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Some of us have been listening to messages in the church for more than thirty years. How do we feel? Are we numb and without any feeling, are we very satisfied, or do we sense a lack and grieve because of it? A few decades have gone by, and we have been listening to messages, going to trainings, and participating in certain services, yet if the Lord comes back today, are we able to settle accounts with Him? What sort of account can we hand over?
Because I have worked in Taiwan for many years, the saints have given me the ground to speak, and so I speak: Taiwan pains me the most. Since 1980 I have observed that the condition of the churches in Taiwan is at a standstill and even going backward. More than sixty years ago we came out of the denominations in China, and over thirty years ago we started the Lord’s work in Taiwan. However, up until four years ago, we had completely gone back to the old ways.
We all know that Christianity gathers a group of people for a church service. They hire a speaker who has theological knowledge, who is very eloquent and capable, and who is able to run an organization and bring people together. Such persons are rare in Taiwan but quite common in the United States. They are all well-known persons in Christianity, but the work of these well-known persons has “killed” every one of their church members. On the one hand, these church members have been brought to the Lord through them, but on the other hand, their speaking has killed these church members. Some may say that kill is too strong an expression, but at least we can say that the members have become accustomed to listening to messages; they have been drugged and become numb. They only know that a Christian should be a proper and good person and that he should attend the church service every Lord’s Day; that is good enough. However, from the perspective of the spiritual supply of life, such a way completely annuls the members’ function.
The Bible says that all who are saved and regenerated have been transferred out of Adam and into Christ; they are all members of the Body of Christ. Moreover, each member of this Body has his function and should function (Rom. 12:4; 1 Cor. 12:14-22). Let us use our physical body as an example. When we talk or move, even the little finger and the ear function, because when we talk, we do it as living persons with lively gestures. In the same way, since we are members of the Body of Christ, we should function in the church. However, the functions of the fellow believers in Christianity have been nullified by the preachers and replaced with the clergy. It is the same for us. Very often it is only the responsible brothers who speak in the meetings. This practice utterly kills the saints. The more the responsible brothers speak, the less the saints need to function and the more they lose their function.
If in a meeting only a few speak and speak too much, that is the practice of the clergy. As for the ones listening to messages, the more they listen, the more they are drugged and lose their function. Every week when they attend the service they are injected with a shot of anesthetic. There are fifty-two weeks in a year, which means fifty-two shots of anesthetic per year. After a whole year, will they have any feeling left? They will be only dumb and ignorant.
The saddest thing is that some saints, who were very lively in the beginning, after listening to messages for over thirty years have gradually lost their function, as if they no longer have any feeling. The Bible tells us that we live in expectation of the Lord’s coming. In Matthew 25, after the Lord told the parable of the ten virgins going forth to meet the bridegroom (vv. 1-13), He also told a parable of the slaves receiving talents (vv. 14-30). This means that when the Lord comes again, not only will we go forth to see His face, but we also will hand over our account to Him. Therefore, we need to work for the Lord; we need to serve Him. If we do not work and do not serve the Lord, when He comes, we will be unable to hand over our account.
The slave who received one talent hid all of it in the earth. He said to the master, “Behold, you have what is yours” (v. 25). But the master immediately rebuked him and said that he was an “evil and slothful slave” (v. 26). Apparently, the slave did not do anything wrong, yet he did not use the possessions the master gave him to do business or accumulate interest. In other words, he did not bear fruit. Therefore, the master rebuked him. We are sad and in pain because many saints have lost all their function, not after listening to messages for thirty years in the denominations but after listening to messages for thirty years among us. All of them were born, grew up, and received spiritual education in the Lord’s recovery, and they also pursued the books in the Lord’s recovery, but the result has been no different from being in the denominations. How can we listen to messages under the same roof for thirty years and still remain exactly the same as we were thirty years ago? What excuse do we have?
This is why we say repeatedly that the way of Christianity is terrible. One person speaking and everyone else listening only kills us and numbs us and causes us to lose our function. Not only Christianity but all religions restrict people. A school textbook defines religion in this way: “Religion circumscribes the heart of man.” Religion is used to regulate man. Therefore, the benefit of Christianity is that due to one’s belief in this religion, he observes all the rules and regulations and no longer does bad things. Nowadays we seem to have fallen into such a condition. Ordinarily, we follow the rules and regulations, and on the Lord’s Day we attend the church service. However, this causes us to lose our function and feeling. This is Christianity; this is religion.
Our more than thirty years of work in Taiwan is now in such a state. How can we not be in pain? It was not like this when we first began to work in Taiwan. Then we were full of vigor, and the saints all functioned. Hence, there was a thirtyfold increase at the end of the year. The first year yielded a thirtyfold increase, and after the fourth or the fifth year we had a hundredfold increase. Within just a few years, the number multiplied from a few hundred to tens of thousands. There were joint meetings, meetings according to halls, meetings according to groups within the halls, and meetings under the leading ones within the groups. However, by 1980 in every church only the few good speakers spoke. For example, Taipei plainly had ten to twenty thousand saints but only four or five elders. How was it that no one else could be an elder? That is why in 1984, when I went back to Taiwan to change the system, more than eighty elders were added. We cannot have the practice of religious hierarchy, annulling the opportunity for the saints to function. For the increase of the church, we need to help every saint to function.
I certainly have an indignation welling up within me because Taiwan has shown no progress. Since the churches in Taiwan were produced through my service, I will save the politeness and be blunt. However, this is not a matter of being polite or of keeping a good relationship, nor is it a matter of saving their face. If I cared for these things, I would not be here doing the Lord’s work. I abandoned my own career and my own life for the Lord’s work. I am not speaking words of conceit; I would have had success even if I did not love the Lord and had pursued a career in the world instead. However, that is not what I want. What I want is for the Lord’s recovery to be on the earth.
Taiwan is in such a condition, and it is the same in the United States. I have told the responsible brothers in the United States that this situation is altogether wrong. This forced me to return to Taiwan, to reconsider the entire situation, to reconsider the way to meet in the Bible, and to reexamine the practices of all the groups in Christian history. I have even studied the existing denominations, as well as Mormonism and Jehovah’s Witness, and even the way people do business in the world. As a result, the Lord opened my eyes and showed me that I need to completely abandon all of Christianity’s ways. Not only should we come out of Christianity, but we should also abandon everything of Christianity. Whatever is of Christianity as a religion we cannot have and we do not want.
I sought before the Lord, what should we do if we do not take the way of Christianity? The Lord then showed me that, first, the church life is not in the big meetings. In the early days of the church, the church life was in the homes (Acts 2:46), such as the church in the home of Aquila and Priscilla. The New Testament mentions at least three or four homes in which there was a church (Rom. 16:5; 1 Cor. 16:19; Col. 4:15; Philem. 2), but it does not speak of a church in a large gathering. Therefore, we see the importance of homes. Second, the Lord showed me that the very basis of the way to carry out His salvation is to go out and visit people. The Lord Himself took the first step, leaving the throne in the heavens to come to the earth to visit man. During His three and a half years of work, He always went to visit people, yet not once did He invite people to come and listen to messages. He went to the house of Zaccheus (Luke 19:1-10), and He went beside the well in Samaria (John 4:1-8). He went and visited people. Through this my eyes were opened, and I saw the errors of the past. In the past we exhausted much effort yet rarely produced a single fruit. Even if we gained one person, we could not hold on to him. This was our condition in the past.
The statistics of Christianity in the twenty-two years from 1964 to 1986 further confirmed my feeling: the way of Christianity does not work. Of the five major denominations, four have been decreasing in number drastically. Only one has stayed above water, but its rate of increase is a mere 1.48 percent. I have studied several historical events. After Martin Luther brought in the Reformation, the Mystics of the 1600s were greatly revered by people, but over time they seem to have vanished without a trace. The Brethren were the same. They brought in many truths to Christianity, thriving and flourishing for a time, but today they also have become desolate, with only ninety-eight thousand members in the entire United States. This is hard for me to believe. Likewise, the inner-life group that T. Austin-Sparks was with no longer has much influence.
Therefore, I arrived at the conclusion that the way practiced in the Bible is the only proper way, the unique way. The Bible tells us to “go” — to go and visit people, to go and disciple all the nations. The word go is found in John 15:16. The Lord said, “I chose you, and I set you that you should go forth and bear fruit.” If we do not go, we cannot bear fruit. This going is what we call door-knocking, which is to go and knock on doors to visit people. Door-knocking is for visiting people.
However, this going involves very many details. Most importantly, we go for the accomplishing of God’s selection and predestination. Before the foundation of the world, God chose and predestinated a number of people among mankind. Who is able to go and seek out these people? The Lord Jesus was the first to answer God’s calling. He came to the world to seek the lost. He sought out those whom God chose and predestinated. Next, He sent forth the twelve disciples two by two and charged them, saying, “I send you forth as sheep in the midst of wolves” (Matt. 10:16). The wonderful thing is that there are sons of peace among the wolves (Luke 10:6). In the Lord’s eyes today’s society is like a pack of wolves. When we go, however, we need only be concerned with going house by house, because there will be the sons of peace. Regardless of which house we go into, if someone believes, he is one chosen and predestinated by God before the foundation of the world; he is a son of peace. Even though he is among the wolves, he is a son of peace. Today there are millions of wolves in the world, but at least some among them are the sons of peace. We must go to them and bring them back.
When we go door-knocking, we should make sure that we are not discouraged by people’s not opening their doors or by their rejection after they open their doors. Someone gave this kind of testimony: A certain brother went door-knocking, but no one received him. However, he was not discouraged; he told his companions to go back, and he continued to knock on doors by himself. He said, “I will not quit today until I get one person to be baptized.” In the end he baptized someone in a home. There was indeed a son of peace among the wolves. We should believe that in the world there are sons of peace, ones chosen by God. We owe it to them to go visit them and lead them to salvation. Therefore, we need to “go,” going door-knocking and visiting people to seek out the sons of peace.
We have knocked on one hundred thousand doors in four months. We have found out that the faster the door-knocking is, the better. Once someone opens the door, we should know whether or not he is a son of peace. If not, we should politely say goodbye and quickly go to the next door. If we run into a quarreling couple, we should understand that they will not be receptive for the time; we should leave quickly and come back after two weeks. After we knock on the door and go in, we should give people only a taste and not linger for more than twenty minutes. We should lead them to believe within three to five minutes, lead them to prayer within ten minutes, and help them to be baptized within fifteen minutes. In this way we can leave within twenty minutes. There is no need for more conversation. Although some people welcome us, once they start talking, they go on without end. The conversation goes from Confucius and Mencius to the current world situation, and two hours go by, but in the end they have not reached a conclusion. This is a waste of time. Door-knocking is not very simple.
Door-knocking is effective because, first, it is according to God’s will. Second, it is because we are carrying it out in a way that is altogether new from the inside out. From the time we began to meet in Chefoo, we often studied this matter without discovering its secret. After seeking for many years, we have truly seen through the way of Christianity, realizing that we should never take the way of one person speaking and everyone else listening. In the past, however, we have mostly adopted the way of Christianity. Although we tried to keep the good and get rid of the bad, we did not change altogether from the inside out. This time we are truly changing altogether from the inside out. By changing the system, we have discarded the poor tradition of one person speaking and everyone else listening, and we are no longer waiting in the meeting halls and inviting people to come; rather, we are going door-knocking house by house.
In Matthew 28 the Lord Jesus said, “Go therefore and disciple all the nations” (v. 19). In Acts 1 He said, “You shall be My witnesses both in Jerusalem and in all Judea and Samaria and unto the uttermost part of the earth” (v. 8). Therefore, we need to knock on every door in the whole world, seeking out the sons of peace one by one from among the wolves. Thus, we will be able to hand over our account when we see the Lord.
The training in door-knocking and gospel preaching in Taipei is very strict, with definite principles guiding our timing and the content of our speaking. For example, we can leave if the door is not opened within half a minute after knocking. Also, we all should use the gospel booklet The Mystery of Human Life. This booklet always hits the mark in preaching the gospel. As for baptism, our practice in the past was to wait after someone was saved until the following week to have a baptism interview with him and only then baptize him. We can compare baptism to the way sisters stir-fry vegetables. The timing and the control of temperature are very crucial; once you miss the right temperature, the vegetables will not turn out well even if you try to fry them again. The baptisms in the past were too formal. To wait for a week to baptize someone, after he believes in the Lord and after he has a baptism interview, is too formal. Baptism is the first step of man’s salvation that he needs to take after he believes, because “he who believes and is baptized shall be saved” (Mark 16:16). Moreover, when we baptize people, we baptize them into the Triune God. This is the first thing the Lord wants us to do.
The second thing is to establish home meetings, which is for bearing remaining fruit. In the past, whether in Taiwan or in the United States, the fruit we bore rarely remained. Sometimes we baptized more than ten people, yet we could not keep even one of them. This is like a mother, who after giving birth to seven children, cannot keep even one of them alive. Why is this? It is because they are not cared for. After we baptize people, if we do not look after them and feed them, it is the same as begetting children but not caring for them. This is why the newly saved ones never remained.
In practicing the new way, the Lord has shown us that right after baptizing people we should invite them to establish a home meeting. To establish a home meeting is to establish a protection, not only to protect the new ones but also to protect ourselves. Then we should go back and visit them in two days. There is no mother who does not love her child when she sees him. We all love whom we beget, and we are willing to go and see them repeatedly; the more we see them, the more we want to see them. Therefore, this is a mutual safeguard between us and the new ones. We meet with them in their homes in a very normal way; this is the meeting of the church. How sweet it is when we lead the new ones to break bread and pray together!
In this way none of the brothers and sisters will be idle. We truly desire to open a way that all may go out door-knocking. After knocking on doors, we bring people to believe and be baptized, and then we establish meetings in the homes of all the new ones. After we have baptized a person in this way, this person becomes a child begotten by us, so we must go and visit him. When we go visit him, even if there is nothing to say, even if we go only to see him, he is still cherished. When a mother has given birth to a child, although the child is not able to speak yet, the mother still plays with him and speaks to him, and in so doing she cherishes the child. Our care for the new ones should be the same.
It is not easy when we first go out door-knocking, but one day, when a person is baptized, this new one will stir us up. After two days we will go and visit him again, and he will become our responsibility. If this continues, one after another, every one of us will have something to do.
A few days after their baptism, some may want to go door-knocking with us and learn how to preach the gospel. We should then take them through the entire course, going out together to baptize people and to meet, teach the truth, and supply life in the new one’s homes. After a few months they will be able to do so accordingly. In this way all the saints are put into action, each fulfilling his duty, and the clergy system naturally ceases to exist.
However, in order for there to be fellowship among the saints, we can have a gathering of the entire assembly every two months. Perhaps on the first Lord’s Day of every month the whole church can gather together for the breaking of bread, for some messages, and for some fellowship so that the saints may know one another and all may be encouraged.
This way of door-knocking and visiting people to preach the gospel and establish meetings in their homes is absolutely the right way. May all of us practice it. From now on there will not be only the speaking of the elders and co-workers in the churches, which annuls the functions of the saints. That is the old way; that is not meeting in the new way. We all should go out door-knocking to establish meetings one by one in this way. If someone is saved through door-knocking, we should establish a meeting in his home. If another one is saved through door-knocking, we should also establish a meeting in his home. If these two homes are close to each other, after two or three weeks they can have a joint meeting so that they can get to know one another.
In the past our meetings were full of old stories, and after meeting for a few decades we still talked about the same old things. Eventually, we lost our taste and excitement for the meetings; all we saw were the same old faces. The meeting in the practice of the new way does not have idle talk and does not pass the time in boredom. Rather, the meetings are with mutual questioning and answering, all learning the truth together. This is the way we should take today.
(A message given in the Lord’s table meeting on January 18, 1987, in Anaheim.)
