God's Witness Protection Program

According to Wikipedia, The United States Federal Witness Protection Program, also known as the Witness Security Program or WITSEC is administered by the United States Department of Justice and operated by the United States Marshals Service and is designed to protect threatened witnesses before, during, and after trial. Some witnesses are provided with a new identity and may live out the rest of their lives under government protection. Would you be surprised to learn that God has His own WITSEC?

Revelation 2:17b-e (NASB) 'To him who overcomes, to him I will give some of the hidden manna, and I will give him a white stone, and a new name written on the stone which no one knows but he who receives it.'

The Apostle John wrote these words to the church in Pergamum, a church that was surrounded by an increasingly godless ethos. It was located in a cultural center under the influence of several pagan world religions. It succumbed and began to adopt pagan practices, becoming known as a church of compromise.

This compromise was driven by two groups: some "held to the teaching of Balaam" who had counseled Balak to lead the Israelites astray during the wilderness journey; some "followed the teaching of the Nicolaitans," Christians who believed that mixing Christianity with pagan beliefs was OK.

Is the environment surrounding the church in Pergamum similar to that of the modern Christian Church? Is the modern Church under increasing pressure toward compromise? Some unfortunate trends:

• Pornography in the Christian Church is a growing epidemic.
• A study showed that 45% of Christians indicate having done something sexually inappropriate; 23% having extramarital intercourse.
• 25% of Christian marriages are abusive.
• Consumerism has shaped Christian theology and negatively impacted Christian marriage and divorce rates.
• In addition to consumerism, the Christian Church tolerates fear, apathy, gluttony, worry, flattery, comfort, patriotism, and lying.

This Nicolaitan-like slide in the Christian Church has had the effect of dulling the working of the Holy Spirit in our individual walks. Because of pride and our fear of ostracism, rejection, and rebuke, we hide the very failings in our lives that the Lord intends to use as our greatest witness. People who are lost in the very afflictions we have navigated, or still navigate, and could be shepherded by us, are left to their own devices.

Much of our (in)action is driven by attempts to protect our reputations … our names. Enter Christian WITSEC. We can be freed to unleash the full potential of our witness if we realize one simple fact: like our mortal bodies, our present-day names are temporary, having no eternal value. We will be given new names with eternally spotless records.

Suppose we turned our now-names over to the Lord for use in winning the lost without fear of what lies in the shadows of our past? Would we be healed of what torments us, damping the gates that fuel the torrent listed above? Would more of the lost be grafted as branches to the Vine?

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