We have lived to see the time when "Church of God" is on many tongues and over many doors, as their sectarian title—and God permitting it. The very Church which Jesus built and bought is not the Church merely by virtue of the name; rather, it bears the name by virtue of being the only one ordained of God to bear it. There were other men named "Jesus" also, but only one was the prophetic Christ, the chosen and anointed One of the Father, of whom it was written "in the volume of the book." There were "false Christs" both then and thereafter, but only One was identified by "Moses and all the prophets… in all the scriptures" (Luke 24:27).
With "Church of God" signs and labels everywhere, and "the body of Christ" on the lips of hundreds of thousands of sectarians (many of them in dead earnest about it), are we ready and able to give account of ourselves before God for the fact that all too few of the "daughters," "queens," and "concubines" have "praised her" as "the only one of her mother," and Christ’s "dove" and "undefiled… one"? (Song of Sol. 6:9) Ready or not ready, WE MUST!
"It is not the right time," somebody says. Sorry, friend, but this claim did not originate with you. Our "shadow" made a similar claim, under somewhat different circumstances, but with no more ground. The restored remnant of Judah said, "The time is not come, the time that the LORD’S house should be built" (Hag. 1:2). But the Lord wouldn’t accept their groundless agreement. Their problem was that they were too involved in selfish interests—building their own "ceiled houses," sowing their own fields, filling themselves with drink, clothing themselves, and stashing away their wages for themselves. They had not considered that everything they were doing in their selfishness was coming to naught. They were working themselves to death, but God was "blowing upon it." "Why? saith the LORD of hosts. Because of mine house that is waste, and ye run every man unto his own house" (v. 9).
If it was time to "Arise, shine" seventy-six years ago [now 113 years ago], why is it not time to shine now? What about "the brightness of thy rising"? It seems that the Church should have something others do not have, and that others want. Why should we be "borrowing" when we should be "lending"? Why should we be the "tail" when God wills that we be the "head"? Why should we be "beneath" when we belong "above"? And I hasten to explain that these exalted postures are not to be of our own assumption, for God promises to "make" us these things. (Deut. 28:10-13).
Yes, there is prosperity in the Church despite our timidity concerning the vision; and despite our apathetic willingness (not to say desire) to be "like other nations." But we are pondering our heritage in the light of this late hour. "The volume of the book" cries out the Church’s uniqueness. And while He made no "advertised performances" by which to impress the crowds, His merely being what the Father sent Him to be generated its own magnetism. Should it not be so with His body, the Church?
Christ came solely to do the Father’s will and to finish His work; and did He not say to the Church, "as my Father hath sent me, even so send I you"? His interests and loyalties were not divided; can we say as much?
"Our Heritage from Burger Mountain 1903-1979" [now 2016]—Do we really understand what it is all about? What is my evaluation of it? What is yours? Solomon once said, "Wisdom is good with an inheritance…" (Eccl. 7:11). For lack of wisdom, great inheritances have been squandered, the inheritor finally dying in poverty!
But this heritage—the Church vision and commission— will be appreciated by some generation of saints. Will it be our generation? Or the next?
"The gates of hell shall not prevail against it!" Thank God! Hallelujah!
by the late R. O. Covey
(Excerpts from the full message printed in the June 1979, edition of the
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