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Scripture Reading: Rev. 2:7, 11, 17, 26; 3:5, 12, 21
In the two previous chapters we saw the divine economy and the satanic chaos in the Old and New Testaments. In this chapter we want to see a particular group of persons—the overcomers. The Bible is a book concerning God with man. In between God and man there is a third party, Satan. Satan always makes trouble, and all the trouble is the chaos. The Lord needs a group of people, the overcomers, who will be one with Him to conquer all the destructive chaos and triumph in His unique constructive economy.
In the first ten and a half chapters of Genesis, God was dealing with man as the Adamic race. But after these chapters of the Bible, God shifted to another group of people. This second group of people is composed of the descendants of one father, Abraham. God shifted from the Adamic race to the Abrahamic race. God’s dealing with the Abrahamic race occupies nearly the entire Old Testament, from partway through Genesis 11 to the end of Malachi. The Old Testament covers the race of Adam and the physical descendants of Abraham. Both were a failure to God, but God could never be disappointed. He is the almighty One and the faithful One. He has the capacity to fulfill His faithfulness to keep His economy.
In the New Testament economy, God had a serious, vital shift to another group of people. He shifted from Abraham’s descendants according to the flesh to Abraham’s descendants according to the Spirit. The book of Genesis tells us that Abraham had two kinds of descendants, who were likened to the dust of the earth (13:16) and the stars of heaven (15:5). His earthly descendants are as the dust of the earth, and we, the New Testament believers as His heavenly descendants, are as the stars of heaven. The Jews by their natural birth all belong to the physical descendants of Abraham. Then all the believers in Christ, regardless of their race, are the spiritual descendants of Abraham (Gal. 3:7, 29). Regretfully, however, most of the spiritual descendants of Abraham also fail God. Then to whom can God go in order to carry out His purpose?
At the beginning of the last book of the Bible, the Lord Jesus as the High Priest walking among the golden lampstands gives a call to another group of people, the overcomers. In Revelation 2 and 3 He says “to him who overcomes” seven times (2:7, 11, 17, 26; 3:5, 12, 21). This is a sevenfold call to us, His believers, the spiritual descendants of our great father, Abraham. Christ calls out seven times for the overcomers.
The overcomers are the fourth race. The first race was Adamic, the second race was Abrahamic according to the flesh, and the third race was still Abrahamic, but according to the Spirit. However, even the spiritual Abrahamic race becomes a failure. Humanly speaking, it is quite disappointing, but divinely speaking, our God can never be shaken or disappointed. He is God! Regardless of what happens, He is still standing. Not only is He standing, but also He is the One who “sat enthroned at the Flood, / And Jehovah sits as King forever” (Psa. 29:10). Because He is such a One, He produces another race, the top race, the super race, the race above all the races. This last race is the overcoming race.
From the time of Adam to the time of Abraham was exactly two thousand years. After the first two thousand years of human history, God shifted from the race of Adam to the race of Abraham. From the time of Abraham to the time of Christ was another two thousand years. Now we are here in the New Testament. The New Testament age is approaching two thousand years of history. Thus, there have been two thousand years for the Adamic race, two thousand years for the Abrahamic race according to the flesh, and almost two thousand years for the Abrahamic race according to the Spirit. What the Lord needs is the race of overcomers to conquer all the satanic chaos and triumph in the divine economy.
The book of Revelation is a book on the overcomers. The overcoming race in this book begins from Revelation 4 and continues through Revelation 22. The overcoming race brings in the success to God for His economy. We need to consider where we are today. Are we in Genesis 1—10 in the Adamic race, in the remainder of the Old Testament in the Abrahamic race according to the flesh, or in the New Testament, from Matthew to Revelation 3, in the Abrahamic race according to the Spirit? We may say that we are in the New Testament, but this in itself is not adequate. We must be in the last nineteen chapters of the Bible, from Revelation 4 through 22, from the throne to the New Jerusalem.
We need to be those who belong to the overcoming race. If someone were to ask us what kind of people we are, we should be able to say, “I belong to a race of which you do not know. I belong to the race of the overcomers.” According to God’s economy, there are only four races on this earth—the race of Adam, the race of Abraham according to the flesh, the race of Abraham according to the Spirit, and the race of the overcomers. We should declare by faith that we belong to the race of the overcomers.
Now I would like to present an overview of the twenty-two chapters of the book of Revelation.
The first chapter reveals seven golden, shining, pure lampstands. Christ our Savior as the High Priest in His long priestly robe is walking among the lampstands to trim them in order to make them shine brighter (vv. 9-20).
Chapters 2 and 3 portray the practical condition of the seven churches on the earth. The lampstands were bright, shining, of pure gold, and in the heavens, but on the earth their practical situation as the local churches was full of degradation.
The first church, Ephesus, left her first love for the Lord (2:4). The enjoyment of the Lord as the tree of life seemingly stopped, and the lampstand was close to being removed (vv. 5, 7).
The second church, Smyrna, was very good, but the persecution the saints suffered under the earthly empire was severe. Many of them were martyred. The Lord told them that they would have tribulation for “ten days” under the Roman Empire’s persecution (v. 10). The number ten signifies fullness. Ten days indicates prophetically the ten periods of persecution that the church suffered under the Roman emperors, beginning with Caesar Nero in the second half of the first century and ending with Constantine the Great in the first part of the fourth century. The Lord had no rebuke for the suffering church. He encouraged them to be faithful unto death so that He could give them the crown of life. With the second church, there was not chaos from within but from without. The earthly government persecuted the second church to the uttermost.
The third church, Pergamos, became a worldly church, a church married to a husband whose name is the world. This was fulfilled at Constantine’s time. Satan failed to destroy the church through the persecution of the Roman Empire in the first three centuries, so he changed his strategy. He sought instead to corrupt the church through Constantine’s welcoming of Christianity as the state religion in the first part of the fourth century. Through Constantine’s encouragement and political influence the church was married to the Roman Empire, that is, to the world. Since the church entered into union with the world, she dwelt where Satan’s throne is (v. 13). Satan as the ruler of this world (John 12:31) has his throne in the world, and the church became one with the world. With the worldly church, different teachings came in, such as the teaching of Balaam and the teaching of the Nicolaitans (Rev. 2:14-15). The worldly church lost the enjoyment of Christ in a hidden way as the hidden manna (v. 17). Thus, this church was filled with the satanic chaos and was under the rebuking of Christ.
The church eventually degraded further from being worldly to being Roman, as shown by the church in Thyatira (v. 18). The Roman Catholic Church with the teaching of Jezebel (v. 20) was fully formed as the apostate church by the establishment of the universal papal system in the latter part of the sixth century. The Roman Catholic Church is typified by the woman Jezebel, a self-appointed prophetess who presumed to be authorized by God to speak for God. The Bible, however, forbids any woman to teach with authority. The entire Roman Catholic Church as a female claims that it has the authority to teach. Those in Roman Catholicism follow what the pope says, what the church says, not what the Bible says, what the Lord says. The pope representing the church, not the holy Word and not God Himself, is the highest authority. Not only is the corruption of the devil present in the Catholic Church, but also the deep things of Satan, the satanic deep mysteries, are being taught (v. 24). What chaos there is in this church in apostasy!
The fifth church is the church in Sardis. The Lord told those in the church in Sardis that they had a name that they were living, yet they were dead (3:1). Everything related to this church was either dead or dying, and their works were not completed before God (v. 2). This describes the church in the Reformation. The reformed Protestant churches were very good as a reaction to the degradation of Catholicism, but eventually in the eyes of God, they were dead. Death implies weakness to the uttermost. The Protestant denominations are either dying or dead. According to Revelation 2 and 3, the Catholic Church is devilish, satanic, and heretical, and the Protestant churches are dying and dead. It is a statistical fact that many of the main line denominations are having very little increase and are even losing their members.
The sixth church is the church in Philadelphia (v. 7). Those in Philadelphia kept the word of the Lord, which is the word of His endurance (vv. 8, 10). The word of the Lord’s endurance is the word of the Lord’s suffering. To keep the word of His endurance, we must bear His rejection and persecution. Those in Philadelphia knew the Bible, the Word of God, and they kept it with all endurance. Furthermore, they did not deny the name of Christ (v. 8). The reformed Protestant Church denied the Lord’s name by denominating herself, taking many other names, such as Lutheran, Wesleyan, Anglican, Presbyterian, Baptist, etc. The recovered church takes no name other than her Husband’s. Christ appreciated and highly appraised the church in Philadelphia. There was no chaos with this church.
However, yesterday’s Philadelphia has become today’s Laodicea. The main characteristic of Laodicea is lukewarmness (v. 16). Those in Laodicea may love the Lord, but not absolutely. The Lord told them that because they were lukewarm, He was about to spew them out of His mouth. They boasted that they were rich in knowing the truth, but they did not know their real situation. They did not realize that they were wretched and miserable and poor and blind and naked. The Lord also told them that He was standing outside the degraded church, knocking at her door (v. 20). Whoever would open the door, the Lord would go in to feast with him, and this one will eventually sit with the Lord on His throne in the kingdom age.
By looking at the seven churches in Revelation 2 and 3, we can see the chaos in the practical situation of today’s church. Thus, we see the heavenly vision of Christ in the midst of the golden lampstands in Revelation 1 and the earthly practicality of the local churches in chapters 2 and 3.
Revelation 4 shows us the scene around the throne in the heavens. Regardless of what is happening on the earth, this does not affect God. He is above the earth, in the heavens, and still on the throne. The scroll with the seven seals was in the hand of the One sitting on the throne (5:1). These seven seals are the seven secrets of the universe, which are the mystery of God’s economy. The Lamb, Christ, was worthy to take the scroll from the One on the throne and open its seals (vv. 7, 9).
Christ has opened the first four seals, which consist of four horses with their riders (6:1-8). The first horse signifies the gospel, the second horse signifies war, the third horse signifies famine, and the fourth horse signifies death. Since the time Christ ascended to the heavens and began to open the seven seals, the mystery of God’s economy, these four horses have been running on this earth. The preaching of the gospel, war, famine, and death have been running on this earth for close to two thousand years. Since Christ’s ascension, wars have increased. These wars have caused the shortage of food, and war with the shortage of food have issued in disease and death.
When Christ opened the fifth seal, John saw a group of martyrs under the altar, that is, underneath the earth (v. 9). These martyrs cried out, “How long, O Master, holy and true, will You not judge and avenge our blood on those who dwell on the earth?” (v. 10). The Lord told these martyrs to “rest yet a little while, until also the number of their fellow slaves and their brothers who were about to be killed, even as they were, is completed” (v. 11). The cry of the martyred saints must occur near the end of this age. The fellow slaves and brothers who are about to be killed will be the martyrdom during the great tribulation (20:4).
The sixth seal, which marks the beginning of supernatural calamities, is God’s answer to the cry of the martyred saints in the fifth seal and is a warning to those who dwell on the earth (6:12-17). The seventh seal includes many negative and positive things. The seventh seal, the entire contents of the seven trumpets (8:1-2), includes the supernatural calamities of the first four trumpets (vv. 7-12). The seventh seal also includes the three woes of the last three trumpets (8:13—9:21; 11:14-15a, 18, 19b).
In the seventh trumpet of the seventh seal there will be the war at Armageddon where Antichrist with all his armies will be defeated (16:13-16; 19:11-21). Antichrist and the false prophet will then be thrown alive into the lake of fire (v. 20). The seventh trumpet also includes the destruction of the great Babylon in Revelation 17 and 18. Religious Babylon is dealt with in chapter 17, and political Babylon is dealt with in chapter 18. Religious Babylon, the Roman Catholic Church, will be destroyed by Antichrist at the beginning of the great tribulation because of his opposition to any kind of religion (14:8; 17:16). The material Babylon, the city of Rome, will be fallen, destroyed by God (16:19), at the end of the great tribulation (18:2).
Revelation 19 tells us that after the destruction of religious and material Babylon, there will be the wedding day of the Lamb and the overcomers. The overcoming race eventually becomes a collective bride to Christ, the Lamb (Rev. 19:7-9). I hope that we all will be a part of this collective bride. Revelation 19 also tells us that the overcoming Christ will come down from the heavens to the earth with His armies (vv. 11-14). The overcoming race, the newly married bride, will be the overcoming armies of the Bridegroom. Both the Bridegroom and His bride will come to Armageddon to defeat Antichrist with his armies. This will be Christ’s treading of the great winepress where He destroys all the Gentile evil worldly forces (vv. 15-21).
After the destruction of Antichrist, Satan will be bound and imprisoned in the abyss by an angel for one thousand years (20:1-3). For one thousand years the earth will be rid of Satan, and Christ will have the earth as His kingdom (vv. 4-6). At the end of the millennium, some of the nations will revolt against Christ, but fire will come down out of heaven to devour these rebellious ones (vv. 8-9). After the thousand years the devil will be thrown into the lake of fire (v. 10).
Then the great white throne will be set up to judge the unbelieving dead and the demons (vv. 11-15). Along with death and Hades, they will be cast into the lake of fire. This will clear up the entire universe. The old heaven and the old earth will pass away through fire and be renewed to become the new heaven and new earth (2 Pet. 3:10-13), into which the New Jerusalem will come to be God’s eternal expression.
We do not want to be defeated Christians. We want to cooperate with our God to be the overcomers in this age so that He can accomplish His purpose. Our eternal God can never be defeated. He is never disappointed. Eventually, He will have the New Jerusalem in the millennial kingdom with the overcomers, and afterward, in the new heaven and new earth, He will have an enlarged New Jerusalem, which includes all the saved ones who will have been perfected in the millennial kingdom. We will then be God’s tabernacle for God to lodge in and enjoy us (Rev. 21:3), and God will be the temple for us to lodge in and enjoy Him (v. 22). This is the mutual enjoyment and mutual lodging between the redeeming Triune God and His redeemed tripartite people for eternity. This consummates the entire New Testament.
Now that we have received an overview of the book of Revelation, we need to consider where we are and who we are. Thank the Lord that today we are in the church life. The church life is the threshold of the kingdom. As long as we are living in the church life, we are ready to take one more step to cross the threshold into the kingdom, the New Jerusalem, which is called the Paradise of God (2:7). In the Paradise of God, we can enjoy the tree of life for one thousand years. After the thousand-year kingdom, we will be in the new heaven and the new earth as the New Jerusalem. The New Jerusalem in eternity includes the overcomers and all the dear saints whom God perfected during the thousand-year kingdom. I hope that all of us will be included in the race of overcomers, who will consummate God’s economy. We all need to be the triumphant ones in God’s unique constructive economy.
We have seen that the first sixty-five books of the Bible are on the Adamic race, the Abrahamic race physically, and the Abrahamic race spiritually. In all the ages these races suffered a defeat. God could not get through with them to finish His eternal economy. Thus, in the sixty-sixth book, the last book of the Bible, the Lord calls overcomers. It is the final race, the race of overcomers, who will accomplish and consummate God’s eternal economy.
Revelation shows us the overcomers in five groups. The first group is in Revelation 6:9-11 where we see the martyrs who are under the altar. They are underneath the earth in Paradise, crying out, at the fifth seal near the end of this age, for the Lord to avenge them. They are both the martyrs of the Old Testament, such as Abel, the first martyr (Gen. 4:2-8), Isaiah, Jeremiah, and others (Matt. 23:34-36), and the martyrs of the New Testament up to the time before the great tribulation.
The second group of overcomers is the man-child in Revelation 12:5. The man-child born of the universal woman is composed of the overcoming saints who have died and been resurrected before the three and a half years of the great tribulation (vv. 6, 14). These who constitute the man-child should include those martyrs who cried to the Lord at the fifth seal. They do not love their soul-life even unto death (v. 11). Unto death indicates martyrdom.
The third group of overcomers is the hundred and forty-four thousand living overcomers, the firstfruits, in Revelation 14:1-5. The living overcomers will be raptured to the heavenly Mount Zion before the great tribulation.
Those who are standing on the glassy sea in Revelation 15:2-4 are the fourth group of overcomers. These overcomers are the martyrs who will be killed in the time of the great tribulation under the persecution of Antichrist and will be resurrected and raptured before the close of the great tribulation.
These four groups of overcomers constitute the fifth group, which is the prepared bride in Revelation 19:7-9. The bride is a composition of all the overcomers, who, except those who will stand on the glassy sea, will be raptured to the third heaven before the three and a half years of the great tribulation. The man-child will be raptured to the throne of God in the third heaven (Rev. 12:5), and the hundred and forty-four thousand living overcomers will be raptured to stand on heavenly Mount Zion in the third heaven (14:1). Then the Lord Jesus will come down with them to the air near the end of the great tribulation. In the air the Lord will rapture the majority of the saints (14:14-16), and all the believers will stand before the judgment seat of Christ (2 Cor. 5:10). The mature believers will be the Lord’s bride for His wedding. The immature ones will enter into a place for discipline, which the Bible refers to as outer darkness (Matt. 25:30). Through this discipline they will be matured. While they are in outer darkness, the Lord will have the marriage feast with His overcoming believers.
The marriage dinner of the Lamb as the wedding feast will be a reward to the overcoming believers. After the marriage dinner, Christ will come as a fighting General with His bride as His army to fight against and defeat Antichrist and the kings under him with their armies at Armageddon (Rev. 19:11-21). Satan will then be bound and cast into the abyss for a thousand years (20:1-3). The defeat of Antichrist will end human government on earth, and Christ with His overcomers as co-kings will reign in His kingdom to rule over all the nations on earth for one thousand years (vv. 4-6). After these thousand years are completed, the old heaven and old earth will pass away and be renewed to become the new heaven and new earth. The New Jerusalem, composed of all of God’s chosen and redeemed people throughout all generations, will then come down out of heaven to the new earth (21:2).
The book of Revelation shows us that without the overcomers Christ has no way to come back. We know that Christ is our way (John 14:6a). But from deep within His heart, Christ would tell us that the overcomers are His way. Without Christ we do not have a way, but today without the overcomers Christ has no way. The overcomers are the very way for Christ to come back.
Christ’s coming is actually a long process. This coming was initiated with His first coming and will be consummated at His second coming. In between these two comings is the process of His coming. He is still on the way of His coming, and this way is the church, His Body, as represented by the overcomers. His second coming will be consummated through the overcomers. His Body in this age is partly overcoming and partly defeated. The defeated part is always under the satanic chaos. That part cannot be the process of Christ’s coming. The overcoming part is the process of His coming. Revelation is a book on the overcomers who consummate God’s economy. Without the overcomers, there is no way for God to accomplish His economy.
The title of this book is The Satanic Chaos in the Old Creation and the Divine Economy for the New Creation. The new creation came into being through the divine economy, and the divine economy will be consummated by the overcomers. The overcoming martyrs who are under the altar began with Abel, the first martyr. Eventually, it will take God, beginning from the time of Adam, at least six thousand years to gain His bride, who is the aggregate of all the overcomers. The bride is the New Jerusalem, the Paradise of God, in the thousand-year kingdom. In those thousand years God will discipline all those who have believed in the Lord Jesus but have been defeated and are not matured. Through this discipline for one thousand years, all of them will become mature, and they will be ready to become the constituents of the New Jerusalem in eternity.
In the thousand-year kingdom the New Jerusalem is in the heavens, but after all of God’s redeemed people become matured to be a part of the New Jerusalem, the New Jerusalem will come down out of heaven from God to the earth (Rev. 21:2). This indicates that our dwelling place for eternity will not be heaven but the New Jerusalem on the new earth. That will be the consummated and enlarged New Jerusalem as the wife of the Lamb for eternity. We all need to see that we need to be matured to become the New Jerusalem. If we are not matured in this age, God has a way to make us mature in the next age, but that way to be matured is the hard way.
It is correct to say that Revelation is a book on prophecy, but that is not the central purpose of this book. The central purpose of the book of Revelation is concerning the overcomers. God did not accomplish His economy with the race of Adam, with the race of Abraham according to the flesh, or with the race of Abraham according to the Spirit. But out of these three races, God gained some overcomers. Hebrews 11 lists a number of these overcomers from the Adamic race and from the Abrahamic race according to the flesh. From among the race of Adam and from the earthly descendants of Abraham, God did gain some overcomers such as Abel, Enoch, Noah, Abraham, Isaac, Jacob, Joseph, etc. I hope that we also will be counted among the overcomers.
The churches in the Lord’s recovery, however, should not be reckoned as churches of overcomers. We should not think that everyone who is in the churches in the recovery is an overcomer. But our being in the churches in the recovery will strengthen us and help us to be matured to be an overcomer. The recovery is the Lord’s way to help us to be the overcomers.
We have to run the race and finish the course so that we can be counted among the overcomers. Paul did not have the assurance that he had finished the course until right before his martyrdom. In 2 Timothy 4:6-8 Paul says, “I am already being poured out, and the time of my departure is at hand. I have fought the good fight; I have finished the course; I have kept the faith. Henceforth there is laid up for me the crown of righteousness.” At that time Paul anticipated his reward in the coming kingdom. In order to be the overcomers, we must conquer all the destructive chaos and triumph in the unique constructive economy.
The overcomers are those who suffer the chaos, but they are not disappointed or discouraged. Instead, they are strengthened and enabled to stand for and live out the divine economy. The satanic chaos is still going on around us in Christendom. Even within the Lord’s recovery, we have experienced this chaos. Beginning in 1987 some among us rebelled against the recovery. Because of this rebellion there are some divisions existing in the United States. All of us have to conquer this destructive chaos. If we are enabled by the Lord to conquer all the destructive chaos, we will triumphantly enter into the kingdom. We will be those who triumph in the unique constructive economy.
Romans 16:17 says that we need to mark those who make divisions and turn away from them. To turn away from those who make divisions is to conquer the destructive chaos. This preserves the oneness of the Body of Christ that we may have a normal church life. Those who make divisions like to contact the saints, and this contact causes the saints to be stumbled and leave the church life. If we open to these ones to listen to their divisive talk, we might be poisoned. This poison will cause us to doubt about the recovery and will weaken our morale for the recovery. We will be cold about attending the church meetings and about reading the Recovery Version with the Life-study messages. If we contact and open to these dissenting ones, we will be cooled down. At the very least, they will make us lukewarm. In the Life-study of 2 Timothy we pointed out that the subject of this book is the inoculation against the decline of the church. We need such an inoculation to preserve us against the germs of the satanic chaos of rebellion and division.
We have to conquer the satanic chaos by the processed and consummated Triune God as the all-sufficient grace (1 Cor. 15:10; 2 Cor. 12:9; 2 Tim. 4:22). In 1 Corinthians 15:10 Paul says that the grace of the Lord was with him; in Galatians 6:18 he says that the grace of the Lord Jesus Christ is with our spirit; and in 2 Timothy 4:22 he says that the Lord is with our spirit. The Lord as the all-sufficient grace is with our spirit, and we can conquer all the satanic chaos and carry out the unique divine economy by Him as our all-sufficient grace.
We can conquer all the satanic chaos and carry out the divine economy according to the truth, of which the church, the manifestation of God in the flesh, is the pillar and base (1 Tim. 3:15-16). The rebellious ones cannot shake the church in the Lord’s recovery, because the church is the pillar and base of the truth. The pillar supports the building, and the base holds the pillar. The church is the pillar supporting the truth, and it is the base holding the truth. Because the church is the pillar and base of the truth, we need to be those who teach the truth. Our teaching of the truth will enlighten the darkened people, inoculate against the poison, swallow up the death, and bring the distracted back to the proper track.
Revelation 2 and 3 reveal that we need to conquer all the satanic chaos and carry out the unique divine economy in certain conditions.
We need to be those who love the Lord with the first love (2:4). The first love may be compared to the love of newlyweds. After a couple has been married for a period of time, it is easy for the first love to fade away. What wife loves her husband now as much as she did on her wedding day? We must recover the wedding, bridal love toward our Husband, Christ.
We also need to enjoy eating Christ as the tree of life in the church as today’s Paradise so that we can be a shining lampstand (vv. 7, 5). The Lord does not say that He will give the overcomers to eat of the fruit of the tree of life. He tells the overcomers that He will give them to eat of the entire tree of life, which is Christ Himself. We should eat one tree, the universal tree, the unique tree, that is, the tree of life, which is Christ as the embodiment of the divine life.
We have to love the Lord with a bridal love, and we have to enjoy Him as the entire tree of life. This tree is growing in the Paradise of God. The Paradise of God (v. 7) is the New Jerusalem in the millennial kingdom. The New Jerusalem in the millennial kingdom will be a paradise to God. This paradise will be much more pleasant than the garden of Eden. Today the church life is the precursor of this coming paradise, the miniature of the New Jerusalem in the coming kingdom.
The Lord exhorted the church in Smyrna to be faithful unto death in suffering poverty and trial for the crown of life (vv. 9-10). A crown in New Testament usage always denotes a prize that is in addition to salvation.
We have to enjoy Christ as the hidden manna, a special portion of the nourishing supply, to overcome the worldliness of the degraded church with the idolatrous teaching of Balaam and the hierarchical teaching of the Nicolaitans (vv. 12-17a). The Lord gave manna to the children of Israel openly. Every morning around their camp the manna was there in an open way for them to eat (Exo. 16:14-18). But a small portion of this manna was preserved in a golden pot within the Ark in the tabernacle (v. 33; Heb. 9:4). That is the hidden manna. The open manna is Christ as the common portion to all of God’s people for them to enjoy in a public way. The hidden manna, signifying the hidden Christ, is a special portion reserved for His overcoming seekers, who overcome the degradation of the worldly church.
Only the overcoming seekers who enter into the Holy of Holies to experience Christ as the Ark, God’s testimony, enjoy a particular portion of the hidden Christ. We must have some deeper experience of Christ. Our experience of Christ should not merely be openly in the meetings but hiddenly in the Holy of Holies, even in Christ Himself as the Ark, the testimony of God. In Christ as the Ark, we can enjoy Him as the hidden manna, as a particular portion for our life supply, to overcome the worldliness of the degraded church.
Such a worldly church has the idolatrous teaching of Balaam and the hierarchical teaching of the Nicolaitans. Today in Christendom these two kinds of teachings are prevailing. Balaam was a Gentile prophet who taught people for wages. He was a prophet for hire, and his teaching enticed God’s people into fornication and idolatry (Num. 25:1-3; 31:16). The teaching of Balaam distracts believers from the person of Christ to idolatry and from the enjoyment of Christ to spiritual fornication.
The teaching of the Nicolaitans builds up a hierarchy among the believers. This teaching destroys the function of believers as members of the Body of Christ, thus annulling the Lord’s Body as His expression. In both Roman Catholicism and the Protestant denominations, there is a hierarchical organization. In the religious organization of the Roman Catholic Church there are the bishops, the archbishops, the cardinals, and eventually the pope. In the Protestant denominations there is the system of clergy and laity. The teaching of the Nicolaitans is that only the clergy are qualified and positioned to preach, to speak for the Lord. The others are so-called laymen. This is hierarchy.
In the Lord’s recovery we have to overcome the clergy-laity system. All of us have the position as members of the Body of Christ to speak for the Lord. If someone asks us who our pastor is, we should say that everyone among us is a “pastor.” All of us can speak for the Lord and teach the truth. Our speaking for the Lord in the meetings is the annulling of the hierarchy. We are the members of the organic Body of Christ, and every member has a particular function. The Lord desires to recover the functioning of all the members of the Body of Christ.
God’s work of building the church depends upon our transformation. As the overcomers, we need to be transformed to be a “white stone,” justified and approved by the Lord, for the building up of the house of God, with a “new name” according to the transformation in life (Rev. 2:17b). In our natural being we are not stones but clay. But we are being transformed from clay into precious stones for God’s building. The color white signifies justification and approval. When we are transformed into a white stone, this means that we are justified and approved by the Lord for His building.
Some houses are made of adobe, but not the church. The church is built up with precious stones. These precious stones are the believers who have experienced transformation upon transformation (Rom. 12:2; 2 Cor. 3:18). Every transformed believer, as a white stone, bears a new name. Such a new name is the interpretation of the experience of the one who has been transformed. Hence, only he himself knows the meaning of that name. We receive a new name by our new experience according to the transformation in life.
We need to be those who stand strongly against the Romish teaching of Jezebel, which is full of fornication, idolatry, and the deep things of Satan (Rev. 2:20, 24a). The Romish teaching of Jezebel is the teaching of the apostate Roman Catholic Church. This is clearly seen in the church in Thyatira in Revelation 2.
We have pointed out that with the church in Sardis in Revelation 3, everything is either dead or dying. In order to be the overcomers, we need to flee spiritual death. We need to be those who live in reality with nothing dying in imperfection. As the overcomers, we should walk in “white garments” without any defilement, so that our name will not be erased out of the book of life but confessed by the Lord before His Father and His Father’s angels in the next age—the kingdom age (vv. 1-2, 4-5). To walk in white garments is to have a living that is unspotted by death and that is justified and approved in life by the Lord.
The overcomers in Philadelphia keep the Lord’s word of endurance and do not deny the Lord’s name unto the last bit of their power so that they may be kept out of the hour of trial that is coming to try all those who dwell on the earth and so that they may receive the crown of reward to be pillars in the temple of God with the name of God, the name of the city of God, the New Jerusalem, and Christ’s new name written upon them (vv. 8b, 10-12). The hour of trial will be the time of the great tribulation. For all of these points concerning the overcomers it would be helpful to study Revelation 2 and 3 with all the footnotes in the Recovery Version. Then we will be able to understand much more.
We need to be hot, even burning, instead of being lukewarm, to buy gold refined by fire, white garments, and eyesalve, that we may not be spewed out of the Lord’s mouth but may be invited to dine with the Lord and to sit with Him on His throne (vv. 15-21). We need to be those who dine, who feast, with the Lord in this age so that we can sit on the throne with the Lord in the kingdom age. To sit with the Lord on His throne will be a prize to the overcomer so that he may participate in the Lord’s authority and be a co-king with Him to rule over the whole earth in the coming millennial kingdom.
Now I would like to say something concerning the Lord’s move in Russia. All of those who have some feeling to go there need to be sober in their consideration. To move from one country to another country in order to live there involves many things.
According to the Bible, especially in the New Testament, we Christians should be movable people. In Acts 1:8 the Lord said that the disciples would be His witnesses in Jerusalem and in Judea and Samaria and even unto the uttermost part of the earth. The disciples migrated to other places, not for making a living but for the gospel.
The Bible tells us that Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob lived in tents (Heb. 11:8-9). A tent is a movable lodging place with no foundation. Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob were always picking up their tents and moving to another place. They lived in a tent with an altar, that is, with the cross of Christ, to serve and worship God. This is why they were sojourners, pilgrims. This is the first principle of our Christian life. For a Christian who loves the Lord to get himself settled in a place permanently is not scriptural. We are pilgrims today on the earth, moving around all the time.
To have a proper view of the Lord’s present move in Russia, we also need to understand God’s economy concerning the human race. In Genesis 1 God made man in His image and according to His likeness so that man could express Him in His image and represent Him with His dominion (vv. 26-28). Genesis later tells us that when Noah came out of the flood, he built an altar to serve God, and that pleased God. Then Noah made a mistake by becoming drunk and naked. After that God used him to prophesy concerning his three sons—Shem, Ham, and Japheth (9:18-27).
According to history, these three sons eventually became three big races. Japheth became the Europeans, and according to Noah’s prophecy, Japheth would be enlarged by God. This means that the descendants of Japheth would be the strong ones to conquer and spread. Shem is the source of the races that are mostly from Asia, including the Jews. Palestine is a part of Asia. Ham became the father of the race that is mostly in Africa. Europe, Asia, and Africa come together geographically around the Mediterranean Sea. The Jewish land of Palestine is in the center of these three inhabited sections: Europe to the north, Africa to the south, and Asia to the east. About five hundred years ago, Columbus ventured to sail across the Atlantic, and he reached a new land, America. Thus, Japheth was further enlarged. The majority of the people in the United States are the descendants of the Europeans, who are the descendants of Japheth.
According to history, the strong people at first were with Assyria and with Babylon. Nimrod was the builder of these two great nations—Assyria with Nineveh as the capital and Babylon with the city of Babel as the capital (Gen. 10:8-11; Micah 5:6). Assyria came first to invade and defeat Israel. Then Babylon followed Assyria to conquer Israel, to destroy Jerusalem, to burn the temple, and to exile all the children of Israel. Later, the Medo-Persian Empire followed Babylon to defeat Israel. Medo-Persia was the largest empire in history. Esther 1:1 tells us that it had over one hundred twenty-seven provinces. Today in the Persian Gulf, we have these strong peoples. Iran is today’s Persia, and Iraq is today’s Babylon. They are fighting with each other and are still making trouble in the region of the world around the Mediterranean Sea.
The Bible in Daniel 7 tells us that four beasts come up out of the Mediterranean Sea, the Great Sea. The first beast signifies the Babylonian Empire, the second beast signifies the Medo-Persian Empire, the third beast signifies the Grecian-Macedonian Empire, and the fourth beast signifies the Roman Empire. The Roman Empire even reached Palestine, and the Lord Jesus was born under its rule.
If we read history carefully, we can see that God in carrying out His economy always went through the strong people. Christ was born as a captive of the Roman Empire. The Roman Empire was a strong nation. They built highways and opened up the traffic from Palestine to Rome and even to Spain. At that time people considered Spain the uttermost part of the earth. Greek was also made the common language throughout the Roman Empire. Even the Lord Jesus quoted from the Septuagint, the Greek version of the Old Testament.
On the one hand, Rome conquered and captured Palestine. But on the other hand, Rome prepared a good environment for the Lord Jesus to be born. Rome also afforded the means for the Lord Jesus to be crucified. Crucifixion was not a method of execution used by the Jews but by the Gentiles (Ezra 6:11). Eventually, this method was adopted by the Roman Empire to execute heinous criminals. Christ’s method of death, His being cut off, was a fulfillment of the Old Testament prophecy.
After Christ’s ascension the apostles rose up to spread the gospel. Their spreading of the gospel was facilitated by the Roman highways on land and by the Roman means of sailing on the seas. Thus, the preaching of the gospel in the initial stage was through the strong nation of Rome. On the one hand, the strong nation of Rome persecuted and even crucified Christ and also persecuted and martyred the apostles. But it was through this strong empire that the way was prepared for Christ to be born and crucified and for the gospel to be preached.
In the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries, God used Great Britain as the world power through the practice of imperialism to pave the way to keep the order of the whole world for the mission work. The Lord also used England spiritually at that time for the spreading of His gospel throughout the world. Imperialism is the policy and practice of maintaining an empire through the conquest and domination of weaker countries. Politically speaking, imperialism is evil and should be condemned, but God is sovereign. Imperialism was used by the divine hand to spread the gospel. Otherwise, many backward countries would not have been opened up. Through imperialism, the weak, backward countries were compelled to open up. This gave a way for the missionaries to go into these countries with the gospel. Christ’s birth, Christ’s death, the spreading of the gospel in the early days of the church, and the mission work to spread the gospel to every corner of the earth all were through the strong people.
The descendants of Japheth, according to Noah’s prophecy, have been the strong people. Most of the people of Europe, Russia, and the United States are Japheth’s descendants. The western European nations today have about three hundred fifty million people. They have been divided, but they realize that they need to be united. Today they are talking about having a common currency. To the east of Europe there is the Russian commonwealth, which also numbers about three hundred fifty million people. In the United States there are about two hundred million Caucasians. Thus, we can say there are about nine hundred million descendants of Japheth on the earth. One-third of them are the people in the Russian commonwealth. They are a very strong, cultured, educated, and thoughtful people. People’s character and disposition have much to do with the climate zone in which they live. People in the cold regions are generally strong and strict.
After about seventy years of communism, the large population of Russia has been released from communist rule. They have been prepared by the Lord. Their mind has been emptied of other things, and they are now really empty, open, and hungry for the gospel. They want to know the Bible, and they like to hear American English. Our saints speak to them in English with the help of Russian translators. The Russians warmly welcome people who can teach them about God and about the Bible.
Within five weeks of labor in Saint Petersburg, we baptized five thousand one hundred forty-two people. The three hundred fifty million people of Russia are so open that we could save and baptize a large percentage of them, but we need the baptizers. It was a miracle for us to baptize over five thousand people with only a little over thirty saints as baptizers. There are many practical things to do related to these baptisms.
I really appreciate the full-time workers in Russia. I was told that many times they did not have the time to eat or rest adequately because of the tremendous need. After baptizing all these new believers, they have to go to their homes to have the home meetings to nourish them. Since we have only about thirty workers to take care of about five thousand new ones, each working one should take care of about one hundred eighty new ones.
The people of Russia have been prepared by the Lord, and if we do not go to them now, we will miss the opportunity. Their minds have been emptied and they are now open, but after another five years their minds could become filled up again. The need in Russia is there, but the way to meet the need is not with Christianity.
Over one thousand years ago Russia was a wild country without a written language or a civilized culture. Then the Greek missionaries of the Greek Orthodox Church went to Russia. Today in the Russian alphabet, there are a number of Greek letters because some Greek missionaries made an alphabet for the people of Russia. The Russian Orthodox Church was established about ten centuries ago. This foundation of Russian orthodoxy was deeply laid. Even the communists, including Lenin and Stalin, could not shake this foundation. At the end of the seventeenth century Peter the Great rose up. Before his time Russia was basically an oriental culture in things such as their way of dress and in their eating. It was Peter the Great who revolutionized their civilization. He westernized Russia, and their way of clothing and eating was changed to the western style. They became western European, yet they were largely in the Asian territory.
History tells us that eventually the royal family of Russia, the clergy of the Russian Orthodox Church, and the landlords all became corrupted. During the First World War, the czar sent his troops to fight against Germany. This gave Lenin the opportunity to stir up the peasants to revolt against the existing czarist government. In 1917 they were able to carry out their communist revolution. Now that communist rule is over in Russia, the door is wide open for the spreading of the Lord’s recovery.
In principle we have to go to meet the Lord’s need in Russia, but we should not do it lightly. As the churches, we should consider what percentage of our people have to go. We cannot send everyone; otherwise, we will suffer too much loss. The leading ones have to consider who is more useful here at home and who is more useful for the migration to Russia. This is why we like to receive the applications for those who desire to go to Russia. The saints can apply, but we have to discern and consider who should stay and who should go.
Also, we have to consider the financial support. To support one missionary to work in Russia requires over one thousand dollars a month. If we have one hundred going, we have to prepare one hundred thousand dollars a month for their support. This would amount to one million two hundred thousand dollars a year. This amount includes their lodging, their traveling, their furniture, their meeting places, and many other things related to the practical carrying out of the work there. Our present capacity among the saints for the financial support of the workers in Russia is not that high. At the beginning of our move to Russia, a large amount of offerings came in, but the offerings have decreased. We have to realize that the amount of offerings will not increase unless the Lord comes in to perform some miracle. Thus, we have to consider the number of persons who can go in light of the capacity of our financial ability.
Furthermore, if some saints desire to go, they have to consider their future. They have to consider their age, their family, how many children they have, how many children they are expecting to have, and the age of their children and how they will be educated.
Concerning the work in Russia, we do not know what tomorrow will bring. It could be that after five years the Russians will not be that open. Their mind may become full of other things. They are a very capable, learned, and knowledgeable people with a strong character. Only the Lord knows how long this opening in Russia will last.
