Search
Scripture Reading: Matt. 28:19; 24:14; Acts 8:1, 4; Isa. 6:1, 8; Dan. 11:32; 2 Tim. 2:21
In the previous chapter we saw the need of the spreading of the divine truths for the Lord’s recovery and restoration. In this chapter we want to see our responsibility for the spreading of the divine truths, especially to the crucial parts of the world. Our intention in going to these parts of the world is to minister Christ.
In chapter 1 we saw the influential factors of the present situation of the world. The United States takes the lead in finance, politics, and the military; Europe cooperates in finance, politics, and the military; and the Far East cooperates mainly in finance. We also saw the spreading of the Lord’s recovery. It was initiated in the Far East and is growing there. It has been brought to and rooted in the United States for growth. But in Europe the Lord’s recovery has not been properly and adequately initiated. There is a great need for some to go there to fill up the lack.
Our responsibility is to teach the Bible, to teach the truth. The Bible, of course, is the unique Word, spoken by God. God has spoken in the thirty-nine books of the Old Testament and the twenty-seven books of the New Testament. The end of the Bible tells us clearly that no one should add anything to or take anything away from this divine revelation (Rev. 22:18-19). The greatest item in the universe is God Himself, and the second greatest item is God’s spoken and written word.
We have seen that there is also the need of the translation of the Word. Then there is the need for it to be interpreted, expounded, and explained. Following this there is the need of understanding. Then we can speak the word in an interpreted and understood way. This is our commission. The printed ministry among us is full of the interpreted and expounded word according to the proper understanding. The Bible is God’s speaking, written by men who spoke from God and were borne by the Spirit (2 Pet. 1:21). The Bible, from the Pentateuch of Moses through the Revelation of the apostle John, took between fifteen hundred and sixteen hundred years to complete. Then this book was read, studied, and investigated by the entire Body of Christ for the past nineteen centuries.
In the previous chapter we saw that the interpretation of the Bible began in the time of the church fathers. They studied the truth concerning the Divine Trinity and the person of Christ. They saw in the New Testament that Christ was a person with a dual nature. He was conceived in a human virgin, but people called Him Emmanuel, meaning “God with us” (Matt. 1:23). He possesses both humanity and divinity.
We also pointed out that in the sixteenth century Martin Luther went against the entire Catholic Church to declare the truth of justification by faith. In the nineteenth century the Lord raised up the British Brethren to recover many biblical truths. They were the ones whom the Lord used to open up the truth concerning the assurance of salvation. Safety, Certainty, and Enjoyment by George Cutting is a famous booklet published by them on this subject. In the beginning of the Lord’s move in China, we proclaimed this truth so that it could be recovered in a full way.
Thirty years ago no one in the United States spoke clearly about God’s economy, God’s dispensing, the principle of the Body of Christ, and the practicality of the church life on the genuine ground of oneness with the local churches as the local expressions of the Body of Christ. The Lord opened up these truths to us. Eventually, the Lord showed us the New Jerusalem as the ultimate consummation of the church. Although the New Jerusalem occupies only the last two chapters of the Bible, we have published many messages concerning it.
From the time of the church fathers, the study of the holy Word has gone on and on throughout the centuries. The church fathers found out that the title for God in Genesis 1, Elohim, is plural in number. In verse 26 the one God said, “Let Us make man in Our image.” The one God used the pronouns Us and Our when referring to Himself. Eventually, the church fathers used the term triune to describe how God is three-one. They began the study of the Word with the truth concerning God at the beginning of the Bible. Now we have come to the end of the Bible with the truth concerning the New Jerusalem. The first item of the Bible is God, and the last item is the New Jerusalem. God Himself is the beginning, the source, of the New Jerusalem, and the New Jerusalem is the enlargement, expansion, and increase of God. The New Jerusalem is a corporate entity, the mingling of God with His redeemed, transformed, and glorified people. With the opening up of the truth concerning the New Jerusalem, the Bible has now been interpreted in a consummated way.
We owe so much to many teachers of the Bible who have gone before us, and today we are standing on their shoulders. I consider the footnotes that we have published in the Recovery Version as the aggregate of the proper understanding of the New Testament. We are really blessed to be living in these latter days. We have received the aggregate understanding of the Bible because we are standing on the shoulders of many who have gone before us. Today we understand the Bible better than Martin Luther and J. N. Darby because we have inherited the truth they saw, and by the Lord’s mercy, we are standing on their shoulders and have gone on to see more. The Bible was spoken by God in the holy writings, translated by many scholars, and interpreted by the Body of Christ throughout the centuries. Today the proper understanding of the Bible has been collected in our writings in order for us to study, learn, and spread the divine truths.
Now we need to see Christianity’s condition in the matter of the divine truths. First, much of the Catholic Church’s teaching is heretical and superstitious.
Much of the truth in the Protestant denominations is superficial and erroneous. Many in the denominations use the King James Version. Although this is a top version of the Bible, it uses the pronoun it when referring to the Holy Spirit. This is a big mistake. The Holy Spirit as one among the three of the Divine Trinity is a person. Therefore, the pronoun He should be used when referring to the Spirit. This mistake was corrected by Darby in his New Translation.
The New American Standard Bible is another good translation, which I appreciate. But its translators made a great mistake in their translation of Ephesians 4:22 and 24. These verses in the New American Standard Bible say, “Lay aside the old self,” and “put on the new self.” The translators realized that 2:15 is referring to the church as the new man, but here in chapter 4 they say “the new self.” This is a great error. According to the biblical truth, we need to put off the old man and put on the new man, the church. This shows that it is hard to trust completely in any single translation of the Bible. I have a great deal of trust, however, in Darby’s New Translation and in the 1901 edition of the American Standard Version.
In the nineteenth century the Brethren took the lead in discovering, knowing, and proclaiming the divine truths. Today, however, the Brethren are fading in knowing the truths.
In the matter of the divine truths, the Pentecostals are wild and without any controlling principle. In their interpretation of the Bible, they mix up the Old Testament with the New Testament. The songs they sing are mostly from the Old Testament. The rituals and practices of Catholicism are mixed up with the Old Testament, whereas the Pentecostals’ interpretation of the truth is mixed up with the Old Testament.
For the believers in Christ to be freed from the bondage and the heresies of Catholicism and from the formalities and the erroneous teachings of Protestantism is good and is also necessary. But to be freed to an extent that the governing principles in interpreting the divine truths are put aside or neglected by ignorance is neither right nor profitable. Sorry to say, today due to the dealings with Catholicism and Protestantism, many dear saints who love the Lord and seek His truths have fallen into this category. Hence, carelessness and mixtures can be seen in many groups in the interpretation of the holy Word today.
The Lord’s recovery is full of the divine truths but is inadequate in the application of the truths and slow in the spreading of the truths. If we do not get into the truths in the printed ministry, we will be short in the application of these truths. If we are short in the application of the divine truths, we will be short in the experience of these truths. We are also slow in the spreading of the truths. Who among us is willing to be sent by the Lord to another place for the spreading of the divine truths? Instead of having the burden to migrate to spread the Lord’s recovery, many of us have become set, settled, and occupied.
Now we want to see the Lord’s gift and commission to His recovery in the divine truths.
The Lord has opened to us His divine revelation from the making of His eternal economy to the consummation of His eternal goal—the New Jerusalem. All the messages we have published unveil the items and details included from God’s making of His eternal economy to the New Jerusalem.
The Lord has also commissioned us with the ministry of His word. After I was sent to Taiwan from mainland China, we began to publish a paper entitled The Ministry of the Word. Today our ministry has reached the point of God’s New Testament economy and God’s dispensing. In 1984 I shared concerning God’s New Testament economy in Stuttgart, Germany, and a number of localities in the United States. These are included in a book we have published entitled God’s New Testament Economy. I still have more to speak concerning God’s economy and God’s dispensing.
The Lord has provided us with the marvelous environment for the release of the divine revelation. When I began to minister the word in Los Angeles in 1962, we had only conferences and informal trainings. When we moved to Anaheim in 1974, I made the decision to have two ten-day trainings every year. Because these trainings are in the principle of a school, those who come need to be properly enrolled. This helped not only in training the saints but also in having a proper, clear, uplifted atmosphere for the release of the divine truths.
I also decided to have the trainings to help us in the publishing of the ministry. Much of what Brother Nee shared was never put into print. I feel very sorry about this. Because I saw this situation, I decided that after I leave, I do not want the truths that the Lord has shown me to be left in my grave. I want to put out whatever the Lord has shown me.
Brother Nee first put out a monthly periodical called The Christian. The subscribers had to pay one dollar a year for this periodical. The orders for this periodical eventually went up to ten thousand copies a month. Later, he changed to publish a periodical called The Present Testimony without subscription. When the situation was ready, he put out an issue. Sometimes he did not publish an issue for a long time.
For the expounding of the New Testament and the publishing of this exposition for the benefit of the churches and the Lord’s children, I made the decision to have two trainings yearly with the help from the trainees and the work of the polishers and the serving ones in the ministry office so that the word of the Lord’s truths may be released regularly. This practice helped a lot for the publishing of the interpreted, expounded, and understood Word for seventeen years without any interruption. I consider this as a marvelous environment for the release of God’s divine revelation.
I am full of thanks to the Lord for His supply to meet every need. I am also thankful to the Lord that we have been able to have two annual trainings for the last seventeen years without interruption. This has been the Lord’s mercy. He has provided us with the marvelous environment for the release of His divine revelation. I am sorry that my senior co-worker, Brother Nee, did not have such an environment.
We have over forty faithful, full-time workers in our three offices in Anaheim, Irving, and Taipei. In addition to these workers, a number of other saints volunteer their time to help us spread the truths. We are serving the churches all over the earth with the publishing and the tape ministries, and we have been doing this for over seventeen years. I thank the Lord that we have such a marvelous environment for the release of His divine revelation. I am thankful to the Lord that much of what I have spoken has been put into print. Even if I die, my word in the Lord still speaks. He has provided us with the marvelous environment for the release of His divine revelation.
The Lord’s present charge to us should be: go and teach the nations (cf. Matt. 28:19) that the present age may be consummated (24:14). In order to take the Lord’s charge, we must keep the oneness. We must have the one accord. If we lose the oneness and the one accord, we are finished as far as the Lord’s move is concerned. I realized the danger of divisions among us over the past ten years. This is why I called at least four urgent elders’ meetings. I told the brothers that I realized there was the tendency among us toward divisions. This was because some of the brothers wanted to have their own work within the unique work of the Lord’s recovery. Eventually, by 1987 my warning was fulfilled, and these divisions came to the surface. The main cause of these divisions was ambition. Some desired to have their own work, and at the same time they pretended to be for the Lord’s recovery.
When the saints go to Europe, they should not touch any of these negative things. We should only go to teach the divine truths. We should teach people about God. We should tell them how the eternal God is triune and how He is perfect and complete as love, light, holiness, and righteousness. Then we can go on to teach them God’s economy. In God’s economy He desires to have man as His expression. Thus, He created the heavens for the earth, the earth for man, and man with a spirit to receive Him as life. We need to teach people God’s economy, God’s desire, God’s plan, God’s purpose. We also need to teach people God’s dispensing. We need to tell them how God wants to dispense Himself in His element and essence into our being to make Himself one with us.
We should also teach people about the wonderful process through which the Triune God has passed in order to dispense Himself into us. He was incarnated and lived a human life on earth for thirty-three and a half years. In His living we can see the divine attributes and the human virtues. He went to the cross and died an all-inclusive death to deal with Satan, the world, sin, the flesh, the old man, the old creation, and the ordinances. Through His death, on the positive side, He released the divine life and entered into resurrection. In His resurrection we were resurrected with Him. He became the firstborn Son, and we, through regeneration by Him and with Him, became God’s many sons as the members of Christ to constitute His Body. We need to teach people all these things.
We should also teach people the detailed items of Christ’s redemption through His blood. He redeemed us by washing us, forgiving us, justifying us, and reconciling us to God. We also should minister to people the items of God’s salvation in the life of Christ, in regenerating us, renewing us, sanctifying us, transforming us, conforming us into His image, and glorifying us in Christ as the glory. The people also need to see all the aspects of the church. They need to eventually see how the one universal church, as the Body of Christ, should be expressed as the local churches in many localities. We need to teach with much stress the truths concerning the all-inclusive Christ and the church as the organic Body of Christ. Eventually, the church will consummate in the New Jerusalem as the ultimate manifestation of the processed Triune God mingled with the transformed tripartite man to express the Triune God to the fullest in eternity. Our teaching of the divine truths should include the New Jerusalem as the ultimate consummation of God’s dispensing. When we go to Europe, we should teach the central line of the divine truth with the main stresses without making any small point an issue for debating or fighting that causes divisions.
In addition to teaching the divine truths, we have to have a complete change from the old, traditional, unscriptural way of meeting and serving to the new, scriptural way. History tells us that whoever changes from the old to the new always gains. The method of transportation has eventually changed from the mule wagon to the airplane. It goes without saying that this change has made travel much easier and more efficient. The Chinese people who left the mainland to live overseas have learned to leave their oldness and pick up the new things. This is what makes them so successful. We also have to have a complete change to the Lord’s new way. Time sifts people, so we must have a change.
There have been a number of major changes in the present world. The first change is the formation of the European Common Market. Although England, France, and Germany have disagreed with one another for centuries, they have become members of this Common Market. Second, the satellite countries of Russia have changed their philosophy from atheism and communism to democracy and the Bible. Russia has also changed. Another major change involved the crisis between Iraq and Kuwait and the war that followed. It is amazing that the president of the United States made such a strong decision to deal with Iraq. This dealing turned out for the benefit of Israel and for the putting down of its opposing Arab countries.
While the world situation has been changing, we have also been changing from the old way to the new way, the God-ordained way. We cannot change the truth, but we surely have to change our way to carry out the truth. We all need to change our “philosophy.” We need to change the way we preach, the way we meet, the way we help people, and the way we have our home meetings and group meetings to match the God-ordained way. Much of what we are now doing is still according to the old “philosophy.” We need to change our philosophy and give up any confidence in our old way.
The leading ones should not have the confidence that they know how to manage the church. We need to consider how much fruit has been borne by us in our locality. Fruit is the expression and manifestation of life. We may have been in a locality for years with very little fruit, very little increase. Would we take that way to carry on a business? Fruit is a strong proof of where we really are. We need to have a change, not trusting in our old way.
Now we need to consider the initial example of the spreading of the gospel, including the truths (Acts 8:1, 4). According to Acts 8, this spreading was not by the apostles but by the migrated disciples. The church in Jerusalem had thousands of believers, but due to persecution they were all scattered to carry out the spreading of the gospel. The believers were scattered, but the apostles remained. The practice today in Christianity is the opposite; the clergy go, and the laymen remain. But the spreading of the gospel according to the initial example in Acts 8 shows the apostles remaining in Jerusalem and the other disciples migrating.
The disciples sovereignly were scattered to other places without waiting for the completion of the gospel in the Holy Land. Portions of the Holy Land had not yet heard the gospel, but the Lord was still burdened for the disciples to carry the gospel to other places. Acts 8 also speaks of Philip going to Samaria and eventually preaching the gospel to an Ethiopian eunuch for the spread of the divine truths.
The scattering of the believers from Jerusalem to other localities is the first mentioning of migration for the spreading of the gospel; hence, it should be considered as the basic principle for the spreading of the gospel, including the divine truths. Regardless of whether or not the divine truths have reached the entire United States, we still need to go to Europe. We also have to believe that our going to Europe will stir up something positive in the United States.
We need to see the vision of the Lord in His recovery and answer the call of His charge (cf. Isa. 6:1, 8).
Our consecration and absoluteness for the Lord need to be rekindled. We should say, “Lord, I still love You. I want to love You more.”
We should rise up to follow the Lord in His present move and have ourselves adjusted to His regulations to be useful to Him (Dan. 11:32; 2 Tim. 2:21). Daniel 11:32 says, “The people who know their God will show strength and take action.” To take action means to do something noble and worthy that may be considered as an achievement. Especially in these days in the Lord’s recovery, we need to be those who show strength and take action.
For us to be useful to the Lord, we need to be particularly sanctified and adjusted in many aspects and in many things so that we could be a vessel unto honor at this particular time.
