I always refer to the 11th chapter of the Book of Hebrews as the Martyr’s Hall of Fame chapter. For the true saint of God, persecution is a given in that it is one of the promises God makes to His people: “ALL who will LIVE GODLY in Christ Jesus WILL SUFFER PERSECUTION” (2 Tim. 3:12). Notice the qualifiers: All–without exception. Live Godly–walk as did Christ. Will suffer persecution–persecution is to be expected. What the whole of mankind does not understand, however, is that one can suffer horribly, up to and including the loss of one’s life, for one’s religious stance and NOT BE A CHILD OF GOD. Most people who are being persecuted for being Christians today ARE NOT BIBLICAL CHRISTIANS. They are church people who live according to the doctrines and customs of  Counterfeit Christianity. If the Bible is to be taken at face value, neither the doctrines of the church nor those who practice them are of the Lord. See Persecution and The Church, the Gospel and the Goats. My website and YouTube site are dedicated to exposing the Counterfeit Church (Catholicism/Protestantism) for what it is so I will write no more on the subject at this point.

Chapter twelve verses one through four: Verse one deals with a church “truth” that is not a Biblical Truth–that church members who have died are now in heaven. See Life After Death. It is written in verse 1 that God’s saints are “surrounded by a cloud of witnesses.” For some 1700 years God seekers have been taught that those “witnesses” are our religious ancestors who have “gone to be with the Lord.” Let us “study to show ourselves approved of God” (2 Tim. 2:15), and let us “Prove all things” relative to the Christian walk (1 Thes. 5:21). Doing so will take us to Revelation 1:7 where we are given a preview of the return of Jesus Christ to the earth, noting that “… He will return with clouds ….” Church people assume that those clouds will consist of church members who have died in the past. But Truth seekers do not stop reading when they see what they want to see. Truth seekers seek God’s Truth, even if it hurts. Their efforts take them to Matthew 16:27 where Jesus Christ settles the cloud/witness issue by declaring that He will return to earth “… with His ANGELS.” In summary, when Jesus returns to earth He will be accompanied by a great cloud of angels whom He calls witnesses. Contrary to popular church opinion, Grandpa Joe and Aunt Sally are not in heaven looking down on us and cheering us on. They are dead and will remain dead until the time of their resurrections. See The Resurrections.

In verses 2 through 4 we are commanded to do 5 things in preparation for Christ’s return. We are to “lay aside every weight”–get rid of every word, thought and act that in any way hinders the development of righteousness within us. We are to “lay aside the sin that so easily besets us.” We all have weak areas. We are to attack and, by the power of the Holy Spirit within us, overcome those foibles. We are to “run with patience the race set before us.” In His Word the Lord has laid out for us the race/walk we must travel in order to enter His Kingdom. We are to “look unto Jesus”–the One who not only gives us faith but also builds it as we exercise the faith we have. We are to “consider Him”–study every aspect of Christ’s life in order to know what to do in every circumstance. L.J.