This testimony was with Antipas. In verse 13 the Lord says, “You hold fast My name, and you have not denied My faith, even in the days of Antipas, My witness, My faithful one, who was killed among you, where Satan dwells.” In Greek, the name Antipas means “against all.” This faithful witness of the Lord stood against all that the worldly church brought in and practiced. Hence, he became a martyr of the Lord. In Greek the word martyr is the same word as witness.As an anti-witness, Antipas bore an anti-testimony, a testimony against anything that deviated from the testimony of Jesus. It must have been through this anti-testimony that in his day the church in Pergamos still held fast the Lord’s name and did not deny the proper Christian faith. Antipas took the lead to fight against the worldly church, pioneering the way for us to fight against the worldly church today. Whatever the worldly church was, had, and did, Antipas fought against it.
In verse 13 the Lord says, “You hold fast My name.” The Lord’s name denotes His Person; the Person is the reality of the name. The church in Pergamos still held fast the name of the Lord, the reality of His Person. The deviating tendency of the worldly church is to give up the reality of the Lord’s Person. But in the Lord’s recovery we must fight against this, that the church may hold fast the Lord’s name, the reality of the Lord’s Person, for eternity.
The Lord also said, “You have not denied My faith.” The faith of the Lord denotes all that we must believe in of His Person and work. It is not the subjective faith within us of believing, but the objective faith of the things we believe in. Because the church entered into union with the world, she began to disregard the Lord’s name and to deny the proper Christian faith.
Antipas was faithful in his anti-testimony, even unto death. Because of his testimony against the worldliness of the church, he was killed and became a martyr. To testify against the worldly church we need the spirit of martyrdom. We need to be faithful for the Lord’s testimony against the worldliness of the church even unto death.
We have seen that Antipas was an anti-witness and an anti-testimony. Today, we in the Lord’s recovery are also an anti-testimony. Ever since Protestant Christianity went to China in 1830, it has been, with some exceptions, rather worldly. Beginning in 1922, the Lord raised up the testimony of the local churches. This testimony did an excellent job for the Lord’s recovery. Although many Christians opposed the recovery, they nevertheless were positively influenced by it, and, as a result, they changed in many ways. They would not take the way of the Lord’s recovery, but they did feel its influence and they took from us many of our teachings. If you check with the missionaries who were in China between 1922 and 1936, they would tell you that the Lord’s recovery exercised a great influence upon Christianity. I was born and raised in Christianity, but I had never heard the word fellowship. But due to the influence of the Lord’s recovery, nearly every denomination began to use this word. Formerly, on their bulletin boards they had the words worship time. But because of our influence they changed the words to meeting time. There is a great difference between “worship time” and “meeting time.” Under the influence of the Lord’s recovery, during the past forty years Christianity in the Far East has become more fundamental and has come back to the Bible. They even use our books as the basis for much of their teaching and preaching. However, some of them dare not admit that they have learned from us. They take the teachings but oppose the way of the Lord’s recovery and criticize our testimony. Nevertheless, the Lord has gained something. I have been told that in Taipei the outsiders always purchase a good quantity of books from our bookroom.
A certain missionary was giving a report about Taiwan. When he was asked about our work on that island, he said that, except for a dead fly in the ointment, it was a good work. Do you know what that “dead fly” was? It was the church ground. According to his concept, if we would drop the church ground, our ointment would be purified. But he did not realize that for us to drop the church ground is to drop our life.
Three years ago, during a visit to Taipei, I met a Christian of high social standing. He said that one preacher had told him that they cannot understand why there is always so much new light in the churches. The reason is that the Spirit is speaking to the churches. The light is neither on the street nor in the outer court; it is in the Holy Place, that is, in the church. This is why we always have something fresh from the Lord.
We are here for all Christians. Thirteen years ago I had a talk with the brothers in Los Angeles about the human spirit, the church practice, and mingling. I said, “Brothers, wait for a period of time and you will see that the outsiders will begin to use these terms.” This is exactly what has happened. Some of the things we have been preaching and teaching have been taken up by others. On the one hand, they oppose us, but, on the other hand, they secretly use our materials. I know of a certain preacher who openly opposes me, yet he teaches people from the book, The Economy of God.
During a visit to Tyler, Texas, I gave a series of messages on transformation. One of the attendants, who took notes on every message, was a noted preacher in South America. At the end of the conference he asked for permission to use some articles from our Stream magazine. I granted him this permission. After several months, I returned to Tyler and was greeted by a brother who said, “Here is a book by Witness Lee.” As I looked at that book, I did not see the name Witness Lee; rather, I saw the name of that preacher who had attended our conference and had taken notes on all the messages. He had gone to another place, had delivered the messages, and then had them published as a book, under his name. What should we say about this? As long as God’s people are helped, we do not care about it. However, we are not standing here for this help—we are standing here for the testimony of Jesus. We must be today’s Antipas.