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Scripture Reading: Phil. 3:2-8; Col. 2:8-9, 16-17; 3:10-11
Nothing is as subtle as religion. We are all clear that the secular world is evil and that it frustrates people from going along with God (1 John 2:15-16). The religious world, however, is very subtle. Every religion teaches man to know and worship God. Even Islam seems to teach people to worship God in a pure way, purer even than Catholicism, since Muslim mosques have no idols, images, or even depictions of natural objects. Moreover, Muslims often bathe their bodies before they pray. However, they do not have the reality of God and Christ. By this we can see that religion is deceptive.
Some Christians attempt to justify their organizations by asking, “Are not the people in these organizations real Christians who worship God?” This is a deceptive question. At the time of the Lord Jesus, the Jews not only worshipped God but carried out their worship according to the Old Testament. The proper priesthood, the priestly service, and everything the Jews did in their worship was according to the law of Moses. There were also certain spiritual persons among them, such as Simeon, who waited for the Lord to come, and Anna, who served God in the temple night and day (Luke 2:25-38). However, the Jewish religion rejected Christ, who is the very embodiment of God. The Jews said that Jesus cast out demons by Beelzebul, the ruler of the demons, and even that He had a demon (Matt. 12:24; John 8:48, 52; 10:20). Moreover, the Jews sentenced the Lord Jesus to death according to their Scriptures. At that time the religious world and the secular world cooperated together to crucify the Lord Jesus. Today the principle is the same. In order to oppose God, Christ, and the church, the secular world needs the religious world, and the religious world needs the secular world. This principle will remain until Antichrist will be used by the Lord to terminate Judaism, Catholicism, and every kind of religion.
Because religion is deceiving, our eyes must be enlightened in order that we may no longer be cheated. As we saw in the previous chapter, the apostle Paul wrote the Epistle to the Galatians to strongly condemn the observance of the law under the Jewish religion. Soon afterward he went to Jerusalem, where he was surrounded by the elders who knew his history. They told him, “You observe, brother, how many thousands there are among the Jews who have believed; and all are zealous for the law” (Acts 21:20). In actuality, Satan, the subtle one, had used these thousands of believers to bring the church back into Judaism. The Lord had annulled Judaism, the religion that crucified Jesus. If Peter was there in Acts 21, it seems that he forgot what he had spoken on the day of Pentecost, when he was strong to tell the Jews, “This man, delivered up by the determined counsel and foreknowledge of God, you, through the hand of lawless men, nailed to a cross and killed” (2:23). Peter was the first to be clear that Judaism was against God, God’s economy, Christ, and the church, and he was the first one to suffer for the church at the hands of the Jews (4:1-3). However, Peter might have been among those who tried to convince Paul to return to the Judaistic practices (21:22-24).
We should not suppose that we are clear concerning religion. Regardless of how clear we may be, there is still the possibility that one day we can be deceived. In 1935 in my hometown of Chefoo, there were a number of missionaries from the China Inland Mission. When Brother Watchman Nee came to Chefoo, he held a prevailing conference, and a British missionary received much help from his speaking. When Brother Nee left, he committed this sister to my care, and I had thorough fellowship with her concerning the Lord’s way in His recovery today. This impressed her very much. When she left China and returned to England, she began to meet in the fellowship at Honor Oak and became a leading co-worker of T. Austin-Sparks. Twenty-three years later, in 1958, the Lord led me to England, where I was the invited guest of Brother T. Austin-Sparks. When I inquired concerning the sister, I was told that she had gone back to the Church of England, probably because she had learned that a number of people there were seeking after spiritual things. Although I was able to fellowship with her at that time, each of us knew where the other stood, and I was very sorrowful for her. I mention this to illustrate that regardless of how clear we think we are, certain circumstances and environments may one day cause us to be deceived.
We must be on the alert to not be deceived simply because certain ones are seeking after spiritual things. A good example of this is the charismatic movement. As a rule, the Catholic Church should not have received this kind of movement, but being subtle, it fully accepted it and then mixed it with the worship of Mary. As a result, many who are in the charismatic movement also worship Mary. By this we can see the deception of religion. Some may ask, “Are not many in the denominations real Christians?” We may ask in return, “Are not those in the charismatic movement within the Catholic Church seekers of spirituality?” They are real seekers, but at the same time they worship Mary. The worship of Mary is a great insult to God, yet the Catholic charismatics still worship her. What a deception this is! Therefore, we cannot say that as long as people worship God, hold to the Bible, seek after spiritual things, and love the Lord, what they do is right. If we say this, we are blinded under a thick veil, and we have already been cheated.
Again, it was not mainly the heathen, secular world that sentenced the Lord Jesus to death. It was the members of the Sanhedrin, the “supreme court” of the Jewish people, which judged things according to the Bible. The Sanhedrin was composed of the chief priests, the elders, the lawyers, and the scribes, all of whom were God-fearing people, but they sentenced Jesus to death according to the law given to them by God. What a cheating and a deceiving this was! In John 16:2 the Lord told the disciples, “An hour is coming for everyone who kills you to think that he is offering service to God.” This has actually happened. Saul of Tarsus, before he became Paul the apostle, offered service to God by persecuting the disciples. When Stephen was martyred by being stoned, the witnesses laid down their garments at Saul’s feet, and Paul himself told us that he persecuted the church of God excessively and ravaged it (Acts 7:58; 8:3; 9:1; Gal. 1:13, 23). He was a typical, genuine, religious person with the best religious qualifications. He said concerning himself, “As to the law, a Pharisee; as to zeal, persecuting the church; as to the righteousness which is in the law, become blameless” (Phil. 3:5-6). However, whatever he did was against Christ and damaged the church.
Therefore, while Saul was on the way to Damascus with authority from the high priest to arrest the believers, the Lord Jesus came to him (Acts 9:2-3). Paul might have been unique in history as one who did not hear the gospel from a man. The Lord Jesus came to preach the gospel to him directly, saying, “Saul, Saul, why are you persecuting Me?” (v. 4). Although he did not know the Lord, Saul cried, “Who are You, Lord?” (v. 5). If anyone calls Jesus the Lord, he will be saved (Rom. 10:13). When Saul called Him “Lord,” the Lord said, “I am Jesus” (Acts 9:5). It was there that Paul had a radical change. He had thought that he was full of sight, but after he was saved, he became blind (vv. 8-9). Today many religionists think that they are full of sight and light. They do not know that they are fully blind and under a covering veil.
We must not be cheated or deceived. We should not discern the situation of the denominations according to the fact that genuine Christians are there who are zealous for the gospel and who love the Lord. Rather, we need to discern according to Christ and the church. I like to see the young people being released and excited, but whether or not they are religious must be checked not by their excitement but by Christ and the church. How much do they live by Christ? I am not legal to say that we should not use guitars and tambourines in the meetings, but to use these things does not prove that we are not religious. I am afraid that our excitement, guitars, and tambourines may even prove that we are religious. Whether or not a person is religious depends on how much he knows Christ, lives by Christ, knows the church, and lives with Christ in the church and for the church.
In 1963 in Los Angeles the leading ones of four different groups proposed that they come together to practice the church life. A number were excited by this. I was the only one to “pour cold water” on the situation, asking them if they were all willing to drop their religion. One group among the four practiced speaking in tongues, and the other three had a Brethren background. I told them, “You brothers need to drop your insistence on tongue-speaking and on biblical doctrines. We are all here only for Christ and the church.” I showed them in Romans 14 how liberal, generous, and general the apostle Paul was. Verses 3 and 5 say, “He who eats, let him not despise him who does not eat; and he who does not eat, let him not judge him who eats, for God has received him...One judges one day above another; another judges every day alike. Let each be fully persuaded in his own mind.” Paul certainly knew the correct doctrines and Christian practices, but he did not tell people which were right and which were wrong. He did not care for that. He told them simply to receive one another and be like-minded, not according to doctrines and practices but according to Christ. All those who heard my word agreed to drop their religion, and they came together to meet beginning from the first Lord’s Day in March of that year. That was wonderful. After one week, however, I received a phone call telling me that the tongue-speaking religion and the doctrinal religion had collided. Those who spoke in tongues said that the leading brother did not know the Spirit, and the others said that he did not properly care for the doctrines.
These things have happened not only in the present time. They were already happening at the time of the apostle Paul. What bothered the churches in the early days, while the apostles still were on the earth, was religion. Paul says, “Beware of the dogs” (Phil. 3:2). According to the context, the dogs are the religionists. In verse 8 Paul says that he counted all his religious gains as refuse. In Greek, the word for refuse refers to dregs, rubbish, and filth that are thrown to the dogs. Because I speak these things, I do not have a good name among the religionists. Like Paul, I am sounding the trumpet, telling people that the religionists are “dogs” and that all the religious things — including circumcision, the Sabbath, and anything that seems to be for God but is apart from Christ — are “dog food.” Even the doctrinal knowledge of the Bible apart from Christ is “dog food.” When Paul was Saul of Tarsus and persecuted the church, he was a strong, religious “barking dog” eating religious “dog food.” This is not my own teaching; it is the revelation of Philippians 3. In that chapter Christ is everything. Christ must be our gain, not circumcision, the Sabbath, or anything religious (vv. 7-8). Likewise, in Colossians Christ is the test of whether or not one is religious, and He is also the church, the new man (2:8-9, 16-17; 3:10-11).
Not many among the four Christian groups that we spoke of earlier had seen an adequate vision concerning Christ, nor did they know the church. They were seeking ones, but they were not seeking Christ, and they were not living for the church. Rather, they were seeking their religion. As long as the tongue-speaking group could prophesy by saying, “Thus saith the Lord,” they were happy. However, this is not the New Testament way to prophesy; it is mainly according to the Old Testament. The book of Acts does not tell us that on the day of Pentecost some stood to say, “Thus saith the Lord.” This would have brought the church back into the old religion of Judaism. Again I say, most of the believers in those groups had not seen Christ and the church, and they were not for Christ and the church.
Whether or not we are religious depends upon how much we live by Christ. Perhaps the young people would ask, “Should we play the guitar and be excited in our meetings, or not?” The answer is that we must check with the indwelling Christ. We should ask, “Lord Jesus, should I play the guitar?” We have no religion and no regulations; we simply have Christ. It is not that when we sit quietly in a pew, we are dead and in religion, but when we shout and are excited, we are living and not in religion. If this were the case, people at a football game would be more “living” than we are. However, the behavior of the attendants at a football game is not the living of Christ. To be released from religion requires that we be in Christ, with Christ, and for the church. Satan is everywhere. He is not only in the pews; he may also be in our excitement. Today the whole earth is covered by two layers — the secular world and the religious world. Only Christ and the church can rescue us from these two aspects of the world.
Over fifty years ago I observed the situation in Judaism, the Catholic Church, and Protestant Christianity. Since then, things have changed to some extent. After the re-formation of Israel and the return of Jerusalem to the Jews, more Jews became zealous for their fathers’ religion. Today even many young people in Jerusalem have become more pious and zealous. Apparently, even the Catholic Church is more “spiritual” than it has been. As I mentioned in a previous chapter, some of us sat before the pope as he gave a sermon, saying that we are all one in the Spirit as members of the mystical Body of Christ. Perhaps no pope before him ever gave so spiritual a message. When I heard that, I said to myself, “This man sounds like a brother in the local churches.” We also never expected that such a dead, formal, and demonic religion would allow people to practice the charismatic things as they are now doing. All this is a subtle cheating. Moreover, fifty years ago there were not as many spiritual seekers in Protestant Christianity as there are today. Wherever we go today, there are groups of seeking Christians. However, many of these are still under the shadow of religion. The pious, zealous Jews are under Judaism, those in the Catholic Church are under Catholicism, and those in the Protestant churches are under a new kind of religion. The Jews are pious and zealous, many Catholics are seeking spiritual things, and many Protestants also are seeking the things of the Lord, but to our observation, very few care for Christ as life and for the church. If those who speak in tongues were genuinely seeking after Christ, how could they go to worldly entertainments or worship Mary, and if they were real seekers of the church, how could they join the Catholic Church? The fact that they join Catholicism and accept the worship of Mary is proof that they are not purely for Christ and the church.
Prior to the Reformation, the church under Catholicism became degraded to a great extent. History today refers to that time as the Dark Ages. Because the Bible was locked up and no life or light was released, the entire world was in darkness. At that time God used Martin Luther to begin His recovery. At first, Luther had no intention to begin a reformation. He was stirred up simply by matters such as indulgences. The pope at that time sent out certain persons to sell certificates of forgiveness. If anyone sinned, he could buy an indulgence issued by the Vatican in order to be forgiven. This offended Luther, and he rose up to proclaim his ninety-five theses. This stirred up opposition against him. Because he did not have the capacity and the way to properly care for the church, he made the mistake of becoming instrumental in the forming of state churches. Before that time the church was called Catholic, which means “universal.” After that time, however, other nations followed to create state churches, such as the Church of England, of which the Queen is the head and into which every British subject has the right to be baptized. In Germany today people pay a church tax to the government, which uses the money to pay preachers. This is a real degradation.
About two hundred years later, in the early part of the 1700s, the Lord did something further with the Moravian brothers under the leadership of Count Zinzendorf. This was the first major recovery of the proper practice of the church life. Then one hundred years later, in the 1820s, the Lord recovered a fuller and clearer practice of the church life among the Brethren in England. Eventually, however, religion came in through doctrinal debate. The first division was between John Nelson Darby and Benjamin Newton. Soon afterward there was another dissension of opinions between Darby and George Müller regarding the matter of receiving the believers at the Lord’s table meeting. This resulted in a second division. These divisions were caused by holding to doctrinal concepts. Regardless of how good, right, and proper our doctrinal concepts are, to hold to them in a divisive way is religious. When we practice the church life, we must drop all our doctrinal opinions. To hold to doctrinal opinion is religious.
We can testify from our conscience that in the almost fifteen years that we have been practicing the church life in the United States, we have not held to any doctrine in a divisive way. Because certain opposers hold to their doctrines, they have criticized our way of pray-reading the Word. What is wrong with pray-reading the Word and calling, “O Lord Jesus”? It would be better for those persons to oppose the evils of today’s Christian religion, such as the observance of Christmas and Easter, the use of rock music in Christian meetings, and the title Reverend, which is an insult to God because He alone is to be revered. Some of our critics claim that calling on the Lord is merely an Oriental practice. I came from China, but I did not come with anything Chinese. Rather, I came with the Holy Bible, the Lord Jesus Christ, and the church. Those who question where calling on the Lord comes from should rather ask where Santa Claus, the Christmas tree, and other such matters come from. People justify the observance of Christmas by the historical fact that millions of Christians have accepted it. However, history means nothing with respect to the truth. It is better to oppose the things of religion, tradition, superstition, and falsehood. The Jews today are more zealous, the Catholic Church is absorbing spiritual practices, and many Protestants are seeking the things of the Lord. However, where is the real experience of Christ, and where is the church?
The two attempts to practice the church life — under Zinzendorf and the Moravian Brethren and under John Darby and the British Brethren — were good, but eventually they were nullified by religious concepts. One hundred years later, in 1920, the Lord was forced to go to the heathen land of China, which was truly a “Galilee of the Gentiles.” At that time the ground in Europe and America had been ruined for the Lord’s work. This is not my thought alone; it was Brother Watchman Nee’s also. Early in the 1930s he and I had a long talk concerning the Lord’s recovery. He told me, “The Lord was forced to come to China because, as far as the practice of the church life is concerned, it is still virgin soil.” As one of the few persons who knew Watchman Nee very closely, I can testify that he was fully burdened for Christ being our life in order to produce the church. He dreamed of churches in all the localities in China. This was his vision, and it was his ministry, which was the most important ministry in this century.
However, there have been several attempts to dilute Brother Nee’s ministry concerning Christ and the church. First, over fifteen years ago a certain source in England began to spread the rumor that after World War II, Brother Nee changed his concept concerning the ground of the church, but that I, as his co-worker, did not change. Thus, this source says that I am different from Brother Nee. This forced us to publish Further Talks on the Church Life, documenting every message in the book, giving the year, month, day, and location of the message. These messages, all of which Brother Nee gave in 1948 and afterward, are even stronger than his messages in The Normal Christian Church Life. After the publication of Further Talks on the Church Life, the source of the rumor was forced to admit that it was wrong.
Following this, some changed their tone and a biography of Brother Nee was published in which the author claimed that Brother Nee was wrong in the matter of the church. Since they had been forced by Further Talks on the Church Life to admit that Brother Nee did not change in the matter of the church, they utilized Brother Nee’s ministry on the side of life to build up their religion, at the same time refusing to promote anything that Brother Nee wrote concerning the church. To utilize Brother Nee’s ministry in this way for their own purposes is subtle, dishonest, and unfaithful.
In addition, certain ones among us who were co-workers of Brother Nee, being afraid of men, have not been bold to speak his true ministry. One told me, “We should not offend Christianity, because our work depends upon Christianity.” I do not agree with this. Our work does not depend upon anyone. When I came to this country, I received the burden to speak to people concerning the local church, but these weaker ones advised me: “We must take care of our situation. Do not speak in this way, because people will not be able to bear it.” My answer is, “If Martin Luther had cared for the situation and not spoken faithfully, there would have been no recovery of justification by faith.” Today Brother Nee’s books have begun to fill this country, but what has been the result? Have many begun to know Christ and be for the church? On the contrary, Brother Nee’s books have been utilized to build up something in religion.
The Catholic Church and other denominations are now trying to form a kind of spiritual oneness. This is altogether a counterfeit. According to prophecy, Catholicism and the denominations will continue until Antichrist is used by the Lord to terminate Judaism, burn Catholicism, and destroy all religions (Rev. 17:16-17; Dan. 9:27; 11:36-37). Under the present situation, then, what is the Lord doing? Some spiritual seekers may say, “The Lord is bringing all the spiritual things together, including Brother Nee’s ministry, the charismatic things, speaking in tongues, the manifestation of gifts, and the Catholic Church.” We must not believe this. The Lord never does anything in the way of mixture. His way is always pure, in which all things are “according to their kind” (Gen. 1:11-12, 21, 24-25). Spiritual things are not according to the “kind” of the Catholic Church, nor are they according to the kind of the denominations and free groups. To mix these things is against the spiritual principle (Deut. 22:9-11).
What the Lord is doing today is to go to “Galilee” to catch the young Galileans to have a new, pure, and clean start. These young ones should not merely be excited; this is not sufficient. They must exercise their spirit to know Christ, live by Christ, and gain Christ day by day. Then with, in, and by Christ they will have the proper church life without any religious concepts. The young people must first be caught by the Lord. Then they need to be trained and sent to other young ones. On the practical side, we must know that the church includes all ages. According to the record of the Gospels, it seems that the Lord did not call the older ones to follow Him directly, but neither did He reject them. Not all the one hundred twenty in Acts 1 were young people. At least some must have been older women (v. 14; cf. Luke 8:2-3; 24:10). Therefore, the young people must never say that the Lord will use only them; this is absolutely not correct.
In actuality, all the saints should be encouraged to bear the burden for the Lord’s testimony. Whether we are young, middle-aged, or elderly, as long as we have a heart and a clear spirit for the Lord’s recovery, we will all be fully useful to the Lord. However, we are in a battle today, and we need a strategy for fighting. The present need is to send the young people to the front, that is, to the campuses, to fight the battle with a strong burden. The older ones can support them, help them, care for them, and pray for them. In this way we will all coordinate together to win the war.
We must not compromise with religion. If we compromise, we will give up the Lord, and we will cause the Lord to give us up. The Lord has no way in any kind of religion. He must have a new start with the young people, and the older ones must stand with the young ones, bearing the burden to support them, pray for them, care for them, cover them, and do everything they can for them so that the young ones can fight the battle on the front lines to gain the victory. This is the right way for us to take.
