Scripture Reading: Matt. 13:19; Acts 20:30; Eph. 4:14
Prayer: Lord, we thank You for Your mercy and for the blessing under Your mercy. Lord, we thank You for Your abundant grace, which is so sufficient for us. We thank You for Your dear presence, which meets all our needs. We also thank You for Your constant patience. Lord, we thank You for Your anointing, the holy ointment, the ultimate consummation of the Triune God, which is always anointing us. We thank You for Your Word, which is a rich and uplifted provision to us. We thank You for Your riches that You have given us in the past years and for all Your divine, holy, and spiritual provisions that we have experienced. Lord, we thank You that in Your sovereignty we are here and are gathered here into Your dear and precious name. Lord, we thank You for Your constant word, Your instant word, and Your repeated word. We thank You that You have not left us in darkness and that we are now in the light. Thank You for the light that follows us and shines within us, above us, and through us. Lord, we thank You for all these provisions, and we trust in You Yourself.
Lord, forgive us and cleanse us again. We thank You for Your precious blood, which cleanses us all the time. Lord, cleanse our conscience and our sensation. Cleanse us in every way that we may have a thorough fellowship with You and with one another. We do not agree that Your time would be wasted, so we pray that every minute will be under a proper and thorough fellowship with You. Give us the openness, the liberty, the freedom, and Your leading. Lord, we need You. You are our satisfaction. Lord, we cannot do or say anything apart from You in the way of doing something for You. We are simply here, open before You, waiting on You. We believe that in the short time we have together, You can do many things among us. Lord, we put this time into Your hands. Lord, break it, bless it, and make it an endless blessing.
Lord, defeat the enemy. We can never forget the devil, Satan, the slanderer, the accuser. Lord, we accuse him before You. As we touch Your throne, we look unto You; nothing could turn us away from You. But Lord, You have to look at the evil one. He is Your enemy, and he is also our enemy. We hate him. We believe that all the negative things have come out of him. Lord, put him to shame. His place is not in the church but in the lake of fire. He has been defeated, and the lake of fire is his place. We just condemn him by declaring and claiming the victory that You have won on the cross. Hallelujah for the cross of Calvary! Lord, You have encountered him on the cross, and You have shamed him all these years. Shame him again today. Lord, the victory is Yours, and we enjoy the blessing. Thank You, Lord Jesus. We worship You as we worship the Father. We worship the Divine Trinity in the name of Jesus Christ. Amen.
Now I would like to point out to you the turmoils among the children of God in both the Old Testament and the New Testament.
Immediately after the children of Israel were formed into a nation through the building up of the tabernacle and the raising up of the priesthood with its service for their worship of God, that is, after their theocratic government was established, they began to journey in the wilderness (Num. 10:12-13). After only three days (v. 33) they had their first occasion of turmoil, in Taberah, where the children of Israel were murmuring evil (11:1-3). After this murmuring, the mixed multitude lusted exceedingly for meat to eat (v. 4). Later, Miriam and Aaron, Moses’ elder sister and brother, rebelled by speaking against Moses because he had married a Cushite woman (12:1-15). Because of their rebellion, Miriam became leprous and had to be quarantined for seven days so that this leprosy would not spread. Not long after this turmoil, they journeyed to Paran (v. 16), and the problem of unbelief arose. At this juncture the children of Israel wept, cried, and complained concerning entering the good land. They considered that if they entered into the good land, they would become prey for the giants (13:32-33; 14:3). They even wanted to return to Egypt (v. 4). They had forgotten the tyranny and slavery that they had suffered in Egypt.
Numbers 15 is a very peaceful chapter, having no record of any turmoil. But in chapter 16 Korah, Dathan, and Abiram rose up with two hundred fifty leaders of the assembly to oppose Moses (vv. 1-3). This was a great turmoil. The peace of chapter 15 did not last very long. Prior to this rebellion a certain amount of fermentation had taken place among the leaders. The punishment for this rebellion was threefold. First, God caused the earth to open up and swallow up the three leaders with their families (16:32). Thus, they were the first ones in history to go down alive—body, soul, and spirit—into Sheol (v. 33). Second, fire came forth from Jehovah and consumed all two hundred fifty leaders (v. 35). This kind of burning could have been accomplished only by God Himself. Third, a plague came in and killed fourteen thousand seven hundred in one day (vv. 46-49). Following this threefold punishment, God commanded each tribe to bring a rod, and He commanded Moses to lay them before the Testimony (17:1-5). The man whose rod budded would be the man whom God had chosen. The next day Aaron’s rod not only budded but also brought forth almonds (v. 8). This was a miracle of resurrection. Nevertheless, even this threefold punishment with the miracle of resurrection did not subdue the rebellious people (vv. 12-13).
The following chapters in Numbers contain turmoil after turmoil, problem after problem. It is no wonder that a man such as Moses, of whom the Lord testified that he was the meekest man on the earth (12:3), became angry, calling the children of Israel rebels (20:10). Although it is understandable why Moses became angry, his word and attitude toward the children of Israel, issuing from his anger, offended God. When the Lord spoke to Aaron and Moses, He said that the two of them had rebelled against His word (v. 24). Because of this failure, Moses and Aaron had no share in entering the good land. What a tragedy!
The last big turmoil and failure in the book of Numbers occurred when the children of Israel committed fornication and idolatry corporately (25:1-3) by the snare of Balaam’s teaching (31:16) with Balak’s plot. Because of this failure, twenty-four thousand died by a plague (25:9). After this failure God came in to renumber the children of Israel in Numbers 26. After forty years of purging, purifying, and filtering, 601,730 were numbered in the second numbering (v. 51). This number is only 1,820 less than that of the first numbering (1:46). The primary difference between the first numbering and the second numbering was that those numbered in the second numbering were altogether new. Although Moses helped to renumber the children of Israel, he was not renumbered. Of those who were numbered in the first numbering, only Joshua and Caleb were renumbered. By the time of Numbers 26, God had gained a new people, a people who had been purged by God’s judgments through His divine dealings. Thus, they were purified. This is the history of the Old Testament. Through all the turmoil in the wilderness, the children of Israel were fully purged, purified, and filtered.
In the New Testament the Lord Jesus selected twelve of His disciples and appointed them to be apostles (Luke 6:13). One among the disciples selected by the Lord Jesus was Judas, who also became a traitor (v. 16). During the apostle Paul’s lifetime, the church life passed through turmoils that were full of problems.
I have been in the church life since 1932, and I was with Brother Nee for eighteen years. During those eighteen years with Brother Nee, turmoil came in every five or six years. In 1949 I went to Taiwan. From 1949 until 1989 there have been three different times of turmoil, including the present one. The rate has decreased from once every five or six years to once every twelve years.
Turmoil is the destiny of the progressing church, the pilgrim church. While the church is journeying on the earth as a corporate pilgrim, it is destined to suffer turmoil. We need such turmoil for our purification. According to our point of view, turmoil is not very good, but according to our real situation, turmoil is needed. Therefore, we should not expect to remain free from turmoil in the church life all the time. In Acts 20, after Paul had a long talk with the elders of the church in Ephesus, he warned them of fierce wolves who would come in among them, not sparing the flock (v. 29). In verse 30 he said that men would rise up from among them to speak perverted things to draw away the disciples after themselves. In the past three years some have risen up among us to speak perverted things.
An article entitled “Being Realistic” was published in a periodical entitled The Word and the Testimony. The author of this article is John So, and the editors of the periodical are John Ingalls and Bill Mallon. This article insinuates that I am like the Japanese army when it invaded and occupied the Philippines in the Second World War. This implies that I invaded the church in Anaheim, taking it and possessing it in order to make it “the church of Witness Lee.” The article goes on to indicate that the meeting on Ball Road in Anaheim is no longer a local church, because it has lost its ground. According to this article, the ground of the church in Anaheim has become a person (Witness Lee) and his work and ministry, and it is now occupied by us, just as the site of the temple in Jerusalem is occupied today by the Muslims. Is this not a perverted word?
In another portion of this article, under the heading “The Nicolaitans,” I am categorized by innuendo as a Nicolaitan. In the way of innuendo, I am also likened to Balaam, who peddled the word of God in order to make money.
This article by John So also likens me to Jezebel, who called herself a prophetess and killed all the prophets of God, making herself the unique oracle of God. Is this not a perverted word that fulfills Acts 20:30?
The present turmoil among us can be considered a rebellion, a rebellion with a conspiracy. I have been quiet for more than two years. You have probably never heard me speak concerning this matter. On occasion I have expressed something related to this matter in the elders’ meetings but not in a very clear way. Since the ones who initiated this rebellion have made it so obvious, even through the printed page, I feel that after such a long period of silence I should let you know some of the facts. But in this chapter I will say only a little bit in principle.
Having thoroughly considered during the past two years the things that have happened in the rebellion, I came to the conclusion that this rebellion is the work of the devil, the evil one (Matt. 13:19), because nearly everything brought out by the rebellious ones was not logical or reasonable, and some of the ways by which they did things were inhuman.
A rebellion such as the one we are encountering now in the Lord’s recovery is not only instigated by the evil spiritual source but also is carried out through human instruments. In Paul’s charge to the elders from Ephesus in Acts 20:30, he warned them that from among themselves men would rise up to speak perverted things to draw away the disciples to be their followers. In the past nineteen centuries Paul’s warning has been fulfilled repeatedly. I would say that the present rebellion among us is another fulfillment of Paul’s warning. Many words that have come out of those who are participating in this rebellion should be considered as “perverted things.”
A number of the teachings put out by the four leading ones in this rebellion, especially in the past three years, are truly winds of teaching (Eph. 4:14), such as the Lord Jesus building up the church by Himself directly (implying not through others), absolute autonomy in the local churches, no delegated authority, no spiritual father, and democracy instead of theocracy. These winds of teaching have damaged some of the dear saints in the Lord’s recovery, who need the help through the light of the proper teachings of the New Testament, which are the teachings of the apostles (Acts 2:42).
This illogical and unreasonable rebellion is a test to the faithful ones. Any saint who knows the New Testament teachings logically and reasonably and who is faithful to the Lord according to His holy and unchanging Word would not care for the unbridled speakings in the present turmoil. So, the rebellion is truly a test to the faithful ones for their approvedness (1 Cor. 11:19).
A rebellion always brings about some sifting among God’s people. This sifting can be considered as a kind of purification exercised by the Lord’s sovereignty to purify His collective people. Furthermore, the occurring of a rebellion also renders some purification to the faithful ones in their intention, their motive, their purpose, their aims, and other matters. To some extent I have been purified. During the turmoil, when I heard that people slandered me and defamed me, as the Lord said in Matthew 5:11, “Blessed are you when they reproach and persecute you, and while speaking lies, say every evil thing against you because of Me,” I checked with the Lord to find out if I was wrong. By such checking, I was purified.
Now we need to see the proper way to take care of the problems in the Lord’s recovery.
To take care of the problems in the recovery, we must have a genuine and sincere concern for the Lord’s recovery, without any biased view concerning any matter. Furthermore, we should not have any element of self-interest, self-plotting, self-esteem, and self-consideration. We must be unbiased, fair, and pure, without any background that would affect us. We must abandon our self-esteem and self-consideration. We all have our own prestige, and we like to highly esteem ourselves. We also expect that others will esteem us highly. As long as we seek self-esteem in the church life, we become a problem. Perhaps we are always considering, “What about me, my position, my future, and my interest?” If we are considering ourselves all the time in this way, we are unable to take care of problems in the Lord’s recovery. In order to take care of the problems, we must be pure, tested, and checked by the Lord. When we have a pure, genuine, and sincere concern for the Lord’s recovery, we are qualified to take care of the problems. Otherwise, we become a problem.
The proper way to take care of the problems in the Lord’s recovery is through the proper and common fellowship of the Body. We should have a common fellowship, not the fellowship of a small nucleus or small circle. This kind of fellowship should be in love. If we are short of love, we are disqualified. The proper and common fellowship of the Body is without any private circle, without any party spirit, and without any hidden secrecies. Many of these negative items have been practiced by those in the center of the present turmoil. They came together in small, private circles to plan, plot, and conspire. They even proposed secret conferences to several brothers.
In Acts 15 a proper, open conference with the leading ones took place in Jerusalem to consider the matter of circumcision and the faith. It was a big problem among the churches at Paul’s time, but the brothers did nothing secretly, and they did not form parties. Paul and Barnabas went up to Jerusalem in order to have a proper fellowship with the elders and the other apostles (vv. 2-21).
To take care of the problems in the Lord’s recovery, we must avoid any attempt at conspiracy. We must do things face to face, keeping everything in the light. We should do things openly and avoid doing anything behind a person’s back. To do something behind a person’s back or in a small group by way of conspiracy is absolutely devilish and very evil.
As children of the light (Eph. 5:8), we should keep everything in the light, not doing anything in darkness or in secrecy. We are serving the Lord. Why is there the need to do anything in darkness? We should also condemn any seeking of sympathy. Some today are not only seeking sympathy but also hunting for sympathy. We should also abandon backbiting, evil speaking, and death spreading. Backbiting is cruel, evil speaking is slandering, which is the devil’s main work to destroy God’s people, and death spreading is to work with Satan, the source of death, to spread the germ of spiritual death to deaden God’s people. For keeping the oneness in the Lord’s recovery, we must abandon all these devilish evils.
If we are to take care of the problems in the Lord’s recovery, we must hold to the unique goal. Whatever we do should be for the edification of the saints, for the benefit of the churches, for the building up of the Body of Christ, for the keeping of the oneness of the Body, and for the spreading of the Lord’s recovery. These are the crucial points in what we call the central lane. For the saints’ edification, we have to sacrifice our seekings; for the churches’ benefit, we have to ignore our interest; for the Body of Christ’s building up, we have to give up any kind of personal preference; for the keeping of the oneness of the Body, we have to drop all kinds of personal insistings; and for the spreading of the Lord’s recovery, we have to forget about our territories. It is only in this way that we can cleave to the unique goal of the Lord’s recovery.
The way to take care of the problems in the Lord’s recovery should also be according to the Scriptures without twisting and without any interpretation out of context, without any mixing in of human ideas, without any element of tradition, but with an open and seeking spirit. If we hold such an open and seeking spirit, the problems can be taken care of properly. To avoid twisting the Scriptures, we must be very objective in our realization of any portion of the holy Word. To avoid having any interpretation of the Scriptures that is out of context, we must not be biased in our subjective knowledge or personal feelings. To avoid the mixing in of any human ideas, we must reject our natural thoughts, our natural learning, and our natural doings. And to avoid having any element of tradition, we need to be under the light of the pure revelation of the holy Word. All of these will keep us in an open and seeking spirit. Then we can discern and judge things concerning the Lord’s recovery according to the Scriptures.
The present trouble among us had its beginning in the past, but the fermentation or leavening process was not significantly manifested until 1985. This fermenting process has continued over the past few years and has become fully exposed this year (1989). In August of this year, the brothers who are taking the lead in the present trouble began to publish a paper called The Word and the Testimony in open opposition to the Lord’s recovery and ministry.
From 1984 to 1986 I called three urgent elders’ trainings. The first was in February 1984, the second in September 1985, and the last in February 1986 (see Elders’ Training, Books 1—8). My opening word in two of these three elders’ trainings was concerning the danger of division.
The present problem among us came out of something that was hidden in the past. One of these hidden things was the intention to do an extra work in the unique work of the Lord’s recovery. In the recovery there is a definite work that is for the building up of the local churches unto the building up of the universal Body of Christ. This is the work. But among us, there was a case of someone who wanted to do an extra work within the work. This person would not leave the recovery or give up the church life. Instead, he insisted on having a particular work of his own, by his own effort, within the recovery. This was a divisive factor.
Another hidden divisive factor is the tendency to keep separate territories. The Lord’s work and move for the accomplishment of God’s eternal economy is uniquely one. If we consider any region in which we are participating in the Lord’s unique work as our particular territory, this will be a cause or a factor of division. Even the tendency to keep a separate territory should be uprooted. We should work for the Lord within His measure (2 Cor. 10:13-16), but we should not consider what the Lord has measured to us as our particular territory. Our local work in our region should be for the Lord’s universal Body. In the New Testament we cannot see such a thing as jurisdiction in the Lord’s work.
In the past there was the hidden factor of working in a way of not having one’s work mingled with others’ work. The New Testament unveils to us that Peter’s work for the Lord, mainly in the Jewish land, and Paul’s, mainly in the Gentile world, were all for the one Body of Christ, without any distinction or separation. Rather, they were one in the carrying out of God’s New Testament economy. The effect of Peter’s work was realized in Corinth (1 Cor. 1:12), and Paul went to Jerusalem to fellowship with the apostles and elders there (Acts 15:2, 4; 21:17-20a). This kind of fellowship, like the blood circulation of our physical body, helps the Body of Christ in the circulation of the divine life. It mingles the different pieces of our work for the Lord’s recovery into one move. If our work is void of this kind of fellowship, this may develop into another factor of division.
There was also the hidden expectation of being a prominent figure in the Lord’s work. We cannot deny that this “gopher” of ambition was among us. If you are ambitious and have the capacity, your capacity may neutralize your ambition, and there may be no problem. The problem among us today is that a number of brothers have ambition but do not have the capacity. Ambition plus incapacity is a real problem.
If all the ambitious brothers had the capacity, their capacity could swallow up the ugliness of their ambition. But if they have ambition without the capacity for their ambition, their ambition with their incapacity causes them to become dropouts. If you desire to be a prominent figure and you have that capacity, you may become such a person. If all the churches are helped by you and all the churches listen to you, you may become a prominent figure. But if you do not have the capacity and you want to become prominent, this is when a problem comes in.
We can see the difference in capacity with Barnabas and Paul in Acts. Barnabas was used by the Lord to bring Saul, who became Paul, into the ministry (9:26-27; 11:22-26). Furthermore, in Acts 13 Barnabas’s name was mentioned first when the list of prophets and teachers in Antioch was recorded and when the Spirit set Barnabas and Saul apart for the work. Shortly after they went out, the matter of capacity arose. At the beginning of the journey, Barnabas was always mentioned first (vv. 2, 7); then Paul’s name began to be mentioned first (vv. 9, 13, 16, 46, 50). Paul’s name was mentioned first because his capacity to meet the need at that time was greater than Barnabas’s, and he eventually became the leading speaker (14:12). Paul began to take the lead on their journey because he had a greater capacity. Barnabas did not have the capacity that Paul had. Later, Paul wrote fourteen Epistles. Who could speak as much, as deeply, or as high as Paul spoke? Of all the writers of the New Testament, Paul was the only one to use the term the Body of Christ. The other writers did not use this term or the term economy, because they did not have as great a capacity as Paul.
When Paul and Barnabas returned from their trip to Antioch, a big problem arose concerning circumcision, and the church in Antioch sent them to Jerusalem to fellowship so that the problem could be solved (Acts 15:1-3). After the problem of circumcision was solved and they returned from Jerusalem to Antioch, they wanted to make another journey (v. 36). At this juncture Barnabas wanted to bring his cousin, John Mark (v. 37; Col. 4:10), on the journey. But Paul would not agree to bring Mark along, because Mark had left Barnabas and Paul in a negative way on their first ministry journey (Acts 13:13 and footnote). Barnabas’s desire that Mark go with them was simply according to his own feeling. As a result, Barnabas and Paul separated from each other (15:39). From that point on, even though Barnabas might have gone out to visit the churches, his ministry was finished as far as the holy record in Acts is concerned.
According to my understanding, the problem between Paul and Barnabas consisted mainly of two points. First, Barnabas might have had some hidden unhappiness within him, because he took the lead at the beginning and later Paul began to take the lead since Barnabas had a smaller capacity. This was not an easy matter to overcome. If Barnabas had been happy about this development, that would have been a great mercy to Barnabas. Second, according to the record in Acts 15, Barnabas did not keep a proper principle in wanting to take John Mark with him. Apparently, he did this only because of his own personal feeling concerning his cousin. This violated the spiritual principle. Barnabas should have submitted to Paul’s way of not taking John Mark in order to allow Mark to learn the lesson. Instead of submitting to Paul, Barnabas took his own way, and this resulted in a separation between him and Paul. Paul had a greater capacity than Barnabas, and because of this, he eventually was the one to take the lead in the ministry.
For more than twenty-five years in this country, I never told people that I was an apostle. But in these past few years, some brothers began to talk considerably about apostles and have said that there is not one, but many apostles among us. This is a shame! In a meeting of the church in Anaheim on August 28, 1988, one of the sixteen points concerning the standing of the church in Anaheim, a point presented by a certain brother, was that there are many apostles among us today, not just one. He said that he would give a list of these apostles to any of the saints who were interested. One brother asked for and received such a list from that brother. The list included seven names, with a question mark beside one of the names, and it did not include the name of the one who gave the list.
Shortly after I received news concerning this list, I went to Taipei, and I gave a message there concerning the three different kinds of apostles (see A Timely Trumpeting and the Present Need, ch. 2). The seven brothers on that list were all under my ministry. According to the truth concerning the kinds of apostles, this would make them apostles like Timothy, Titus, and Silas, who were produced by the Lord’s directly appointed apostles. After this message was published, another word came out saying that there are no apostles today. This is similar to what John Nelson Darby taught. Later, still another word came out saying that there are only twelve apostles—the eleven, who were selected by the Lord Jesus, and Paul. It was said that the selection of Matthias by lot in Acts 1 was wrong. But according to the Bible, when Peter stood up on the day of Pentecost (2:14), he stood up with the eleven, which included Matthias.
This kind of speaking is based on whatever would be a benefit to the speaker and does not have the standard of truth. This is a basic problem.
Another great divisive factor in the past has been the negligence regarding the keeping of the one accord in the Lord’s recovery. In the elders’ training in February 1986, my burden was to ask the elders to take care of the one accord in the Lord’s recovery. More than four hundred brothers signed a letter written to me, assuring me that they would endeavor to keep the one accord (see Elders’ Training, Book 8: The Life Pulse of the Lord’s Present Move, ch. 10). But in the past three years of rebellion, a few brothers condemned that letter and even said that a part of that letter is heretical. Two of them wrote to tell me that they would remove their signatures from that letter. This shows that either they were not clear about the real meaning of the one accord or they despised it.
The abovementioned factors of division hidden in the past are a strong proof that there was a negligence regarding the keeping of the one accord in the Lord’s recovery. The present turmoil among us is not a matter of right or wrong but an issue and a full manifestation of this negligence. This manifestation has progressed to the extent that some of the rebellious ones told people definitely that they will fight until they put me down. This shows strongly that they would not care for the one accord. This is surely a hidden factor of division.
The present turmoil among us did not develop in only one day. Ice in a river accumulates over a period of time before it becomes several feet thick. In the same way, in our situation there has been a certain amount of accumulation of unpleasant things over a number of years. At the beginning I had no realization concerning any opposition or criticism, because I was busy in Taipei. But when I came back in December 1987 and the brothers came to make certain demands according to their plan, I began to realize that something was terribly wrong. Their plan was actually their conspiracy.
In principle, turmoil and problems among the Lord’s people come from two sources—a human source and a satanic source. After observing and considering the situation among us over the past three years, I believe that this turmoil is initiated by Satan, the evil one, the enemy (Matt. 13:19, 28). It is something from the realm of darkness to destroy the ministry and to shut the door to the new way. Satan hates the ministry, and he also hates the new way. The ministry with the new way is the great blockade to the enemy in his evil device, so Satan and the evil spirits moved quite strongly to do something. As a result, some of the brothers were captured and used by the evil spirits to do things that are altogether illogical, unreasonable, and inhuman. They told people that I am old, that I am no longer able to judge things clearly. This is a lie. All such things show strongly that this turmoil is of the devil.
However, in spite of the turmoil, by the mercy and grace of the Lord, most of the churches around the globe are still going on positively. The reports of their present situation, given by their elders who were present in the elders’ meetings, are quite encouraging.
