THE TRANSLATION OF THE SAINTS

Hebrews 11: 5, 6; 1 Thessalonians 4: 1–18; Revelation 3: 7–13

JW I have been thinking, beloved brethren, of what is immediately before us in the translation of the saints, and more particularly as to what is to be translated. We know that when the Lord comes every believer will be taken to be with Him, and the Old Testament saints too will be raised and taken. I was thinking more particularly of the bearing of this on the assembly; the assembly will be complete and will be translated. I think the rapture, as we speak of it, bears on our privilege, but I was thinking also that the Lord translates what is pleasing to Him, and what is pleasing to God. The imminence of the Lord’s coming, beloved brethren, should raise exercise with us that we should be ready for translation. I know the Scriptures speak much more of the appearing of Christ than of the rapture, and we should be looking forward to that as knowing Christ and loving Him, being among those who love His appearing when He will come into His rights. He will come with the saints in His appearing, but before that He comes for the saints.

With that in mind I thought we could look at these scriptures. The thought of translation is first brought out with Enoch, who is really typical of the saints of the assembly. It says of Enoch that he was translated by faith, a man of faith who walked with God. He was translated that he should not see death; that is a remarkable thing, that there are going to be those who do not see it. There will be the living who remain when the Lord comes; it is very likely that we shall be among them and that is the hope we should have, beloved brethren, that the Lord will come. It could be today. I know we have often said this, but perhaps we need rekindling in the hope of it, and it should be a living hope; not just to take us out of this scene because of all the troubles that are in it, but to be with Himself; He, Himself is the living hope of the believer.

So, Enoch, before his translation, had the testimony that he had pleased God. That would surely be our exercise that we would have the testimony that we please God. And it says, “without faith it is impossible to please him”. The way to please Him is that faith might be operative with us, for without faith it is impossible to please Him. It says, “he that draws near to God must believe that he is”. If we are to walk with God we must know what it is to draw near to Him; He draws near to us, and it is possible to draw near to God and be with God in our walk, and prove that “he is a rewarder of them who seek him out”.

1 Thessalonians 4 I think is the only section in Scripture that gives the detail of the rapture. Other scriptures bring it in by way of inference, but this scripture directly deals with the rapture of the saints. I had the chapter read because it brings out certain features that are pleasing to God. First of all the apostle exhorts the saints, he says, “exhort you in the Lord Jesus, even as ye have received from us how ye ought to walk and please God”. He had instructed these believers who were only young in the faith, how they should “walk and please God, even as ye also do walk, that ye would abound still more”. Paul particularly stresses the matter of sanctification, which would bring us into a holy condition. I think if we are to walk with God and be suitable to God, who is holy, holiness would be required. So sanctification on our part would lead to that.

Paul refers directly to the translation of the saints and the Lord Himself coming. I think we might get help as to that, beloved brethren. There will be a change as we know from other scriptures; Thessalonians does not speak of the change, but there must be a change because when we see Him we shall be like Him. The Spirit would have part in this service. He will quicken the bodies of the saints who are alive, and God will bring with Him those who are fallen asleep through Jesus. Death has been brought upon us in recent times and saints have been taken, asleep through Jesus. It is a wonderful touch, that He has put them to sleep, but God will bring them with Him and the dead in Christ shall rise; the Lord has His own part in raising them, the Lord will do that Himself. He will come Himself; He is not sending an angel, He is coming Himself and we shall meet Him in the air and we shall be with Him.

The scripture in Revelation speaks of Philadelphia which is a phase of church history which goes through to the end. It has been said that it is a condition, not a position, and it is an exercise with us that the conditions seen in Philadelphia should be with us. I think it is that that the Lord translates, that which the Lord finds pleasing to Himself, because as seen in Philadelphia. He speaks to the saints who are in that condition, but He also has in mind the whole church, the complete church, in speaking to Philadelphia.

JS Do you think it is good to keep before us the pleasure the Lord will have in translating what is pleasing to Himself? It says in John 14, “I am coming again and shall receive you to myself’ (John 14: 3); it would convey how much it will mean to Him to have the assembly actually with Himself.

JW I think that is helpful because we may think of the rapture and what it means to us, and it does mean something to us, but then it means much more for the Lord Himself, to have the saints with Himself. The Lord is patient. He has been patient now for two thousand years or more to have the assembly with Himself, but He says to Philadelphia, “I come quickly—hold fast what thou hast, that no one take thy crown”. There is no delay on His part, and He says to Philadelphia, “thou hast kept the word of my patience”. He has been patient. Things are in the Father’s hands but the Lord is looking forward to this, beloved brethren, and I trust we are too, and we may stimulate one another on this line.

JS We wait the translation; it would exercise us to seek to be here pleasing to God, pleasing to the Lord; features should be developed in us that have that character.

JW That is my exercise that in thinking of this and having it as the hope of our hearts we should be exercised to be pleasing to Him when He comes. John in his epistle says, “if it is manifested we shall be like him, for we shall see him as he is. And every one that has this hope in him purifies himself, even as he is pure” (1 John 3: 2, 3); it is intended to have a moral effect upon us that we should be pleasing to Him.

MGW How did the apostle know that Enoch had this testimony? It must have meant a great deal to him, and how can we get it?

JW I think the apostle would get things by the Spirit and from God. He had light from God as to Enoch and these Old Testament saints, and we receive these things in our relations with the Spirit.

MGW I think that is good. I was only looking back at Genesis 5 and finding that we have the briefest account of things in regard of Enoch, and yet it seems to be enough; but does it look as though his company meant so much to God, that God could (if I may use the word) by-pass the penalty that lay on man as to death and just take him one day?

JW Yes, I think that is right. God was so pleased with his company that He says, I am going to take you to be with Myself. He walked with God, he was pleased with God’s company, and God was pleased with the company of Enoch. He just took him.

GBG So, relationships with divine Persons underlie all this, do you think? Nothing great in the eyes of men, or complicated, is pleasing to the eye of God. When you speak of what Enoch was in communion with God that is open to every one of us.

JW I am sure that is the secret, it is vital; so that is why I had the following verse read, “But without faith it is impossible to please him. For he that draws near to God must believe that he is”. It is drawing near to God and being with God, and being with divine Persons. The greatest thing we can have is the knowledge of God and have communion with God.

JSp Jude refers to him as being the seventh from Adam, there is a certain triumph in that, despite the incoming of sin, that God is relying on something that is pleasing to Himself.

JW Yes, that is good. It shows the completion of an exercise, the seventh from Adam, there was something completed in Enoch. As the close of this dispensation is before us there should be a certain completion and God would have that in mind.

JTB(Gr) As the seventh from Adam he prophesied about the Lord coming amidst His holy myriads; so there is a sense not only of the coming of Christ, but also the greatness of those who were ready to receive Him.

JW Yes, coming with His holy myriads to execute judgment; that would be the Lord’s appearing but Enoch had light as to that and he prophesied as to His coming with the holy myriads; those that are ready for translation and those that are pleasing to Him would be such persons, holy persons.

JS Do you think this would be encouraging for our young people to have someone like Enoch referred to in this way? When he was translated he would only have lived about a third of the lifespan of those who were living at that time, and I wondered if young people would be encouraged to think that there will be young people living at the time the Lord comes and takes us to Himself.

JW That is right. It is not only a question of age of young persons who will be taken when the Lord comes. The Thessalonians were a young assembly; they might not all have been young persons, but they were young in the faith; they were young believers. There was a freshness about them, and the exercise is that freshness with us should be maintained. God speaks of what is fresh, “I remember for thee the kindness of thy youth, the love of thine espousals, when thou wentest after me in the wilderness”, Jeremiah 2: 2. I think the hope and prospect of seeing the Lord and the immediacy of it would keep us in freshness.

JS It is good to have that before us, not to fade as we get older.

JW As time goes on it is easy for the prospect of the Lord’s coming seeming to fade with us; I find that out myself. I think the Spirit would be urgent that we should be prepared for translation, and the hope of the Lord’s coming should be kept before us. It was very prominent in the early days of the recovery and it should be prominent now with us.

DTP There was Enoch, for almost three hundred years he never lost that freshness in his link. That was very precious to God, because the scene was evil in which he was, so these things are an example to us.

JW Yes, that is right. He walked with God three hundred years, it was a comparatively short life in those days but he was maintained in it.

RT Is the brightness of the hope of His coming one of the rewards of those that diligently seek Him out?

JW I am sure that would be right. If we diligently seek God out, I am sure all that is in the heart of God and the mind of God would be a hope and blessed reality to us.

GCMcK Faith seems to bring that in, “faith is the substantiating of things hoped for, the conviction of things not seen”, Hebrews 11: 1. So faith immediately brings before us what lies in the way of hope before us.

JW Yes, it does. It is the link we have with God, it is light from God that we receive, based on faith, and it governs us. I think Enoch must have had light from God as to his translation, and as we diligently seek God out we get light from God as to the coming of Christ; it is in the Scriptures for us but we really get something from God Himself as to it.

MGW Could we have some more on that, as to seeking Him out? God is always there to hear us, but we must have faith; we must believe that He is and diligently seek Him out. Perhaps we have not thought too much about that, could you help us?

JW Well, I think it would result from a desire for God, as loving God; the gospel as received is intended to produce love in us for God as we embrace God’s love towards us. To diligently seek Him out, to have Him before us, we really must have a knowledge of God, we must get to know God. Of course He has come out in Christ, and He is known in that way objectively by us, but I think to diligently seek Him out is a bit more than that, it would mean that we are on intimate relations with God.

MGW Would it in some way have to do with our secret and private communing with God? I sometimes pray and get up off my knees and feel that I have gone through a lot of things, and spoken of a lot of things, and yet never got the feeling that I got through. Other times you get the real sense that you have reached through to God, known something of His presence. Do you see what I mean by that?

JW Yes, we have really to pray to our Father in secret; shut the door and the way to the holiest is open to us.

RT Death lies upon everything here, does it not? But this reward would open up something beyond death for us, and the enjoyment of it in measure is to be in our hearts now.

JW Yes, I am sure of that. The fact is that Enoch did not actually see death. He was really taken to that which was beyond it. In our relations with God, and in our relations with divine Persons, we are really entering into something that death cannot touch. You can experience it whilst going through a scene of death. When we are translated we shall actually go into a scene that is beyond death; we can really touch that in spirit now, anticipatively, but we are actually going to be there.

GAB That he was not found suggests that he was known by his contemporaries. He had a testimony that he pleased God, and the fact that he was not there any more was something that they took account of and evidently looked for him.

JW Yes, and what effect that had on them we do not know, but he was not found. There he was one day among men, the next day he was not found; that is what will happen when the saints are translated, they will not be found. Shall we be missed by the world? If we are really true to our baptism we will not be missed by them. There will be consternation of course, and the devil will produce some lie, but we will not be missed by the world.

RG It says, “for before his translation he has the testimony that he had pleased God”. Is that not a very present thing, before his translation he has the testimony, as if it was known? I wondered if it is necessary that we should challenge ourselves, as to whether it is known that there has been anything in our souls that has given pleasure to God?

JW Yes, that is right. He has the testimony, it must have been seen in his walk and ways, men would take account of that, but primarily God would take account of it. He has the testimony that he had pleased God, he would have the consciousness of that himself, that he was pleasing God.

Perhaps we could go on to Thessalonians where this truth is brought out and the walk of the saints is mentioned. Paul says that we should walk and please God. We have an advantage that Enoch did not have; we have the Holy Spirit, and I think if we are to walk and please God it must be by the Spirit. If we live by the Spirit let us also walk by the Spirit; we have that advantage if we make way for the Spirit and depend upon the Spirit; He gives us power to walk here and please God. Then the importance of sanctification—I do not want to go into all the details but to draw attention to the need for it in this world which is so corrupt. The world before the flood was full of violence and corruption and that is like the world today, hence we need to be in it as sanctified and keeping our vessels in sanctification and honour. We will not know anything of these things vitally in our souls unless we keep our vessels and know what sanctification is. The Spirit would help us as we really make way for that.

JSp “The Spirit itself bears witness with our spirit, that we are children of God”, Romans 8: 16. Would that be a current matter to keep us in the joy of this relationship we have been brought into? It would keep us fresh and separate from the world and things that might intrude.

JW Yes, that we are children of God, we really belong to God and take character from God. The Spirit bears witness with our spirits and soon the children of God are going to be manifested, are they not? The whole creation is waiting for that. What you say as to our present realisation of these things is important, it is by the Spirit.

CKR In Matthew 25 there were five virgins that were described as “the ones that were ready” (Matthew 25: 10). Is there something of the same character in this chapter, the Thessalonians would be ready, waiting for the rapture to take place?

JW Yes, that is right. The ones who were ready were the ones who had the oil, those who had the Spirit and were making way for the Spirit. The cry went out, “Behold, the bridegroom”; the cry has gone out and it caused exercise, they went forth to meet Him. To be suitable to Him you must have the Spirit, you must have the oil.

JS In verse 8 it says, “but God, who has given also his Holy Spirit to you”. Do you think the reference to the Spirit as “his Holy Spirit” would mean that He would be working to bring about the state of sanctification?

JW Yes, it is “his Holy Spirit”. I feel the importance of this. I think Mr James Taylor said in his day that holiness was a scarce commodity, but clearly it is really essential for this; God is holy, so to be pleasing to God we must be in accord with Him.

RT In Romans, referring to the change of the living, it says “on account of his Spirit which dwells in you”, Romans 8: 11. It is not just a theory, it is dwelling in them. That would come out in the exhortations in Thessalonians.

JW I am sure of that; it shows the Spirit’s part at the rapture. That scripture in Romans 8 brings that out. His Spirit that dwells in you would show that the Spirit is there in a complacent way. It is even more than receiving the Spirit. The Spirit is dwelling there, He has a home there, He is at rest there. Another thing that is brought out here is brotherly love, our relations together bear on Philadelphia which means brotherly love. If we are right in our relations with God we would be right in our relations with one another. It is in view of being ready for translation, for when we go we shall go up together.

GBG Does the Supper bear on this? We have that on a weekly basis; and in wisdom there is preparation in view of the Lord’s supper. There has to be exercise as to our state, affection for one another, affection for the Lord, that is all preparation for the Lord’s supper, which should all be in line for preparation for the Lord coming for us, do you think?

JW I am sure that is right. In the Supper the Lord comes to us, He comes where there is a suited state, where the saints come and meet one another. We do not come to meet the Lord at the Supper, because He is absent, we meet one another, but the Lord comes.

MGW What do you think of that expression here, “taught of God to love one another”?

JW Well, it shows that we are in relation with God. I suppose God has various ways to teach us, He teaches us through His word. He teaches us by bringing forward examples, but then we are taught of God as we appreciate what God is Himself, the character and nature of God Himself, as beloved children of God, as it speaks of in Ephesians. It is what God is and how He is, His nature; as knowing God we are taught of God in that way.

GCMcK It is quite striking the references to God in the section, “walk and please God ... this is the will of God ... even as the nations who know not God”—it runs right through—God has called us, “taught of God”, and then “God will bring with him those who have fallen asleep through Jesus”. It is interesting in the section which brings out so beautifully the Lord’s actions in taking the saints to be with Him. There is such a stress on what pleases God; God will have a part in this too, will He not?

JW Yes. He will, the fact that God will bring with Him those who have fallen asleep through Jesus, brings out the place that God will have Himself in it. The supremacy of God is seen in that.

GCMcK Yes, there is the trump of God, the triumph that belongs to God in the whole matter.

JW I think each divine Person is there and would be involved in the rapture. The Spirit will change the bodies of the saints, will quicken them, the Spirit is already with the saints when the Lord comes; then God brings with them those that have fallen asleep through Jesus. It is a beautiful touch—God will bring them, God is caring for them now and will bring them with Him.

JSp There is a great culmination of the divine economy then.

JW Yes, I thought that. It will be a great event, each divine Person having a wonderful part in it, and it shows the pleasure God has in the translation of the saints.

JS As to the allusion you made to being caught up together, do you think this thought of being together would work out now in relation to loving one another, it says, “to abound still more”? Do you think it has in mind the increase of what is for the divine pleasure?

JW We can never really be satisfied with what is reached whilst we are down here, there is to be more, to abound still more, but if we are thinking of what is for God’s pleasure we would desire increase on that line, to abound still more in it, that there might be more for God.

RG “Not that I have already obtained the prize, or am already perfected; but I pursue” (Philippians 3: 12), is that the idea?

JW Yes, Paul would always go on for more in divine things. Our knowledge of divine things is limited, and Mr Raven said the more you know the more there is to know. You can never speak of divine things as being the master of them, but in our experience and substance in our souls there has to be more, and growth would be involved in that, growing by the true knowledge of God.

JS What Paul received seems to be special, “For this we say to you in the word of the Lord, that we, the living, who remain to the coming of the Lord, are in no way to anticipate those who have fallen asleep”. This is something special to Paul, is it?

JW So it is a word from Paul for the saints. No doubt they were concerned about those who had fallen asleep, they might have thought that they would miss something, but Paul brings this out here to show that they would not miss anything. But I think he also brings it out that we might be exercised to be pleasing to the Lord; it was the word of the Lord that Paul got distinctly from the Lord and we only really have the detail of it in this section of scripture; “the Lord himself, with an assembling shout”, really bears on the assembly, although of course all the saints will be caught up, all the saints will respond to it but I think particularly it has its bearing on the saints of the assembly, “an assembling shout”. A brother referred to the breaking of bread, we learn now how to assemble, “we being assembled to break bread”, Acts 20: 7. It is a dignified thought, learning how to assemble, but the Lord will come with an assembling shout, what a great assembling that will be.

RG So, it is a complete entity, there is nothing broken down here. It is interesting that even those that do not have the Spirit at the moment, they will be given the Spirit at that very time of the assembling shout; in the process of the assembling the Spirit will be given to those who are going to be taken to be with the Lord.

JW I think that is right, and it shows that God can do much in a very short space of time.

GBG So that the Spirit and the bride say “Come”, we are saying that now, or should be, but that in its fulness will include every believer, the Spirit and the bride will say “Come”, is that right?

JW The thing is to be in concert with the Spirit in saying “Come”. Every believer may not be saying it now—we may not be saying it; we should all be saying “Come”. I suppose that is really for the Lord to come into His rights, the appearing; well are we saying “Come”; we cannot say “Come” to the Lord unless we are ready for Him, can we? But eventually every believer will be brought into it.

JasW Do you think that the exercise would be with us that we might be in faith and walking with Him now? Enoch did not wait until his translation before he sought His company.

JW That is the exercise, that we should be with God now, be with the Lord now. Our walk and ways would reflect that, would they not?—So that we are suitable to be taken, suitable for translation.

DCB Enoch walked with God and was translated, but equally Noah walked with God and was left for something to be worked out; so it has been pointed out that if we act as those who are waiting the coming of the Lord Jesus, it means that we will act in the right way to be left here if that is the Lord’s way for us.

JW Well we do not know how much longer we will be here, do we? The patience of God was set out in Noah. I suppose we would reflect that in the waiting time, to be with God in the waiting time. He was preserved from the judgment that came, but I was thinking that the exercise should be with us, to be ready.

MC I was just wondering if this would bear on the matter of going on to full growth, reaching the fulness of the measure of the stature of the Christ. Is not that what the Lord would be looking for as reflective of Himself, how we would be fully pleasing to Him?

JW I am sure of that. It must follow that if we are really walking with God and pleasing to God that we go on to full growth, and that would involve that there is greater conformity to Christ now. What is pleasurable in the saints to God is what speaks to Him of Christ, and full growth would be that Christ is coming into greater expression in us.

JTB(Gr) Is that what was seen in Philadelphia, those who were commensurate with the holy and true?

JW I am glad you brought us on to that. I was thinking, that in the assembly in Philadelphia there was what was in accord with Christ in the way He presents Himself to them, “the holy, the true”. It brings out the need for holiness and the need to be true.

GCMcK Keeping the word of the Lord’s patience would bear on the exercise you have brought before us.

JW I think the way the present testimony is being extended would bear on the word of the Lord’s patience. He is waiting for the assembly, and we should be marked by patience too. I noticed in one reading, Mr James Taylor connected it with the gospel, keeping the word of His patience, preaching in public places. I think the way the Lord is waiting for the assembly, the word of His patience is to produce this feature with us.

GCMcK It seems to be one of the features that would be pleasing to the Lord in view of the rapture. If times goes on and He extends the time of grace we are not irked by that, we understand what His feelings are and we just wait in patience and in love for Him.

JW Yes, that is right. “Thou hast kept the word of my patience”, and “hast not denied my name”. There was nothing outwardly great with Philadelphia—I noticed Mr Darby speaks of it being marked by outward weakness—but they kept the Lord’s word and they were marked by a little power, they were ready to act for Him; and because of the state and condition that was there the Lord says, “I also will keep thee out of the hour of trial, which is about to come upon the whole habitable world, to try them that dwell upon the earth”. So the Lord is going to keep us out of it, it is a promise to saints who have these features, but He has in mind the whole assembly in saying that.

GAB Is it something like Isaac walking in the fields, he was patiently waiting the moment when Rebecca would be brought to him?

JW Yes, he is not presented there as a man of affairs. The Lord is engaged with the assembly, and as we have this hope before us that will be our chief interest, the assembly. It is the Lord’s chief interest. I was thinking of this “I also will keep thee out of the hour of trial, which is about to come upon the whole habitable world”. Conditions in the world today give us some idea of what that might be, but because the Spirit is still here there is still restraint; He who restrains is still here until He be gone. When the saints go the Spirit will go. He remains with the saints and He will go when the saints go, and His restraint will not be here any more. But I also noticed where Mr James Taylor said He is able to keep the saints now from what is morally evil that necessitates this hour of trial which comes upon the whole habitable world. He keeps the saints now, from the conditions which would necessitate that seen in those that dwell upon the earth.

DAS Do you think that is why He says, “I come quickly”?

JW Yes, it is an encouragement to them to hold fast, and it would be a stimulus to us to hold fast what we have. The hope of His coming would help us to hold fast what we have, that no one take our crown. The Lord Himself, I think, is the crown in Philadelphia, what the Lord was Himself to them and that is what the Lord is Himself to us.

RG Do you think that we should remember what we have been taught, that while we do not ever endure the awfulness of the trial that is going to come upon the habitable world, we may touch the fringes of it, and it may be that we are beginning to see something of that? Consequently the necessity for us to align ourselves with the saints at Philadelphia.

JW Yes, the exercise is to be that the conditions in this assembly are to be found in us, that we should be apart and not mixed up with earth-dwellers; it does not say persons who are going on with gross evil who are in the world, it may be that, but it speaks of those that dwell upon the earth.

JS What you said earlier, what you find in Philadelphia is a condition, it is not a position. It would be an exercise that this kind of condition should be found with us.

JW I think so, it has been said it will go on to the end, it will be there somewhere, but will it be with us? We are in great danger if we claim to be Philadelphia; the exercise is that what is found in this assembly, in Philadelphia, should be with us, and the Lord, in addressing it, is thinking of the whole assembly.

JR Where these conditions are found amongst us, in the verses down to 11, and the overcomer comes into it as the pillar in the temple, there is what is testimonial, but there is what is inside. I was thinking of the character of ministry that has come to us in these days, “the temple of my God ... the name of my God ... the city of my God ... from my God, and my new name”.

JW That is right, that is what the Lord will make an overcomer; even in Philadelphia there is need for the overcomer; there is always a need for the overcomer, so that there might be these conditions. Philadelphia speaks of brotherly love and Mr James Taylor said that we may have light as to the assembly but to have the real experience of it there must be right relations, brotherly relations among the saints. I think what the Lord makes the overcomer, what He writes upon the overcomer would be what the overcomer appreciates and values. The Lord appreciated the overcomer; think what it meant to the Lord to make a person “a pillar in the temple of my God, and he shall go no more at all out; and I will write upon him the name of my God, and the name of the city of my God”.

JS I was just thinking of how the Lord says, “I will write”. Do you think the Lord values such persons, persons on whom He can write impressions of this kind? So, it is very valuable to think of one another in the light of this, do you think?

JW These are persons the Lord could write this upon, it could be seen and manifest, “I will write upon him the name of my God”. Well, we need to be near the Lord to appreciate that, what His God is to Him, “the name of my God”. Of course He is the One who has made God known, it is “the name of my God”, it is what God is to Christ. He says that in John 20, “I ascend to my Father and your Father, and to my God and your God” (John 20: 17). We really need to be with Christ to appreciate that.

JS He has so much to convey to us. He would convey it to persons who, as you said, really value these things. Do you think that makes us value having the light of the assembly, but then there is the material for the assembly, that is in persons, is it not? Do you think we need to value that too?

JW We have the light of the assembly and we should appreciate that and value it and seek to be governed by it, but I think more than the light of the assembly is needed in these days; it is a real experience of what the assembly is, and there must be conditions for that. We may have the light of the assembly, but if there are not the conditions we will not have the experience of it.

JS That is why we get this reference to brotherly love in Thessalonians and it is carried forward into this assembly.

JW That is essential if we are to have the experience of what the assembly is. The Lord is going to rapture the whole assembly and He speaks of those who are of the synagogue of Satan who “shall come and shall do homage before thy feet, and shall know that I have loved thee”. The Lord is speaking to persons where these conditions are found, but He has in mind the whole assembly, that is what He has in His heart, and He is going to rapture that to Himself.

Reading at Dundee
12 August 2006

KEY TO INITIALS

D. C. Brown

G. C. McKay

J. Strachan

G. A. Brown

D. T. Pye

R. Taylor

J. T. Brown (Gr)

J. Ritchie

Jas. Webster

M. Cowan

C. K. Robinson

M. G. Wood

R. Gardiner

D. A. Steven

J. Wright

G. B. Grant

J. Spinks