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Scripture Reading: Gal. 2:11-14; Acts 21:18-24, 26-33
According to the complete revelation of the Bible, God made a plan in eternity past to dispense Himself into man in order to make man a corporate expression of Himself. After He made His plan, God created the universe with the heavens, the earth, and especially man with a human spirit (Zech. 12:1). This indicates that the heavens are for the earth, the earth is for man’s existence, and man with his spirit is for God. With his spirit man must contact, receive, contain, and assimilate God so that He may be life to man, and man may be His living corporate expression. This is God’s intention throughout all the dispensations and generations. This is very clear in the Bible, but in order to see this, we must have a vision. We may have the Bible in our hands for our entire life yet never see this vision. This is what has happened in Christianity. Christianity has the Bible, but many people in Christianity do not see the eternal plan of God. In order that man may see God’s desire, God gave him the Bible. However, the enemy of God never sleeps. He came in and utilized all the points in this Holy Book to instigate man to exercise his mentality to form religion. Religion is something formed by the human mentality under Satan’s instigation and inspiration in order to oppose God’s economy. Apparently, religion is for God, but in actuality, it is fully against Him.
The first religion formed in this way was Judaism, which came entirely from the Old Testament. In the Old Testament, God gave His people the commandments concerning circumcision, the Sabbath, and dietary regulations. Every male among God’s people had to be circumcised on the eighth day after his birth (Gen. 17:9-14). In addition, every seven days the Israelites had to keep the Sabbath separate, holy, and for God (Exo. 20:8-11), and in their eating they had to keep a particular diet (Lev. 11). These three things — circumcision, the Sabbath, and the holy diet — are the three pillars upon which Judaism is supported. All these are in the Old Testament, but they are not the kernel of the Old Testament. The kernel of the Old Testament is Christ and God’s dwelling place, that is, Christ and the church. In the Old Testament there are many prophecies, types, shadows, and figures showing, declaring, and describing who Christ would be, what He would do, and where He would go. In addition, in the Old Testament there is also God’s dwelling place. First, God’s people Israel built a tabernacle for God’s dwelling. Then this tabernacle was replaced by a solid temple, and after the temple was destroyed, a recovered temple was built. Thus, Christ and God’s dwelling place are the kernel of the Old Testament. Circumcision, the Sabbath, and the holy diet are far off from the kernel, but Satan utilized what God commanded to cause the Jews to exercise their mentality to form a religion rather than to focus on Christ and God’s dwelling place. Anything that we do to serve God, worship God, or please God apart from Christ is religion. However, anything we do with Christ, in Christ, and in union with Christ can never be a religion.
In the fullness of the time, the promised Christ came. Isaiah 9:6 says, “A child is born to us, / A Son is given to us; / And the government / Is upon His shoulder; / And His name will be called / Wonderful Counselor, / Mighty God, / Eternal Father, / Prince of Peace.” His name is called Wonderful, meaning that no one can fully understand Him. Anything that we can fully understand is not wonderful, but in the universe there is One who is wonderful. The more we abide in Him, the more wonderful He is to us. This One is not only the Redeemer but also the Counselor. We all need Christ as our Counselor. Moreover, the child born in the manger is the mighty God, and the Son given to us is the eternal Father. He is also the Prince of Peace. If we have Him, we have the Counselor, God, the Father, and peace. Micah 5:2 also tells us that His goings forth are from ancient times, from the days of eternity.
This One came in a very humble way. First, He was born in a manger. He was persecuted and fled to Egypt, and later, because of the persecution in Judea around Jerusalem, He escaped again to Nazareth in Galilee. There He was raised in the home of a poor carpenter for thirty years. In the holy city was the holy temple, and related to the holy temple were the altar, the priesthood, and the priestly ministry to offer the various sacrifices according to the book of Leviticus. Here also were the burning of the incense and the lighting of the lampstands morning and evening. All these were according to the Old Testament. Far to the north, however, was a city called Nazareth, in which there was a carpenter’s home, where the child born to us and the Son given to us lived for thirty years. This child and Son was God Himself. John 1:1 says, “In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God,” and verse 14 says, “The Word became flesh and tabernacled among us.” This Word who became flesh was Jesus of Nazareth. Therefore, during those thirty years God was not in Jerusalem; He was in Nazareth. Religion was in Jerusalem, but Christ was in Nazareth. At that time, in order to meet God, people needed to go to Nazareth, even to the home of a carpenter. However, the Jews were not clear concerning this. According to their religion, tradition, and superstition, they went to Jerusalem, the place of religion, and not to Nazareth.
At the end of thirty years Jesus came out to minister. At first He did not go to the holy city to minister in the holy temple. Instead, He went to the wilderness, to a “wild” man named John the Baptist in order to be baptized by him (Matt. 3:1-4, 13). If we read the Gospels again, we will see that Jesus preferred not to be in Jerusalem. Whenever He was in Jerusalem, He received trouble, opposition, arguments, slanders, and insults. He did not have rest and enjoyment there. Instead, He spent most of His time in Galilee. It was there that He called young people to be His disciples. The Gospels record the Lord’s calling of James and John, but they do not mention that He directly called Zebedee or any of the other fathers of the disciples (4:21-22). Likewise, the disciples named in Acts 1:13 are only the young ones who had been called by the Lord, although some among the one hundred twenty must have been older women (v. 14; cf. Luke 8:2-3; 24:10).
The Lord Jesus called the young Galilean fishermen, not the religious priests, scribes, or elders. Then after the Lord Jesus called the disciples, He trained them for three and a half years. This was the Lord’s “trade school,” located not in the holy temple but in the wilderness and on the mountaintops and seashores far away from the religious things. The Lord trained His disciples to have faith, for example, by calming a storm (Matt. 8:23-27). Today the Lord is taking a similar way. We do not need to go to a seminary to be trained. Rather, we simply need to follow the Lord through troubles and storms.
In Jerusalem there was the strong center of religion according to the Old Testament, but in Galilee there was a living person. Apparently, He was only a carpenter without an academic degree, and those whom He chose were also not learned (John 7:15; Acts 4:13). Nevertheless, the Lord trained His disciples so that one day He could live in them in a practical way in order to produce the church for the fulfillment of God’s purpose and plan. Then after three and a half years of training, the Trainer went to the cross to die. Through His death and resurrection He became a life-giving Spirit (1 Cor. 15:45b), and in the evening of the day of His resurrection, He breathed Himself into all these trained disciples (John 20:22). At that time the disciples had learned their “trade,” and they also had the Trainer living within them. They were not trained in how to offer the sacrifices or burn the incense, and they were not even formally trained in how to interpret the Bible. Rather, they learned the “trade,” the skill, of how to live by Christ and with Christ in a corporate way so that He might gain His church.
Day by day and month after month for three and a half years the Lord Jesus was with His disciples. His presence alone was a kind of training to them. Whatever He did, spoke, or accomplished was a training in the eyes of all the disciples. What the disciples learned was entirely different from what the priests were trained in. What the priests learned was religion, but what the disciples learned was Christ. After the Lord’s resurrection they had learned their trade, and they also had the Trainer, Christ, living within them as their life. Then after this preparation the Lord Jesus charged them to remain in Jerusalem until He poured out the Spirit on the day of Pentecost for the producing of the first local church, the church in Jerusalem.
At this point there were two temples in Jerusalem, a physical one and a spiritual one as God’s house on the earth. One temple was in religion, and the other was Christ with the church (1 Cor. 3:16). Everyone could see the physical temple but not many could see the spiritual one. Even though God was in the spiritual temple, the physical, religious temple opposed the spiritual one. To some, it must have seemed that the physical temple was more scriptural than the spiritual one. Apparently, the Old Testament speaks of priests in the physical temple, not of apostles in the spiritual temple. Moreover, the apostles were all unlearned Galileans; not one was from the holy city. If we had been in Jerusalem at that time, we might have gone to the physical temple, not to the spiritual temple, which did not seem to be according to the letter of the Old Testament. However, at least one hundred twenty, plus three thousand more on the day of Pentecost, received the heavenly vision to be in the spiritual temple.
Nevertheless, it was not easy to stand with the heavenly vision. Peter, John, and the others were enlightened, clear, and trained, but since they were in Jerusalem, not in Galilee, they were surrounded by religion, and it became difficult for them to remain in a pure condition. When Peter went north to Antioch, far away from Jerusalem, he was put to the test. There were not only Jews but also some Gentiles in the church there, and at first Peter ate with the Gentile believers. This was proper and apart from religion. However, when certain of the Jews came from Jerusalem to Antioch, Peter withdrew from eating with the Gentiles (Gal. 2:11-14). To do this was to keep the Jewish religion.
Peter had already received a special vision in Acts 10:9-16, in which he realized that God had included the Gentiles in His economy. Not long afterward, however, Peter went against the vision that he had seen, and all the Jewish believers, including Barnabas, joined him in this hypocrisy. Peter was a bold person, but in Galatians 2 he was weak. This shows that the atmosphere and influence of religion are difficult to overcome. We may believe that we are strong, but when we are tested by religion, we may be exposed and find that we are weak. Religion is hateful in the eyes of God because religion replaces Christ, damages the church, and frustrates God’s economy. Therefore, Paul rebuked Peter and opposed him to his face. No doubt, Peter was convinced by Paul. Inwardly, he might have said, “Brother Paul, you are right. What a shame that I was so weak.”
Some time later, when Paul went to Jerusalem, he came to James and the elders there (Acts 21:18-19). All these ones worked together to convince Paul, saying, “You observe, brother, how many thousands there are among the Jews who have believed; and all are zealous for the law. And they have been informed concerning you that you are teaching all the Jews throughout the nations apostasy from Moses, telling them not to circumcise their children, nor to walk according to the customs. What then is to be done? They will certainly hear that you have come. Therefore do this that we tell you: We have four men who have a vow on themselves; take these and be purified with them, and pay their expenses that they may shave their heads. And all will know that there is nothing to the things that they have been informed of concerning you, but that you yourself also walk orderly, keeping the law” (vv. 20-24). It is difficult to believe that Paul would do this only a few years after he wrote Galatians, but he did. He brought the four men, who no doubt were believers, to the temple and the priest, paid their fee, and waited for the completion of the vow. Again this shows that it is not easy to be rescued from religion.
When Paul was surrounded by James and the others, perhaps including Peter and John, it was difficult not to be convinced. Still, no one can subdue the Lord. The Lord has His economy, and even though Paul tolerated the influence of religion, the Lord would not allow him to continue. Before the seven days were completed, the Lord came in and disrupted the entire situation. It was through this that Paul was arrested (vv. 26-33). The Lord seemed to be saying, “Do you think that you can be purified in the temple? Religion cannot purify you. Rather, I will allow you to go to prison, which will be a real purification to you.” Paul was purified not in the temple but in prison, and it was there that he wrote his deepest Epistles. God was sovereign and did not allow Paul to become involved in the old religion that he had thoroughly condemned in Galatians.
According to history, it was only a few years later, in A.D. 70, that the Lord sent the Roman army under Titus to destroy Jerusalem and the temple, leaving not one stone upon another (Matt. 24:1-2). Josephus, the Jewish historian, wrote about the slaughter under Titus. Although Jerusalem had been destroyed before, no other destruction was as thorough as this one. Titus slaughtered anyone who was in Jerusalem, including Jews and Jewish Christians. In this way the Lord used “one stone to kill two birds.” Not only was Judaism destroyed at that time, but Christianity in Jerusalem also was destroyed. Without that destruction, Christianity would have taken Jerusalem as its center, and the church would have fallen into another religion. Because the Lord was offended with the situation there, He not only disrupted the purification in the temple that Paul had begun, but He also eventually sent the Roman army to destroy the whole of Jerusalem. Because there was a thorough destruction of Jerusalem, it is difficult to trace the history of the apostles after that time. The Lord did not spare the church in Jerusalem. He destroyed the temple, the city, and even the church there, because the church was falling back into Judaism.
It was not a small thing for James and the elders to try to convince Paul, the apostle to the Gentiles, to neglect Christ and the church and return to the temple, the Old Testament, and the old religion. Because the Lord could not tolerate that, He disrupted the situation, caused Paul to be arrested and put into prison, and destroyed Jerusalem with both the temple and the church. He did all this so that there would be no way for His church to return to Judaism. Therefore, we should not think that as long as a group of people has the Bible, serves God, and tries to be scriptural, they are right. This is altogether a religious concept. We are not merely for these things; we are for Christ and the church apart from all religion. We need to clearly see what religion is and what Christ and the church are.
The church is an organism, the Body of Christ. It is one with Christ in life and in spirit. In the early days of the church the disciples were filled with Christ and clothed with Christ. They had no regulations, rituals, doctrinal teachings, or forms. They had only Christ within and without. In the first few chapters of Acts, for example, Peter did not care for religion, politics, knowledge, or skills. Instead, he was frank, simple, pure, and fully saturated with Christ. Gradually, however, the church tended to fall back into the “dungeon” of Judaism. As we have seen, because the Lord would not tolerate that, He allowed the whole of Jerusalem to be destroyed to leave no way for the church there to become a snare.
After a short time, however, the church became degraded again, mainly in three ways. At the beginning of the second century Ignatius was a faithful and notable teacher who was martyred for the Lord in Rome, but he was also used by Satan to teach that an overseer, a bishop, is higher than an elder. In the New Testament elder and overseer are synonymous terms denoting the same person. Elder denotes the person, and overseer denotes the function (Acts 20:17, 28; Phil. 1:1). From the erroneous teaching of Ignatius the hierarchy in Christianity was built up. Archbishops and cardinals were produced from among the bishops, and the chief of these became the pope. The hierarchy of pope, cardinals, archbishops, bishops, and elders constitutes a change in the nature of the Body of Christ. The Body of Christ is an organism, not an organization. The only ones responsible for oversight in a church are the elders. About five hundred years after the teachings of Ignatius came forth, the papal system was established, and the position of the pope began to be officially recognized. Eventually, the hierarchical system was adopted by the Protestant churches. The Church of England and the Methodist Church, for example, have bishops and archbishops. The hierarchy is a matter of religion and has killed the function of the Body of Christ. In Christ and with Christ there is no organization or hierarchy.
Many pastors and ministers today justify the hierarchical system by saying, “Because every trade today must be specialized, we cannot expect everyone to be a pastor or a preacher. Only someone trained to be an expert can do this. A person needs to study in seminary to learn how to pastor a church and give a sermon. Otherwise, he will be backward and not up to date.” Someone who does not have light from the Lord can be convinced and cheated by this kind of reasoning. Some dear ones who have come to our meetings enjoy the life here, but they are frightened by the need to function. Some say, “Since my profession occupies me the whole week, I simply want to relax on Sundays. The best place to relax is in a church with a good pastor who can pray for me and give a good sermon and with a good choir to sing for me. I do not want to come to a church in which I need to function.” This example helps us to further see what religion is and what Christ is. Christ is living and functioning. Christ with the church is an organism, not an organization. In contrast, Christianity is merely a religion, and the hierarchy in it kills the functions of the Body of Christ.
Beginning from the second century the fathers of the church began to argue concerning the Person of Christ. Strictly speaking, there is no science of Christology in the Bible. This science was invented by certain teachers in order to study who Christ is. Some said that Christ is divine, and others said that He is human. Some even said that Christ was first human and eventually became divine. This resulted in fighting, which caused division. In A.D. 13 Constantine became emperor of Rome, and eventually he made Christianity the state religion and encouraged many thousands of people to be baptized into Christianity. As the emperor, Constantine did not like to see fighting in his realm, so he called a council at Nicaea in A.D. 325 to gather together the great Christian teachers. It was there under his presiding that the Nicene Creed was formed. However, that did not solve the problem of fighting in the church. From that time onward, Christianity has been filled with different kinds of doctrines. The hierarchy kills the functions of the Body of Christ, and the different teachings divide the church and cut it into pieces.
After Constantine encouraged thousands of unbelievers to be baptized into Christianity, the church adopted many pagan things, such as Christmas, Easter, and the worship of Mary, which was patterned after the worship of a pagan goddess. Today we can still see relics placed on display to be venerated by people. Because of this, Christianity has become a religion full of tradition, superstition, and falsehood. This is all around us today in Catholicism, the denominations, and even the free groups. In religion there is no light, life, truth, or reality; that is, there is no Christ. Christ is there only in name, not in His person and living reality. Likewise, there is no church in reality. The church is the living Body of Christ, but what surrounds us today is a religion full of traditions, organizations, teachings, doctrines, performances, and falsehood. The Lord cannot accomplish His purpose in this situation.
Revelation 17 tells us that at the end of this age the Lord will sovereignly use Antichrist to terminate religion (vv. 16-17). Then in chapter 19 the bride is prepared for Christ (vv. 7-8). There is no possibility for the Lord to prepare His bride in Catholicism, the state churches, or the denominations. The Lord prophesied in Matthew 16:18, “Upon this rock I will build My church, and the gates of Hades shall not prevail against it.” Roman Catholicism claims to be the church built on a certain kind of rock, but that church cannot stand against the gates of Hades. Nevertheless, the Lord will not give up His promise to build the church and prepare the bride. According to the principle in the Bible, the Lord will once again turn away from today’s religion and go to the “Sea of Galilee” to call some young people. Because many older ones have been influenced with a certain amount of religious thought, the Lord is forced to go to the younger generation to call the young people, train them, and send them out.
Since the Lord began His recovery in the United States in 1962, we have been laboring, suffering, and struggling. Eventually, our history has proven that the Lord is taking the way to reap the young people. Many in the local churches today are young people. It is difficult for some over fifty years old to turn to this way, and some who do may bring in opinions. This may be the reason that the Lord Jesus did not call Nicodemus or other older ones from Jerusalem to follow Him. He called mainly the young simple ones. When He said, “Follow Me,” they followed Him. They gave up the secular world, and they had relatively little of the religious world to bring with them. The Lord’s strategy today is to gain the young people, train them, and send them to “Jerusalem” to raise up the church.
The younger ones among us still need some years of training. However, they should not go to a seminary. They need simply to remain in the “Galilean” church life to have the experience of Christ and the church. Eventually, they should bear the responsibility to go first to the larger universities throughout the United States to contact the students there. Within a short amount of time the number of saints in those places will increase. Following this, some should also go to the smaller universities. At the same time, others will be burdened to emigrate to Europe. Because America and Europe are the two most crucial continents with respect to the world situation, the Lord desires to gain them. To this end the young people should study the European languages. Then after a few years they will have the experience of Christ and the church, the experience of knowing and contacting people, and the ability to speak to them in their language. Some may go to a major city in a particular European country to study the language for a few years. During that time they can contact their classmates and schoolmates. After a certain amount of time they will become a nucleus for the Lord to gain that city. In every country in Europe, and also in Israel, there must be a nucleus for the church life.
For this purpose the young people must be burdened, and they need to pray to ask the Lord whether He would send them to a college campus in the United States or to Europe. This is the unique way to have something absolutely new for the Lord. We all need to drop our concepts, have no opinions, be unloaded, and support those who go out by our prayer. The older ones must pray day and night for the young people to carry out the Lord’s recovery in this way. If we take this way, the Lord will gain the United States, Europe, and Israel.
