Testimony of Jesus

   John the Revelator gave us a message from God, by His angel, "And he said to me, Write: Blessed are the ones having been called to the supper of the marriage of the Lamb. And he says to me, These words of God are true. And I fell before his feet to worship him, but he said to me, Behold, Stop! I am your fellow slave, and of your brothers, having the testimony of Jesus. Worship God. For the testimony of Jesus is the spirit of prophecy." (Revelation 19:9,10). Notice that the angel speaking in this vision had the testimony of Jesus and the angel gave this testimony to John, that we are to "Worship God" and he continued, adding that Christ's testimony of His Father is the "spirit of prophecy". Throughout Christ ministry, He revealed God to His disciples and gave credit to His Father, His God and our God, to the hearers of His words. John explained what this revelation was "A revelation of Jesus Christ, which God gave to Him to show to His slaves the things which must occur quickly." (Revelation 1:1); prophetic messages. The combination of the two verses shows that Christ was going to show us things that will take place in the future, according to God's plans. Since much of the book of Revelation is understood by applying revelations from other parts of the Bible, both from the Old and the New Testaments, and since Christ is called the "Word" (John 1:1), implying that the Son of God is the author by inspiration to the many Bible writers, it can be concluded that the Bible, in its entirety, are Christ testimony to each of us for guidance in our future. The Old Testament revealed many prophecies and it was also explained that history repeats itself, this is also a prophecy of warning. Christ's many testimonies are revelations from His Father, God Almighty Jehovah. One of Christ missions at His first advent was to show us the Father, and to pass on His Father's messages and warnings with all urgency. Christ's testimonies at His first advent were given the people He spoke to and through His chosen writers after His assent, all were lesson for them and us to learn of His Father's instruction and much was for guidance to be applied to our actions in directing man to ones future, leading us to our God Jehovah's salvation,  "Yet I am Jehovah, your God from the land of Egypt; and you shall know no other gods then Me. For there is no Savior besides Me." (Hosea 13:4). Bare in mind at that point, Christ was not yet sent to establish Jehovah's salvation, allowing men to shed His personal blood, making Jesus also our Savior.

   To my knowledge, there was no indication of incompleteness to God's word, and no reference to future needed writings or a need for additional prophets. This does not exclude the need or use of additional inspiration from Christ, since those seeking God and educating themselves with His word, will surely need gifts of inspiration from Christ's spirit in guiding those with correct understanding of God's word. There have been a variety of claimed pos-Christ prophets, but can we trust them at their word, humans that claim to be prophets, and some are declared a prophet by their listeners. Can we trust the written or spoken words from someone to be all inspired, without God alerting us to His sent prophet? "Beloved, do not believe ever spirit, but test the spirits, whether they are from God; for many false prophets have gone forth into the world." (I John 4:1). In the Old Testament, the prophets were named or identified as a prophet and trusted as a mediator between man and God. In the New Testament, John the Baptist was considered a prophet and Jesus confirmed that, "For I say to you, among those born of a woman, no prophet is greater then John the Baptist..." (Luke 7:28). No other prophet was named to be a prophet after John. The apostles gave us messages from Christ, but they were not labeled as a "prophets". However, Paul made mention of some in the churches that will be given to be prophets, "And He gave some to be apostles: some, prophets: some, evangelists: some, pastors and teachers:" (Ephesians 4:11), but none were named. The word "prophets" that translators chose, Strong's #4396 could also be translated as a poet or an inspired speaker. Can we trust any self credited or named by other humans to be a prophet of God without first testing all their words with God's word? If they are in sync with God's word, then we may consider what they say as acceptable. Caution needs to be exercised continually with prophets that arise after John the Baptist, "The law and the prophets were until John; from then the kingdom of God is being preached and everyone is being pressed into it." (Luke 16:16). I understand this to be saying, After John the Baptist, Christ and those furthering Christ's message by His inspiration; then everyone from then on is being encouraged to learn and to decide for or against the kingdom of God, by what has already been written in God's word plus the available education from Christ's inspiration, because the gospel is continually being shared and preached by whoever takes it upon themselves to do so. This leaves a grand amount of pressure on the listener or reader to choose whom to rely on. The only guideline for this is God's given word, when choosing whom to listen to beyond God's word. In order to make an accurate choice, first one needs to know and understand what God's word reveals to us for solid truth. There is actually no need of words beyond God's word, however, to best understand what is required to combat the words expressed by deceptive leaders, we need a solid knowledge and comprehension of God's word, acquired directly from God's word.

   During the Old Testament, prophets and seers were used for communications to God and they delivered messages from God to the people. After Adam sinned, direct face-to-face communion with Jehovah God ended. Angels were used in some cases for God to give His messages to man; although sometimes He spoke with His voice, but His image was not seen. Christ arrived and He provided direct communication from the Godhead for the people, the prophets as in the Old Testament, were no longer needed, because Christ's Himself and later His spirit was filling that duty. Christ engaged in teaching His apostles to carry on with His work and once Christ returned to His Father, Jehovah, to serve as our High Priest and Advocate, He now uses His spirit to communicate messages and correct understanding to the people seeking the truth in God's word. We are directed by Christ to pray to His Father in Christ's name for all our prayers to God. Some years later, God's instructions (testimonies) were assembled into a book, called "the Bible". In our time now, most have access to this collection of inspired words, through translation by men, for modern printing and the Internet. This Book enables most everyone the ability to follow Jesus as it was written, for all who seek the knowledge of God. Christ, our Shepherd, through His spirit, inspires, enlightens and corrects, with understanding and warnings as we read God's word. I do reason that, nothing is needed beyond His Book for valuable comprehension or further instructions. What are we lacking that we need more prophets? Everyone shares the possibility with the same advantage, because of Christ, our only Mediator, "For God is one, also there is one Mediator of God and of man, the Man Christ Jesus." (I Timothy 2:5), to Jehovah and back, by Christ sending His spirit in communicating with God's people. The "Testimony of Jesus" is the Book Christ gave us, for our education and for us to seek Almighty God; this is our gift from God by way of Christ, for our personal commitment to following our Shepherd. Christ gave us all of God's words by inspiration, for the purpose of us securing Jehovah's salvation, we just need to seek Jehovah God through His word, which Christ gives to those asking for guidance, "And if you shall seek Jehovah your God from there, then you shall fine Him, if you seek Him with your whole heart and with all your soul." (Deut. 4:29).

    Caution is needed in consuming the words of man. First order for preparation is to know all of God's words, from Genesis to Revelation and in doing so you are armed with the ability to see what is incorrect from the many words of man. A warning, knowing God's word is not a once and done exercise, we need continual nourishment of God's truth because man's words are continually around us and ever changing, from all sides and all sources. Deceptions are keenly hidden, Satan is a master at this and he speaks through man, even without them knowing they are being used by the master deceiver. Considering all the Christian churches and each claiming a variety of different doctrine from each other, this shouts loudly to us in exercising caution. If examined closely, all the errors that have entered into Christianity are born from man by their lack of correctly understanding all of God's word or their laziness in seeking the truth, which is available only in God's word, and one other deception, man, is his personal agendas. Pastors differ, theologians differ, Bible translations differ, and of course, man's opinions differ from these various sources. On what can we put our trust? As close to the original as possible is best, and you can't rely only on God's words, but much prayer to God Jehovah is an absolute necessity, asking for divine direction and power for endurance through our many trials. Christ's testimonies of God's words are our sure highway to Jehovah's stable truth, which leads us to the Kingdom of our God Jehovah.