A Great Cloud of Witnesses
The following deals with a question related to The Ching Ming Festival (2). I have numbered the paragraphs in the message from the reader so that you can more readily identify the corresponding sections in my response.
(1) What do you think about the popular belief that we are surrounded by a cloud of witnesses and the people in heaven are looking over the banister cheering us on or watching us?
(2) I asked one of my teachers if there is a possibility that my dad or other members of the family that have died saw me preach one of my first sermons. He said it is possible because we are the body of Christ and they are not really dead. They are in heaven alive and can see activity here on earth.
(3) I believe I heard a well-known theologian say that he gets nervous some times because he realizes that he is not just preaching to the congregation, but also a great cloud of witnesses, which is the body of Christ here on earth and in heaven.
What are your thoughts on this?
— 1 —
The biblical verse from which people derived this idea about "a cloud of witnesses" is Hebrews 12:1, which says, "Therefore, since we are surrounded by such a great cloud of witnesses, let us throw off everything that hinders and the sin that so easily entangles, and let us run with perseverance the race marked out for us."
To correctly understand this verse and how it applies to our question, we should consider the sense in which these past believers are "witnesses" to our race. It is true that a "witness" often refers to someone who has had direct contact with a given subject of inquiry, and thus it appears to many people that for these past believers to be witnesses must mean that they are currently aware of our activities.
Some people even believe that these past believers are watching and hearing what we are doing, so that when we preach, they are actually listening to the sermon, and when we sin, they are actually watching.
However, this is not a necessary implication of the verse, and as we shall see, it is not even a probable interpretation.
Consider Matthew 12:41–42:
The men of Nineveh will stand up at the judgment with this generation and condemn it; for they repented at the preaching of Jonah, and now one greater than Jonah is here.
The Queen of the South will rise at the judgment with this generation and condemn it; for she came from the ends of the earth to listen to Solomon’s wisdom, and now one greater than Solomon is here.
Jesus is addressing the Pharisees and the unbelieving people of "this generation," that is, the Jews.
The men of Nineveh will condemn the unbelieving Jews, not because they were direct witnesses of their unbelief, but because they (the men of Nineveh) repented at the preaching of Jonah.
And the Queen of the South (Sheba) will also rise to condemn the unbelieving Jews, not because she personally witnessed their unbelief, but because she came to hear Solomon’s godly wisdom.
Each of the above is a double a fortiori, in that (1) the men of Nineveh and the Queen of the South were Gentiles, not Jews, so they lacked the spiritual privileges that the Jews had, and (2) Jesus was greater than both Jonah and Solomon. So, if an evil nation would repent at the preaching of Jonah, and if an foreign queen would come to hear the wisdom of Solomon, then how utterly strange and outrageous it was for the Jews, those entrusted with the oracles of God, to oppose the very Son of God? Thus the Jews were worthy of double condemnation.
But our focus is now on the "witnesses." They will condemn the unbelieving Jews not because of their knowledge about the Jews, but because of what they themselves did in contrast with the unbelieving Jews.
With this in mind, turn your attention back to Hebrews 12:1. The previous chapters give us the context that helps us to grasp the sense in which these past believers are witnesses to our race of faith.
Hebrews 10:32–39 says:
Remember those earlier days after you had received the light, when you stood your ground in a great contest in the face of suffering. Sometimes you were publicly exposed to insult and persecution; at other times you stood side by side with those who were so treated. You sympathized with those in prison and joyfully accepted the confiscation of your property, because you knew that you yourselves had better and lasting possessions.
So do not throw away your confidence; it will be richly rewarded. You need to persevere so that when you have done the will of God, you will receive what he has promised. For in just a very little while, "He who is coming will come and will not delay. But my righteous one will live by faith. And if he shrinks back, I will not be pleased with him." But we are not of those who shrink back and are destroyed, but of those who believe and are saved.
The Jewish believers were experiencing pressure and persecution, and they were tempted to abandon their faith, and to return to their former profession. Weaving an intricate doctrinal treatise together with godly pleas and threats, the inspired writer of Hebrews admonishes them to maintain their faith.
Then, in Hebrews 11, the writer recounts numerous deeds performed by believers of previous generations, often against great danger and opposition. This is what it means to "live by faith" and not "shrink back."
It is clearly in this sense that these past believers are now "witnesses" to our own race of faith. They have already completed that which these Jewish believers were now tempted to give up, and now they serve as "witnesses" or testimonies to the promises of God and the power of faith. But "God had planned something better for us so that only together with us would they be made perfect" (Hebrews 11:40), then let us not allow their lives to condemn us but rather encourage us to complete the race, looking to Jesus, the author and perfecter of our faith (12:2).
So, the point is not, "You better run well because they are watching you," but rather, "Consider him who endured such opposition from sinful men, so that you will not grow weary and lose heart….Therefore, strengthen your feeble arms and weak knees" (12:3, 12).
Applying this to our question, the verse (12:1) does not tell us whether or not these past believers know what is happening on the earth — that is, whether or not they do, this verse does not tell us. It tells us only about what we should now do in the light of what they had done. Relative to our question, there is no way to validly infer anything more from the verse than this.
— 2 —
Yes, it is possible that your father and other deceased family members saw you preach one of your first sermons, if this is what God had chosen to show them. But the reasons that your teacher gave are poor: "He said it is possible because we are the body of Christ and they are not really dead. They are in heaven alive and can see activity here on earth."
I am also part of the body of Christ and I am not really dead, yet I have never seen you preach, so this can’t be enough. Then, that they are "in heaven alive" does not imply that they "can see activity here on earth." If your teacher did not mean to connect the two, then he has given no reason at all as to why people "in heaven alive" "can see activity here on earth."
Now, there are passages like Luke 16:24–25 and Revelation 6:9–11.
Luke 16:24-25 says:
So he called to him, "Father Abraham, have pity on me and send Lazarus to dip the tip of his finger in water and cool my tongue, because I am in agony in this fire." But Abraham replied, "Son, remember that in your lifetime you received your good things, while Lazarus received bad things, but now he is comforted here and you are in agony."
However, this passage does not tell us how and when Abraham knew about the rich man’s life. It does not say that Abraham knew this by watching and hearing the rich man’s life while the rich man was still alive. It is possible that the information was revealed to Abraham after the rich man's death. Either way, this passage does not tell us how he knew.
And Revelation 6:9–11 says:
When he opened the fifth seal, I saw under the altar the souls of those who had been slain because of the word of God and the testimony they had maintained. They called out in a loud voice, "How long, Sovereign Lord, holy and true, until you judge the inhabitants of the earth and avenge our blood?" Then each of them was given a white robe, and they were told to wait a little longer, until the number of their fellow servants and brothers who were to be killed as they had been was completed.
But again, the passage does not say that these martyrs were watching and hearing the activities on earth. Rather, the passage tells us that they were "watching" God and speaking to him about the earth. We cannot infer more than this from the passage.
— 3 —
He probably meant it to sound pious, but this is not impressive at all.
There is something wrong with a person who, if he is going to be nervous at all, is not already nervous enough because GOD is watching him, but because he thinks that dead people are watching him.
And is this not just another form of necromancy, a form of conscious and deliberate interaction with the dead, even if not as blatant and overt?
Biblical spirituality is "simplicity and purity of devotion to Christ" (2 Corinthians 11:3, NASB). Many false biblical interpretations result from the desire to make spirituality more exciting, adventurous, and meaningful (from the carnal viewpoint), often by making it more esoteric and complicated. But the simplicity of biblical spirituality should more than satisfy the believer, that is, unless he has lost his first love.
Recommended:
Personality without Corporeality
Vincent Cheung, Systematic Theology
Vincent Cheung, Godliness with Contentment
Gordon Clark, The Biblical Doctrine of Man
Thomas Watson, Heaven Taken by Storm