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The last book in the Bible is a book of gold. At the beginning there are the seven golden lampstands, and at the end the golden city, the New Jerusalem. What is mentioned at the beginning and at the end of any book is always the main content of that book. There are the seven seals, the seven trumpets, and the seven bowls mentioned in this book, but these are not in the beginning or at the end. At the beginning are the seven golden lampstands, and at the end is the golden city. We also are told clearly that the seven golden lampstands are the seven local churches. We are also told that the golden city is the bride of Christ. Therefore, at both ends of this book, we see the church. First, there are the local churches, and then eventually, there is the ultimate consummation of the churches, which is the New Jerusalem. Therefore, we must have a thorough look into the local churches, for as we have seen, this book is a book of the seven Spirits for the local churches.
The Bible is a volume of sixty-six books, with over one thousand chapters. There are many subjects, many doctrines, and many things covered in this book, but the main figures are only four. In the whole Bible there are only four main figures.
In a painting of a tiger, there may be many things in the background, but the main figure in the painting is the tiger. In the background there may be mountains, woods, and many other items, but it is principally a portrait of a tiger. Our attention must be focused upon the tiger.
The Bible is also a painting. It is a divine painting, a spiritual painting, an eternal and heavenly painting with thousands and even millions of things in the background. But what are the main figures? At the very beginning of the first page, it says, “In the beginning God...” (Gen. 1:1). God, therefore, is the first figure. We all must say, “In the beginning God...” Then after this, the Bible tells us how God created the heavens and the earth and how He did many other things.
But even in the Old Testament there is another figure presented by types and prophesies. This is Christ, the second main figure in the Bible. Christ is typified and prophesied in the Old Testament. The Old Testament is simply God as well as Christ typified and prophesied, but Christ has not yet come.
Then at the beginning of the New Testament, this wonderful One came. The first page of the New Testament speaks of Christ, the son of David, the son of Abraham. Christ is the second figure of the Bible.
What is the third main figure after Christ? In Matthew 16 the Lord Jesus asked His disciples to tell Him who He was. Peter answered, “You are the Christ, the Son of the living God” (v. 16). But this is not all. The Lord then said to Peter, “And I also say to you...” (v. 18). To only see Christ is not enough. There is the also. “And I also say to you that you are Peter, and upon this rock I will build My church, and the gates of Hades shall not prevail against it.” So we have the church as the third main figure in the Bible.
We see Christ in the four Gospels, and from the four Gospels to Acts, we see the church. But is this all? No, as we go on to the Epistles, we see that the church becomes the churches (Rom. 16:4, 16; 1 Cor. 7:17; 11:16; 14:33-34; 16:1, 19; 2 Cor. 8:1, 18-19, 23-24; 11:8, 28; 12:13; Gal. 1:2, 22; 1 Thes. 2:14; 2 Thes. 1:4). Even in Acts we can see this taking place. There is one at Jerusalem (8:1), another at Antioch (13:1), and another one at Ephesus (20:17). There are churches in many different cities (9:31; 14:23; 15:41).
Then as we come through all the Epistles to the last book of Revelation, we see that this book is mainly about the churches. So the fourth main figure of the Bible is the churches. There is not only the church but also the churches.
The main figure in the painting we referred to as an illustration is the tiger. If we can see the tiger, we can forget about the things in the background. There are thousands of Christian books written today. They speak mostly about the “mountains,” the “trees,” the “grass,” and so many other things, but they have forgotten about the “tiger.”
What does the Bible speak about? If we were to ask the wives, they would tell us that the Bible says in Ephesians 5 that the husbands must love their wives. Do you see how shortsighted we are? All the wives see is that their husbands must love them. To them, this is the main thing of which the Bible speaks. They feel the Bible is wonderful because it tells us that husbands must love their wives.
Then if we were to ask the husbands what the Bible speaks about, they would say that it says the wives must submit to their husbands. We all have been blinded by our natural tendency and concept. We only see some little things in the background according to our concept, and we miss the “tiger.”
Have you seen the four main figures in the Bible? Have you seen God, Christ, the church, and the churches? The sisters must forget about their husbands, and the brothers must forget about their wives. We must forget about all our preoccupations and see God, Christ, the church, and the churches. Hallelujah!
We need not try to remember all the items in the background. We need to just remember the “tiger.” The “tiger” must be deeply impressed into our mind. We must only care for God, Christ, the church, and the churches.
To know God is indeed easy. I believe there has never been a person on the earth who has not known something about God. All the Jews know about God, and even the heathen know of God. All people know about God. In the classroom they may say that there is no God, but in private they ask, “What about God?” In the school they may deny the existence of God, but at home they ask themselves, “Suppose there is a God, what shall I do?” When we contact the unbelievers, we should not argue with them about God. They know about God already.
To know God is easy, but to know Christ is not so easy. All the Hebrews know about God, but not all of them know about Christ. They know God, but they do not know about Christ. They know God, but they do not know Christ. All the Muslims know God, but they do not know Christ. To know Christ is a real improvement upon knowing God.
All human beings know about God, but only a small number know both God and Christ, because Christ is a real mystery. He is God, yet He became a man. He was God, yet He was God in man. I do believe He was a small man while He was on this earth in the flesh. Jesus was a small man, yet that small man was God. God was embodied in Him. Is this not wonderful? So we see that to know Christ is not as easy as to know God. But those of us who are Christians know Christ as our God.
However, to go on from Christ to know the church is even more difficult. Many Christians know Christ, but not so many know the church. To know the church is a greater improvement. We all need to be improved again and again. We need to know God first, we need to know Christ second, and then we must go on to know the church. The church is also a mystery. God is in Christ, and Christ today is in the church. God is embodied in Christ, and Christ is realized in the church.
But this is not all. From the church we must go on to see the churches. Comparatively speaking, it is easy to know the church, but it is not so easy to know the churches. Some Christians know the church, but they do not know the churches. They talk a lot about the church, but they have not seen the churches.
How many books do you have in your Bible? Of course, you will say that you have sixty-six. Do you know God, and do you know Christ? If you do, then you have the Old Testament plus the four Gospels. But do you know something about the church? If you do not, you only have forty-three books in your Bible.
Some may say that to know God and to know Christ is sufficient to go to heaven. This is true, but your Bible is still only of forty-three books. However, if your Bible has sixty-six books, you must know God, Christ, the church, and the churches. Only then do you really have sixty-six books in your Bible.
The Bible shows us clearly that the church has become the local churches in many localities. Does this mean that the heavenly church is made earthly by making it local? No; it means the heavenly church is made locally golden. It is local but not earthly. It is local and golden.
In the past some have said that they know God, they know Christ, and they know the church. They are clear from Ephesians that the church is the Body of Christ. But they will not agree to have the local churches. Therefore, they cut off so many Epistles, but especially the last book, from their Bible. Their Bible only has sixty-five books.
If we have sixty-six books in our Bible, we not only have God, Christ, and the church, but we also have the local churches. In the Old Testament we have God. In the four Gospels we have Christ. In Acts and the Epistles we have the church and the churches, and in Revelation we have the churches, which are emphasized as being local. Therefore, to know the churches, the local churches, is the greatest improvement in knowing the four main figures revealed in the Bible.
My burden is that we all must see the last book of the Bible. Revelation tells us about the local churches, not the one church in the heavens. To know God is not adequate. To know Christ is also not adequate. Even to know the church is not adequate. We must go on to know the churches, which are local. If we are up to date in following the Lord, we will realize that today is the day of the local churches. In the last age of God’s dispensation, and in the last book of His Scripture, the main thing is the local churches.
I must repeat again that if we are up to date with the Lord, we must be in a local church. The last book of the Bible is written to the local churches. If we are not in the local churches, we are not in a position, and thus not entitled, to receive this book.
We all know that the books of the Bible are part of the divine will given to us. It is a title deed, a testament, a will. The last part of this will is given to the local churches. If we are not in the local churches, we do not have the position to inherit this part of the will. But praise the Lord, if we get into the local churches, we are entitled to this part! The book of Revelation was written to the local churches, so only in the local churches are we in the position to inherit this book. If we have nothing to do with the local churches, we have nothing to do with this book. We must be brought up to this book.
We all realize that everything is in the Bible. But not long after the New Testament was completed, the church began to lose all the important things found in the Bible. Eventually, by the fifteenth century, everything was lost. Very little of God was known. Then the Lord began His recovery at the time of the Reformation with Martin Luther. First, He recovered justification by faith. Then after this, He recovered many more things. But the things regarding the church were not recovered until the eighteenth century. The first time after the Reformation that Christians began to practice the church life was when the Moravian Brethren came together under the leadership of Count Zinzendorf. They practiced the church life, but they did not have adequate knowledge regarding the church. They were, however, inspired to come together to practice the church life. They came from Moravia and settled in Bohemia, a part of today’s Austria.
The doctrine of the church was largely inadequate until 1829. If we read the history of the church, especially the history of the Lord’s recovery, we will see that it was from 1829 that the British Brethren, under the leadership of John Nelson Darby, became clear concerning the doctrine of the church. In the early part of their church life, there was tremendous reality. But gradually, they lost the reality and have declined very much to mere doctrine. The doctrine is good, but only to have the doctrine without the reality is empty.
Then in the first part of this century, the Lord began to recover something more regarding the church. What He recovered was the reality, or we may call it the spirituality, of the church. The spiritual principles of the Body of Christ were recovered mainly in the first third of this century.
Nearly all the books written in the last century by the Brethren were concerning the doctrine of the church. There was a shortage of the reality and even of the spirituality. But in the first part of this century many books were written regarding the reality, the spirituality, and all the spiritual principles of the Body of Christ. It was wonderful, it was real, but it was not practical. There was the doctrine and the reality and in a sense the spirituality, but no practicality. Those who saw the spirituality of the church simply did not know how to practice it.
It was after 1930 that the Lord used Brother Watchman Nee to recover the practicality of the church life. He not only saw the doctrine and the reality, but also the practicality. At least three or four books were written by Watchman Nee concerning the practicality of the church life. The first was published in 1934, and he asked me to write an introduction to that book, which I did. This book was written before The Normal Christian Church Life and was called The Assembly Life. The messages in this book were given in January of 1934. This was the start of the publication of Brother Nee’s vision regarding the practicality of the church life.
Then later, in 1937, Brother Nee gave us another series of messages, which was clear and adequate regarding the practicality of the church life. These messages were put into a book in Chinese in 1938 and translated into English in 1939. The English translation was originally entitled Concerning Our Missions but is now called The Normal Christian Church Life. This is the second book by Brother Nee regarding the practicality of the church life.
Then after the war, from 1948 until his imprisonment in 1952, Brother Nee gave many messages on the practicality of the church life. We have chosen some of these messages and put them together in the book Further Talks on the Church Life by Watchman Nee. This could be considered the third book by Brother Nee regarding the practicality of the church life.
This is the history of the Lord’s recovery of the church life. He first recovered the practice of the church life in the eighteenth century with the Moravian Brethren. But that was not adequate. Then in the nineteenth century He recovered the doctrine of the church, and at the beginning of this century the reality and spirituality of the church. Then after 1930 He began to recover the practicality of the church life. Now we have inherited all the items of the Lord’s recovery. We have inherited the doctrine, the spirituality, and the practicality. We are not boasting in a proud way, but we can humbly say by His mercy that we have the doctrine, the spirituality, and the practicality of the church life. Where is the practicality? The practicality of the church life is in the local churches. If we do not have the local churches, we do not have the practicality of the church life.
There are some who talk so much about the universal church. It is wonderful and so spiritual. But where is it? Where is the universal church? It is so heavenly, so spiritual, so eternal, so wonderful, and so marvelous, but where is it today? It is really invisible. Those who are so much for the universal church say that the invisible church is the real one, and all the visible churches are the false ones. Of course, it is easy to say this. They tell you that something is wonderful, but if you ask them where it is, they can only say that it is invisible. It is so heavenly, so spiritual, so eternal, so wonderful, and so marvelous. But it is invisible today. That is all. It is just invisibly wonderful, invisibly heavenly, invisibly spiritual, and invisibly eternal. But where is its practicality?
Do not think that someday we will be in the church in the heavens. When we get to heaven, the church age will be over. Even when we get into the New Jerusalem, that will not be the church age. Today is the age of the church.
Do not talk about the church in the future. The church is not something in the future; the church is something of today. The church is not something in the heavens but in the places where we are on the earth. Praise the Lord, there is a church in Los Angeles today. Even in this evil district of Hollywood there is a church today.
In the Gospels, in Matthew 16, the Lord began to talk about the church. Then in Acts, in all the Epistles, and in Revelation the main matter concerns the church. If the Bible is mainly about the church, we must have something practical today. This is necessary for the Lord’s return, and this is a real shame to the enemy. I say again loudly and clearly that in the city that is famous for Hollywood, nearly the most evil city on the earth, there is a church today. There is a golden lampstand in Los Angeles. This is a real glory to Christ and a shame to the enemy.
Some Christian teachers say that in this evil age it is an impossibility to have a real church; we must wait until that day. We all must reject this kind of teaching. It is one hundred percent wrong. The future age is not the church age. When the future age begins, the church age will be over.
It is like someone telling us to see a football game tomorrow morning, but when we get there, the game is over. The game was not in the morning but the night before. We must go to see the game tonight and not wait until tomorrow morning; then it will be too late. Praise the Lord, we are in the “game” now! Hallelujah! Regardless of how dark or how evil the age is, we are in the “game.” We are playing the “game” here in the local church today.
Let me tell you what is on my heart and deep within my spirit. From what I have seen in the past six years in traveling through this country, I am fully convinced that the Lord is sweeping over the United States. He is sweeping from the West Coast to the East Coast for the local churches.
There has been a rumor in the past two or three years that there will be a big earthquake with a tidal wave on the West Coast, and Los Angeles will drop into the ocean. When I heard this, I said, “Yes, there will be a big earthquake, but not for this city to go down into the ocean but to rise up.” There will be a tide, but it will be a tide of the local churches sweeping throughout the United States.
If you do not believe me, simply wait and see. No one can stand against this tide. This is the Lord’s doing, and this is the Lord’s moving. It is not a human movement. Before His return, the Lord must recover the church life in the localities. He must build up the local churches. I have the full assurance that the Lord will use the United States for this purpose.
I do not care what people say about the United States. There are so many opinions, but I say that they are all nonsense. The Lord will keep and protect the United States for His purpose. The Lord will keep this country to recover the local churches as a real preparation for His return.
This is what I mean when I say that we must be up to date with the Lord. The Lord is moving to recover the local churches. It is not a matter of doctrine; it is a matter of the tide, the flood, the moving, of the Lord.
The Brethren saw the doctrine, but they stopped there; they would not go on with the Lord. But the Lord could not wait. The Lord went on to recover the reality and the spirituality of the church. Then the first group began to criticize the second group: they said that the spirituality was not according to the doctrine. Thus, they started to be and still are against the second group. But the sad story has been repeated. The second group was used by the Lord in the beginning of the twentieth century to recover the reality of the church, yet they also stopped there; they would not go on with the Lord. Yet the Lord could not wait. He has gone on to recover the practicality of the church life. So now the first group plus the second group are all opposing the third group.
What will come after the practicality? I believe that the Lord will come back. The Lord will prepare His bride by recovering the local churches, the practicality of the church life. Praise the Lord for His recovery! Praise the Lord for the doctrine, the reality, and the practicality of the church life. The practicality of the church life is in the local churches. God is in Christ, Christ is in the church, and the church is in the local churches. So to be up to date is to be up to the local churches. We must be in the local churches. This is God’s divine way.
