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There is only one Bible, but as a result of differences among Christians in their understanding of the Bible, there are different kinds of Christians. As an example of the different kinds of Christians, I will explain how the Lord led me level by level in my experience until I saw that the church is the one new man.
I am Chinese, and I grew up in a Christian family. My mother’s maternal grandfather was a zealous member of the Southern Baptist Church, and my mother studied in a school established by the Southern Baptist Church. This was during the Ching Dynasty when there were only old-style private schools. The modern educational system of elementary school, middle school, and college did not exist. The schools established by the missions taught the Bible in addition to the regular courses taught in the old-style private schools. As a result, my mother also joined Christianity, but she was not saved. She was influenced by Christianity, and she was a devout follower of Christianity. In those days the Western missionaries who went to China to preach the gospel were called “foreign devils” or “primary devils,” and the Chinese people who accepted Christianity were called “secondary devils.” Therefore, during the Boxer Rebellion in 1900, the Boxers killed not only the foreign, or primary, devils but also the secondary devils. When the Boxers reached my hometown in Shangtung Province, my mother hid all the books concerning the Bible that were in our family’s home, and they had to escape and hide in the hills.
Under my mother’s influence, the children in my family met in the Southern Baptist Church from our youth. I studied at an elementary school operated by the Southern Baptist Church; I also went to church services and attended Sunday school. Therefore, I became familiar with the routine practices of Christianity. Every Lord’s Day morning our mother would make sure that we put on clean or new clothes to attend the church service. After the service she would cook a delicious meal of noodles. The Lord’s Day was a day for going to the church service and eating delicious food, not for doing any work. We were a Christian family.
I was in Christianity for nineteen years. As a result of my mother’s influence, I did not contact other religions, nor did I worship idols. Everyone in my family was a church member in Christianity, but none of us were genuinely saved. Nonetheless, when someone criticized or opposed Christianity, we would rise up to defend it. I once went on an excursion with my teacher and some classmates. When we arrived at a temple, I stood in front of my teacher, classmates, and a Buddhist monk, pointed at the idols, and said, “These are all false gods. They are like the mud under my feet because they are merely gilded with gold and are placed here on display. The true God is invisible and intangible. He is omnipresent, omniscient, and omnipotent. Only He, the Lord who created the heavens and the earth, is real.” At the time I was not even saved; I was merely a nominal Christian and had never prayed or confessed my sins. Nevertheless, I loved Christianity and was able to speak convincingly concerning the true God versus idols.
One day my second sister turned to the Lord and experienced salvation. She went to Nanking to study in the best women’s seminary in China; she was determined to serve the Lord her whole life. Afterward, she began to pray for my mother and me to be saved. As a result of her prayer, God’s salvation came to me. One Lord’s Day morning it was announced that a young lady evangelist would be coming from Shanghai to preach the gospel. In the past I had heard older pastors or older women preach the word, but I had never seen a young lady evangelist. Therefore, I decided to attend. There were over a thousand people in the audience that day. The message spoken by the young lady evangelist was powerful; I had never heard a message as powerful as hers. I was somewhat familiar with the stories of the Bible, but I had never heard such a message. She did not speak about sin. Rather, she spoke about Satan being the Pharaoh of the present age who keeps people under his authority and about God sending Christ to release all who are kept under Satan’s oppression, just as Moses released the children of Israel from Pharaoh’s oppression. I was captured by her words and decided that I would no longer be under Satan’s hand or be usurped by the world. On my way home I looked up toward heaven and said, “O God! Save me. I do not want to be held by Satan. I want to belong to You for my whole life.”
When I was young, I was occupied with amusements and sports. When I was older, I realized that my future would depend on my education. Therefore, I made up my mind to no longer be absorbed by amusements and sports but to pursue my education and to also diligently study the Chinese and English languages. It was at this time that I heard the gospel: “Do not be held by Satan in the world.” As a result, there was a definite change in my human life.
After I was saved, my greatest delight was to pray and to read the Bible. During one summer vacation, I spent two months to speed-read through the Bible in order to know its contents. I was determined to understand every chapter, verse, sentence, and word in the Bible. However, I realized that I did not understand the Bible. When I asked the pastor for instruction, his answers did not satisfy me. So I saved every penny in order to buy spiritual publications. I came across the Christian periodical The Morning Star and enjoyed reading the articles under the byline of Watchman Nee. Later, in an issue of The Morning Star it was announced that Watchman Nee would publish his own paper, The Christian. I immediately subscribed to this magazine.
From 1925 through 1927 Brother Nee published twenty-four issues of The Christian. It was read all over China by young Christians who loved and pursued the Lord. The circulation of this periodical grew to ten thousand copies every month. The primary content of The Christian was a meditation on the first three chapters of Revelation. Brother Nee spoke of the seven churches in Asia in chapters 2 and 3, exposing the condition of Christianity at that time. As a result of his writings, I believed that he must be very experienced. Hence, I wrote and asked him to recommend a book that would help me understand the Bible. This was the first time I corresponded with Brother Nee. He answered that, according to his knowledge, the book that would be of most help in understanding the Bible was The Synopsis of the Books of the Bible written by John Nelson Darby, a great teacher of the British Brethren. Brother Nee also said that this set of books was very difficult to read and that I needed to read it four or five times in order to understand it.
When I heard that there was a Brethren assembly in my city and that the people there were very good at expounding the Bible, I joined them. I was attracted to them. The Brethren were well known for their knowledge of the Bible. They specialized in expounding the Bible. They studied the types and prophecies in the Old Testament. In particular, they studied the great human image in Daniel 2, the four beasts in chapter 7, and the seventy weeks in chapter 9. They also studied the prophecies in the New Testament concerning Christ’s second coming and the rapture. I treasured this Bible knowledge. I was in the golden period of my youth, and I had an alert mind. I listened to at least five messages every week, wrote notes, and kept a record of everything I heard. I listened to their Bible exposition for seven and a half years and was very satisfied.
At that time I always criticized other denominations for not knowing the difference between the Old Testament and the New Testament or the intricate matters in Genesis and Exodus. Because I was taught in a Brethren assembly, I knew the difference between Genesis and Exodus. I also understood the significances of the burnt offering, the meal offering, the peace offering, the sin offering, and the trespass offering and the significances of the feasts of the children of Israel. I committed most of the types and prophecies in the Bible to memory.
One day in August 1931, while walking down the street, I was deeply convicted by the Lord. He said, “Although you have gained a great deal of Bible knowledge, you have not borne any fruit; you have not brought one person to Me. You are dead.” I felt condemned. Other than going to work, I read the Bible, went to meetings, listened to messages, and wrote notes. I had a good income, and I did not love the world or the enjoyment in the world. Nonetheless, the Lord condemned me for being dead. Early in the morning of the next day I climbed to the top of a small mountain near my home. There I wept loudly, “O Lord, have mercy on me! I am dead and dry.” From August of 1931 through March of the following year, for more than half a year, I went up to the mountain and cried out loudly, prayed, sang, and shed tears before the Lord every day. As a result, I often came down from the mountain inwardly filled with the Holy Spirit. My whole being was enlivened. This was the sweetest period in my fellowship with the Lord. The things on earth had no place in my heart; I was completely gained by the Lord.
In the summer of 1932 the denomination that I had left accepted my proposal to invite Brother Nee to come and preach in my hometown. Prior to that time, my contact with Brother Nee was only through correspondence. Now I would contact him face to face. Meanwhile, the Lord started working in my environment. Within a few days after Brother Nee’s departure, a brother and I began to meet together. Thus, a church was raised up in my hometown, Chefoo. I did not struggle or endeavor to raise up the church; it was the Lord who added people to us. We began meeting on a Tuesday evening, but by the Lord’s Day of the following week, eleven brothers, who had come out of eight different denominations, were breaking bread with us. Because my home was very small, only brothers came to the meeting; the sisters did not attend due to the inconvenience. We later found a bigger house and received the sisters. The next year our number increased to around eighty. We soon exceeded a hundred.
As a result of my fellowship with Brother Nee, I experienced a great turning point in my spiritual life. I turned from Bible knowledge to life, Christ, the church, and the Spirit. In August of 1933 the Lord urged me to give up my occupation and serve Him full time, but I lacked faith. The Lord, however, kept urging me to serve Him. Eventually, I had no choice but to drop my occupation. Afterward, I went to Shanghai to see Brother Nee, and he asked me to stay with him for a period of time, during which I received much help from him. He led me into life, into the subjective knowledge of Christ, into the church, and into the Spirit.
During the few months of my stay in Shanghai, Brother Nee gave messages in the big meetings. In addition, he would sometimes fellowship with the few of us who were there to receive his help. On one occasion he spoke concerning the first man, the first Adam, and the second man, the last Adam (1 Cor. 15:45, 47). He also spoke concerning the grain of wheat becoming many grains (John 12:24) and concerning God’s only begotten Son becoming God’s Firstborn and concerning our becoming His many brothers (Rom. 8:29). It was a long fellowship. I later went back to my room and wrote down everything I had heard. It was a definite turning point in my knowledge concerning life, Christ, the church, and the Spirit. From that day onward, I saw how God in Christ came to be life to man, how God made us His many sons through His Son, how God caused His only begotten Son to become the Firstborn and caused us to become His many brothers, and how Christ as the grain of wheat became many grains for the producing of the Body of Christ, which is the church. In that transparent fellowship I received genuine help from Brother Nee to see a clear vision.
Through this turning point I understood that if we want to let God in Christ work Himself into us, we must see that Christ is the embodiment of God, “for in Him dwells all the fullness of the Godhead bodily” (Col. 2:9). The Lord showed me the vision that we must eat Him and drink Him. This is not doctrine or knowledge. I had never heard this from others, nor had I read this in a book. I saw that the fruit of the tree of life was to be eaten (Gen. 2:9) and that the passover lamb and the unleavened bread were also to be eaten (Exo. 12—13:6). Furthermore, the Lord Jesus said that He is the bread of life and that he who eats Him shall live because of Him (John 6:48, 57). I saw clearly from the Bible that in order to let God in Christ work Himself into us, we must eat the Lord.
The Lord also showed me that He is the Triune God. He is God, yet He became flesh (John 1:14) and passed through death and resurrection. In resurrection He brought the humanity, which He put on, into resurrection and uplifted it. In resurrection He also became the life-giving Spirit (1 Cor. 15:45). This light has become clearer in me. I did not receive this light through the teaching or writings of others; it was given to me. This vision is that the Triune God became the life-giving Spirit; the Triune God put on humanity, passed through human living, entered into death on the cross, and resurrected to become the life-giving Spirit. This all-inclusive Spirit, possessing divinity and humanity, produces the believers, the church, and the Body of Christ (12:13). Gradually, I also saw that it is this Spirit who produces the one new man (Eph. 2:15-18).
From my personal experience I saw what it is to be unsaved in Christianity. There are many such people today. We should not think that these people do not love Christianity. They love Christianity, but they are merely in religion. By the Lord’s mercy I advanced; I was saved and loved to read the Bible. I loved the Bible so much that I wore out several copies of the Bible. However, when I met Brother Nee, I advanced further to a higher level of life, Christ, the church, and the Spirit. Because I turned to these four matters, I advanced yet further and saw that the Triune God became flesh, passed through human living, died, resurrected, and became the all-inclusive life-giving Spirit. This Spirit produces genuine believers, the church, the Body of Christ, and the one new man. This is the highest level. The believers, the church, the Body of Christ, and the one new man are in the Spirit. In the Spirit the believers collectively become the church. The church living in this Spirit is the Body of Christ, and the Body living by Christ as its person is the one new man.
I have given you my testimony so that you may consider which level you are in. May we all reach the highest level to see the vision of the one new man so that the Lord can accomplish His work on earth through us.
