By Oscar Pimentel, General Overseer of The Church of God
“And while they looked stedfastly toward heaven as he went up, behold, two men stood by them in white apparel; Which also said, Ye men of Galilee, why stand ye gazing up into heaven? this same Jesus, which is taken up from you into heaven, shall so come in like manner as ye have seen him go into heaven” (Acts 1:10, 11). It almost seems as though the disciples were being rebuked or reprimanded for standing around gazing. Was it so wrong to stand there and look steadily and intently with admiration at what had previously been? Christ had promised His companionship to them, and now He was gone from their sight, but oh what a time! Of course, they were not wrong to watch the Lord’s ascent, but it was vitally important to not stay there longer than necessary because God’s eternal program was on the march. Christ had explained, “It is expedient for you that I go away: for if I go not away, the Comforter will not come unto you” (John 16:7). Aren’t you glad that God’s program continued to move forward unto greater things? Aren’t you glad Christ came, did His part, and then left to prepare a place for us, and at the same time had the Father send us the Comforter? You see, in God’s eternal program there was more to come. What had taken place was not just needful but a part of God’s plan. These things were important, significant, and worthy to be recounted and remembered, but the disciples of Jesus Christ could not afford to stand still too long basking in what had happened. They needed to get on and move forward as instructed by their Lord. God has an eternal program that has been on the march ever since He put time into motion and it has an expected end.
Perhaps as they were gazing up, they reminisced on glorious events of the past and of a special time that previously had been. Every so often, mankind’s tendency is to stop and take a moment to glance back and recall events of the past. When we do, we often find that some of those memories bring us joy while some others may not. As we recollect on past events, we can be encouraged and propelled forward by realizing how the hand of God has been with us, is with us, and will be with us. We come to understand that the conflicts and valleys, or what we endured during the trying of our faith, didn’t compare to the glory that followed when God descended and said “peace be still,” and demonstrated that He was in control the whole time, for He is the great Architect of the time line the Church is riding. There is nothing wrong with glancing back and reminiscing and recounting past events so long as our backward glance does not hinder us from making forward progress—there is yet a work to do! There is yet a goal to reach!
I love our Church history. I love our heritage. I love the CPMA. This auxiliary of the Church is not just one which was established to tell us about the story of the Church (like a “bedtime storyteller” or simply one to recount history), the CPMA is an anchor that helps the Church not forget the biblical, historical, and spiritual importance of past events in our rich heritage.
There is a spirit that accompanies the Church of Prophecy Marker Association and it can be contagious if we would have it so. The spirit of the CPMA can rekindle the flame of love for the Church. The spirit of the CPMA can bring revival. The spirit of the CPMA can help bring one to the grounds of divine revelation. The spirit of the CPMA can help one see the path that the last days Church of God has been on under the action of the Holy Ghost, and see from afar the expected end of the Church. Someone once said that “out of the past comes what we are and where we are going tomorrow.” We don’t want to go “off course” in this late hour as we look into the future and move in its direction; therefore, the Church must be firmly secured to the experiences of her past as she progresses toward her destiny. When given due consideration, we will always find that every significant event of the Church’s past demonstrated that another “milestone” was arrived at on God’s program. These happenings, or significant events of the past, didn’t occur by mistake and they were not accidents, they were needful and spoken of by the prophets and the Holy Scriptures.
God is a forward-moving God and so is His Church. Christ said, “the gates of hell shall not prevail against it” (Matt. 16:18) in reference to His Church who is to play a crucial role in the unfolding events of these last days. As Christ looked into the future, He said, “thou shalt see greater things than these” (John 1:50) and “He that believeth on me, the works that I do shall he do also; and greater works than these shall he do” (John 14:12). In other words, what He was telling the infant Church was that future glory awaited them. The event of what we term the “Mount of Transfiguration” with all its reality of heavenly glory and divine manifestation was impactful and, had it been up to the disciples, they may very well have stayed there but it was needful that they leave that place and go on with God’s program of conveying God’s Word and will to man.
That special blessing and occurrence near Bethany, where Christ blessed them before He ascended into heaven, undoubtedly would be worthy of attention in the future for it was a momentous event, but the Lord didn’t mean for them to live off the wonder of those moments only for the rest of their lives, there were other great things ahead. And they didn’t. Do you know what they did? They got their eyes on future glory! They went on and returned to Jerusalem to continue with God’s program that had been prepared before the foundation of the world. Moving forward they would assemble, they would pray, they would do business for God and His Church, “…the Lord working with them, and confirming the word with signs following” (Mark 16:20).
We never once hear the apostles saying, “If only Jesus were still here.” “If only He had not gone.” “Oh, how we miss Him!” Why? Because His presence was with them. He had promised to be with His Church even unto the end of the world! They had Him then, we have Him today! There was no harm in remembering and recounting past events or even visiting sites where significant events took place, no more than there is today as we remember our Church heritage—where we come from, what we are, and where we are going. I’m almost sure that they, like we, had their “remember when” moments, but these were not merely wonderful moments in time, they were anchors to their souls. When tough times came and their faith was tried, they had to recall where their first blessing, their first anointing, and their first love had come from. After some time went by, surely those weary travelers might have felt the necessity to take a look at where they were in the will of God and glance back to that Upper Room event, or the experience of the Mount of Transfiguration, or the blessing near Bethany just to make sure that their bearings were straight, and to go onward to future glory.
The future glory of the early Church arrived just as the prophet Joel had said, “…I will pour out my spirit upon all flesh; and your sons and your daughters shall prophesy, your old men shall dream dreams, your young men shall see visions” (Joel 2:28). The glory, the power, the promise of the Father, filled the place where they were sitting. But wait! That’s not “all she wrote” so to speak. Thereafter, 3,000 souls were saved. A lame man was healed and he walked, he leaped, and he praised God! Peter’s shadow was thought to have healing power, so they laid the sick along the road to be healed. A well-known persecutor of the Church was stopped in his tracks by Christ Himself and was converted. A Church evangelist was caught up, seen no more by the Ethiopian he had evangelized, and was transported to another place.
Time will not allow the telling of all that the early Church experienced in the first century of the Grace Dispensation—things they would not have experienced had they stayed put and not marched on with God’s program. As there was future glory for them, there is future glory for us. We cannot afford to take our eyes off of the future glory that is just ahead for us.
Good looks are important. Good looks are necessary. But I’m not talking about the kind of good looks you might be thinking of. I’m talking about looking unto Jesus. I’m talking about looking to God’s Word for strength, assurance, and comfort. I’m talking about looking into the future to God’s expected end for His Church while staying anchored to our past.
Abraham, “…looked for a city… whose builder and maker is God” (Heb. 11:10). He had his eyes set on something glorious and could not sit still, so he moved, obeyed, and got after it. Enoch, Noah, Sara, Jacob, Joseph, etc., looked forward to the future, having faith in God’s promises. “These… having seen them afar off, and were persuaded of them, and embraced them…” (Heb. 11:13). With their eyes on what was ahead, these travelers made tremendous forward progress.
Christ even looked ahead. The Bible says, “…who for the joy that was set before him endured the cross, despising the shame, and is set down at the right hand of the throne of God” (Heb. 12:2). He had to look beyond the present and into the future. Regardless of all experiences—positive or negative, good or bad—He looked toward the future and all He could see was joy, irrespective of what was presently happening or was to come.
I’m looking to the future while staying anchored to our past because out of our past comes what we are today and where we will be tomorrow. I’m looking forward to future glory in the Church. Things may not be what we’d like them to be now, but when it’s all said and done, she will look nothing like the present. “The glory of this latter house shall be greater than of the former, saith the LORD of hosts: and in this place will I give peace, saith the LORD of hosts” (Hag. 2:9). “And it shall come to pass, that he that is left in Zion, and he that remaineth in Jerusalem, shall be called holy, even every one that is written among the living in Jerusalem: When the Lord shall have washed away the filth of the daughters of Zion, and shall have purged the blood of Jerusalem from the midst thereof by the spirit of judgment, and by the spirit of burning” (Isa. 4:3, 4). “That he might present it to himself a glorious church, not having spot, or wrinkle, or any such thing; but that it should be holy and without blemish” (Eph. 5:27).
A. J. Tomlinson said, “Some have said we should go back to the Bible—back to pentecost—back to the early Church—back to the power of the early Church. But no, it is rather for us to say that we are going on with God’s eternal program that was made for us before the foundation of the world… We are not going back to any thing. We are going on with God’s eternal program…
“No, we are not going back to what people mention as the ‘good old days,’ we are going on with our part of the program” (Minutes of the 26th Annual Assembly, 1931, pp. 12, 13). There is glory just ahead for us. There may be some weeping, there may be some lamenting, our faith will be tried, and some may fall away along the journey but the glory of the latter house is sure to come and it will be experienced by those who, while anchored to the past, look toward future glory and remain true blue to Christ and His Church.