In their identification with the altar of the Lord these covenantal families stood over against the denizens of this world as a legal testimony, a witness sign planted by the Creator of heaven and earth, staking out his claim to ultimate sovereign ownership of the world and its nations.(1)Kline then delineates between the altar as a confessional witness and as the eschatological end to which it ultimately pointed.
The altars were not declarations of holy war, not proclamations of God's immediate intention to transform the earth into a holy theocratic domain. Their confessional witness to the world was accordingly a call to turn from idols and render covenantal allegiance to Yahweh. Nevertheless, they were a prophetic warning of the coming day of his power when the decree would go forth to enforce his sovereign claims over the earth.(2)And finally, since the Eschaton-judgment is "not yet," the covenant families of the Lord stand against the denizens of the world with the threatening challenge of God's coming reign. They are charged with the proclamation of this message and are doomed to the persecution that inevitably follows.
Until the time arrives for that divine judgment on the unbelieving world, the presence of God's altar at the center of his covenant people marks them as a martyr community. Martyr is used in a twofold sense. They are martyrs in the proper meaning of that word - they are witnesses for the Lord their God. But from Abel on (cf. Gen. 4:2-8) to be a witness-martyr is also to be a martyr in its customary sense. Faithful witness leads to martyrdom, to suffering, even unto death, at the hands of an unreceptive, unrepentant, hostile world. Such is the dual martyr mission of the people identified with God's altar.(3)(1) Kline, Kingdom Prologue, pg. 202.
(2) Ibid., pg. 202-203.
(3) Ibid., pg 203.
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