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Scripture Reading: Rom. 16:17-18; Gal. 1:6-7; 2:3-5; 5:10b-12; Phil. 1:15-18; Col. 2:8
If any saint of the Lord is faithful to all the verses from the Scripture that we are pointing out in this fellowship, he will be in the proper church life. By the Lord’s mercy, we have learned the truth of these verses over the past fifty years. The putting together of these verses comes from many years of experience, so I would encourage us to pray-read them again and again until we get into them and they get into us. These verses can be considered as the controlling verses of the ministry over the past thirty years. The Lord’s ministry always focuses on Christ and the church.
We have seen that not too long after the church came into existence, the Lord’s enemy, the subtle one, brought in three items to damage the church: religion, philosophy, and organization. We have to be on guard against these things creeping into the church because they damage the church to the uttermost. All kinds of evil things go along with religion, philosophy, and human organization.
Throughout all the centuries, there have been so-called puritans who always reacted to the impurities and negative things brought into the church. All the puritans were good in their intention to get into God’s reaction to the degradation of the church, but because they were not so clear about the church as God’s eternal goal, they made some serious mistakes. The biggest mistake made by them was that their reaction issued in more division. Whenever there was a reaction through the puritans, there was nearly always a division. Actually, nearly every reaction became a division. Reaction after reaction meant division after division. Eventually, God’s goal was damaged. This has been the main reason that the Lord has not yet returned. He could not return because there was nothing for Him to come back to. In order for Him to come back, He needs a “steppingstone.” This steppingstone is the proper church life that prepares the church as the bride for His coming. Even though there have been thousands and thousands of real believers, there has been a shortage of the proper church life. In all the reactions to the degradation of the church since the second century, there was not much accomplished for fulfilling the Lord’s purpose to have the practical expression of the church.
At the time of the Reformation, the Lord’s recovery came into a definite form. Martin Luther was a great servant of God. The Lord used him to recover the truth concerning justification by faith and to make the Bible open to the general public. Thank the Lord that justification by faith has been fully recovered. It will never be lost again. At the cost of his life, Luther stood for this truth, but when he came to the truth concerning the church, he was weak. He did not bring us back to God’s genuine intention to have the church life.
Luther realized that it was wrong to be joined with the German government, yet he still did it. Due to this big mistake, the state churches were produced. Besides the Roman Catholic Church and the Greek Orthodox Church, there are also the state churches. All the state churches are Lutheran churches except the Church of England, which is an Episcopal church. The German state church, the Danish state church, the Norwegian state church, the Swedish state church, and the Anglican state church were the issue of the seed sown by Luther. I respect Luther as one of the great servants of the Lord, but his mistake shows us that if we are short in our vision and knowledge of the church, we will have no safeguard. We may do the best thing and still make some mistake. Our safeguard is to know the church in an adequate way.
History tells us that the reformed churches, especially the state churches, eventually became a dead religion. In the seventeenth century the Lord raised up a group of saints as a reaction to the deadness and emptiness of the reformed churches. These mystics, such as Madame Guyon, Father Fenelon, and Brother Lawrence, were used by the Lord to recover the experiences of the inner life. These saints, who still remained with the Roman Catholic Church, began to realize that life is God Himself in His Son by His Spirit. Although these saints knew something concerning Christ as the inner life, there was no practical church life with them. They were still in the sphere of the Roman Catholic Church. Many seekers of the Lord have been helped by Madame Guyon’s autobiography. However, even though she had so much experience of the inner life, she still went to the statue of Mary. Although she was used by God as a reaction to the deadness of Protestantism, she was not clear about the church, and she was not even clear about the idolatry in Catholicism.
Throughout the history of the church, many groups of so-called puritans were raised up. These puritan groups were formed by leaders who saw something concerning the truth. Some saw that the proper baptism was by immersion. Spontaneously, this was the beginning of the Baptist Church. The Baptist denomination is one among many private churches, which may be considered as the fourth category of so-called church, in addition to the Roman Catholic Church, the Greek Orthodox Church, and the state churches. These private churches include the Baptist Church, the Presbyterian Church, the Methodist Church, and so forth. Today there are many private churches. The fifth category of so-called church is the free groups. These free groups include all the Bible churches. The Bible churches do not belong to the Roman Catholic Church, the Greek Orthodox Church, the state churches, or any private denominations. Those in the Bible churches endeavor to have all their practices based on the Bible. In addition to these Bible churches, there are many other free groups that meet outside the denominations.
History shows us that there was a desire within many seeking ones for the proper church life. They could not express this inward desire, but actually there was something in them seeking or hunting the proper church life. In the eighteenth century the Lord moved among the Moravian brethren under the leadership of Count Zinzendorf to recover something of the practice of the church life. These Moravian brethren suffered the persecution not only of the Roman Catholic Church but also of the state churches. They were persecuted because they stood for the truth, and they fled to Zinzendorf’s estate in Saxony for refuge. Because of Count Zinzendorf’s love for the Lord, he received many of these seekers who came from different backgrounds. These brothers began to disagree over their doctrinal differences. One day Zinzendorf called a conference, and he convinced them to drop their doctrinal disagreements. They signed an agreement to keep the oneness among them and to lay aside their differences in doctrine and in their religious backgrounds. Afterwards, while they were having the Lord’s table, they experienced the outpouring of the Holy Spirit. Among them there was the strongest revival in church history up to that time, and they became one of the most prevailing Christian groups on earth. Even John Wesley was saved through them. He stayed with these brethren for a period of time. He said that if it were not for his burden for England, he would have stayed with the Moravian brethren for his entire life. To our knowledge, since the time of the early apostles, the Moravian brothers might be considered as the first group of Christians to realize the church life in a somewhat proper way. Therefore, God’s blessing was poured out upon them. Although they enjoyed the practice of the church life to a certain degree, they were still not clear about many aspects of the truth concerning the church.
In the nineteenth century, from 1825 to 1828, the Lord raised up the so-called Brethren under the leadership of John Nelson Darby. D. M. Panton said that the movement of the Brethren and its significance was far greater than that of the Reformation. The Reformation was somewhat worldly because of its association with human government, but the move among the Brethren was really something spiritual. They did not like to have any advertisements in their work for the Lord. It is even difficult for one to find a picture of J. N. Darby. Many of the Brethren felt that taking pictures was a worldly practice. Regretfully, the golden time of the Brethren lasted for only a short period of time. Eventually, there was a split among them. The first division was between J. N. Darby and Benjamin Newton. Their dispute was concerning the rapture of the believers. Darby was strong concerning pretribulation rapture, whereas Newton was strong concerning posttribulation rapture.
Later, there was a second split among them. This division was between the so-called closed Brethren and the open Brethren. George Müller was one of the leading brothers among the Brethren. He was a real man of God. He was called the king of faith in the nineteenth century. He was so much with the Lord, but there was a big discrepancy between his understanding and Darby’s realization. Darby and his followers insisted on not accepting any Christian who was still joined to a denomination. They considered all denominations as sin, evil. Thus, in their eyes, regardless of how good or spiritual a person was, as long as he remained in a denomination, he was considered by them as a companion of this evil. They considered a Christian in a denomination as an evil companion, and they would not receive him. George Müller, however, said that this was not fair. He said that many dear saints who were involved with the denominations were still very close to the Lord. He maintained that these believers could not be rejected and that they had to be received. This was the discrepancy between Darby and Müller, which led to another division among the Brethren. Thus, by this time there were three main groups among the Brethren — Benjamin Newton’s group, the closed Brethren, and the open Brethren. The so-called Plymouth Brethren in this country mainly refers to the open Brethren. Within ninety years after the formation of the Brethren in 1828, they were divided into over one hundred divisions. Today there are all kinds of divisions among the Brethren. I was told by one sister among them that one group of Brethren was divided over whether or not to have an organ in their meetings.
Saints throughout the church’s history have had different kinds of concepts concerning the rapture. Some believed in pretribulation rapture, others believed in posttribulation rapture, and still others believed in a partial rapture, which takes place before and after the great tribulation. Forty years ago, I spent much time to study which school was the most scriptural. At that time Brother Nee gave us a number of messages on the truth concerning the rapture. He gave us a list of well-known believers who were found in all three schools of truth concerning the rapture. J. N. Darby, William Kelly, R. A. Torrey, Phillips Brooks, James Gray, Arno C. Gaebelein, J. A. Seiss, D. L. Moody, and C. I. Scofield are some of those who believed in pretribulation rapture. George Müller, A. J. Gordon, A. B. Simpson, W. J. Erdman, W. G. Moorehead, Henry Frost, James Wright, and Benjamin Newton believed in posttribulation rapture. Hudson Taylor, Robert Chapman, Robert Govett, D. M. Panton, G. H. Pember, and Paul Rader believed in the rapture of the overcomers, which is called the partial rapture, or the midtribulation rapture. Paul Rader was the successor of R. A. Torrey in the Moody Memorial Church of Chicago. The doctrinal differences among the saints concerning the truth of the rapture caused much division.
Although the beginning of the divisions among the Brethren started over a disagreement concerning the rapture, the truths that were revealed to them greatly benefited all the Lord’s children. I would say that over ninety percent of the theology of fundamental Christianity came from the teaching of the Brethren. In the United States many fundamental seminaries use the teachings of C. I. Scofield. Dr. Scofield was a great scholar and a student of the Brethren. Nearly ninety percent of what he wrote in his reference Bible and his Bible correspondence course was adopted from Brethren teaching. D. L. Moody said that if all the books in the entire world were to be burned, he would be satisfied to have a copy of the Bible and a copy of C. H. Mackintosh’s notes on the Pentateuch. C. H. Mackintosh was a great teacher among the Brethren. Regardless of whether the fundamental denominations agreed with the Brethren move or not, their fundamental teaching was very much influenced by the Brethren teaching. In a sense, the Brethren teachings helped the so-called church, but in another sense, these teachings issued in divisions. The move among the Brethren at the beginning was really marvelous. This was a golden time that was a great help to the church life. Many spiritual, seeking Christians agree that this may have been the beginning of the fulfillment of the prophecy in the Lord’s epistle to the church in Philadelphia in Revelation 3. However, due to the Brethren’s overemphasis on doctrines, they were divided again and again.
One hundred years after the beginning of the Brethren movement, the Lord started something new in mainland China. In the eighteenth century the Moravian brethren were on the continent of Europe. In the nineteenth century the Brethren were used by the Lord in England. A century later the Lord moved in the Far East. I entered into the work with Brother Watchman Nee in Shanghai in 1933. I went to Brother Nee at least three or four times a week. He shared much with me concerning the history of the church. He told me that the Lord went to China to start something new. He said that the Lord was forced to come to China at the beginning of the twentieth century because in both Europe and America the field, soil, had been fully spoiled as far as the proper church life was concerned. Brother Nee spoke with me mostly in Chinese, but sometimes we used English terms. When he was speaking with me about the Lord’s move in China, he used the English term virgin soil. I can never forget this term. He said that for the church life China was virgin soil at that time. Of course, this was the Lord’s doing. One could never imagine that in such a heathen country full of the teachings of Confucius and the religion of Buddhism, the Lord would raise up something.
The first meeting in the Lord’s recovery in China was in 1922 with Brother Nee in his hometown of Foochow. I am full of thanks to the Lord that in the first part of this century He gave Brother Nee as a gift to the Body. I was born in Christianity and raised up there. I even received my education in Christianity. In my seeking of the Lord, I passed through organized Christianity, fundamental Christianity, Brethren Christianity, and even Pentecostal Christianity. I also entered into the teachings of the inner-life Christians. In my entire life, I have never met a Christian who can compare with Brother Nee. I received the greatest and the highest help from him. He picked up good and helpful things from nearly every denomination, from every kind of Christian practice, and from all the seeking saints throughout the history of the church, and he passed them on to us. The first time I stayed with him, I realized that he was standing on the shoulders of many who had gone before him.
Even before 1930 he had collected more than three thousand classical Christian books that contained Christian writings from the first century on. When he was between twenty and twenty-five years of age, his bedroom was full of books. There was only a narrow space for him to lie down between the rows of books. Sometimes we would say that Brother Nee was buried with books. I mainly came to know the history of the church not from reading about it but from Brother Nee’s speaking with me. He related to me all the important things of church history. When he read something, there was no need for him to go back and review it. He could just relate to you what he read in a thorough and accurate way. He was a person who knew the Bible, who knew life, who knew the Lord, who knew the church, and who knew the history of the church. We received the greatest help from him, not in a narrow, sectarian way but in an all-inclusive way.
When people came into our midst in the early days of the church life in China, they would wonder whether we were a Baptist church, a Presbyterian church, a Pentecostal church, or a Brethren church. This was because all the good aspects of the truth in these groups were among us. We baptized people as the Baptists did. We had the church government as the Presbyterians did. We experienced the outpouring of the Spirit, which the Pentecostals stressed. We also had the truths that the Brethren had released. We collected many good things that the Lord had recovered through all the saints, and we put them together in our church life.
Now I would like to begin relating the history of the local churches, beginning in the early 1920s in China. China was a country with an ancient culture, full of the teachings of Confucius and full of Buddhism. Eventually, however, the Lord sent His gospel there. The Lord’s name, which is the Lord Himself, the Bible, and the gospel were brought to China. I believe that the Chinese version of the Bible is one of the better translations. We thank the Lord for this.
In 1920 there was a prevailing evangelist in China by the name of Dora Yu. She was saved when she was young and was sent by her family to England to study medicine. When her ship reached Marseilles, France, she went to the captain and told him that she had to go back to China to preach Christ. Thus, the captain sent her back. Her parents were extremely disappointed with her. Obviously, she came from a wealthy family who could send her to England to study medicine. But she was strong in her desire to preach Christ, and her family could not persuade her to do otherwise. They told her that they would have nothing to do with her and that she should go her way to preach her Jesus. From that time onward, she became prevailing in the preaching of the gospel.
In 1920 she was invited to Brother Nee’s hometown, Foochow, which is close to the province of Kwantung, near Hong Kong. She was preaching the gospel in the Methodist Church where Brother Nee’s parents attended. Neither he nor his parents were saved at that time. Brother Nee’s mother spoke English well, and his father had a good position in the Chinese customs. His mother was saved in one of these meetings with Dora Yu. Before being saved, his mother was very fond of playing mah-jongg, a game of chance played by many of the Chinese. She was a very strong, talkative woman and was very dominant in their family, even over her husband. Brother Nee’s father was a very nice gentleman who was very quiet. Brother Nee’s family was composed of four brothers and four sisters, Brother Nee being the third child. The two children above him were sisters. The children also had the impression that their mother was too domineering at home. However, after their mother was saved in that gospel meeting, she came home and made a thorough confession to the whole family. She confessed all her failures and mistakes in a serious way. This was really the Lord’s doing. Brother Nee was amazed that she could be converted like this through one meeting. He was so impressed by his mother’s confession that he wanted to go and see what was there.
The next evening he went to listen to Dora Yu, and he was caught by the Lord. In those meetings many people wept with repentance. These meetings were very prevailing, and Brother Nee was fully caught. He was saved in the evening. That night, according to his testimony, he saw the Lord Jesus on the cross, and through that he was called by the Lord (see Watchman Nee’s Testimony, ch. 1). He was called on the night he was saved. He told me this personally. He told me many things that he kept as a secret from others, and I realized that he was speaking to me for my training. After being called by the Lord, the Lord began to prepare him and use him in a marvelous way for His intention.
