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Additional Quotes about the Local Church by Witness Lee and Watchman Nee
Do not think that a name is a small thing. We are saved in the Lord’s
name. Besides His name, we should never take any other name. George
Whitefield, a contemporary of John Wesley, once declared that besides the name
of Jesus Christ he would have no other name. Although Whitefield was an
Englishman, he renounced the name of the Church of England, not belonging to
that name anymore. The church in Philadelphia does not deny the Lord’s name;
she has no name other than His.
(Witness Lee, LS of Revelation,
181-189)
Verse 10 says, “Because you have kept the word of
my endurance, I also will keep you out of the hour of trial which is about to
come on the whole inhabited earth, to try them who dwell on the earth.” “The
word of My endurance” is the word of the Lord’s suffering. The Lord today is
still suffering rejection and persecution with His endurance. We are the joint
partakers, not only of His kingdom, but also of His endurance (1:9). Hence,
His word to us today is the word of endurance. To keep the word of His
endurance we must suffer His rejection and persecution.
“Trial” in this verse undoubtedly denotes the great
tribulation (Matt. 24:21) “which is about to come on the whole inhabited
earth,” as indicated by the fifth, sixth, and seventh trumpets with the seven
bowls (8:13-9:21; 11:14-15; 15:1; 16:1-21). The Lord promises the recovered
church that He will keep her “out of the hour of trial” (not just out of the
trial, but out of the hour of trial) because she has kept the word of His
endurance. This promise of the Lord, like His promise in Luke 21:36, indicates
that the saints who have kept the word of the Lord’s endurance will be
raptured before the great tribulation, implying that those who have not kept
the word of His endurance will be left in the great tribulation.
In verse 11 the Lord tells the recovered church that
He will come quickly. In this epistle the Lord brings the church in His
recovery into the sensation of His coming because she loves Him. All the
churches in the Lord’s recovery should love the Lord under the inspiration of
His coming back. The Lord’s coming back quickly should be precious to us while
we are testifying of Him in His recovery.
A crown has been given by the Lord to the recovered
church. Being a reward from the Lord, this must be kept until He comes
back.
In verse 12 the Lord says, “He who overcomes, I will
make him a pillar in the temple of My God, and he shall by no means go out
anymore.” In 2:17 the overcomer becomes a transformed stone for God’s
building, but here the overcomer will be made a pillar built into the temple
of God. Because he is built into God’s building, “he shall by no means go out
anymore.” This promise will be fulfilled in the millennial kingdom as a prize
to the overcomer. To overcome in the church in Philadelphia is not to get
anything or to overcome other things; it is to keep what we have received in
the Lord’s recovery to the end. If you do this, the Lord will make you a
pillar in God’s temple. This reminds us of Jacob’s dream in Genesis 28. After
Jacob had that dream, he set up the stone which he had used for a pillow to be
a pillar. That pillar was for God’s building. The overcomers in Philadelphia
will be pillars in God’s temple. The principle is exactly the same today. The
Lord has set up a good number of stones to be pillars in His recovery. Praise
the Lord that there are many pillars among us. Once a stone has been set as a
pillar into the building, it can never be removed, for it has been built in.
Some stay in the church for a short while or for several months and then go
away. However, if you have been built into the temple as a pillar, you could
not leave even if you wanted to. If you can still go out of the church, it
means that you have never been built in.
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