IN HIS NAME Original Title: QUESTIONS YOUNG PEOPLE ASK REGARDING THE GROUND OF GATHERING FOR CHRISTIANS GOOD QUESTIONS THAT DESERVE GOOD ANSWERS VOLUMES 1 AND 2 Author: BRUCE ANSTEY Translation: MARIO PERSONA

IN HIS NAME Original Title: QUESTIONS YOUNG PEOPLE ASK REGARDING THE GROUND OF GATHERING FOR CHRISTIANS GOOD QUESTIONS THAT DESERVE GOOD ANSWERS VOLUMES 1 AND 2 Author: BRUCE ANSTEY Translation: MARIO PERSONAPage 18 of 50 · 3 min

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Page 18

The Hand of God in Governmental Judgment Weighs Upon Us

The third reason for the small number of people among those gathered to the name of the Lord is that we have failed in our responsibility to be gathered to His name, and the hand of God has been heavy upon us in governmental discipline. Consequently, God has reduced us numerically in order to humble us. This is also to our own shame.

It is sad to say, but there have been times when we felt proud of being those whom the Lord had gathered to His name, when in reality it was all nothing but a work of sovereign grace. Of course this should not be our spirit, when the Christian testimony is in ruins. If we have been gathered in this way, we have nothing to boast of, for it was only by His grace that He granted us such a privilege. If those whom He has gathered to His name are a testimony, they are nothing more than a testimony of the fact that there is a ruin in the Christian testimony, and this is something of which no one would want to boast. As a result of our lamentable state, the Lord has weighed His hand upon us and reduced us in number as saints gathered to His name, compared to what it was in the past. May we hear “the rod, and who has appointed it” ().

presents to us the principle of the Lord's governmental action. There it says: “In that day you will not be ashamed of any of your works, with which you rebelled against me; for then I will remove from your midst those who exult in your pride, and you will never again be haughty on my holy mountain. But I will leave in your midst a humble and poor people; and they will trust in the name of the LORD”.

SUMMING UP: The summarized answer to the reason why the “saints gathered” are relatively few in number is:

  1. The intention was that it should be small -- it is in its very nature. Because it is a

remnant testimony, the Spirit of God is not necessarily gathering every remaining Christian on the face of the earth to the name of the Lord to maintain this testimony. Through His sovereign grace He is maintaining a “lamp” () on the earth as to the practice of the truth of the one body until the Lord comes.

  1. Those gathered to the name of the Lord seek to practice all of God's truth, and

many things in the Scriptures, as we have already observed, are not popular. Therefore most Christians are not interested in identifying with this movement.

  1. Those assembled to the name of the Lord have failed and the hand of God has been upon

them in a disciplinary way. God has reduced the number of this remnant testimony to humble those who are connected to it.

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