The Congregation of God - The House of God - Kingdom To Come

The Congregation of God—the House of God.

Speaking of the Son, after having referred to the position Moses held in the Father's house, the author of the Epistle to the Hebrews says concerning the house, "But Christ as a son over his house, whose house we are, if we should hold fast the confidence and the exaltation of the hope firm unto the end." (Heb. 3:6, Emphatic Diaglott.) Paul says that this is the temple of God and the congre­gation of God: "For we are laborers together with God: ye are God's husbandry, ye are God's building ... Know ye not that ye are the temple of God, and that the Spirit of God dwelleth in you! If any man defile the temple of God, him shall God destroy; for the temple of God is holy, which temple ye are." (1 Cor. 3:9-17.) And to Timothy he writes, "That thou mayest know how thou oughtest to behave thyself in the house of God, which is the church for congregation] of the living God, the pillar and ground of the truth." (1 Tim. 3:15.) With the following emphasis and result the power of salvation of the grace of God now reaches the enclosed and misguided sheep through the efforts of the faithful servants of the house:

"That at that time ye were without Christ, being aliens from the commonwealth of Israel, and strangers from the covenants of promise, having no hope, and without God in the world: but now in Christ Jesus ye who sometimes were far off are made nigh by the blood of Christ . For through him we both [Gentile and Jew] have access by one Spirit unto the Father. Now therefore ye are no more strangers and foreigners, but fellow citizens with the saints, and of the house­hold of God; and are built upon the foundation of the apostles and prophets, Jesus Christ himself being the chief corner stone; in whom all the building fitly framed together groweth unto an holy temple in the Lord: in whom ye also are builded together for an habitation of God through the Spirit."—Eph. 2:12-22.

This combined temple and throne is still being built on by the Spirit of God through Jesus Christ, and constitutes the throne of the Father's name. It is still the occupation of the Son to unite the faithful by means of the name of the Father, which unites and defends the believers. For this reason Christ said in his prayer to his Father when he turned over the stewardship to his servants:

"I have manifested thy name to the men whom thou hast given me out of the world; thine they were, and thou hast given them to me; and they have kept thy word. Now they know that all things whatever thou gayest me are from thee… I entreat for them; not for the world I entreat, but for those whom thou has given me; because they are thine . . . And I am no more in the world, but they are in the world, and I am coming to thee. Holy Father, keep them in thy name, by which thou hast given them me, that they may be one, as we also are. When I was with them, I kept them in thy name, by which thou hast given them me; and I guarded them, and no one of them was destroyed, except the son of destruction; that the Scripture might be verified. But now I am coming to thee; and these things I speak in the world, that they may have my joy completed in them. I have given thy word to them, and the world hated them; because they are not of the world, as I am not of the world . As thou didst send me into the world, so I sent them into the world; and in their behalf I sanctify myself, so that they also may be sanctified in truth. Nor do I entreat. for these only, but also for those believing into me through their word; so that all may be one; as thou, Father, art in me, and I in thee, that they also may be in us; so that the world may believe that thou didst send me. And the glory which thou hast given me, I have given them; that they may be one, as we are one; I in them, and thou in me that they may be perfected into one; so that the world may know that thou didst send me, and didst love them, as thou didst love me."—See John 17, Emphatic Diaglott.

The appearance of the house. These faithful acknowledged no other names than the names of the Father and Jesus. Those who believed exhorted one another to keep "the unity of the Spirit" in humbleness, saying, "Endeavoring to keep the unity of the Spirit in the bond of peace. There is one body, and one Spirit, ever, as ye are called in one hope of your calling; one Lord, one faith, one baptism, one God and Father of all, who is above all, and through all, and in you all."—Eph. 4:1-6.

Their God was not triune. And their Jesus was not God, but he was the Son of the Almighty, and the impartial Mediator between God and those mortal souls who sought at the door of the Father's house life and incorruptibility upon the foundation of faith. Therefore Paul says, "Now a mediator is not a mediator of one, but God is one." (Gal. 3:20.) If we add to this the following descrip­tion of the congregation representing the throne of God, the pure elevated position of restitution is very clearly seen, from which position a terrible apostasy has been brought about by the destroyers of the temple: "And the multitude of them that believed were of one heart and of one soul: neither said any of them that ought of the things which he possessed was his own; but they had all things common. And with great power gave the apostles witness of the resurrection of the Lord Jesus: and great grace was upon; them all. Neither was there any among them that lacked: for as many as were possessors of lands or houses sold them, and brought the prices of the things that were sold, and laid them down at the apostles' feet: and distribution was made unto every man, according as he had need."—Acts 4:32-35.

The Father's house, the church of God, or the congregation of God, stood on this glorious plane of unity and faith; and it apostatized from that position. It will now be restored and developed into the new Jerusalem.