4, “through patience and comfort of the scriptures,” for through the endurance
and consolation of the scriptures; 2 Cor.6:4, “in much patience” for, in
much endurance; 2 Cor.12:12, (signs of an apostle) “in all patience,”
for in all endurance; Col.1: 12, (being endured) “unto all patience,”
for all endurance; 1 Thess.1:3, “patience of hope,” for endurance
of expectation; 2 Thess.1:4, “your patience and faith,” for your endurance
and faith; 3:5, “patient waiting for Christ,” for endurance of
Christ; 1 Tim.6:11, 2 Tim.3:10, Tit.2:2, “patience,” for endurance.
The word patience is
used very loosely by some in English, in place of the more precise terms as endurance,
fortitude, resignation, etc. It should be confined to the thought of quiet waiting for
what is expected, or persistence in action, and leave the idea of patience under stress or
in suffering to these more explicit expressions. The A.V. uses patience for another
Greek word, which it suits much better. When the ten-thousand talent debtor begged the
king to “have patience” with him (Matt.18:26), we may be sure that he did not
ask him to endure any affliction, but merely to give him time. This shows clearly that
this word does not include suffering. Yet the A.V. does render the noun “longsuffering”
in every one of its fourteen occurrences.
Government is essentially
the restraint of evil by evil. Without it evil was rampant before the deluge. After
the eonian times, when evil vanishes, government also disappears. Our rule among the
celestials will be concerned with evil. The best preparation is an acquaintance with it
and patiently coping with it while on earth. That is why endurance is the requisite
for rule. We may be patient in our waiting for His coming. That also will have its reward.
Those who keep the faith will be paid with the wreath of righteousness. Indeed, it will be
the portion of all who love His advent (2 Tim.4:4). But endurance finds its field
in affliction (Rom.12:12). Those who have gone through this school are ready to
cope with the evil that still prevails among the celestials and bring it to a conclusion.
Government uses evil to
restrain evil. An individual who kills his fellow is a murderer and must himself die. But
the executioner who kills him is an official, and does not commit murder when he kills.
But the authority to do evil may be much abused, as when one nation wars against another
without just cause. This will nearly cease in the millennium, but even then Gog and Magog
will attempt to despoil Israel. Even the reign of Christ will use evil, for He will
control natural forces, and compel attendance to the worship of God by withholding the
downpour, or, where this is not essential, as in Egypt, with a stroke (Zech.14 :17). Let
us not imagine that His rule is all sweetness and light. It also is enforced by evil. He
sends evil that good may come of it.
The secret of Christ
reveals His celestial glory, up over every sovereignty and authority and power and
lordship and every name that is named (Eph.1:21). These are various forms of restraint or
rule among the celestials. The sovereignties are the highest of all, who delegate some of
their rights to authorities. Except for one reference in Jude 6 to the messengers
“who kept not their first estate” (sovereignty) we never read of these
heavenly realms in the Circumcision writings. They come before us only in Paul’s
epistles. These sovereignties, probably the most mighty of all God’s creatures,
cannot separate us from the love of God in Christ Jesus (Rom.8:38). All sovereignty, as
well as all authority and power will be abrogated at the consummation (1 Cor.15:24). We
will not reign for eternity. Our rule is limited to the eons. It is eonian. Even at the
present time we are serving as an object lesson to the sovereignties and authorities,
making known to them the multifarious wisdom of God (Eph.3:10). And even now we come into
contact with these sovereignties and authorities, the spiritual forces of wickedness among
the celestials, who are our real adversaries, although they work through blood and flesh
in order to harm us (Eph.6:12).
In Israel, celestial
messengers were almost always beneficent, and bore tidings of good. Not so with us. The
denizens of the spirit world are our chief adversaries. They doubtless know that some of
us are destined to take their place of rule, and this may account, in part, for their
antagonism to the saints of the celestial calling.
These mighty spiritual
governments seem to occupy the heavenly realms which are promised to us. They are like the
Canaanites in the land of promise, who opposed Israel until Joshua led the nation into
their allotment. We cannot count on peace with them so long as we are on earth, and have
not displaced them among the celestials. Meanwhile, however, we do not merely withstand
them and shield ourselves from their fiery arrows, but we are a blessing to them by
manifesting God’s wisdom now, and by taking over their rule in the future, under the
headship of Christ. Just as He will assume the headship of earth’s sovereignties and
authorities in the day of Jehovah, and install His apostles and faithful followers in the
places of rule on earth, so will He do in the heavens also.
In that glorious day we
will not need our armor or our shield. We will be invulnerable, with far more power to do
evil than the celestial hosts. There can be no doubt that there, as on earth, evil will be
used to compel obedience. Even a father uses force to discipline his child for good. How
much more a king! These sovereignties and authorities, judging from their present conflict
with the saints, will need severe measures to correct their present course, and change it
from enmity to peace. Part of this will probably be done, even before our advent, when
Michael and his messengers battle with the dragon and its messengers, and they are cast
into the earth, and their place was no longer found in heaven (Rev.12:7).
We can hardly imagine the
magnificence of the millennial reign. Prophet after prophet has extolled its varied
glories. But it is confined to a minute part of God’s creation. Compared with the
orbs of space its size is insignificant. Our celestial realm is unutterably greater and
its glories grander. It is amazing how much a man will hear and what risks he will take to
seize the reigns of even the smallest of earth’s governments. No wonder Paul reckons
that the sufferings of the current era do not deserve the glories about to be
revealed for us (Rom.8:18). We should not look upon these trials as a penalty for past
sins, or as a punishment of any kind, but rather as a privilege, which may benefit
ourselves as well as celestial creatures, and play a small part in God’s great plan
of blessing to the whole creation. Let us glory in afflictions which produce endurance
(Rom.5:3) and put a crown upon our humbled heads.
THE FATE OF THOSE WHO DISOWN HIM
We have
already pointed out that endurance is essential for salvation in the case of the
Circumcision, at the when the kingdom comes. But it is essential for reigning for
the Uncircumcision in their celestial realm. But what becomes of us if we do not endure,
but disown Him? He also will disown us. Until I considered this matter carefully in
its context, this statement was filled with terror, and I trembled for my salvation. But
later, when I came to be established in the great truth that our acts have nothing to do
with our deliverance, which depends entirely on His faithfulness to His Word, it dawned
upon me that, if we disown Him we forfeit our right to reign, not our other
blessings.
The very next sentence
should keep us from questioning our safety and security: He is remaining
faithful—He cannot disown Himself. It is His work and His word that
saves, not ours. We do not need to endure or do anything else to be saved. Not even
the quantity or quality of our belief or unbelief is vital. If we lack sufficient
faith to endure, that does not affect our salvation, but our reward. The least spark of
confidence in Him is all that is needed to share in the infinite value of His sacrifice.
But more is needed to have a part in this glorious universal reign for the eons of the
eons. Only the apostles and faithful will reign on earth. Only those who endure suffering
for His sake now will rule in the heavens among the celestials.
A. E. Knoch
