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Before we get into the subject matter of this chapter, I would like to fellowship with you concerning hymns. For the upcoming gospel campaign I have written a new hymn entitled, “The Mystery of the Universe.”
This hymn was written according to the fundamental truths in the Scriptures. The first stanza is based on Psalm 19 and Romans 1, which tell us that heaven, earth, and all things reveal God in His eternal power and the outward manifestation of His divine characteristics. Romans 1:20 uses the term divine characteristics, which is a translation of the Greek word theiotes. A similar Greek word, theotetos, is used in Colossians 2:9. This word is translated “Godhead” and refers to God’s person or God’s divinity. Both theiotes and theotetos are derived from the Greek word theos, which means “God.” God’s divine characteristics are His distinctive features, whereas His divinity is His very nature. For example, the oak trees of Texas have a distinctive grain. This is one of their characteristics. In addition to this characteristic, they also have the distinct nature of wood. The nature is something inward; the characteristics are an outward manifestation. Whereas God’s divinity, His very nature, is what God is, His divine characteristics are the outward manifestation of His nature. Heaven, earth, and all things manifest God’s divine characteristics, but they do not express God’s person, nature, or image. God Himself is expressed only through man.
The Bible shows us that before the Lord became a man, the heavens, the earth, and all things manifested God’s divine characteristics. When the Lord Jesus came to be a man, He not only manifested God’s divine characteristics and power but also expressed God’s person and image, that is, God’s divinity. Romans 1:20 does not speak of God Himself but of God’s manifested characteristics. God is love, light, holiness, and righteousness. These are some of the divine characteristics seen in God’s creation. Everything created by God is beautiful and lovely, bright and good, orderly and proper. Hence, God’s creation manifests God’s characteristics. The Lord Jesus, however, was the expression not only of God’s characteristics but of God Himself. According to Colossians 2:9, all the fullness of the Godhead, the deity, was expressed in the Lord Jesus bodily.
The second and third stanzas of this hymn are based on the gospel messages that Paul gave in Acts 14 and 17, respectively. The essence of his message in Acts 14 is that God sends us rain from heaven and gives us fruitful seasons, filling our hearts with food and gladness (vv. 15-17). This is a relatively shallow gospel. In Acts 17 Paul speaks in a deeper and more logical way, saying that God made the world and all things and gives life and breath to all people. Paul also points out in verse 26 that God determined beforehand the appointed seasons and boundaries of the nations “that they might seek God, if perhaps they might grope for Him and find Him” (v. 27). This implies that God is a God who hides Himself (Isa. 45:15) and that He is a mystery to the human race. In other words, the invisible God is the mystery of the universe (Col. 1:15). Only when we know and receive God, can we understand the mystery of the universe.
There are many fundamental truths revealed in the New Testament. First, God is invisible; He is a God who hides Himself. Second, heaven, earth, and all things reveal God’s divine characteristics. Third, the Lord Jesus Himself lived out the person, image, being, and divinity of the invisible God, the God who hides Himself. Therefore, stanza 4 of this hymn says, “Th’ invisible God, man could see / In creation, yet not completely. / God’s person and His image / Through man expressed had yet to be.” This means that although the invisible God was manifested through the things that He created, this revelation was still incomplete because a man was needed to express God’s person and image. This man was the Lord Jesus. Hence, the following lines say, “So Jesus Christ, God’s Beloved, came / To the world in human likeness. / Through Him completely expressed was God— / His nature and all He is.”
The first stanza of this hymn concerns the divine characteristics, and the fourth stanza concerns the divine nature. The divine characteristics were manifested through creation, but the divine nature was expressed through the Lord Jesus. This divine nature, which refers to what God is, was expressed to the uttermost through the Lord Jesus. Therefore, the last two stanzas, which offer praise to the Lord Jesus, turn from God’s creation to the Lord Jesus. Stanza 5 says, “Mysterious Christ, Savior mine, / Manifested God among men. / God infinite, in eternity, / Yet man in time, finite to be; / O Christ, who is God’s embodiment, / God is mingled with man—what good news! / As God yet man, He would enter us / To be our portion blessed.” As the mysterious and wonderful One, the Lord Jesus is the infinite God who became a finite man. Hence, He is truly God and truly man; He is God mingled with man. This One is the good news of great joy, the wonderful glad tidings. Moreover, as such a One, He wants to come into us to be our blessed portion.
Stanza 6 says, “God’s nature was hidden in Him; / God’s image, expressed through Him. / In flesh He hast redemption wrought; / As Spirit, oneness with me sought. / Christ was incarnated as the God-man / To redeem us by His shed blood. / In resurrection as Spirit He / Comes into us as our life.” The Lord Jesus accomplished redemption so that He could enter into us to be our life. The fifth stanza speaks about our blessed portion, and the sixth stanza speaks about life.
This is an excellent gospel hymn because it uses various terms and phrases of the truth, such as God is hidden, invisible, mysterious Christ, Savior, God’s embodiment, the God-man, and incarnated. All these terms are rich and deep in meaning and help explain the truth of the gospel in a concise way. This hymn tells us that the Lord Jesus was put to death on the cross, shedding His precious blood to redeem us, the sinners, and that He was resurrected to become the life-giving Spirit so that in our experience He could come into our spirit to be our life. Hence, this short hymn of six stanzas begins with God’s creation and concludes with the Lord as God’s embodiment coming into us to be one with us in our spirit as our life. This hymn comprises nearly all of the crucial truths in the Scriptures.
The deepest thought in this hymn is that the Lord Jesus was God mingled with man. This was God’s aspiration from eternity before the times of the ages. His desire was that He would create man and enter into man, not only to be united with man but also to be mingled with man. This aspiration was fulfilled when He was incarnated and became a man. The Lord Jesus was God mingled with man. Furthermore, this One came into us so that, like Him, we would also become those who are the mingling of God with man. This is the content of the gospel and the wonderful good news.
Among us we need some who not only know the truth but who can also compose and sing hymns. If we desire to work for the Lord, we need to study and speak the Lord’s word. To speak for the Lord, we must first know the Lord’s word; that is, we must know the truth. Next, our spirit must be a strong, praying spirit, and we need to practice praying unceasingly. Third, we must develop our speaking ability. Fourth, we must also be able to sing. Both Ephesians 5 and Colossians 3 tell us that God’s word is not only for us to speak to others but also for us to sing to others (Eph. 5:19; Col. 3:16). In the past singing has been our weakest area. I hope that from now on singing would be more prevailing both in the small group meetings and in the big meetings.
Of course, some are born without a talent for singing. However, in our singing we should not focus on how beautiful the music is but on the release of our spirit. There are many of us who can sing well and who have been trained in vocal music. However, when we sing in the meetings, instead of paying too much attention to the music and the sound of others’ voices, we should pay attention to life and spirit. The singing of the hymns should be an overflow of life and spirit. If we touch life and spirit in our enjoyment of the Lord, spontaneously we will be filled with singing. Sometimes during a meeting a saint will choose a hymn from the hymnal and ask everyone to sing it in order to fill up the time. This makes our singing regulated and formal. Instead, we should enjoy the Lord to such an extent that we spontaneously overflow with singing. This may have been the way that the early saints sang in their meetings. We do not, however, have this kind of situation among us.
The saints’ singing of hymns began with David in the Old Testament. The tunes from these hymns were then passed down from David all the way to the Catholic Church and then from the Catholic Church to the Protestant churches. Those who study music know that these “sacred melodies” have a distinct style that is grave and solemn. After World War II the Americans, who like new things, called these sacred tunes the “Old Timers,” so they discarded them and composed many new tunes. Most of the new tunes, however, did not stand the test of time because they were not dignified enough. Hence, most of them are of little value. Nevertheless, we selected some of the new tunes that have some value and included them in our hymnal. One example is the tune to the hymn “In the Garden.” The content of this hymn is a description of how Mary the Magdalene met the Lord Jesus in the garden on the morning of His resurrection and how the two of them conversed and fellowshipped with one another. Over twenty years ago when I heard the tune of this hymn, I used it to compose Hymns, #501, “O Glorious Christ, Savior Mine.” This is also the tune that we have used for the newly written gospel hymn. It is a dignified, sacred tune. Another hymn that uses one of the new tunes is Hymns, #608, “What Mystery, the Father, Son, and Spirit.” The tune of this hymn is also very dignified. All good hymns have solemn tunes.
In this gospel campaign we will also use Hymns, #987, which is an excellent gospel hymn written by the American evangelist J. Wilbur Chapman. In Chapman’s days the prevailing theology was the theology taught by the modernists. The modernists say that the Lord Jesus was not God, that His death had not been for redemption, and that He had not been resurrected. Therefore, Chapman purposely wrote this hymn of five stanzas. The first stanza is on the birth of the Lord Jesus, the second stanza is on His death, the third stanza is on His burial, the fourth stanza is on His resurrection, and the fifth stanza is on His coming back. This hymn not only has a dignified tune, but its chorus is also particularly well written, pointing out the subject matter of all five stanzas. The chorus says, “Living, He loved me; dying, He saved me; / Buried, He carried my sins far away; / Rising, He justified freely forever: / One day He’s coming—O glorious day!” The content of this hymn is proper and rich, and the tune is dignified.
We all know that poetry is the crystallization, or the cream, of literature. A person who is able to produce poetry in various forms has reached the peak of his literary training. Furthermore, poetry is also based upon the experience of human life. It is the product of the expression of human sentiments. Little children cannot write good poetry because they lack the experiences of human life. To learn how to write hymns, we need three things—the knowledge of the truth, the experience of life, and some attainment in literature. It is not necessary for us to be highly educated in literature, but we should at least have a certain measure of literary attainment. By also having the knowledge of the truth and the experience of life, we will be able to write good hymns.
Another new hymn for this gospel campaign is “The Meaning of Human Life”:
In order to know a hymn, we first need to learn to pay attention to its special features. Sometimes only a few lines or stanzas of a hymn are good, or perhaps only a certain part is outstanding. For example, the hymn “The Meaning of Human Life” has seven stanzas, but stanzas 4 and 5 are the best. Stanza 4 speaks about man’s sense of vanity and emptiness, and stanza 5 speaks about man’s experience of joy and satisfaction. When we preach about the meaning of human life, we need to speak about man’s sense of vanity and emptiness on the negative side and man’s experience of joy and satisfaction on the positive side.
Stanza 4 is the peak of this hymn on the negative side. It does not merely say that all things are vanity. Rather, it says that man perceives that all things are vanity. Vanity is not a doctrine or a theory that convinces people in their mind. Vanity is a feeling of human life and the conclusion of human experience. Furthermore, this stanza repeats the word without to intensify the feeling of vanity. On the other hand, stanza 5 is the climax of this hymn on the positive side, describing the human life of vanity being turned into song. When the human life is full of joyful singing, it is full of song. These two stanzas comprise a complete gospel message.
In this chapter my main purpose is not to teach you to learn the hymns but to fellowship with you a burden regarding your pursuit and learning. Those of you who are presently serving full time have the day off on Monday, are working on the campuses on Saturday, and are attending meetings on the Lord’s Day. Therefore, this leaves only four days a week for studying. In the beginning I had hoped that every full-timer would have half a day every day to study the New Testament, including the Recovery Version and the Life-study messages.
The most important thing that we who have given ourselves to work for the Lord can do is to speak for Him. Whether we are preaching the gospel, teaching the truth, ministering life, exhorting the believers, or building the church, we need to speak for the Lord. Hence, it is very important for a person who works for the Lord to study the Word.
In 1949 I began the work in Taiwan, and in 1952 I began to conduct trainings. I did this every year for ten years until 1961. Every year there was a great number of saints who attended the training. The highest and best training was the one held in 1953. I am full of thanksgiving to the Lord for the saints who were in that term of the training because they have a strong desire for the Lord and have been used by the Lord. Nevertheless, I still feel that there is some lack because they have not adequately entered into the truth. As far as the truth is concerned, they are much better than the workers in Christianity, but they are still not as advanced as the earlier generations of co-workers among us who were thoroughly trained and perfected in the truth.
Every kind of work will be judged by its fruit. The Lord Jesus said that every good tree produces good fruit and that a tree is proven by the fruit it produces (Matt. 7:17-20). More than thirty years have passed since the training began, and now we can see the fruit of the labor of these co-workers. Generally speaking, the results of their labor are quite good. We all know that the Christian group with the longest history on the island of Taiwan is the Presbyterian Church from Scotland, which has been in Taiwan for almost two hundred years. According to the statistics I obtained three years ago, the Presbyterian Church has a little over eighty thousand members. This is the issue of their labor on this island after almost two hundred years. We in the local churches rank second in terms of numbers with over forty thousand members. However, if we were to count the number of people baptized in the local churches as the Presbyterian Church does, we would have about the same number as they do. This indicates that our work in Taiwan during the last thirty years has been comparable to the work of the Presbyterian Church. Not only so, many Western missionaries have admitted in their reports that the most successful evangelistic work in Taiwan has been the work carried out by the Lord’s recovery.
I am telling you all these facts to prove that I am not invalidating the work of our co-workers during the last thirty years. Nevertheless, there is a saying, “A boat sailing against the current must forge ahead or else it will be driven back.” Therefore, whatever we do, we must always try our best and endeavor to improve. Concerning this matter, this particular group of co-workers, who are a generation younger than I and whom I almost single-handedly trained by myself, has been a disappointment to me. They accomplished only a certain amount in the last thirty years and did not do more. They stopped and did not seek to improve.
In a sense, the work on the island of Taiwan has not gained much profit or made much progress during the ten years from 1975 to 1985. We have merely been maintaining the status quo. By the Lord’s grace the co-workers have not brought the churches into disgrace or decline, but neither have they made much progress. The reason for their lack of advancement is that the co-workers are behind in learning the truth. I am disappointed with them because of their lack of aggressiveness. It is never too late for us to learn, because there is no limit to knowledge. The less educated a person is, the less he thinks he needs to learn. Rather, he thinks that what he has learned is adequate and acceptable. The more educated a person is, however, the more he feels that he is inadequate and needs to learn more aggressively.
The result of my fellowship with the elders is that I have seen a very clear picture. The church in Taipei has over ten thousand saints, and over three thousand of them regularly attend meetings in the twenty-one halls in Taipei. However, the ministry of the word in each hall is very weak. Therefore, there has not been any spreading in our work. Ever since we changed the system in October, many other churches have had a great increase. The churches in Yungho, Hsinchu, Taichung, Tainan, and Kaohsiung have had increases of over fifty percent. The church in Taipei is the only exception. Not only has there been no increase in Taipei, but the number of saints has actually decreased by five percent.
When we first began to change the system, I made a statement saying that our practice was in the initial stage. We were like those doing research in a laboratory, trying to find a new way that was according to the Scriptures. Therefore, we appointed the leading deacons in every hall as elders in order to let them try to lead the church. Now, after looking at the results of our experiment during the past one and a half years, the elders and I have found that our numbers have decreased instead of increased. This shows us that there is a weakness here.
The church in Taipei is a church that has great assets and is rich in resources. When I began the work here on August 1, 1949, the number of regular attendants in Taipei was less than one hundred. Five months later at the end of that year, the number of attendants in Taipei had increased to nine hundred. After five more years the number of saints on the entire island had increased a hundred times. The number on the whole island when we first began the work was around four to five hundred, but in 1955, prior to Brother T. Austin-Sparks’s visit, we had forty to fifty thousand people according to our estimation. In other words, there was a hundredfold increase in less than six years. This was the rate of increase during the initial stage of our work in Taiwan. Now we have a great asset of three to four thousand saints in Taipei, yet after ten months of implementing the change of system, we have not brought in even a thousand. This indicates that there is a big weakness among us.
I came back to seriously and thoroughly study our situation to find out the reason for our low rate of increase. Although I was not able to visit every hall or contact every elder, after a detailed analysis I concluded that the main reason for our low rate of increase is the weakness in our ministering of the word. We must realize that people come to the meetings not because the meeting hall is nice, because the people are nice, or because of other factors. The only reason they come is because of the strong ministry of the word and the transmission of the rich truths. The reason the church in Yungho has had a great increase is that the leading brother studies the Word with the full-timers so that they are strengthened to speak the truth. This attracts people.
Man has an innate ability to love the truth. There are clear indications of this in the Bible. When the Lord Jesus began His ministry, He mostly preached the word on the mountains and in the wilderness. There were no luxurious or comfortable facilities, yet people came in flocks. When John Wesley was raised up in England, he preached on the streets. One of Wesley’s contemporaries, George Whitefield, who was considered to be more powerful than him, preached in the open fields. In those days there were no microphones or proper facilities. The preachers simply raised their voices and spoke loudly, and people went in crowds to listen to them. Today our speaking is weak. We cannot compensate for this weakness with money, knowledge, or capability. People do not want our knowledge, eloquence, or capability. Rather, they desire the supplying word. This innate ability to love the truth was created by God.
When God created man, He put in man a longing to seek after knowledge. This is why people have a desire to know about the things around them from their youth. A wise mother will not force her children to do things or punish them by beating them when she teaches them. Rather, she will speak to them a great deal, and by her speaking, she will transfuse knowledge into them. The Westerners are not necessarily better than the Chinese in educating their children, but one good point about the Westerners is that they often read a story to their children at bedtime. Furthermore, sometimes when a mother finds that her little boy is being naughty, instead of spanking him, she will read him a story. Once the boy begins to listen to the story, he calms down, behaves properly, becomes obedient, and stops being naughty. This is because within him there is a desire to obtain more knowledge. The more a child learns, the more he is happy and satisfied.
During my stay this time, I have observed that the churches everywhere are lacking in the ministry of the word, not only in the big meetings but even more so in the small meetings. In a sense, our meetings abound in every aspect except the ministry of the word. This is a great shortage. If I had stayed here for a year, I would not have let this matter go lightly. The truths and the riches among us are all being stored in the bookroom with no effect. This is a very regrettable matter.
The co-workers who received my training thirty years ago and who were trained for as long as ten years have done quite a good job during all these years. On the other hand, however, their ministry of the word has been merely average. The truths and the riches given to us by the Lord have all been released, but they have been put on the shelves and are not being used. Perhaps you may say, “Oh, we use them. We are all using them.” According to my consideration, however, using them improperly is equivalent to not using them. This is similar to someone having a ball but not knowing how to use it to play a game. This is a big problem.
This is the reason I encouraged hundreds of you to rise up and serve full time. You have responded, and the churches are willing to cooperate. What I am afraid of the most, however, is that you will fall into the same trap. Therefore, I hope that you can complete at least one course of the training in the Lord’s word. This does not mean that when you graduate, your brain will be filled with knowledge. Rather, it means that you will know how to use the Lord’s word, how to study the truth, and how to preach the word. This should not be too difficult for you since you are all at least college graduates. It all depends on whether or not you set your heart on this matter.
Nothing is too difficult for someone who sets his heart to do it. There is nothing that you cannot do; it all depends upon whether or not you put your heart into it. If you put your heart into something, you can do it. This is what we mean when we say, “Where there is a will, there is a way.” The problem is that by nature man loves ease and hates work. Laziness is second nature to man. I am very concerned about this matter. I have a considerable amount of human experience, and I realize that all humans tend to be easygoing. However, you should not be loose in any way during your first five years of full-time service because these are the most crucial years of your service. You must lay hold of these five years. What matters is not what you do but how much you learn. The most important thing is to learn the truth and the experiences of life. You need to try to advance as quickly as possible in these two matters.
For your sake I would use myself as an example. When I began corresponding with Brother Watchman Nee in 1925, I mostly asked him questions concerning the Scriptures. It was not until 1932, when I invited him to speak in my hometown of Chefoo, that I met him for the first time. As a result of his visit, a church was raised up in Chefoo in July of the same year. Through the Lord’s blessing, the number of saints meeting in the church exceeded a hundred. I had to give a message five times a week. This forced me to drop my job and serve full time. Afterward I went to Shanghai to see Brother Nee, and later he asked me to move to Shanghai with my whole family. From then on I became his co-worker. Two years later in October of 1935, Brother Nee held a conference in Kulangsu, Amoy, which is in the province of Fukien, but I did not go with him then. Fifteen years later in 1950, I went to the Philippines. One of the responsible brothers there who had attended the conference in Kulangsu told me that in that conference Brother Nee had told a group of seeking saints, “We have a brother, Witness Lee, whose progress in the truth and in life can be likened not just to running but to flying.” Actually, at that time I had not been satisfied with my condition.
Although those of you who are serving full time have already graduated from college, you are still under thirty years of age. Your prospects for the years ahead are bright, and you still have much potential to advance. Therefore, you must treasure this period of time and endeavor to enter into the truth and to learn the experiences in life. What is important now is not how much you read every day but how much you learn and enter into the truth. You can never finish studying the Bible. I have been studying the Bible for sixty and a half years, and the more I study, the more I receive and the more I sense that there is much to study. If time allows, I would like to have another life-study of the Bible that would be different from what we had in the past. Our study of the truths in the Bible will never end.
In the United States over one hundred churches with over ten thousand saints have been raised up since the Lord’s recovery began there. Although the number is small, those who oppose us as well as those who agree with us admit that we are above everyone else regarding the truth. Many of you know that we won the lawsuits related to the two books called The God-Men and The Mindbenders. The “Statement of Decision” issued by the Superior Court of California in relation to the case against the publisher of The God-Men contains thirty-two pages. I hope you get the opportunity to read it so that you may understand why we initiated the lawsuit.
I bring this matter up because it is related to our history. Those who belong to this generation should be clear about this matter. It is all right to argue concerning the truth in America because America is a country of free speech. It is all right for Christians to say that Buddhism is wrong and vice versa. This kind of argument is not in violation of the law. However, if you attack others by intentionally slandering them or by fabricating lies or twisting the facts with an evil intention to hurt others, then you are committing libel, which is a criminal offense according to the law. We took the legal actions not only to fight for the truth but also to clear our name.
The main target of our litigation was the book called The Mindbenders. The author, who wrote the book in 1977, put numerous false statements, false accusations, and slanderous words against us in the book. Moreover, he fabricated cases accusing us of deceiving people. In 1978 after the members of the People’s Temple committed mass suicide in Jonestown, Guyana, the author of The Mindbenders added another chapter to the book concerning this matter, saying that the situation was far more serious in the “Local Churches.” As a result, some of the parents of our younger saints were concerned that their children had joined a deceptive organization. In America there is a profession called “deprogramming.” When a physician certifies that a young person is mentally abnormal, the parents can hire people to force their children to be “deprogrammed.” There was such a case on the East Coast. A couple hired some people to seize their son, who was studying at a medical school in Texas, for “deprogramming.” Fortunately, the people whom they hired did not act foolishly. After some investigation they realized that there was no problem with that young brother, that he was mentally sound, and that the church he was attending was also very proper. Therefore, they sent him back. There were many more cases like this. Furthermore, the author fabricated lies about us and slandered us to such an extent that we were like poisonous snakes and fierce beasts in people’s eyes. The book damaged us to the extent that some of the brothers and sisters experienced hardship at their jobs and were even fired.
After this book was published, we wrote hundreds of letters to the publisher, asking for an opportunity to clarify the situation. The publisher, however, refused to meet with us. They did not take our phone calls and would not discuss the issue with us. We also sent five American brothers to visit five different publishers, asking them, “If Witness Lee were not a Chinese, would you have done this?” They all said that they would not have done such a thing. Therefore, it is obvious that they did this because I am Chinese. They were not against foreigners; rather, they despised and scorned me because I was an elderly Chinese who had come to America to teach the truth.
For three years I did not take any action. Then in April of 1980 I was visiting the churches in Colorado and New Mexico. The co-workers there told me that it would be impossible for our work to spread as long as these two books—The Mindbenders and The God-Men— existed. They said that whenever we contacted someone, the very next day that person would receive a copy of one of the two books and then would not want to be in contact with us any longer. After some careful consideration, I felt that since we had not been able to obtain a proper response from the publishers, for the sake of the future of the Lord’s recovery we could not allow this damaging situation to continue to spread. Therefore, according to Paul’s principle of appealing to Caesar in Acts, we filed the lawsuits. We all know that originally Paul had been very reluctant about suing his persecutors. However, he had no choice because otherwise he would have been killed, and there would have been no way for the Lord’s word to be completed.
Today it is as if we are driving a car on the road, but someone has put some obstacles in the middle of the road to frustrate our progress. Therefore, we must first stop our car and clear the road before we can get into our car and continue to drive on. Paul’s way of clearing the road was to appeal to Caesar. Paul did this not merely to file a complaint but to ask for help, because the Jewish officials were corrupt and unrighteous. Felix had hoped that Paul would give him money and therefore asked for Paul to be sent to him frequently. However, Paul did not give him any money and was therefore imprisoned again for two years (Acts 24:26-27). Afterward, Festus came to the province as the successor to Felix. The Jews tried to bribe him, entreating him to send Paul from Caesarea to Jerusalem so that they could set an ambush to do away with him on the way (25:1-3). Festus, wanting to gain favor with the Jews, asked Paul if he would be willing to go up to Jerusalem and be judged there (v. 9). Realizing Festus’s craftiness, Paul said, “I am standing before Caesar’s judgment seat, where I ought to be judged...I appeal to Caesar” (vv. 10-11). After conferring with the council, Festus had no choice but to say, “To Caesar you have appealed; to Caesar you shall go” (v. 12). In this way Paul was able to escape the hands of the Jews.
Paul remained in Rome for two whole years before his case was presented to Caesar Nero, who pronounced him not guilty and therefore released him. During his two years of imprisonment in Rome, Paul wrote Ephesians, Philippians, Colossians, and Philemon. Afterward he wrote 1 Timothy, 2 Timothy, Titus, and Hebrews. Most Bible students know that the most profound and mysterious truths are in these eight Epistles. Therefore, if Paul had not appealed to Caesar but had been killed by the Jews on his way to Jerusalem, then the Scriptures would have included only the first six of Paul’s Epistles—Romans, 1 and 2 Corinthians, Galatians, and 1 and 2 Thessalonians—which were written in the initial stage of his ministry. If this had happened, there would have been a great lack in the divine truth.
Based upon Paul’s pattern, we found a way out. Like Paul, we were being greatly persecuted and felt quite helpless, so we had no choice but to “appeal to Caesar.” This may be likened to calling the police to save our lives when we are confronted by robbers. We call the police, not to file a complaint but to ask them to rescue us, lest the robbers kill us. Therefore, I told the brothers and sisters that we should either do nothing, or we should do something in a thorough way. First of all, we would have to pursue the lawsuits to their end, even if this required us to pour out everything we had financially. Furthermore, we would have to have ten to twenty co-workers who would specifically take care of this matter. They would be the ones who would go out to collect evidence within the limits allowed by the law and in a definite way.
Due to the large number of cases that were being presented in the American law courts, we had to wait five years before the trial could start. The court spent five days to hear the case. We presented all our reasons and evidence before the judge. Our opposing party had no way to deny the evidence, which had been produced mostly during the depositions of both parties and had been made under oath in the presence of the clerk appointed by the court. Eventually, the verdict was pronounced. The judge enumerated in a clear way the violations that our opposing party had committed and decided that we had won the case.
During the lawsuit, J. Gordon Melton, a theologian, testified in court on our behalf. In the 1970s he published the Encyclopedia of American Religions, which has a paragraph concerning us. The comments he makes are quite favorable toward us. While he was planning to publish a revised and enlarged edition, the slanderous books against us were published. He was a supporter of the organization that published one of the books, but as a scholar, he believed that the goal of a writer should be to make a contribution to society. Hence, he felt that he had to do some research to find out the real story. Therefore, he bought our books and did some personal study. After reading the books, his concepts about us did not change. In fact, not only did he testify on our behalf in court, but after the “Statement of Decision” was issued by the judge, he also wrote an open letter informing those in fundamental Christianity in the whole United States that our theology is based upon the orthodox theology of the Brethren Assembly and urging people to accept our beliefs.
We must realize that the highest, most fundamental, and proper theology in Christianity is the Brethren theology. The top two seminaries in the United States today are Dallas Theological Seminary and Moody Theological School in Chicago. The teachings in both schools are based upon the Brethren theology. I truly admire Dr. Melton because he was able to find out by reading my books that our theology is according to the Brethren theology. This is proof that he is indeed a devoted scholar.
My main point is that it will not be an easy matter to spread the Lord’s recovery in the United States, Europe, Australia, South America, and Africa. The truths that have been released in the Lord’s recovery are not mere repetitions of what others have said. Rather, they are all based upon the pure revelation of the Word. The United States is the top Christian country and is first-class in every aspect. It has a wealth of talent and an abundance of seminaries with many theological professors and people with doctorate degrees. However, what I have been speaking is different from what they usually speak. This is not a small matter. Dr. Melton is a reputable, educated theologian. In the beginning he did have some disagreement on some specific points, but after reading our books he turned around completely. From this we can see how pure and unadulterated our study of the truth is.
Today in the twentieth century everything is improving. Although the earth itself cannot be improved, other things such as the means of transportation on the earth can be improved. Likewise, although the Bible does not change, we can advance in our knowledge and study of the Bible and in our interpretation and application of the truth. The Bible has been in the hands of Christians for almost two thousand years, and the revelation contained in it is progressing as the years go by. Today when we come to study the Bible, if we do not know how to use advanced methods to study it, we will fall behind and become out-of-date.
When we undertake a task, we must not be complacent, sticking to old ways and resisting progress. In America I read a news article saying that the population of Taiwan is equal to one-third of the population of France, yet Taiwan’s production output is higher than that of France. The reason for this lies in the success of education in Taiwan. In the last forty years the Taiwanese government’s greatest contribution to its people has been the success and spread of education, which uplifts the level of people’s intelligence and increases their capability. Hence, Taiwan has been completely transformed into an industrial society. Likewise, today if we desire to work for the Lord, we must raise our level of education. If we do not advance, we will be taken over by others and be eliminated.
I believe that in another two or three years we will have over one thousand full-timers. We must be clear that we cannot be like the outdated preachers in Christianity who study theology a little and learn about the Bible a little and then go out to be preachers with a very limited amount of Bible knowledge. We must strive to get into the depths of the Word. In the Lord’s recovery we have already had a very good beginning and have laid a very good foundation, all of which will be a big help to you. You should not think that we have finished the life-study of the entire New Testament and that there is only this much revelation in the Scriptures. No, the life-study of the Bible that we have completed is only the beginning. I have already said that if the Lord gives me another twenty to thirty years, I would like to write another set of studies on the New Testament. This task, however, has to be left for you to do. Nevertheless, I believe that what you presently have is enough to serve as an initiation. What you need now is to enter in and to study more deeply. Then you will be able to meet the need of this age.
Today we can easily attract crowds of students through our gospel preaching on the campuses because the students are quite educated and will readily receive the high gospel according to logic and reasoning. In the villages, however, it may not be that easy to preach the gospel due to the people’s shortage of knowledge and lack of understanding. In any case, human beings all have the desire to pursue knowledge. If you study the biblical truths thoroughly and then present them to people, especially to the college students, they will fully appreciate what you say. On the contrary, if you are short of the knowledge of the truth, it will be impossible for you to preach the gospel on the campuses effectively. Hence, you must strive to pursue the truth. If you still do things today in the old way—graduate from high school, study two years of theological school, and then go out to be a preacher—that will not work. That way is an outdated way and cannot meet the need of this age. You must exert some effort to be solidly equipped in the truth. This is my main burden for you.
During the training you should do your best to attend the church meetings, particularly the small group meetings. You should not stay together with your fellow trainees all the time. Rather, you should go to different groups to practice speaking for the Lord. You have already been trained for a year and should be able to speak better and more strongly than the saints who have not been trained. In practicing the change of system, those who can speak for the Lord are needed the most. I have attended a few groups, and according to my observation, the greatest lack is the lack of speaking, the lack of those who can speak. You may have also noticed the same thing. Therefore, you should have the burden to go and speak in the small groups. If there are one hundred of you and each one goes to a group every week to speak for the Lord, the situation of the small groups will be dramatically changed. This will be a great help to the building up of the small groups in the church in Taipei.
