Christians Must Witness
In recent years church leaders have been quite vocal about the need for a Christian witness. And so they should be, for the word “witness,” and its derivatives, as based on the Greek word martýs, occurs 47 times in the Christian Greek Scriptures (“New Testament”), King James Version. Let us examine some of the statements coming out of Christendom.
POPE JOHN PAUL II is quoted in L’Osservatore Romano (weekly edition in English) of April 30, 1984, as saying: “Witness, as my predecessor Paul VI stressed, ‘is an essential element of evangelization, and generally the first’ (Evangelii Nuntiandi, n. 21). It is particularly urgent in our era, in the disorientation of minds and in the eclipse of values that are shaping a crisis which is revealed ever more clearly as a total crisis of civilization.” A year earlier, another issue of the same journal reported on a papal audience under the headline “World of work needs Christian witnesses.”
Thus the need for witnessing is emphasized by the Roman Catholic Church. But what do Protestant spokesmen say about the importance of witnessing?
The sixth General Assembly of the World Council of Churches, which now has 301 members, met in Vancouver from July 24 to August 10, 1983, and later published its International Review of Mission (October 1983) including a 36-page article entitled “Witnessing in a Divided World.” Under a subheading, “All Christians Are Called to Witness,” this article stated forthrightly: “For a Christian, the task and act of witnessing is a response to and an expression of loyalty to God. . . . Witnessing is by divine mandate. We witness to the supremacy and love of God the creator and giver of life.”
The Baptist theological journal Review and Expositor gives similar emphasis, saying: “A study of the book of Acts reveals that new believers were added to the church because Christians were witnessing. If new converts are not being brought in, then, most likely, Christians are not witnessing.”
Though the sects of Christendom are hopelessly divided as to ideology and doctrine, they appear to agree on the need for witnessing. But are their members living up to the obligation of witnessing?
On this point, Michael Green, rector of St. Aldgate’s Church, Oxford, England, writes: “Our forefathers in the faith were accused of ‘turning the world upside down’ with the good news they told people about Jesus (Acts 17:6). . . . That is where we differ so enormously from the early church, where every man and woman saw it as his task to bear witness to Jesus Christ by every means at his or her disposal.”
A Baptist booklet, Witnessing in Today’s World, states: “A dedicated Christian may say, ‘Why, I wouldn’t know where to start in trying to witness to someone else.’” It adds: “The immediate reaction of many Baptist church members when witnessing is mentioned is, ‘We pay the pastor to do that.’”
Further, a Westminster publication, The Christian as Communicator, confesses: “It is quite possible that the responsibility for communicating the gospel is being bypassed simply because Christians do not have very much to say.”10
True, members of Christendom’s sects “do not have very much to say.” And therein lies the crux of their problem. They have failed to recognize the modern-day fulfillment of “the sign” that Jesus gave concerning his “presence” in Kingdom glory and “the conclusion of the system of things.” Those who see that “sign” are impelled to witness about it. How happy we can be that true Christians today have a great deal to say, as they witness zealously concerning Jehovah’s incoming Kingdom by Christ Jesus.—Matthew 24:3-14; Isaiah 43:12.