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The history of Christianity, as an account of the course of Christianity on earth, tells us about its development on earth for the last two thousand years and its condition today before the whole world. We need to have the knowledge of such a history so that we may understand the condition of Christianity. We also need to receive revelation from the Word of God to see what the church is that God desires.
What is the church? What is the content of the church? Probably many Christians have difficulty answering these questions. Some say that the church is the enlargement of the principle of Christ. Then what is the principle of Christ? The principle of Christ is that God is added into man. Hence, the church is the sum total of God in all those who have God.
The church has one unique characteristic—simplicity. Such a characteristic cannot be found in any worldly society or organization. In the beginning the church was brought forth in a simple way without human hands. Today, related to time, the church has been on the earth for two thousand years; related to space, the church has spread over the whole globe. In the process, however, the church has also become deformed through human hands.
In the course of two thousand years, the church, which has spread across the Eastern and Western Hemispheres and has now come into our midst, is no longer in her original form. Just consider if an object were to pass through my hands and your hands and then through another two hundred hands, what would become of it? Would its shape not be altered? We must believe in Christ and in the Bible, but we must not believe in Christianity in its present form. Christ is unchangeable. Throughout the centuries many have tried to change Christ, yet Christ remains unchanged. Before World War I there was a strong wind in Europe attempting to alter Christ. This wind quickly blew over to America, and after World War I this wind also blew into China. Nevertheless, Christ could ultimately not be altered. Similarly, the Bible is also unchangeable. However, so-called Christianity has been altered so drastically that it is beyond recognition.
We must have absolute faith in Christ and in the Scripture. We must put a question mark, however, on every item and every aspect of Christianity. For example, when we see a chapel, we have to ask, “Did the original church have such a thing?” When we hear the clanging of church bells, we must ask, “Did the original church have such an item?” When we see the cross, we also have to ask, “Did the original church have such a thing?” When we see the clergy, all the more we must ask, “Was there such a thing in the early church?” Concerning everything related to the present condition of Christianity, we should earnestly question if these things indeed existed in the beginning. There are so many items in Christianity that are not according to the Bible. In the genuine church, however, everything should be according to the Bible.
I was saved when I was still in school. For a year before I was saved, I was a so-called church member. After I was saved, I began to diligently read the Bible. Gradually I found out that in the church where I was there were many practices that could not be found in the Bible. Therefore, I had many questions within me about those matters. Whenever I had the opportunity, I would go to see the pastor or some other leading ones in the church to discuss those matters. However, the more I talked with them, the more I felt that something was wrong. They did not have many of the things that are found in the Bible, yet they had so many other things that are not found in the Bible. They had altered almost everything except the fundamental truths, such as Jesus being our Savior and Jesus being the true God. This is why we must put a question mark on today’s Christianity.
The characteristic of the church in the beginning was her simplicity. The church today, having been altered, is no longer so simple. According to the principle of simplicity, when the early church was raised up, she did not have many of the things that we see in Christianity today, not even a physical place for worship, such as a cathedral—something so greatly valued today. The believers met at times in public squares, sometimes in the portico of Solomon, and at other times in their homes. Basically, there were no chapels or cathedrals. The concept of building physical places for worship did not exist until the degradation of the church under Roman Catholicism. The Roman Catholic Church brought the heathen customs and practices, including idolatry, into Christianity. Those who are knowledgeable about architecture all agree that the best buildings and structures in Europe are the cathedrals. It is reported that St. Peter’s Cathedral in the Vatican was built at a cost of 90,000,000 pounds sterling, which is equivalent to several times that in dollars. This shows how highly regarded the cathedrals are in degraded Christianity.
The temple in the Old Testament was a physical building, and the temples or shrines of the Gentile idols were also physical structures. The holy temple was considered the best building structure among the Jews. The former temple was torn down, and it took forty-six years for the latter one to be built. Likewise, in China the best architecture in every place is also seen in the temples or shrines. However, when the church was first raised up, the worship of God was “neither in this mountain nor in Jerusalem” but “in spirit” (John 4:21, 23). God cares only for our spirit. Thus, the Bible tells us that, individually, our body is the temple of the Holy Spirit. This means that God dwells in us (1 Cor. 6:19; Eph. 2:22). Corporately, the church is God’s house, God’s dwelling place. This means that God dwells in the church (1 Tim. 3:15). Therefore, the church is not a physical building for religious worship.
According to man’s religious concept, a house used for church meetings is different from any ordinary house. Once I met a group of believers in Tientsin who called their meeting place the “holy assembly hall.” I wondered if these people would not also call their homes “holy residences.” Surely, a meeting hall and a regular house are different, but the difference is only in what they are being used for and not in whether they are holy or common. When the Lord began His recovery in China, Christians were raised up to take the way of the recovery in many major cities. At that time there was a group of young believers who were studying medicine at Chi-lu University. After they had seen the light of the Lord, they loved Him fervently. Since they were students who lived in dormitories, they did not have a home or a place to meet. Thus, they held their first Lord’s table in a cemetery. They placed the bread and the cup on a table used for offering sacrifices, and in this way they worshipped and remembered the Lord. All those who attended that meeting testified that they had never touched the reality of heaven or sensed the loveliness of the Lord as much as during that particular time.
The church is really simple. She is so simple that it seems she has nothing with respect to rules or regulations. Today, however, it seems that we cannot break the bread or worship the Lord unless we have a piano and a table. Please remember that this is a degraded and deformed situation. Someone may say that in the Catholic Church the cathedrals are imposing, the sacred songs are solemn, and the bishops are awe-inspiring. It has never occurred to him that these are items in a deformed situation. In contrast, there was nothing attractive outside or inside of the meeting hall of the church in Shanghai, yet every time there was a meeting, the hall was full. One time, two overseas Chinese attended a meeting there and were greatly astonished. One of them said, “I saw many places of worship in America, but they were never filled. I never imagined that when I came back to my homeland, I could see people packed into such an unattractive place.” It was marvelous to him but not to us because the early church was the same way—considering the physical things as nonessential.
As children of God, we must realize that all physical things will eventually be destroyed. We should build only the things that are spiritual. Degraded Christianity always likes to show people a grand piano, a beautiful pulpit, and an exquisite façade. We should not be like this. The church does not necessarily receive more of God’s blessings by having a splendid building. Rather, when the church has the presence of God with His life, power, and strength, this is really God’s blessing. Sometimes the believers have a desire to meet outdoors, but some are concerned about not having a podium or a piano. Actually, in the beginning the church did not have these things. Physical things are not essential because what we are building is not something physical but something spiritual for people to be strengthened from within. This is God’s intention.
Furthermore, in the early church there was no hierarchy. Yet today in many Christian organizations there is a class called the clergy. Is this according to the Bible? You can serve God, and I also can serve God. We all can serve God. Is there any difference between your service and my service to God? We may have different functions and points of emphasis, but essentially your service and mine should not be different. If we all intend to attain God’s original goal, every one of us should serve God (1 Pet. 2:9).
In the early church every believer was a serving one. Before they were saved, they lived for mammon, but from the day they were saved, they were separated from the world by the Lord. They still had their occupations, but their occupations were only for their livelihood. Their primary occupation was to serve God. We must be like the early believers if we intend to serve God. Our job should become our secondary occupation, merely for us to make a living. We no longer live on the earth to make a living for ourselves but to serve God. The early apostles and disciples all lived this way.
In A.D. 313 Constantine made Christianity the state religion and strongly promoted it. He encouraged the Romans to join the church and promised them rewards. Basically, those who joined the church for rewards were not regenerated or saved and therefore could not serve God. They came into Christianity, but Christ did not come into them. They had not been saved by God to come out of the world; rather, they were still in union with the world. When the number of such ones increased, some of them decided to bring the Judaic system and practice into Christianity. In Judaism not everyone could serve God; only the priests could. The professing Christians brought the Jewish priestly system into Christianity so that they could continue their worldly living without caring for the spiritual things. All spiritual matters were entrusted to the priests. In the Catholic Church the priests were called “fathers.” The so-called Catholic fathers are equivalent to the priests in Judaism, and the long robes that they wear are the same as the robes of the Old Testament priests.
During the time of the Reformation, the reforms carried out by Luther were very limited. In fact, the Protestant churches inherited many traditions from the Roman Catholic Church. The Catholic Church had priests; the Protestant churches had pastors. Many of the Protestant churches were called state churches. For example, the Anglican Church, or the Church of England, was established as a state church with its pastors and bishops receiving salaries from the government. Even today, when the king or queen of England is crowned, the archbishop has to lay hands on him or her.
When the Episcopalian Church spread to China, it was still a state church and still had its clergy, which was copied from the priestly system of the Roman Catholic Church. Later, in Protestantism there were the private churches. Some Christians saw the truth in the Bible concerning baptism—that a person should be baptized after believing in the Lord. Others saw that the church should be administered by the elders. Consequently, those who were in favor of baptism formed the Baptist Church, and those who approved of the administration of the church by the elders formed the Presbyterian Church. Later, John Wesley was raised up by the Lord, and subsequently, the Wesleyan Church was formed. All these so-called churches have a pastoral system. Up to the present, in the Roman Catholic Church the priests still handle the sacred duties and serve God on behalf of the common people. The Protestant state churches have their bishops, and the private churches have their pastors. Such a concept of a clergy-laity system seriously damages people and hinders them from serving God.
In the Lord’s recovery there are no pastors; instead, we are all brothers (Matt. 23:8-11). The believers address each other as brothers and sisters. If a brother among us is serving God, then we should all be serving God. Sometimes in the matter of visitation a brother would say, “It is best for So-and-so to visit that person because then that person will definitely be saved.” On the one hand, the brother who says this shows that he cares for the souls of people, and we should be joyful about this. On the other hand, why does he not go to visit and preach the gospel to that one? When he goes, he may not be able to preach the word clearly, but he should go again and again. And after many visits he could even ask someone to go with him. In short, there is no class among us. We all can and should participate in every aspect of the service of God. A person who is saved has God’s life in him and can fellowship with God. Therefore, he should serve God. All of us, not just a few, should participate in the service of God.
What is degraded Christianity? In degraded Christianity everyone cares only for his own affairs while turning over the service of God to a few pastors or clergymen. Just as people ask lawyers to handle their lawsuits and ask doctors to cure their sicknesses, so Christians ask pastors to serve God on their behalf. This is absolutely wrong. In the initial church there was not such a practice. Neither Peter nor Paul practiced this. Peter would have said, “I am your brother,” and so would Paul. What is the degradation of the church? If there are eighteen hundred saints in the church but only two to three hundred are serving God, that is the degradation of the church. Then, what is the normal condition of the church? The normal condition of the church is that if there are eighteen hundred saints, all of them are serving God. They all participate in the services of preaching the gospel, praying, and praising. They are all brothers serving together before God.
Some of the saints have asked me to preside over their wedding meeting, which was to be held in the meeting hall. I told them that the initial church did not have such a practice and that perhaps they could have their wedding meeting in the house of a brother or sister who has a large living room. Although I have been serving God for such a long time and have come to know thousands of believers, I have never yet officiated at anyone’s wedding. This kind of intermediary service is a degraded situation and should be removed from our midst. This is why during our meetings, many times I like to sit at the back. Sometimes, at the Lord’s table, even though some of the prayers are very weak, I would not utter a word. I simply keep a position—that we do not have a pastor or someone presiding over the meeting among us. When I am on the podium and God gives me a word to release, I dare not shrink back, because that is my ministry. However, the Lord’s table is for all the saints to worship God, so everyone must function.
When someone is sick in our family, especially if he is very ill, we usually ask the saints who are considered to be more spiritual to pray for the sick one. This type of action generally has two implications. First, it implies that we believe that we ourselves are incapable of praying this kind of prayer for healing. Second, it implies that due to our superstition we think that this kind of prayer will be more effective if it is offered by those who are more spiritual. We must all be clear that in the church there is no one who rules, and there is no one who specializes in prayer. Every one of us can pray and should pray. The degradation of Christianity resulted in the so-called clergy. The Catholic Church has become so great that she has a pope who has become the king of kings so that his commands cannot be altered. Although the pope cannot rule the whole earth, he does rule over the Catholic Church throughout the whole world. The Lord Jesus said that we must not be like the Gentiles who have rulers and also that whoever wants to be great among us should do the most menial things (20:25-27). In the cleaning service in some of the meeting halls, when the responsible brothers clean the bathrooms, it is an encouragement to the saints because it shows that we are all brothers before God, and thus, that there should be no hierarchy among us. If we bring hierarchy into the church, the church will become a society. We can hire servants in our homes; in the church, however, there are no hired servants. We have bosses over us in a society, but not in the church. The normal church, which is very simple, has only brothers and sisters; there is nobody else.
Often people ask, “How do I join the church? What is the procedure for joining the church?” When a person prays and receives the Lord, that is the procedure, and he is therefore already in the church. Please remember, whenever the church talks about procedures or regulations, then that church has already become degraded. The church is very simple, having only one God, one Lord, one Holy Spirit, and one Bible. This is the simplicity of the church—having no cathedrals, having no intermediary class, and giving no undue attention to wealth. Some people may ask, “Since the Lord has blessed you so much, why do you not build a grand cathedral with a steeple higher than all other cathedrals?” Peter said that he did not possess silver and gold (Acts 3:6). Paul said that he was naked and without a home (1 Cor. 4:11). The church does not have great wealth, and when the church has a little excess, it is distributed to the poor and the needy.
I already had a small family when I gave up my job to serve the Lord, and I can also testify that what the Lord gave me in one year far exceeded what I had before. Nevertheless, nothing we receive should be kept for our own enjoyment. We have many brothers and sisters who still do not have a place to live; they are still lacking in many things. Some of them ought to be resting in bed, yet for their livelihood they have to continue working. Moreover, there is a great deal of gospel work that requires expenses. Thus, we should not be rich before the Lord but live a simple church life, a life that is “as poor yet enriching many” (2 Cor. 6:10), just as Paul did.
