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Will You Finish the Work? • Nov 01st 2005

The Task Unfinished – The Present State of the Lord’s Testimony – Introduction

Church History

In this deeply moving and sobering message, Gene Edwards delivers what he describes as the most important conference message of his life. Speaking with urgency, honesty, and spiritual gravity, Gene challenges believers to consider whether they will carry forward “the unfinished task” of preserving and advancing the testimony of Jesus Christ.

Drawing from Deuteronomy 31 and the passing of leadership from Moses to Joshua, Gene frames this teaching as a spiritual charge to a new generation. He speaks candidly about mortality, legacy, sacrifice, and the responsibility of believers to continue the work of the kingdom long after one generation has passed. This is not merely a historical teaching—it is a call to action.

Throughout the message, we trace the history of faithful believers who stood outside institutional religion and suffered greatly to preserve a pure testimony of Christ. He reflects on groups such as the Waldensians, Moravians, Anabaptists, Celtic believers, Paulicians, Bogomils, and others who endured persecution, martyrdom, exile, and hardship for the sake of the gospel. Their stories become a backdrop for a central question: Will there once again be believers wholly given to Christ and His purpose?

This message speaks directly to Christians longing for deeper discipleship, authentic church life, spiritual courage, and wholehearted devotion to Jesus Christ. Gene challenges ordinary believers—not merely leaders—to write, speak, serve, travel, minister, and sacrifice their lives for the Lord’s testimony.

Topics covered in this teaching include:

  • Christian discipleship and calling
  • The history of persecuted believers
  • The unfinished work of the church
  • Radical commitment to Christ
  • Spiritual legacy and faithfulness
  • The testimony of the Lord throughout history
  • Living beyond institutional Christianity

If you are seeking a deeper walk with Christ and a greater understanding of spiritual history, this message offers both inspiration and challenge.

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I’m not going to tell you how the Moravians have affected my life. I want you to know they have. And before this weekend is over, I’d like to tell you a true story that had to do with the Moravians and us. The Moravians were the last group of people in those dark ages who stood. The story after the Moravians belongs to us if we want it. It’s not the last Christians who stood outside institutional Christianity, but the last decent ones. No one in this room knows the burning drive of my life. Part of it is that we can get back to that kind of testimony. I stand there, and I leap across whatever has happened since then and cry out, let there be a people as decent, as holy, as “un-humanly” driven as were those people, because everything that’s happened since then has been a corruption. Every message that you’ve ever heard me bring, everything that has ever come into my life, every crisis that there’s ever been has been for me a call personally to not stoop to the tragedies and dishonesties that have come since the Moravians.

It has been my stand at Santa Barbara. Yes, it was my stand in Portland, Maine, too, when I got up and walked out of the place, that we could have decent workers and that we could have a people who are not God’s people because somebody told them they were overcomers or whatever else it was that has perverted and corrupted that stream.

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