The word church has nothing to do with a building used for religious purposes. Church means "called-out." Every true member of the Body of Christ is a "holy one," a person who has been called out of the world by the Lord to be a witness, a king, a deliverer, and an eternal servant of God.

A saint has no calling in life other than to be a holy one of God. Each of his thoughts, each word, each action, each episode in his life, is ordered of the Lord with the coming famine—and subsequent eternity—in mind. Nothing ever happens by chance to a member of God's elect. All things work together for his good.

Every true saint (and we emphasize true because of the sin and lawlessness prevalent in contemporary Christianity) will experience rejection and tribulation, moral enticement, and imprisonment. If he remains faithful to Christ throughout his suffering he will go on to become a witness, a king, a deliverer, and an eternal servant of God. He who overcomes in each of these three areas, will inherit all things, and God will be his God, and he will be God's son.

If the saint fails in any one of these three areas he must take the test again. Before he can be trusted with the four roles he must experience the trials. Meanwhile he must continue to perform with all his ability—as Joseph did—the tasks at hand.

God will determine when we have fought the good fight of faith to His satisfaction and when we can be trusted with advancement in His program of judgment and deliverance. Our responsibility is to continue overcoming, through the grace of Christ, the problems set before us each day.

As we understand the Scriptures, the seventieth week of Daniel (Daniel 9:27) will transpire in the last days and is described in the eleventh chapter of the Book of Revelation. These will be the closing days of the present age, the time during which the seventh (and last) trumpet is blown. The Kingdom of God will come to earth at the end of the week (Revelation 11:15).

The first half of the week (42 months; 3 ½ years) is the period of the end-time witness. The Lord's witnesses, His saints, His godly remnant, will be prepared carefully and then judged, as symbolized by the measuring of the Temple of God (Revelation 11:1). They will be empowered to bear an earthshaking witness to all the nations of the world. Their miraculous signs will be largely destructive because of the abundance of sin and rebellion against authority that will be present in the last days.

The Gospel of the Kingdom will be preached to every nation for a witness. It is our understanding that the witnesses are being prepared today by rejection and tribulation, by moral enticement, and by imprisonment.

Rejection and tribulation teach us to lean on the Lord in every situation. The more we suffer rejection and tribulation the closer we must draw to God for help. We are not to become bitter and withdrawn. We must look to God for assistance in every situation rather than fight back in anger or withdraw in self-pity.

To be continued.