Search
Over the course of the past seven and a half years, I have nearly exhausted sharing concerning the truth of the God-ordained way. In this training I do not want to repeat what I have already shared in the past. The verses in the Scripture concerning the God-ordained way have been repeatedly quoted to us again and again. I still have a heavy burden to have some practical fellowship concerning our experience and practice of the God-ordained way.
The God-ordained way as revealed in the Bible is the proper practice of the church life against the papal and clergy-laity systems. The papal system is the system of the pope in the Roman Catholic Church. The Roman Catholic Church is called “The Mother of the Harlots” (Rev. 17:5). Out of this impure, dirty mother, another system was produced — the clergy-laity system. The clergy-laity system, as the daughter of the papal system, is the system of Protestantism. The Bible reveals the God-ordained practice to counter these two systems. The Bible has its own practice and principle. The biblical practice and principle are always being put down by the papal and clergy-laity systems. The goal of the papal and clergy-laity systems is to annul the Body of Christ and replace it with a religion. The intention of God’s economy is to have an organic Body built up for Christ. But after nearly two thousand years of church history, what is prevailing today on this earth is an organized religion, comprising Catholicism and Protestantism.
When we left the divisions, we left the papal system with the clergy-laity system, but not many among us know what we have done or what we are doing here today in the Lord’s recovery. The Lord’s recovery has been lowered down by this ignorance. There are those among us who think that there is not much difference between us and the denominational churches. This kind of thought among the brothers and sisters may be because our testimony has been somewhat weak. Our testimony may not have been strong enough to bear the particular significance of the Lord’s recovery to the ones who have been with us for a number of years, including all the ones who have made or caused division in the past seventy years of our history. During the time of my ministry outside of mainland China in the past forty years, there have been at least three divisions caused among us. Every division showed that those who participated in them did not have a clear view about the recovery.
What is the recovery according to the Lord’s mind? It is to get His believers out of the papal system and the clergy-laity system. We should not forget that the intention of these two systems is to build up a religion, including Catholicism and Protestantism, to replace and put down the Body of Christ. Those who have made divisions in the Lord’s recovery did not clearly see this. Even I am concerned that we ourselves might not be so thoroughly clear about this. We left the denominations, the divisions, but we did not fully give up the papal and clergy-laity systems. We have outwardly come out of the Catholic Church and the Protestant denominations, but we still carry and walk in these two systems.
The real significance of the pope is in the papal system, and the real control of the saints is in the clergy-laity system. What the Lord wants in the new way is for us to leave the papal system and the clergy-laity system. To remain in these systems is to be a Nicolaitan. The Nicolaitans are mentioned in Revelation 2:6 and 15. According to the meaning in Greek, this group of people are those who climb above the laity. They are a group of people who esteem themselves, the clergy, higher than the common believers. According to Revelation 2:6 and 15, the Lord hates the works of the Nicolaitans with their teaching. The works and teaching of the Nicolaitans are prevailing in both Catholicism and Protestantism.
The system of one man speaking and the rest listening is a part of the papal and clergy-laity systems. As long as we remain in this realm, we are Nicolaitans. The Nicolaitans are those who put down the Body of Christ and annul the members of the Body of Christ. Catholicism and Protestantism build up a religion to replace and put down the Body of Christ. Spontaneously, they kill and annul all the members of the Body of Christ by depending on a class of people called the clergy. Unconsciously, much of what we do may be in the same principle.
The church is the Body of Christ and the new man. It is not normal for only a small number of the members of a person’s body to function while all the rest are paralyzed. A normal man uses all his physical members. We need to consider today’s situation in Christianity, in Catholicism and Protestantism. Where is such a corporate man, comprising the living, active, functioning members of the Body of Christ, to fulfill the purpose of God? There is not such a thing. Mostly what is considered in Christianity is the work of gaining sinners, winning souls, to build up a congregation. That is not for the Body of Christ. Our concept has been captured by that practice. We left Babylon, but Babylon’s principle and philosophy still remain with us. We left Babylon, but the Babylonian system would not leave us.
What is the new way, the God-ordained way? The God-ordained way is to rescue us from this Babylonian capture. We have been captured by the philosophy of the papal and clergy-laity systems. We are still carrying, probably unintentionally and subconsciously, the philosophy of these systems with us in whatever we do. This is why I say that we have to endeavor to change our philosophy. We are not building up any kind of religion. We are building up the Body of Christ, and we are building up the new man. We should be perfecting all the members of the Body and equipping all the parts of the new man, but we do not do much perfecting or equipping. In actuality, we left Babylon, but the Babylonian philosophy still goes with us. Unconsciously, we still like to keep this philosophy. There is the need of a revolutionary change from this old philosophy to the new, scriptural principle.
In our elders’ training thus far, we have seen that we need to practice the New Testament priesthood of the gospel. We need to preach the gospel according to the way of the New Testament. We have also seen the need for the feeding of the new believers in the home meetings. We need to feed the new ones, nourishing them so that they may grow. Then we have to have group meetings to equip, to teach, and to perfect the members of the Body of Christ so that they all will be able to do the same work that the gifted persons do to build up the Body of Christ. Finally, we need to attain to the stage of every member of the church prophesying in the church meetings for the building up of the church as the Body of Christ and as the new man.
Our lack is in the actual practice of the God-ordained way. According to the actual practice, the God-ordained way replaces the papal system and the clergy-laity system. To replace these systems is to kill the practice of today’s Christianity. We should not preach the gospel in the old way of winning souls. Instead, we should practice the New Testament priesthood of the gospel to present and offer saved sinners as sacrifices to God (Rom. 15:16; 1 Pet. 2:5). To carry out the papal and clergy-laity systems, one must have a gathering in which one or two speak to convince and help others to believe in the Lord Jesus and be saved. But the practice of the New Testament priesthood of the gospel does not depend mainly upon gatherings with good speakers. This practice altogether depends upon the functioning of all the members of the Body of Christ to contact people individually, one by one.
We should not despise the individual contact with people. As long as we do not practice the New Testament priesthood of the gospel by contacting people one by one, we are still somewhat remaining in the papal and clergy-laity systems. In Christianity a small number of the ones who are brought to Christ go to seminaries to learn how to be the clergy. They do not have the thought that they have been saved and regenerated and are being sanctified and transformed as the living members of the Body of Christ. It is easier to practice the old, organizational clergy-laity system than it is to gain people one by one and present them as sacrifices to God.
We need to change our way. To change to a way to which we are not accustomed is difficult. It is difficult for many Chinese to use a fork instead of chopsticks. No one likes to change to a new way. A Chinese person who has moved to the United States may use chopsticks ninety percent of the time and a fork only ten percent of the time. This illustrates our situation today in changing from the old way to the God-ordained way.
For the preaching of the gospel, we need the individual, direct contact with people, one on one. We also need this kind of personal contact for the feeding of the new believers. We have to feed the new believers one by one. This requires much endeavor and labor. Instead of doing this, though, many of us are occupied with other things that we think are necessary for the managing of the church. These things may be right, but actually they are not so necessary. The necessary thing for the elders is to visit people and contact them one by one.
We have to endeavor to pick up our “fork” and throw away our “chopsticks.” To pick up the fork is to pick up the practice of contacting people one by one. This is why I have said that the elders should endeavor to contact twenty people a week. Contacting people one by one saves us from building up a religion. This personal contact with people builds up the Body of Christ. This is a very serious matter. The only thing that bothers me, burdens me, and troubles me is that the elders and co-workers are not so absolute, adequate, and quick in changing to the new way. Our practice of the new way thus far has just about maintained our present number in the churches. Actually, there has not been enough advance, increase, or growth.
We have to change our way, especially for the practice of the group meetings. Thus far, it is difficult to see a group meeting fully practicing in an organic way according to what we have seen and ministered as revealed in the Word. A group that is meeting together may not constitute a proper group meeting. A proper group meeting should have the mutuality in every way. The teaching should be mutual, the asking and answering of questions should be mutual, the fellowship should be mutual, the intercession should be mutual, and the shepherding and care of the saints should be mutual. When we carry out all these mutual things, that is a proper group meeting. This kind of group meeting perfects the saints. Many of our group meetings are natural. They are not group meetings that are practiced according to the New Testament teaching, especially in Hebrews 10:24-25. There is the need of much learning to practice the charge in Hebrews 10:24-25.
The co-workers and elders should learn how to contact individual saints to fellowship with them particularly concerning the group meetings. We need to fellowship with them concerning how to have the mutual teaching, the mutual asking and answering of questions, the mutual fellowship, the mutual interceding, the mutual care, and the mutual shepherding. All of this is the mutual equipping and perfecting. If there is an elder in a group meeting, the entire group may look to him for help, thinking that they do not have much knowledge or experience. This is absolutely wrong. This is the philosophy of the papal system and of the clergy-laity system. This philosophy should be put aside.
The elders should spend time and energy to teach each one of the attendants of the group meetings. They need to go to each of the saints’ homes outside the group meeting. This is why Paul said in Acts 20 that he taught the saints publicly and from house to house and that he admonished each one of them night and day with tears (vv. 20, 31). Paul used both the day and the night. We mostly use our meeting time to contact the saints. We think that as long as we have attended every meeting, we have fulfilled our duty. But that is not the complete fulfilling of our duty. The fulfilling of our duty is also outside the meetings.
Our priestly duty and labor are mainly in the visiting and contacting of people. When I found out that some of the full-timers were being used by the church to take care of arranging the chairs, I was grieved. This is not the reason we have full-timers. The full-timers are not for the arranging of chairs. If we do not have the people to arrange chairs, we should hire someone. The saints should be absolutely freed to contact people. The full-timers need to spend all their time getting themselves educated in the holy Word and contacting people. I encourage the full-timers to spend two hours every day with the Lord in His Word. Then they should use the rest of the time for contacting people one by one.
There is no way to carry out the God-ordained way except by the individual contact with people. What is needed today is for the full-timers, co-workers, and elders to spend their time, energy, and spiritual capacity to take care of people individually. The main thing we are learning to do in the elders’ training is to contact people for their salvation, their feeding, their spiritual education, their equipping, and their perfecting. Within a period of one or two years, they should be able to do the same thing that we are doing in our service to the Lord. Today the result of our work is not like this. I hope that we would consider this fellowship seriously and have a full change in our concept and practice.
