The testimony or evidence adduced or given in confirmation of an assertion, and so often used judicially. The term also sometimes speaks simply of an expression of mind or feeling. Until God intervenes in power to establish His own purpose in regard to this world, He maintains a testimony to that which He will assuredly accomplish.
The words μαρτυρέω, μαρτυρια, and, μαρτύριον are translated both “testimony” and “witness.” The idea runs all through the scriptures in respect both to God Himself and to His people. Paul declared before the heathen at Lystra that God “had not left himself without witness” as to His existence and His goodness, in giving rain and fruitful seasons, filling their “hearts with food and gladness” (Acts 14:1717Nevertheless he left not himself without witness, in that he did good, and gave us rain from heaven, and fruitful seasons, filling our hearts with food and gladness. (Acts 14:17)). The invisible things of God are testified of, “being understood by the things that are made, even His eternal power and Godhead, or divinity” (Rom. 1:19-2019Because that which may be known of God is manifest in them; for God hath showed it unto them. 20For the invisible things of him from the creation of the world are clearly seen, being understood by the things that are made, even his eternal power and Godhead; so that they are without excuse: (Romans 1:19‑20)).
God having for fifteen hundred years manifested His patience towards the guilty antediluvian world, He, after warning the people by the preaching of Noah, bore witness to His righteousness and His power by the deluge, and at the same time manifested, His grace in saving Noah and his family in the ark.
The witness which God vouchsafed of Himself to Abraham was that He was “THE ALMIGHTY GOD”; to Moses it was “I AM THAT I AM”; and to Israel, “JEHOVAH.” The ark was often called the “Ark of the testimony,” and the tabernacle was the “Tent of witness,” the witness of good things to come. To Nebuchadnezzar God was witnessed to as the “GOD OF HEAVEN.” To the Christian He is “GOD AND FATHER.”
Israel were of old God’s witnesses, and will also be in the future.
When Christ was on earth He bore witness to God as LOVE and LIGHT. The Lord Jesus is declared to be “the faithful and true witness” (Rev. 3:1414And unto the angel of the church of the Laodiceans write; These things saith the Amen, the faithful and true witness, the beginning of the creation of God; (Revelation 3:14)); and His works and His words were witnesses that He had come from God. The Father also bore witness to Him as His beloved Son, in whom He was well pleased. The Lord Jesus confessed before the Jewish council that He was the Son of God, and before Pilate that He was the King of the Jews (Matt. 26:63-6463But Jesus held his peace. And the high priest answered and said unto him, I adjure thee by the living God, that thou tell us whether thou be the Christ, the Son of God. 64Jesus saith unto him, Thou hast said: nevertheless I say unto you, Hereafter shall ye see the Son of man sitting on the right hand of power, and coming in the clouds of heaven. (Matthew 26:63‑64); Matt. 27:1111And Jesus stood before the governor: and the governor asked him, saying, Art thou the King of the Jews? And Jesus said unto him, Thou sayest. (Matthew 27:11)).
Peter and John were witnesses of the truth before the council, so that they took knowledge of them that they had been with Jesus (Acts 4:1313Now when they saw the boldness of Peter and John, and perceived that they were unlearned and ignorant men, they marvelled; and they took knowledge of them, that they had been with Jesus. (Acts 4:13)). Stephen also was a true witness, and his testimony led to his becoming a martyr (μάρτυς). In Hebrews 11 is given a “great cloud” of witnesses to the principle of faith in Old Testament saints, some of whom were also martyrs. God will to the last have a testimony on earth as seen in His “two witnesses” of Revelation 11.
The Church, in the absence of the Lord Jesus, is the vessel of the testimony of Christ, hence Christians should be in their whole life and deportment true witnesses to the rejected Christ. The testimony of the church is characterized by—separation from the world; devotedness to the interests of the Lord Jesus on earth; faithfulness to the truth; unblamable moral conduct; and indeed, as the pillar and ground of the truth, by everything that becometh godliness.