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Thus far, we have seen that to carry out this New Testament ministry we must first get into this ministry. After getting into it, we must have some proper way or the best way to help the saints in the recovery to get solidly educated in this New Testament ministry. I believe that when all the saints in the recovery have received the proper education, they will spontaneously become good ministers to carry such a ministry to the outsiders, to the unbelievers, and to the other Christians who do not meet with us. I feel that it is crucial for us to find out what the best way is to help the saints in each local church to get into the same things that we ourselves have gotten into.
I believe that this will affect the way of our meeting, so we have to consider or reconsider the way of our meeting. We must find the best way to turn our meetings into meetings of education. The saints who are meeting with us all the time need to be educated. Based upon our experience over the years, we must admit that in the matter of educating the saints we have not been very successful. A number of the saints have been meeting with us for years and years, but they still have not gotten into the basic intrinsic element of the Lord’s recovery. From the point of view of educating the saints with the basic truth, we all have to admit that our way of meeting has not been so successful. We surely do not appreciate the way that today’s Christians have their meetings. Many of us, including myself, have attended Christian meetings from our youth. For many years I attended the services, heard the sermons, and went to Sunday school, but nearly nothing got into me. However, something of the Bible stories and of the traditional Christian practices surely got into me, and I became that kind of Christian. Actually, no truth, no life, no Spirit, and no reality ever got into me. I believe we all have to admit that a good number of saints have been meeting with us year after year, yet if you check with them today, you would discover that not much intrinsic element of the divine revelation has been really wrought and constituted into their being. Not only in the matter of life but even more in the matter of the truth, not much intrinsic element has been wrought into the saints. I am really concerned that not many among us can present particular truths in an adequate way.
I recently discovered that at least some of you probably have never read over fifty Life-study messages. This is according to my observation and some information that came to me. Occasionally, information came to me spontaneously, which I did not expect. Actually, to some extent I did not like to hear these things. I am not a person who desires to hear others’ situations. However, I must say honestly to some of you that by your direct contact with me, I realized that you had not read many of the Life-studies. If you had, you would not have talked to me in the way that you did. I have the full confidence in the working out of the Life-study messages. I do not believe that anyone who had read between two hundred and five hundred Life-study messages could have talked to me in that way. Your talk to me exposed yourselves. Let me give an example from my experience in learning English to further clarify this matter. I learned English mainly in writing and not in speaking. Since I came to America, you all can testify that by my speaking over the years I have improved in speaking the English language. By my speaking, all of you can realize where I stand and how much labor I have spent in learning how to speak the English language. In like manner, when you come to me, your talk exposes to me where you are as far as the truth is concerned.
Under the Lord’s mercy I came to this country with a particular commission, a particular burden, to bring the Lord’s recovery to the top Christian country. I fully realized the responsibility and the hardship involved, yet I would not avert from this commission, and I came with a burden to present the truth. After a few years of being here in the United States, I fully realized that the truths were not properly or adequately understood in a deeper way in this country.
Brother Nee indicated to me definitely that the United States was hopeless concerning the Lord’s truth. He said that superficiality and worldliness were the two main factors for this. He indicated that Britain and Germany were solid countries but that the United States was loose and too worldly. Also Brother Nee never agreed for any young saints among us to come to the United States. He never encouraged this. He indicated that if anyone wanted to go out to study, they should go to England. I received such an impression from Brother Nee, and I came to the United States with a burden. I found out, of course, that the situation was not exactly the same as what Brother Nee had told me. I found out that the people here are not that superficial and are not that loose. However, I did discover that not many of the deeper truths were really understood by the seeking Christians in a solid way. As a result, my burden was to bring the Lord’s recovery to the United States. After staying in the United States for two years, I had a burden to present the truth, trying my best to hold conferences and to visit many cities. From 1962 to 1974 I went to many places presenting the truth. By 1974 I realized that merely to present the truth with subjects and certain topics would not be an adequate way. Therefore, I began to bear the burden to put out Life-study messages on the books of the Bible in a very good sequence.
The highlight of all the conferences was in 1973. Before this time the highest attendance we had at a conference was approximately twelve hundred, but in the summer conference of 1973 the attendance went up to over three thousand. Suddenly the number more than doubled. So many coming to the conference helped me to make the decision to change from a conference way to a training way. There is no control with a conference, because it is open to the entire public. We cannot reject anyone who wants to come to a conference. A training, however, is in the nature of a school, and there is the need for people to be registered. By 1974 there was the need to put out the truth according to the sequence of the books of the Bible, and there was also the need to have some registration to control the attendance so that the standard of those attending would not be so low. Therefore, the decision was made to have annual trainings twice a year. We have seen to some extent that the registration for the training has been a kind of restriction. The standard has been raised up, and the atmosphere in the meetings has been very much adjusted and improved. You also realize that in the trainings I have the freedom to say things to you that I would not have in a conference.
In 1974 I began to write the footnotes for the Recovery Version of the Bible. I have written these footnotes to expound the books of the Bible for a few purposes. The main purpose is to bring you into the truth. As of January 1985 we have had trainings over the entire twenty-seven books of the New Testament. Those of you who have been trainees in the trainings should have realized that the first purpose of the footnotes of the Recovery Version is to present the truth. I do not believe that you can find as many basic truths in any other books as you have found in the Recovery Version. Other expositions and commentaries, for example, do not correctly point out what the main truth in the book of Matthew is. The Recovery Version clearly points out that this is a book on the kingdom of the heavens, and it gives you a proper definition of the truths concerning the kingdom of the heavens.
The first purpose of the footnotes is to present to you the truth, and the second purpose is to minister to you the life supply. Many of you can testify that you do not get as much nourishment from other expositions and commentaries as you do from the Recovery Version.
The third purpose of the footnotes is to help us to solve the common and hard problems in the New Testament. In nearly every book of the New Testament there are some questions that are hard to answer and some problems and points that are hard to understand. The footnotes in the Recovery Version are an attempt to solve the hard problems in the Bible in order to help the readers get through them. I had much experience as a young man studying the Bible. I came to a certain point in the Bible that I could not understand, and I became stuck on that point. For instance, 2 Peter 2:4 refers to the gloomy pits to which the angels who sinned were delivered. When I read this as a young man in the Chinese version of the Bible, I got stuck on this point. I did not know what the Chinese meant by gloomy pits. In the Recovery Version, however, there are adequate footnotes to help on problems such as these (see footnote 42 in 2 Pet. 2 and footnote 193 in 1 Pet. 3). For problems such as these in the Bible, I spend much time to go to the original Greek, to the lexicons, to the concordances, and to others’ expositions in order to get a proper understanding. By the Lord’s mercy I believe and thank the Lord that I received such an understanding. Therefore, for each of these problems I have given you a proper interpretation to help you to understand them properly. This means that I have removed all the obstacles on your “driveway” so that you may have a clear route and highway for a “drive” in your Bible study. Today we have the Recovery Version of the New Testament with nearly no obstacles on the driving way. You can drive your “study car” through any book of the New Testament without stops. If you have a problem, you can refer to the footnotes for help.
The fourth purpose of the Recovery Version with the footnotes is to open up the books of the Bible. After the Recovery Version of a book was published, that particular book of the Bible was opened to us. Because we have the Recovery Version of the entire New Testament, we must testify that the books of the New Testament have been opened to us. We have an open book. Some teachers of the Bible admit that Revelation is a closed book and that it is too deep. Also, a number of believers were told not to touch Revelation and to stay away from it. To most believers Revelation is a closed book, but when you get the Recovery Version of Revelation, you cannot say that it is a closed book. It is an open book. The Recovery Version of Revelation gives you a very brief and concise interpretation of the book.
I have made an attempt to open every book of the New Testament to you, but I have left the further digging to you. I have only “opened up the mine,” but I have not dug that much. The foundation that Brother Watchman Nee laid in China helped me greatly. During his time, however, he told me that the Lord had not permitted him to write any expositions. Through the messages I heard personally and directly from him, through the publications put out by him, and through many direct talks with him for over at least eighteen years, I received a very solid foundational word to build on. As a result, I picked up the burden to write the expository footnotes for the Recovery Version in order to open each book of the New Testament to the seeking saints. Both Brother Nee and I did not have that much time to dig further. I want to dig further, and I am still digging, but I do not believe that I can do that much. Therefore, I leave this further digging matter to you.
The basic truths have been presented to us, and much life nourishment has been put into print, especially with the Life-study messages. Also, the obstacles have nearly all been removed. We now have a clear way for our study, and every book is open to us. In mining, the hardest thing is to open the mine. Once the mine has been opened and the treasure is exposed, it is easy for someone to dig out the treasures. I have left only this one matter of further digging to you. I believe that the Lord will continue this digging work either through you or through some others. After a period of time I believe that many of you will be “good diggers.” The intention and the goal of our publishing the Life-study messages is to open up the mine for you to go in and dig.
In order to get the benefit of these four purposes in full, you must dive into the Recovery Version with the footnotes and the Life-study messages. It is not an easy task to be built up in the truth. You must study the text and every footnote. If possible, it is helpful to take care of the cross references. Then you need to study the Life-study messages. You need to get into these messages not like you are reading a newspaper or a reference book. You must consider the text of the Recovery Version with the footnotes and the Life-study messages as a textbook. Because this is my work, I know the nature of it. I am fellowshipping this with you to let you know the way our publications were written. If you merely read them in a light way, you cannot get into them. You must study them as a textbook.
If you merely read the Life-studies, you will receive only a temporary nourishment. That will become only a kind of inspiration to you. An inspiration is like a vapor in the air. When what we read becomes a truth in our being, this nourishment remains forever. What I have received is not all the time inspiration, like a vapor. What I have received from the Lord is always the solid truth, so it remains in me, nourishing me all the time. You must have the truth. The only way for the truth to get into you is through your mentality. Then it remains in your memory. If you do not understand, the truth cannot get into you. The truth gets into you through your mentality, your understanding. Also, if the truth gets into your memory, it becomes a constant and long-term nourishment. Then you have an accumulation of the truth, and you are a person continually under the constant nourishment. You will then know how to present the truth to others, not merely to inspire them or to stir them up but to make them solid and constituted with the truth.
I do not have any definite decision as to what way we should take with our church meetings. If I were taking care of a local church meeting, I would not make any decision immediately. I would go to the meetings, and by going on in the meeting life, I would learn something. I would realize what is the best way to have a meeting. We may begin to have an experimental period of time to gradually find out what is the best way.
First, we must admit that the type of meeting today among the Christians on this earth is altogether inadequate. I do not believe that any meeting among the Christians today on this earth corresponds with some of the meetings under Paul’s leadership in the New Testament times. We have no record of these meetings, and we cannot trace them, but I do believe that even the meetings we practice do not correspond that much to the meetings that were at Paul’s time. I believe that the Lord did this because this age is an age of life and of the Spirit, even of the sevenfold intensified Spirit, not of letters, rituals, or forms. I believe that the Lord intentionally did not let us know what the way was, because once He would let us know the way, it would become a fixed ritual. Today there is no Christian that can tell us what the fixed way for Christian meetings is. Therefore, we have to grope for the proper way by our spirit according to the present, real situation. We may also discuss some principles. We hope that the leading ones, either the elders or the ones who are taking care of any meeting, such as the Chinese-speaking meetings, the Spanish-speaking meetings, and the young people’s meetings, would pick up a burden and look to the Lord for a desire that all the saints would get into this New Testament ministry.
We have seen that to get ourselves into the New Testament ministry requires time. We must mean business with the Lord. I became full time in the Lord’s work in 1933. Before 1933, immediately after I was saved, was mainly my college education period. I studied in school, and after graduation I had a job, but in the mornings and evenings and especially on Saturdays and the Lord’s Day I did nothing but study the Bible. I would not call the books that I studied spiritual books but books concerning the understanding of the Bible. I mostly received an education concerning the Bible from the Brethren assembly meetings. They did not care for how many were there in their meeting. They only cared for one thing — to pass on the knowledge of the Bible. At that time I greatly appreciated them, and they treasured me because, as a young man, I was a continuous attendant of their meetings. I studied what I heard in their meetings and what I read in the books.
I spent at least eight years building a basic foundational knowledge of the Bible before I came out as a full-time worker. I have had altogether seven Chinese Bibles. I lost the first Bible, but I have the other six. The second Bible is full of notes, but they are very childish. The fourth Bible, however, is worthwhile to use and has more notes, which are much more mature. This Bible is greatly worn out. If I could have had today’s Recovery Version with the footnotes and the Life-study messages as a young man, that would have been wonderful. In those eight years, though, I surely got into the knowledge of the Bible.
This is what I expect of you brothers who are taking the lead in the church or in any kind of meeting. You must acquire a solid knowledge of the New Testament ministry. What I got into as a young man was good, but it was far off. There was nothing of the Triune God dispensing Himself, nothing of Christ and the church, and nothing of Christ, the Spirit, life, and the church. At that time I acquired much biblical knowledge concerning prophecy and typology. I also received the benefit of learning how to interpret prophecy. The Brethren assembly teachers were famous in knowing the Bible, and no other groups could compete with them. Even today the reference books that I use cannot compete with J. N. Darby. No one can present any principle in knowing the Bible as deeply as Darby. Darby’s five volumes of the Synopsis of the Books of the Bible bear a particular characteristic in that he presented the principles for understanding the Bible.
In 1925 I wrote to Brother Nee, asking him to please tell me what book could help me to understand the entire Bible. He said that according to his knowledge, the best one is J. N. Darby’s Synopsis of the Books of the Bible. He wrote this to me fifty-nine years ago, and he told me that I needed to read these volumes anywhere from three to five times; otherwise, he indicated that I would not be able to understand them. I can testify that without reading Darby three to five times, you do not know what he is talking about. Sometimes one sentence of his is equivalent to a long paragraph. He has the ability to put phrase after phrase and clause after clause into a sentence. I have been influenced by him to some extent in my writing. Sometimes to make two or three sentences out of one long sentence changes the denotation.
You must get into the New Testament ministry. Some of you may be concerned as to how you could do this. In spite of this, you must do it. Today all the people at NASA in Houston, Texas, are taking care of the exploration of space. Many of these people have Ph.D.’s and are working day and night. Otherwise, they could never have gotten such a position. If the worldly people can work this hard for worldly things, what about us? We should consider our business as the King’s business. Our job is much higher than their job. How could we do our business lightly? We could not. Some of you have considered the Lord’s recovery too lightly. You have never gotten into the Recovery Version, and you have never read more than fifty Life-study messages, even though about twelve hundred Life-study messages have been published. Yet you still consider that you know something. I do not mean that you do not know anything, but you must realize that, even humanly speaking, a short period of study does not qualify a person to get a job having to do with the exploration of space at the space center in Houston. Some of you have been in the recovery for years, and yet you have never gotten into the intrinsic element of the Lord’s recovery. We must consider that what the Lord has shown us over the years is not that shallow.
I came to this country with a burden to present the solid truth. I realize that I have been a little limited, especially because English is not my mother tongue. Still, I have published many things that need your spending years to get into. If you think that this is something so easy for you to get into, you are wrong. You need years to get into the New Testament ministry. I do not think that you are such a genius that you can do a quicker job than I did. To put out the things of the ministry has required me to labor both day and night for years. Even during this training while I have been speaking here three times a day, I have studied much in the morning and in the night. I still study the Word daily. Some of your talk to me, however, has shown me that you have not spent that much time to get into the ministry. Through your talk I realized that you have not read or studied the Life-studies.
We have come to a point in the Lord’s recovery where we must consider how to meet. Our way of meeting is related to how to use the Life-study messages. In other words, we must find out the best way to carry out the New Testament ministry. In principle, I feel that we, the leaders, must get into the ministry, and we must find a way to bring our congregation into it. I do not feel, however, that we should conduct our meetings like classes in the schools. We do not want to have a meeting to teach the saints the things in the Life-studies in a dead way. We must, by the Lord’s grace, keep our meetings so living and so full of nourishment. But still, we must carry out the saints’ education in the basic truths. Then all the saints who have been meeting in the Lord’s recovery with us for many years will get the adequate, solid, and basic education of the New Testament economy. Eventually, they will have the New Testament ministry to minister these truths to the unbelievers, to the believers who do not meet with us, and also to minister life to all the people. We should not, however, have any intention to proselyte people. Our burden should be simply to preach the gospel, to teach the truth, and to minister life to people. This is our commission. When the Lord was on this earth, He also preached the gospel, taught the truth, ministered life, and prepared the disciples. Millions of people received the benefit. There were not too many, however, who took the New Testament way. I feel that we should take the same way. Then we would not be narrow or sectarian in reality.
Our meeting should be carried out in a living way such that all the saints might be nourished, on the one hand, and educated, on the other hand. Many saints have been meeting with us for over five years, and yet they do not know much concerning the basic truths. We need a new start. After three years of meeting with us, the saints should have received some solid education of the New Testament ministry. Then they will become ministers. I once said that all of us could be apostles, prophets, evangelists, and shepherds and teachers. Eventually, however, we did not have the proper practice to bring all the saints into such a ministry. Time has shown us that we have to wake up. I do not blame the past, since it was also quite good. We did experience the Lord’s mercy, but we still need some improvement. To see something short or weak in the past does not mean that we blame that, but it means that we have to improve.
We should seek after the Lord’s leading in this matter. I do not like to make any kind of legal decision that from now on every local church has to take certain kinds of steps in a legal way. Maybe one local church has a sense to take a certain way, and another local church takes a little different way. Only the Lord knows. We must, however, pick up the principles that govern us, and we must have some basic points to work on. How to carry out the meetings depends on the environment of your location and the need of your congregation. In principle, we need thorough fellowship, and then the Lord may lead us to pick up a better way to take care of our meetings. This does not necessarily mean that we would revolutionize and completely change our meetings. My intention is not to belittle or lower down our meetings in the past but to uplift them. I believe that the Lord has brought us to the highest plane and at the least the high place, but we still need some improvement. Pray about this.
