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Scripture Reading: Rev. 14:17-20; 16:12-16
We have seen that there is a great prophecy concerning the building up of the church that still remains not fully fulfilled. We believe that the Lord will surely fulfill it. We also believe that this fulfillment has to be before the Lord’s coming back. In other words, the Lord’s coming back depends upon this fulfillment in full. But when we observe the present situation of all the Christians, it is hard to see that there is the possibility that this prophecy can be fully fulfilled. This is why many Christian teachers in the past have been fully disappointed. They were disappointed to such an extent that they gave up any faith or hope that this great prophecy regarding the church could ever be fully fulfilled.
In the Bible, both in the Old and New Testaments, there is a strong and solid principle that whenever the majority of the people of God fail to carry out God’s purpose, God comes in to have a recovery. This principle is seen in the early history of the Israelites. Exodus tells us that the whole nation of Israel was chosen and established by God as a kingdom of priests to serve Him (19:6). But after a short while, the nation of Israel failed God at Mount Sinai (32:1-6), but God did not give them up. He came in to recover what was lost by selecting a small number of people. Out of that one nation, God selected from one tribe, the tribe of Levi. He did not even select the whole tribe to carry out the direct priesthood but just one family of that one tribe. That was the family of Aaron (Num. 3:3, 6, 9-10). God selected that family to replace the whole nation of Israel as His priesthood.
Afterward, there were other occasions in the Old Testament in which a majority of God’s people experienced a failure in God’s purpose. But God would never give up His purpose. He always came again and again to gain a small number to recover the lost situation. Eventually, the temple was built, but later the nation of Israel was a failure to God. The temple was destroyed, and the people were carried away. God then came in to carry out His recovery work, but that recovery was not with the whole body of the people of God. Only a small number of the scattered people returned to rebuild the temple for God’s recovery. This minority of God’s people went back to cooperate with God for His recovery. It was through them that the nation, in a sense, was recovered. They rebuilt the destroyed temple and recovered the city. Again, the recovery was always in the principle of being carried out by a minority of the people gained by God.
When I was a young Christian, I read the prophecies about the re-formation of the nation of Israel (see Matt. 24:32 and footnotes). According to human common sense, no one could believe that there would be a re-formation of the nation of the scattered Jews. Not only were they scattered, but also their land had been lost for about twenty-five centuries. Most of their people had been naturalized to become citizens of different countries. But in 1948 the nation of Israel was re-formed. For this to happen it was unnecessary for all the Jews to go back. Just a minority of the Jews returned for this restoration so that they could be constituted into the nation of Israel. This is God’s recovery, which is always under the principle of a small number cooperating with Him to fulfill His purpose.
Throughout the years many dear Christians would ask us, “Are the believers scattered in the denominations also a part of the church?” In response to this we may ask, “Are the Jewish people in the United States and other countries members of the nation of Israel?” We cannot deny that they are Hebrews, yet we cannot say that they are members of the nation of Israel, because they have refused to return to Israel. All the Jews should be members of the Jewish nation, but most of them did not go back. The Jews in New York could argue with those who went back by saying, “Why are only you the nation of Israel and not us?” Those in the nation of Israel would say, “Do not argue with us. Just come back. You are a Jew, so come back.” Christians today would ask, “Are we not a part of the church?” We would respond, “Yes, but where are you?”
Look at today’s situation. All of Christianity is scattered and divided; there is no building up. This can be compared to the situation of the Jews. Before 1948 there was no building up among them. There were many Jews and many different groups of Jews, but none of them could be considered as the nation of Israel until 1948 when a small number of them went back. They paid the price to return even at the cost of their life. They stayed together and, in a sense, they were built together. Then the whole world recognized that they were the nation of Israel. The number of Jews who remained in other countries was much greater than the number of those who returned to become the nation of Israel, yet those other Jews were not the nation of Israel, because they became citizens of so many other nations. If they were to become a part of the nation of Israel, they had to go back, join the Jews who returned, and be built up with them.
We can be assured that the Lord will fulfill His prophecy about the building of the Body by the principle of His recovery. His recovery is always with the minority, not the majority. Surely today we can see the fulfillment of the prophecy that the Lord would re-form the nation of Israel, but this fulfillment is just with a minority of the Jews. Even so, such a minority is still recognized as the nation of Israel. There are many thousands of Christians in Los Angeles today, but they are all scattered in the denominations. How can the Lord build up His church in Los Angeles? It cannot be with all the Christians coming together to be built up, but by the recovery with a small number, a minority, coming together to stand on the proper ground of the church to be built up together as the church in the proper way. Today the Lord can boast to His enemy, Satan, by saying, “Look at the nation of Israel. It has been re-formed.” In the same principle, today the Lord is going to build up His church in the way of recovery, not with all the Christians coming together but with just a small number.
We need to be carried away from our present position to look at today’s Christianity. There are the Roman Catholic Church, the Greek Orthodox Church, the Protestant denominations, and many free groups. There are Christians in every place throughout the world, but is there any building up among them? This building up is the unique thing that the Lord is going to accomplish today. In this city and in that city, the Lord is going to gather together out of the denominations some of His lovers, His seekers, for the building up of His church.
The re-formation of the nation of Israel is a picture of the Lord’s recovery for the building up of the church. This re-formation took place with a small number. In the same way, the Lord will build His church in His recovery with a small number of Christians who are willing to take His way at any cost. All the Jews love the nation of Israel, yet many of them would not go back, because this involves a real cost. It requires them to pay the price by giving up many things. There are a number of saints who know that the Lord’s recovery is the right way, but they realize that they need to pay the price to take this way. My burden is to tell you that the Lord is now doing His recovery work among the saints, not with a majority but with a minority. As long as there are some saints standing together and willing to be built up with one another on the unique ground of the church, this is a real boast to the Lord and a shame to Satan.
Today is the time in which the Lord is building up His church in the way of recovery. In order to see the proper way for the Lord to work out His recovery, we need to see something related to the prophecies in the Bible. The prophecies concerning the world situation have been predicted in reference to three sections: the section of the European part; the section of the Mediterranean part, which is considered today as the Middle East; and the section of the Oriental part, which is referred to in the book of Revelation as the place of “the rising of the sun” (16:12). Today’s world situation is progressing according to the prophecies in the Bible.
When I was younger, I spent much time to study the prophecies in the Bible. Also, when I was in school, my favorite subject was world history. I have been observing and studying the world situation for more than fifty years. In this entire century, there has never been a time like today that fits in with the situation predicted by the biblical prophecies. Today’s world situation involves mainly America, Europe, and Asia. There are a number of prophecies in the Bible concerning Europe and Asia in their three sections: the European, Mediterranean, and Oriental sections. Today the problems in the world situation are not with America but with Europe and Asia. Actually, the problems in today’s world situation are concentrated in the Middle East.
Eventually, the situation is being prepared for that day in which the nations will be gathered together for the last war among mankind before the millennium in a place called Armageddon (Rev. 16:16). Armageddon is less than two hundred miles away from Jerusalem. The book of Revelation tells us that the armies from the Far East will be gathered there along with the kings of the whole inhabited earth (vv. 12, 14). No doubt, the powers of Europe and from the north will be gathered there. At that time, there will still be a warning to the believers who remain on this earth that the Lord is coming (v. 15). After a period of relative peace on this earth, there will be such a great war at the end of this age. Then the Lord will come back to destroy all the world powers and to set up His kingdom on earth (19:11-21; 11:15).
Before that time there will be a period of relative peace in which the Lord will carry out His recovery. The Lord has chosen the United States to be the base for the spreading of His recovery. Revelation 12 tells us that there is a wilderness into which the woman, signifying the remaining and living majority of the believers, can flee for refuge during the great tribulation (v. 6). Since the United States was founded, it has always been a place for oppressed people to take refuge. In a sense, although I am now a citizen, I am a refugee taking refuge in this free country. The United States is a wilderness where oppressed people can take refuge. There is such a big, wide, spacious wilderness where the Lord’s people can cooperate with Him. The Lord is going to use the United States as a base.
The Lord will fulfill His prophecy to build up the church, and there is no possibility for Him to do this with all the Christians today. But there is the principle of recovery with a small number, and the Lord is going to accomplish this recovery. It is clear that the Lord has chosen the United States as the base for His recovery. From here He will spread His recovery to Europe, the Middle East, and other continents. This means that the recovery may eventually go back to the city of Jerusalem. The building up of the church started from Jerusalem, and it has been taking place throughout the world. Eventually, it may return to Jerusalem.
We look to the Lord that a number of saints can eventually migrate to Europe for the Lord’s recovery. For this reason I would encourage a number of the young people who are going to college to major in English and also to pick up a European language, such as German, French, Italian, Danish, Norwegian, Swedish, etc. Then they can go to Europe to teach English. Many people in Europe desire to be proficient in English. After this we hope that a number of saints will migrate to the Middle East, including Israel, and then migrate to all the other continents. I hope that the Lord will work this out for the building of His church.
In the early part of the twentieth century, the Lord took China as virgin soil to sow the seed of His recovery. Some said that the practice of the local church would not work in the United States because it had been transplanted from China, but this is not true. The practice of the proper church life really works. The United States is the spacious wilderness where the Lord’s people can cooperate with Him that He may have a base for His recovery. He will use the United States to take Europe, the Middle East, and the rest of the earth for His recovery.
If we are faithful to cooperate with the Lord, He will finish His recovery of the building up of the church to fulfill His prophecy. That will be the time for Him to come back. All that we are, all that we have, and all that we can do must be put on the altar of the Lord’s recovery so that we can be built up together with others. Our cooperation with the Lord for His move is not in a loose or light way. It must be in the way of life. We will be built up, trained, and then sent. Then the whole earth will be taken for the Lord’s purpose.
