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Prayer: O Lord, we thank You that because of Your grace we are here; we are gathered around You and by Your word. Lord, we look to You to make known to us the mysteries in Your holy Word. Very few brothers and sisters throughout the ages have entered into these mysteries. But in this last age, Lord, You have spent more than seventy years to point out clearly to us these mysteries item by item, releasing to us the secrets hidden in them. As we try to speak these things, may we not feel that we know everything. Lord, it seems that we know, yet we have not seen the essence and crystallization contained in these things. O Lord, be with us and give us the utterance; especially grant us the ability to understand, comprehend, and enter in so that we may be deeply impressed. O Lord, cleanse us, forgive us, and cover us that we may be hidden in You. Amen.
It seems that what we have fellowshipped in these few days is not anything new; rather, it has all been covered in the past. After more than seventy years we may say that our speaking reached the peak at the Chinese New Year’s conference last year. But my greatest concern is that you may have only some terminology and that you may not necessarily have entered into the intrinsic essence and the crystallization of these matters. Even after you have entered in, when you try to speak these things, your speaking may be improper or distorted. When we learn the new and profound things, to understand them is one thing and to speak them clearly and properly is another thing. Some consider themselves as knowing the economy of God, but their speaking is altogether a deviation.
The expression the economy of God is rarely used in today’s Christianity. The Greek word oikonomia may definitely be rendered economy, but people commonly use the term plan; Brother Nee did as well. A plan, however, is only a part of an economy; an economy consists of many plans. For example, you may have a project that you intend to accomplish. That project is your economy. The manufacturing plant, the machinery, the laborers, the professionals, and so forth that are required for the project are the different steps in the economy. Every step requires a plan. For instance, building the manufacturing plant requires some consideration about the number of stories to be built; this is a plan. This is a small illustration in order that you may see what an economy is and what a plan is.
In the summer of 1964 I released a series of crucial messages in the United States that were later compiled into the book entitled The Economy of God. In the 1980s I stressed even more the economy of God. The most complete speaking was a series of messages that began in Stuttgart, Germany, in 1984 and continued throughout a number of places in the United States; these messages were compiled into the book entitled God’s New Testament Economy with forty-four chapters. My concern today is that though we have the Lord’s revelation, vision, and speaking among us, and though all have been printed in books, we still may not have adequate regard for these matters.
Our speaking concerning the economy of God has become more and more clear, concise, and crystallized. God’s economy began with God becoming flesh to be a man and continued with His passing through human living, death, resurrection, and ascension to produce the church, the Body of Christ, which is the house of God, the kingdom of God, and the counterpart of Christ. The totality of the church, the Body, the house of God, the kingdom of God, and the counterpart consummates in the New Jerusalem. This is the general outline of God’s economy. Therefore, the economy of God is from incarnation to the manifestation of the New Jerusalem. This is the entire New Testament.
The entire New Testament concerns the economy of God and begins with incarnation. The Gospel of Matthew opens in a marvelous way: “The book of the generation of Jesus Christ, the son of David, the son of Abraham: Abraham begot Isaac, and Isaac begot Jacob” (1:1-2). After the begetting of forty-two generations Mary and Joseph, two descendants of David, were brought forth, and out of them Christ was born. Actually, Joseph had nothing to do with the birth of Christ; he was related only in name according to law. Although he was Mary’s husband, Matthew 1 says that Jesus Christ was born of Mary (v. 16); it does not say that Christ was born of Joseph. This indicates that Christ’s birth was unrelated to Joseph. Christ was conceived of the Holy Spirit (v. 20) and born of the virgin Mary. Jesus as God who became flesh had a genealogy of forty-two generations; this genealogy is an abstract of the entire Old Testament. Hence, you must have a thorough study of the Old Testament before you can explain the genealogy of these forty-two generations. I spent much time to study this genealogy and wrote a book entitled Gleanings of Christ’s Genealogy in the summer of 1936; the main points in this book were later incorporated into the notes of the Recovery Version of the New Testament.
God became flesh and was born to be a man, and this man was the initiation of God’s economy; with this initiation grace was brought in. Hence, John 1:14 says that the Word became flesh and tabernacled among us, full of grace and reality. This is still not clear enough; verse 17 says even more clearly that the law was given through Moses, but grace and reality came through Jesus Christ. This word indicates that the law, which is something dead, cannot act on its own; hence, it was decreed and conveyed through Moses. But grace, which is living, is capable of coming; hence, it came through Jesus Christ. This means that when Jesus Christ came, grace came; that is, grace commenced. Matthew 1 is the initiation of the New Testament, John 1 is the commencement of grace, and the last two chapters of Revelation are concerned with the New Jerusalem. The consummation of the New Jerusalem is absolutely the work of grace in the New Testament. Hence, the last verse of Revelation says, “The grace of the Lord Jesus be with all the saints” (22:21). This shows that from incarnation to the manifestation of the New Jerusalem everything is grace. This is the general outline of God’s economy, and the crystallized significance of its every step has been covered in the previous chapter. All the brothers and sisters among us, particularly the elders and co-workers, need to learn to speak the crystallization of God’s economy.
The accomplishment of the economy of God is the New Jerusalem. It has been more than four hundred years since Luther’s Reformation. Luther saw only the truth concerning justification by faith; he did not have the revelation concerning God’s economy. After him, very few Bible expositors could give a clear and definite word concerning the New Jerusalem. Even Robert Govett, a well-respected Bible expositor who was quite good in the interpretation of prophecies, asserted that the New Jerusalem is a physical city. Based upon his principle of biblical interpretation, he asserted that Revelation could only be interpreted literally, not spiritually. In the last few hundred years, concerning the interpretation of Revelation, there is a school of literal interpretation that considers the seven lampstands as seven lampstands, the city as a city, the doors as doors, and the street as a street. Regarding this kind of interpretation, my rebuttal is that Revelation opens by saying that Christ showed all the things to His slave John “by signs” (1:1). Hence, the entire book of Revelation is composed of signs. For example, Revelation 5:6 says that Christ is the Lamb. We cannot interpret this word literally and say that He is a lamb with four legs and a tail. Also, 1:20 says that the churches are lampstands. Are the churches merely physical lampstands? On the one hand, this should not be interpreted literally, but on the other hand, it should be interpreted literally, because the seven lampstands that John saw were actually seven lampstands. As a sign, however, seven signifies completion and perfection, and the significance of the lampstands is even richer and more inclusive. Bible expositors throughout the generations were not able to clearly interpret the proper meaning of the New Jerusalem in its different aspects. Among us, from Brother Nee’s study of Revelation together with my few decades of study, we now have explained clearly every item of the New Jerusalem. In our publications we have more than thirty messages on the New Jerusalem; I hope that you will all read these messages carefully (see God’s New Testament Economy, chs. 26—44; Elders’ Training Book 2: The Vision of the Lord’s Recovery, chs. 5—13; The Conclusion of the New Testament, msgs. 254—264).
Revelation says that the New Jerusalem is the tabernacle of God (21:3). This follows John 1, which says that the Word became flesh and tabernacled among us (v. 14); that tabernacle was God’s dwelling place. John refers to the tabernacle in chapter 1; then in chapter 2 he mentions the temple (v. 21). Both the tabernacle and the temple are dwelling places, and the consummation of these dwelling places is the New Jerusalem. Revelation also says that the New Jerusalem is the bride, the wife, of Christ (21:2, 9). To those who advocate the literal interpretation of the New Jerusalem, I would ask, “Do you really mean to say that the wife of Christ is a physical city?” Ephesians tells us that the wife of Christ is the church (5:23-32) and that the church is the dwelling place of God (2:22). Therefore, the New Jerusalem is the consummation of the church as the wife of Christ and the dwelling place of God. This is the meaning of the New Jerusalem as a sign.
Furthermore, Revelation 21 says that the light of the city is like a most precious stone, like a jasper stone (v. 11). It also says that the wall of the city is built with jasper (v. 18), having twelve foundations, and that the first foundation is also jasper (v. 19). According to Revelation 4, God is like a jasper stone and a sardius in appearance (v. 3). The red color of sardius signifies redemption and indicates that God is the God of redemption. Jasper is dark green, signifying life in its richness and indicating that God is the God of life. In chapter 4 jasper is the appearance of God as life. In chapter 21 the wall of the entire city of New Jerusalem is jasper, and its light is like jasper. This means that the New Jerusalem is the expression of God. If the book of Revelation must be interpreted entirely according to letters, does that mean that in chapter 4 God is simply a jasper stone? This shows that Revelation cannot be interpreted literally.
In these years the Lord has shown us the crystallized significance of the New Jerusalem: it is a mingling, a constitution, of the Triune God with His chosen and redeemed people. Perhaps some will ask where in the Word do we get this kind of interpretation. The answer is that we see in the New Jerusalem the twelve tribes of Israel representing the Old Testament saints (Rev. 21:12) and the twelve apostles representing the New Testament saints (v. 14). We also see that God is in it, Christ is in it, and the Spirit is in it. Although the title Christ is not used in Revelation in referring to the New Jerusalem, when God is mentioned, He is mentioned with the Lamb (22:1, 3; 21:22-23). When the Lamb is mentioned, it refers to Christ. The Gospel of John shows us that Christ is the Lamb (1:29). In the same principle, although the Spirit is not mentioned in Revelation concerning the New Jerusalem, a river is there (22:1). John 7 says clearly that out of the innermost being of those who receive the Spirit shall flow rivers of living water (v. 38). Consequently, the Lamb refers to Christ, whereas the river refers to the Spirit. Hence, we see that the New Jerusalem is constituted with the Triune God and His redeemed people.
Furthermore, the three kinds of materials — gold, pearls, and precious stones — which constitute the city of the New Jerusalem (Rev. 21:19-21), indicate that the New Jerusalem is the Triune God wrought into His redeemed people. These three kinds of materials are not the gold, silver, and precious stones referred to in 1 Corinthians; rather, they correspond to the gold, bdellium, and precious stones in Genesis 2:11-12. Revelation and Genesis are two corresponding ends, whereas 1 Corinthians is the course. Man has the sinful nature due to the fall, and during the course he still has sin, so he needs the silver that signifies redemption. After the age of redemption passes away, in the new heaven and new earth, there is no longer the problem of sin, and as a result, there is no longer the need for redemption. Creation reverts to the sinless condition in Genesis 2. In the New Jerusalem gold signifies the holiness of God the Father, pearls signify the overcoming death and life-dispensing resurrection of God the Son, and precious stones signify the transforming work of God the Spirit. This is why we say that the New Jerusalem is the mingling, the constitution, of the redeeming God with His redeemed people.
God’s economy consummating in the New Jerusalem is the vision that the Lord has shown us in His Word, and it is also what we have been speaking throughout all these many years. We may say that our speaking reached the peak of this vision in the Chinese New Year’s conference last year, and it cannot go any higher because Revelation does not have chapter 23, nor is there another book after Revelation. Revelation 22 says that nothing outside the book should be added, nor should anything inside be taken away (vv. 18-19); the revelation of God has been completed. I really appreciate that you brothers have come here at this time to have fellowship with me, and I also feel that I should speak truthfully to you. My concern is whether or not the elders and co-workers among us have carefully studied all the published messages that were mentioned earlier.
It is not easy to be an elder. Actually, Paul was not satisfied with the elders in the churches at his time. The first skill of an elder is being apt to teach (1 Tim. 3:2). This is not a qualification but a skill. An elder should be apt to teach, but what does he teach? According to Paul’s word, he should teach what Paul teaches. Some of the things that Paul teaches in his Epistles are shallow and others are deep, but they all concern God’s economy. In Ephesians 1 he mentions the economy of God (v. 10), and again in chapter 3 he mentions the economy (v. 9). Today if you and I do not speak the economy of God and if we do not reach the peak of the economy of God, how can God achieve His purpose and accomplish His economy? Unless the work that you and I are doing is a part of the New Jerusalem, the New Jerusalem cannot be produced.
Dear brothers and sisters, you all are elders and co-workers, but unless you thoroughly get into all these points of the economy of God, your teaching is inadequate. If your teaching is inadequate, your shepherding will also be lacking. According to 1 Timothy 3, the first skill of an elder is to teach, and according to 1 Peter 5, it is to shepherd (v. 2). Shepherding altogether depends on teaching. If you cannot teach, you cannot shepherd. Then, what do you teach? You teach the teaching of the apostles (Acts 2:42). When you shepherd, spontaneously you shepherd by the apostles’ teaching that you teach. For example, a couple in the church may be in discord. As an elder, how do you shepherd them? Many elders would help them according to human feelings and speak to them some words of exhortation and encouragement. This is not enough. You must release some messages concerning Christ and the church in the ordinary church life. When this couple is having a problem, you should shepherd them according to the teaching of husbands and wives as symbols of Christ and the church.
You can also shepherd this couple according to the truth concerning the New Jerusalem. You may say, “Whether you are a brother or a sister, you are a constituent of the Body of Christ, and the consummation of the Body of Christ is the New Jerusalem. One of the main materials of the New Jerusalem is transformed stone; there is no wood, clay, or bricks. Therefore, we need to be transformed by the Lord in our marriage life today. If you are not transformed in the age of grace today, you will be disciplined in the kingdom age; the Lord will use the thousand years to transform you. In any case, the Lord will cause you to be transformed; there is no way for you to escape. As an elder, I must speak frankly. We must all be transformed by the Lord; otherwise, the Body of Christ cannot be produced. If as a husband or wife you quarrel, how can you be in the Body of Christ? Every member of the Body of Christ has to be transformed. After God has regenerated us, He goes on to sanctify, renew, transform us, and eventually conform us to His image. Today the Lord has arranged for us to live a marriage life in order to help us to be transformed.” You should shepherd in this way. This kind of shepherding is high, proper, and fitting.
Shepherding is not as easy as what people generally call “preaching.” That kind of preaching requires only eloquence. Some pastors in Christianity teach philosophy, but philosophy cannot transform the saints. Only the teaching of the apostles can transform the saints. The apostles’ teaching concerns the economy of God. It does not merely teach that God so loved the world that He sent His Son to be the Savior of the world to die on the cross for us that our sins might be forgiven and that we might be justified by faith. This is spiritual “elementary school.” Paul left Timothy in Ephesus to charge the dissenting ones not to teach different things but to teach God’s economy. This is the economy of God in faith (1 Tim. 1:4); we must speak it by faith, and the listeners must listen and receive by faith. In this way God can produce the result that He intends to have, the consummation of which is the New Jerusalem. According to this standard, probably a good number of elders and co-workers are disqualified. All the professions in the world have tests and the grading of service to compel people to advance. Medical doctors in the United States maintain high quality because they are regularly tested for competency. They have to read the latest reports and endeavor to advance. We also should endeavor to pursue advancement in our service to the Lord.
Thank the Lord, among us we not only have the apostles’ teaching but also the interpretation of the apostles’ teaching, all of which has been printed in our books. Therefore, you brothers need to read the books on your bookshelves. Perhaps the co-workers should be tested so that everyone will be urged to make progress. Because there was no testing in the past, everyone was loose. Only those who had to give messages regularly in the meetings were forced to read the books. After their speaking, within half a year, they probably forgot everything. Therefore, among us, teaching and shepherding are a failure. Once we fail in teaching and shepherding, the whole church becomes desolate. May the Lord have mercy on us to make us aggressive in the matters of teaching and shepherding for the building up of the church.
Let us come back to the economy of God. In God’s economy there are five great mysteries: first, the Triune God; second, Christ as the embodiment of God; third, the Spirit as the realization of Christ; fourth, the Body of Christ; and fifth, the New Jerusalem. You brothers need to learn to speak these five mysteries in a very thorough way. We have seen the economy of God, the Body of Christ, and the New Jerusalem. Now we will go on to see something concerning the mystery of the Spirit.
In brief, the Spirit has been processed to be the consummated, compound, all-inclusive, life-giving, indwelling, and sevenfold intensified Spirit. When you speak concerning the Spirit, you must cover all these six points. This Spirit has been consummated and is therefore compounded and all-inclusive. The Spirit with these three qualifications becomes the life-giving Spirit to dispense life to us; as a result, this life-giving Spirit becomes the indwelling Spirit. Not only so, since the church has become fallen, the Lord has intensified the Spirit sevenfold in His economy so that we may overcome the degradation of the church by such a sevenfold intensified Spirit.
John 7 says that “the Spirit was not yet” before the resurrection of Christ (v. 39). What does this mean? Nearly no one in Christianity today can give a clear explanation. The Spirit was not yet means that the Spirit was not yet consummated. To be consummated, the Spirit had to pass through various processes. The Spirit was consummated in Christ’s resurrection. The resurrection of Christ was the completion of the processes that the Triune God passed through. The first step of what the Triune God had passed through was His becoming flesh, the second step was His living the human life, the third step was His suffering of death, and the fourth step was His entering into resurrection. Every step was a process. When God became a man, He did not simply become a man in an instant, although as the almighty God, He could have. Rather, He entered into the womb of a virgin and stayed there for nine months by following the proper procedure according to the proper human way. Matthew 1:20 says clearly, “Joseph,...do not be afraid to take Mary your wife, for that which has been begotten in her is of the Holy Spirit.” Before Christ was born, God had been born first into Mary through His Spirit. He was in the virgin’s womb nine months; this was a process. After He was born, this man Jesus lived on the earth for thirty-three and a half years; this was another process. The human ordeals, troubles, and hardships that He went through were all processes. Then at a certain time He delivered Himself up to men. People did not seize Him; rather, He gave Himself up voluntarily (John 10:17-18; 18:1, 11). When those who were arresting Him said that they were seeking Jesus the Nazarene, He immediately said, “I am.” They knew that I Am is the name of Jehovah; hence, when Jesus said “I am,” they drew back in fear and fell to the ground (vv. 5-6). Eventually, the Lord delivered Himself to those who came to arrest Him; He was judged by the Jewish Sanhedrin and later was transferred to Herod and Pilate, the Roman rulers, to be judged all night (Luke 23:6-12). The next day they forced Him to bear the cross for Himself and go to Golgotha, where He was crucified (John 19:17-18). This was a process He went through. Furthermore, He was crucified and was sent to the tomb. He lay in the tomb three days, and afterward He was resurrected. Were these not the processes that He went through? It was through all these processes that God entered into resurrection and became the consummated Spirit.
Some criticize us, saying that it is wrong for us to say, “The Lord is small and we are great.” Such people have very limited knowledge and take things out of context. It is based on John 6 that we say that the Lord is small and we are great. The people came and wanted to make Him King, yet the Lord said that He was not a king but “the bread that came down out of heaven” (v. 41). A king comes to rule over people, whereas bread is to be eaten by people. Therefore, the Lord said, “He who eats Me, he also shall live because of Me” (v. 57). Are the people who eat the bread greater, or is the bread greater? There is a very good hymn in Christianity on how great the Lord is. I really enjoyed the tune of that hymn, so I used the same tune to write another hymn on how small the Lord is (Hymns, #1110). The Lord is so small that He became our food. This means that His intention is for us to receive Him as our life. If Christ is not smaller than we are, how can He be our food? Christ is not only smaller than we are; He also made Himself smaller than those who arrested Him and those who crucified Him. If those who arrested Him were not greater than He, how could they have arrested Him? If those who crucified Him were not greater than He, how could they have crucified Him? The book of Hebrews tells us that He was made a little inferior to the angels (2:9); actually, He made Himself smaller than all men. He was made smaller than men temporarily that He might become their food to give life to them and save them. Hence, it is irrefutable for us to say that Christ is small. Only those who have not studied the Word deeply would say that we are wrong.
The embodiment of God is Christ, the realization of Christ is the Spirit, the issue of the Spirit is the Body of Christ, and the consummation of the Body of Christ is the New Jerusalem. These five mysteries cannot be clearly explained by today’s traditional theology in Christianity. What I have fellowshipped with you is very serious, and I hope that we can all see that our commission today is not so simple. The Lord’s burden given to us is that we bear the testimony of His recovery, and one of the main points is to refute and correct the defects and errors of traditional Christian theology. We cannot say that traditional theology is all wrong; in fact, some of it is quite right. Nevertheless, it is incomplete. The Nicene Creed is an excellent creed, and to this day it is still kept by the Catholic Church and the Protestant churches. Yet the Nicene Creed is lacking in that it does not refer to the compound Spirit, nor to the consummated Spirit, the all-inclusive Spirit, or the sevenfold intensified Spirit. It also does not tell us what it means that “the Spirit was not yet” (John 7:39).
Brothers, this is not a small thing; this is a fierce warfare. In his days Martin Luther fought against the Catholic doctrines and brought in the recovery of justification by faith. Today we bear the testimony of the Lord’s recovery against Judaism, Catholicism, Protestantism, and Christianity. Judaism is satanic (Rev. 2:9), Catholicism is devilish (vv. 20, 24), Protestantism is lifeless (3:1b), and Christianity is Christless (v. 20). Today all the elders and co-workers need to learn the truths. We should refute and correct traditional theology, not in minor points but in the fundamental points. We must present the truth concerning the economy of God item by item according to the entire Bible. This is the Lord’s special commission to us.
