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The revelation in the Bible is a complete whole. The Bible begins with God (Gen. 1:1) and ends with a square city (Rev. 21:10, 16). God is the origination, and the square city is the consummation. Hence, considered as a whole, the revelation in the Bible is a revelation of God issuing in a city. If you do not have this bird’s-eye view of the Bible, the thousands of verses will seem like a thick forest to you, and you will get lost amidst them. You will not know what you are reading or where you are going. You will have no way of knowing what the Bible talks about. If you get into all the details of things such as frogs, locusts, and horns found in the book of Revelation, you will be lost. Reading the Bible can be compared to reading a map of a city. First, you need to have a bird’s-eye view. Then you need to consider the main streets. This will afford you a general sketch of the city, and the sketch will guide you into all the details.
I would now like to present a general sketch of the revelation of the Bible. Genesis 1:1 says, “In the beginning God created.” At the end of the Bible there is a city lying foursquare. The length of this city is the same as the breadth, for “the length and the breadth and the height of it are equal” (Rev. 21:16). This city has twelve gates, three on each of the four sides. God on the throne is both on the top of the city and in the center of the city (22:1). We have seen that God is the origin, the beginning, and that the square city is the consummation, the ending. The city of New Jerusalem is a golden mountain, and God’s throne rests at the peak of this mountain. Now we must ask how this city is related to the very God who is the center of the city, how this city as the consummation can be the issue of God as the origination. There is a flow within this city spiraling down around the golden mountain. Revelation 22:1 says, “He showed me a river of water of life, bright as crystal, proceeding out of the throne of God and of the Lamb.” The river of water of life proceeds out of the throne and flows in the midst of the golden street. This flow connects God and the city.
This flow did not start in Revelation 22; it began in the second chapter of Genesis. In Genesis 1 we see God as the Originator and the origination. After man was created, he was placed in front of the tree of life, whence flowed a river (2:9-10). Genesis 2:10 says that this river “divided and became four branches,” flowing toward the four directions of the earth, indicating that the flow is for the entire earth. The picture in Genesis 2 is a miniature of the portrait in Revelation 22. In Genesis 2 we have God, out from whom flows a river. Man was put by this flowing river. Although in Genesis 2 there was a garden, there was no building. The difference between the garden and the city is that the garden is something of God’s creation in its natural state, whereas the city is something built up with certain materials. At the beginning of the Bible, we have a garden with all the natural things created by God. At the end of the Bible, as the result of God’s dispensing Himself into man, we have a city, which has replaced the garden. Both at the top and in the center of this city is the throne of God, and out from this throne proceeds the living flow that spirals down the mountain. The more this river flows, the more of the city it reaches. Eventually, this one flow reaches all twelve gates on the four sides of the city.
No matter from what direction we approach the city, whether north, south, east, or west, we may immediately be in the flow. Those who come in from South America come in the south gates, and those who come in from Europe come in the west gates. Years ago, in China, I came in through one of the east gates. After we enter into the city through one of these gates, we find ourselves in the flow. Praise the Lord, we are in the flow! Eventually, this flow gathers us together as one. In this flow we are truly one. Before we came into the flow, we were scattered. The Brazilians were Brazilians, the Danes were Danes, the Americans were Americans, and the Chinese were Chinese. Hallelujah, there is a collecting flow on earth today! Wherever this collecting flow comes, people have the opportunity to be gathered in by it. More than fifty years ago, this flow came to China. It came to me, picked me up, and carried me away. Sometimes I have tried to jump out of the flow, but I have been unable to do it. I am still in the flow. This collecting flow has brought me to this country to be one with all of you.
The church is in the flow. Those in the local churches have come from all directions to be in the flow. Praise the Lord that we all have been gathered in! The only way to be one is to be in the flow. Although it is wonderful to be in the flow, sometimes we feel like leaping out of the flow, perhaps to get away from certain brothers. Nevertheless, the flow is too deep and too wide, and we simply do not have the strength to jump out of it. If you are able to jump out of the flow, it is a proof that you have never truly been in the flow. I do not believe that anyone who is in the flow could easily get out of it. Certain ones seemed to be in the flow, but later it became apparent that they were never in the flow. This flow is in the church.
In Matthew 16 the Lord Jesus said that He would build His church with Peter and others as the stones and with Himself as the rock foundation. In Matthew 18 the Lord indicated that there would be a local church to which we could go to have our problems solved. If we have a problem that we cannot solve ourselves or with the help of a few others, we can go to the church. Undoubtedly, this church is the local church, the church in the locality where we live.
At the end of the Gospel of Matthew the Lord revealed the way to build the church. It is to baptize people into the Triune God. Probably few of us have seen that baptism is the way to build the church. Recently, my wife asked me how I could prove that baptizing people into the Triune God is the way to build up the church. When I pointed her to Matthew 28:19, she said that this verse does not mention the church. Immediately, I referred her to 1 Corinthians 12:13, which says, “In one Spirit we were all baptized into one Body, whether Jews or Greeks, whether slaves or free, and were all given to drink one Spirit.” To be baptized in one Spirit is to be baptized into one Body. This surely is the way to build the church. My wife was convinced. The way to build the church is to put people into the Triune God, positioning them into the Triune God that they may be able to drink of the Triune God. We all have been baptized in one Spirit into one Body, and now we all are drinking of the one Spirit. First Corinthians 12:13, which covers both aspects, is a strong proof that baptizing people into the Triune God is the way to build up the church.
According to Acts 2, on the day of Pentecost three thousand were saved. If you read the last verses in this chapter, you will see that what is recorded there exactly fulfills the Lord’s command in Matthew 28:19 and 20. In these verses the Lord charged the disciples to baptize people into the Triune God and to teach them to observe all that He had commanded. Acts 2:42 says that the three thousand who were saved on the day of Pentecost “continued steadfastly in the teaching and the fellowship of the apostles.” Acts 2 is a record of the practical church life. When on the day of Pentecost the three thousand were baptized into the Triune God, the flow from the throne of God reached them and collected them. From that day onward, they were all in the flow, practicing the church life.
However, this pleasant scene did not last very long. Although the flow was there, various Judaistic teachings began to creep in. In the following chapters of Acts, we see the entering in of these teachings, all of which were like little serpents. One teaching said that in addition to believing in Christ, the believers had to practice circumcision. This teaching regarding circumcision became a divisive element, a wind of teaching that carried some away (Eph. 4:14). On the day of Pentecost all the three thousand one hundred twenty believers were one in the one flow. In the flow they enjoyed the Lord and found favor with men. They were happy with one another and experienced a marvelous church life. But the subtle enemy used a teaching from the Old Testament to cause damage. Circumcision was scriptural; it was ordained of God and recorded in the black and white letters of the Bible. Suppose you were in the church flow, and a brother said to you, “I do not oppose your being in the church flow, but what about circumcision? According to Genesis 17, God ordained circumcision through our father Abraham. In the books of Moses, God commanded repeatedly that His people had to be circumcised, and He rebuked those who were uncircumcised. Certainly circumcision should not be abandoned. Don’t you think that we should keep practicing it?” Undoubtedly, you would be influenced by this subtle teaching. Although this teaching is healthy, scriptural, and sound, it has nothing to do with God’s up-to-date flow. Today is not the day of Abraham or Moses; it is the day of the church, the day of the Spirit. Circumcision may be scriptural, but it is out of date.
Some may say that it is heretical and contrary to the holy Word of God to teach that we should give up circumcision. But this is exactly what the apostle Paul taught regarding circumcision. In the early years the wind of teaching concerning circumcision blew many dear ones away from the enjoyment of the church flow. They were distracted from the flow and formed the division of circumcision. Those who were carried away by this teaching and who formed the circumcision party definitely were Christian brothers, but they were not the church. Rather, they became a division. Although they were members of the church, what they practiced was a division, not the church life. The Bible says that the church includes every real Christian. Those in the circumcision party were Christians, but they had been carried away from the church flow.
Other Judaizers in the early days felt unhappy about the fact that those in the church flow came together on the eighth day and no longer cared for the Sabbath. These Judaizers studied the scriptural teachings about keeping the Sabbath. The more they studied the Scripture, the stronger their convictions became. They knew that Moses had charged God’s people to keep the Sabbath and that Isaiah had rebuked them for not keeping it, telling them that they had lost God’s blessing because of their violation of the Sabbath. This was another wind of teaching. By it a number were blown away from the church flow. Although this teaching about the Sabbath was scriptural, it resulted in another division.
Still other Judaizers were concerned about dietary regulations. They pointed out that in Leviticus God gave regulations about eating. These Judaizers might have said, “The church people eat things that are unclean according to Leviticus 11. Certainly this is contrary to the Scriptures.” This Judaistic teaching became yet another wind of teaching carrying believers out of the flow.
Eventually, the church flow reached Greece, where many who were philosophically minded were gathered in. At first, they were happy about having been brought into the divine flow. Gradually, however, they became rather disappointed because some things about the church were not as pleasing to them as certain aspects of their Greek philosophy were. As a result, they began to teach their philosophy, known in church history as Gnosticism, to the believers. The Gnostics seemed to say, “The teaching of Christ is good, but because it is lacking in certain respects, there is the need for our philosophy.” This philosophy became another wind of teaching carrying the believers away from the proper church flow. Therefore, besides the church flow, there were at least four divisions.
We may apply this principle to today’s Christianity. There is nearly no church flow on earth today because most Christians have been carried away by different teachings. Some, for example, have been blown away by the teaching regarding immersion. Every denomination is founded upon a certain teaching, and that teaching always becomes a strong wind. The Southern Baptist Church has twelve or thirteen million members. What a big wind this is. The charismatic movement is another wind. Some in that movement teach that we must all speak in tongues, without caring whether the tongue is genuine. Some tell you not to speak your native language but to make some peculiar sounds, and they claim that this is tongues! I am familiar with this because I was once a leader in that movement. The situation of today’s Christianity is one of division. Now you can see why we say that those in the divisions are not the church. They are in divisions, not in the church flow. Many of us were in that situation, but the mercy of God reached us, and we saw that what we were in was not the church in the flow.
At the beginning of Ephesians 4 Paul speaks of the oneness of the Spirit (v. 3). Every regenerated person has the oneness of the Spirit. However, the winds of teaching spoken of in Ephesians 4:14 have carried most Christians away from the oneness of the Spirit, producing division after division. In Ephesians 4:11-12 Paul says that the apostles, prophets, and other gifted persons should perfect the saints. To perfect the saints means to help them grow until they arrive at the oneness of the faith (v. 13). The faith in Ephesians 4:13 is the object of our belief; it is what we must believe in order to be saved. This faith mainly includes the person of Christ and His redemptive work. Of course, it does not include circumcision, Sabbath keeping, and dietary regulations. It does not even include such things as head covering, foot-washing, immersion, and speaking in tongues. Those who have been carried away by these things need to turn to the flow, where they can receive the help to grow in life. With some growth they will drop the “toys.” Their “toys” are their teachings. By God’s mercy, some will be convinced and turn to the church flow.
This is what Ephesians 4:13 means by arriving at the oneness of the faith and of the full knowledge of the Son of God, at a full-grown man, at the measure of the stature of the fullness of Christ. To arrive at a full-grown man is to be no longer little children. According to Ephesians 1:23, the fullness of Christ is the Body. Ephesians 4:13 does not merely say “the fullness of Christ” but “the measure of the stature of the fullness of Christ,” that is, the measure of the stature of the Body.
These examples of the divisions in the history of the early church will help us see the difference between the church and the denominations. Once we have seen the vision of these things, we shall be kept in the flow. Those in the divisions even denominate themselves as certain kinds of divisions. The Lutheran “Church” and the Baptist “Church” are both denominations. They even put the words Lutheran and Baptist before the word church. This is serious.
Christians are divided because they are childish, immature; they are lacking in growth. Moreover, they see nothing of God’s eternal purpose and do not know what God’s economy is. Although many of them love the Lord, they love Him in an ignorant way. Consider the example of Saul of Tarsus. When he was opposing the Lord Jesus and persecuting the church, he surely must have thought that he was serving God. He was zealous and on fire for God, but his zeal was blind. For this reason, when the Lord knocked him down on the way to Damascus, He caused him to be blind, making him realize that he was blind, in darkness, and needed someone to instruct him so that the scales might fall from his eyes. Brother Ananias came to fulfill this task, saying, “Saul, brother, the Lord has sent me—Jesus, who appeared to you on the road on which you were coming—so that you may receive your sight” (Acts 9:17). After Ananias said this, “immediately there fell from his eyes something like scales, and he received his sight” (v. 18). Saul made a radical turn. Many Christians today have a heart for the Lord, but they are blind and in darkness; they do not have the heavenly vision. Later, Paul could say, “Therefore, King Agrippa, I was not disobedient to the heavenly vision” (26:19). From the day Paul saw this vision on the way to Damascus, he never disobeyed it. In principle, it is the same with us. We have seen something. If you have not seen this vision, perhaps now is the time for you to see it. It is not adequate simply to be religiously zealous for God. Many of the persecutors of Jesus and of the apostles were zealous for God. They even sentenced the Lord Jesus to death in their zeal for God. But their zeal was utterly blind and in darkness.
Praise the Lord that we have an open heaven with a clear view! We have seen that the proper church is the flow. Thus, we must not care for divisive teachings but turn to the oneness of the faith. In the past many of us were carried away by various divisive teachings, but by God’s mercy we have turned from them. We have forsaken the winds of teaching, and now we are for the flow. We are in the flow, and the flow is in us.
Up until this point, we have been dealing with the reality of the church. Now we must go on to consider the practicality of the church. I have known some dear ones who have truly seen the reality of the church but were not clear about the practicality of the church. Eventually, due to this, they missed the mark. We need both the reality and the practicality.
In various verses of the Bible, certain aspects of the church are set forth. As we fit these verses together like the pieces of a jigsaw puzzle, we get a full view of the church. The same is true regarding the practicality of the church.
The first verse dealing with the practicality of the church is Matthew 18:17, where the Lord Jesus spoke of telling something “to the church.” In this portion of the Word, we see a clear view of the practicality of the church. In Matthew 16 we see the material for the building of the church—stones built upon the rock. In Matthew 28 we see that the way the Lord builds the church is by baptizing people into the Triune God. Now we must discover the place where the Lord builds the church. It is not logical to say that He builds the church in the heavens. The building of the church must take place on earth. Since the earth is very large, we still need to know in what place on earth the Lord builds the church.
This brings us from Matthew 16 to Matthew 18. In relating the case of how to deal with a brother who has sinned, the Lord Jesus indicated that the church can only be built in the localities where the believers live. The Lord first said to go to the brother alone and then, if necessary, with one or two others. If he will not listen to the two or three, then the brother should take the matter to the church. On the one hand, the matter may be taken to the church (v. 17). On the other hand, two or three must meet together in the Lord’s name to pray (vv. 19-20). As they are gathered together in His name, He will be in their midst. This is the proper understanding of Matthew 18:15-20.
However, most Christian teachers misuse this verse, saying, “As long as two or three meet together and have the Lord’s presence, they are the church.” I have heard this teaching since the time of my youth. For years I was blindly misled by it. One day in my study of the Bible I realized how foolish it is to say that two or three are the church. If two or three are the church, then why must they still bring the problem to the church? That the two or three must go to the church proves that they are not the church. If they were the church, there would be no need for them to “tell it to the church.” Rather, the “two or three” here are some saints who are part of the church and who meet together not to have a church meeting but simply to pray for the troublesome brother. This is the correct interpretation of this portion of the Word.
The church mentioned in Matthew 16 becomes practical in Matthew 18, for in Matthew 18 there is a church to which we can go. Here the church is solid, practical, and real in our living. The church is not merely a matter of meeting but of administration with authority. The church has the authority in the flow to deal with the saints. This is what we call the practicality of the church life.
The practicality of the church is the local church. We have seen that in Matthew 28:19 the Lord charged His disciples to disciple the nations and to baptize them into the Triune God. This discipling of the nations began on the day of Pentecost when at least three thousand were discipled and baptized into the church. Immediately, the first local church, the church in Jerusalem, came into being. Beginning on that day, the church was not only real but also practical. Prior to that time there was no practicality of the church. If we are not in a local church, we are simply in the air and do not have the practicality of the church.
The Bible is wonderfully arranged. The first church established was the church in Jerusalem (Acts 8:1). As the flow proceeded out from Jerusalem, it reached the city of Antioch, where there also was a church (13:1). The church in Antioch was a station of the church flow. From Antioch, God turned His divine flow westward from Asia to Europe. After the flow had turned toward Europe, it reached Greece and Macedonia. Hence, there came to be a church in Corinth (1 Cor. 1:2). Wherever the church flow went, there was always a local church. Only in the local church can the church be practical. Only in the local church and by the local church can we have the practice of the church. If we do not have the local church, we do not have anything practical as far as the church is concerned. Eventually, the Bible ends with seven local churches (Rev. 1:10-13).
As we have pointed out elsewhere, the local churches are the destination of God’s revelation and manifestation. Beginning with Genesis 1, God is progressively revealed. Eventually, in the local churches God’s progressive revelation reaches its destination. Thus, without the local church there is no destination for God’s revelation.
The local churches are also the destination of God’s manifestation. In Genesis 1 God was manifested in the man who was made in His image. In the Gospels God was manifested in Jesus Christ. After the Gospels, in the Acts and the Epistles, God was manifested in the church.
Consummately, in the book of Revelation, God is manifested first in the local churches and ultimately in the New Jerusalem. Hence, if you reject the local church, you lose both the practicality of the church and the destination of God’s revelation and manifestation.
Because many Christians have missed this destination, they have become very poor. But praise the Lord that we are enjoying the practicality of the church life and the destination of God’s progressive revelation and manifestation. To us, the Bible is transparent. We were not this clear before we came into the church. This is not man’s wisdom; it comes from the flow. Oh, the flow is a great matter! Because we are in the flow, we have the practicality of the church life.
The church is the church. If we are not the church, then what are we? We do not call ourselves “the local church.” The words local church are not a title, and we should never consider them to be a title. To consider the words local church to be our title makes us a local-church denomination. The words local church denote the nature of the church. They are a description of the church. The church today is local because the practicality of the church is local. To say that we are the church in Anaheim is like speaking of the moon in Anaheim. When we are in Hong Kong, we may speak of the moon in Hong Kong, and when we are in London, we may speak of the moon in London. This is both logical and practical. We are not the church in the air; we are the local church. The church manifested in Anaheim is the church at Anaheim, and the church manifested in Oklahoma City is the church in that city. This is not a title of the church. Just as the moon is simply the moon, so the church is simply the church. To say that we are the church is not to give ourselves a title; it is simply to state a fact.
The denominations and free groups are divisions. They call themselves by various denominational names. In the past, some Christian leaders came to me with a good intention, saying, “How can you say that you are the church and that we are not the church? Are we not saved?” I replied, “You are definitely saved, but why do you call yourselves Presbyterians? If you are the church, why do you denominate yourselves in this way? In coming to speak to me about this, you certainly want me to admit that you are the church. I admit that you are a part of the church, but you call yourselves Presbyterians. Since you do this, how can I call you the church? If you are Mr. Smith but wear a name tag saying that you are Mr. Jones, am I not correct in calling you Mr. Jones? You may say, ‘No, I am Mr. Smith. Don’t pay attention to this label.’ But if you want me to forget it, you need to take the label off. Why won’t you drop this label?” Then they said, “Brother, this is not a simple matter. We are missionaries from another country, and we have our mission board. It is not easy to abandon that.” To this I said, “Then you are what you are. You are Presbyterians.” Why do the saints in the denominations need to designate themselves in divisive ways? If they would give up their denominational names, we would immediately be one with them. But as long as they bear denominational titles, such as Presbyterian or Baptist, it is difficult for us to be one with them in a practical way.
