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In these chapters we have covered various crucial matters pertaining to the church. The church is not shallow; it is very profound. If you are simply religious, ethical, and moral, you may say, “As long as we love Jesus, behave ourselves, and love others, it does not matter if we are in the Catholic Church, in the denominations, in the free groups, or in the charismatic movement. As long as we all believe in the Lord Jesus and know that we are going to heaven, everything is all right.” Although you may say that everything is all right, God would not agree with you. What about God’s purpose? More than nineteen hundred years ago, the Lord Jesus said, “I will build My church” (Matt. 16:18). However, it is very difficult to see where the church has actually been built. Undoubtedly, Christianity has exerted some influence upon human society. But where has the church been built to fulfill God’s purpose? Apparently, the Lord’s word has not been fulfilled.
Throughout the centuries, Satan, the enemy of God, has been doing everything possible to frustrate the building up of the church. The subtlety of Satan is demonstrated in the history of Christianity. Immediately after the departure of the apostles, the church began to degrade into an organized religion. Long before Constantine the Great brought Christianity into imperial favor (A.D. 313), the church had already been organized into a hierarchy. During the time of Constantine, the world was brought into the church and the church into the world. In the sixth century the papal system was fully established, and the Catholic Church was completely formed. The Catholic Church is subtly satanic and permeated with fornication. In the words of Scripture, the Roman Catholic Church is the great harlot (Rev. 17:1). The great Babylon of Revelation 17 is the apostate Roman Catholic Church. Many, however, have been drugged in Catholicism, never realizing that in the eyes of God the Catholic Church is the great harlot. The Roman Church has been a great frustration to the Lord’s building of His church. Nevertheless, to the Lord one thousand years are as one day (2 Pet. 3:8). For Him to wait for twenty centuries is like waiting for two days. God is wise. Through His wisdom all the follies of the enemy will be exposed, and He will come in to do His work. If He wanted, He could wait for another period of time for the building of His church. But I believe now is the time the Lord is intervening to accomplish His work. Perhaps the Lord will say to the enemy, “Little Satan, have you done your best? Is there anything more you can do?” Satan will have to confess that he can do nothing more.
After Catholicism had been in existence for centuries, the Lord began His recovery. According to the human concept, the beginning of the Lord’s recovery was the Reformation, which started with Martin Luther. The Reformation actually did little to accomplish the building of the church. Rather, it mainly recovered justification by faith. This is useful for salvation, but it has not been used very much for the building up of the church. None of the denominations that issued out of the Reformation care for the building up of the church. Instead, they have divided the Body and cut it into pieces. In reformed Christianity today there are hundreds of divisions.
The so-called Pentecostal movement began in the middle of the last century. Nothing has been more divisive than the Pentecostal movement in the past and the charismatic movement at present. It has cut the Lord’s Body into pieces even more. Everyone in this movement is utterly individualistic, and many feel free to set up a Christian meeting in any way they choose. Some may attend a small home meeting for a while. When they are no longer happy with the people there, they may form a meeting of their own. Here we see the subtlety of the enemy. He has brought in distractions, frustrations, and divisions. Today so-called Christendom is filled with divisions and confusion.
The Lord’s recovery came to the United States in 1962. During the past fourteen years, we have been presenting, by the Lord’s mercy, what He has shown us regarding the genuine oneness of the church. Some dear friends advised me to say nothing about the local church. In 1962 hardly anyone in Christianity was talking about the local church. But in the Lord’s recovery we have delivered message after message on this matter, and today the term the local church is a popular item. Now a number of radio preachers are using this term, and a number of groups are calling themselves a local church.
Let me now share a word concerning the book The Normal Christian Church Life. This book is composed of a series of messages given by Brother Nee in 1937. I was present when those messages were given. In fact, Brother Nee even asked me to give one of the messages for him. One morning Brother Nee called me to his home, told me that he was ill, and asked me to take his place in giving the message. When I told him that I had no idea what he would be speaking about, he gave me all the points of that message, which was on the line of Antioch. I wrote down the points, rushed back to the meeting, and informed the attendants that Brother Nee was ill and that he had charged me to deliver the message. I then related to them all the points regarding the line of Antioch that Brother Nee had given to me. At another time Brother Nee gave that same message himself. Later, in 1937, the co-workers gathered in Hankow, a city in central China, to escape the Japanese invasion. At that time Brother Nee delivered those messages a second time. Then he polished them and printed them as a book in 1938. After this, he spent more than a year visiting various countries in Europe. During his stay in London, he translated his book into English with the help of a British sister. It was published in 1939 under the title Concerning Our Missions. In 1962 a brother in the United States was burdened to publish an American edition of the book, entitled The Normal Christian Church Life. He was granted permission to do so, and the book was published by International Students. The American edition was widely distributed, and many people have read it. After reading this book, some have attempted to practice the local church life. They used this book to cause more divisions. We should not blame this book for these divisions; those who use this book to build their own work should be held responsible for this.
Certain so-called Christian workers have been hoping to establish a new work. However, they did not have any new concepts. By reading Brother Nee’s book, they discovered some new concepts to feed their desire, and they began to establish local churches. But what they established was neither genuine nor pure. If they were genuine and pure, they surely would have learned that the Lord’s recovery had already come to this country, and they would have contacted us. This would have been real oneness and a genuine beginning for the church life. Nevertheless, many who have read The Normal Christian Church Life have begun their own work without contacting us. Some of these were in the charismatic movement and had learned that speaking in tongues was not the way to build up the church. They also realized that old Christianity was over, and they wanted nothing to do with it. But they did not have the proper way to go on. After reading Brother Nee’s book, they felt that they had found the way.
Some who were influenced by Brother Nee’s book have said that the practice of the Lord’s recovery is too frank and too bold. Therefore, they invented another way. This way is to pretend to be something you are not. Those who follow this way claim that they are practicing the church life, but they do not want to call it the church.
Those who sincerely desire to have the church life will contact us. But instead of contacting us, some have used The Normal Christian Church Life to cause new divisions. Those who have done this have been those outside the Lord’s recovery.
In a few cases divisions have been caused by those who were once within the Lord’s recovery. One brother who has been helped by the Lord’s recovery attended the conference in Los Angeles in 1964. In one of the meetings he testified that as he saw me coming off the plane in a particular city, the Holy Spirit told him that he had to submit himself to me. He gave strong testimony of this publicly, and he did submit to me. The following year he gave this testimony a second time in our conference. However, not long afterward, he was distracted by a famous preacher from England, and together they spoke at a yearly conference on the east coast of the United States. When I was earnestly invited to be one of the main speakers at this conference, I rejected the invitation. The next year I was invited again. I also rejected this invitation, telling them that I did not have the anointing to participate in that kind of conference. Then the one who started this conference turned his back on me and began to fight against me. Eventually, that yearly conference became a failure and has been discontinued. Now this dear one, who has a group of his own in a certain city, has been fully distracted.
In 1963 a particular traveling preacher who knew nothing about the Lord’s recovery visited my training in Los Angeles. Apparently, he was caught for the Lord’s recovery. He discontinued his work and came to stay with us. He stayed for some time and learned many things, including the truths of God’s eternal purpose and the tree of life. After about three years, he suddenly claimed to see another line in addition to the line of Jerusalem and the line of Antioch. As a result, he left in 1969, taking with him all that he had learned in the Lord’s recovery. After that, he kept returning to our meeting hall after the meetings to pick up printed materials. Not too far from Los Angeles, he has founded a work that he calls a local church.
Another division was caused by a brother who wanted to have his own ministry. He thought that the recovery was the best opportunity for him to build up his ministry. Because the intention of brothers like this is to establish their own work, sooner or later they will cause divisions. This particular brother eventually began his own work in another locality. Some of the saints there, being innocent, received help from our conferences and trainings. Gradually, they began to realize that what they had seen elsewhere was not being practiced in their locality. These saints had a genuine motive for the Lord’s recovery. However, the intention of this brother was not purely for the recovery. Eventually, the real situation was exposed, and some of those in the lead rejected the Lord’s recovery.
Thus, some outside the Lord’s recovery have used this book, The Normal Christian Church Life, to begin so-called local churches. Actually, they have created more divisions. In addition, some insiders, who were with us for a while, but who would not give up their intention, were exposed and were no longer able to hide under the cloak of the recovery. Eventually, they went out to do their own independent work.
We have seen that the church is a genuine oneness. The church is absolutely one in substance, both universally and locally. In every aspect, the church is one. Because the church is one, nothing that is of a divisive nature can be the church. Every division loses the position, the standing, the ground, of the church. Today we live in a dark age of division and confusion, and it is difficult to discern the church from a division. This is the reason I gave you the six tests of the genuine local church in the foregoing message.
In this matter of the church we must be discerning. Both the Roman Catholic Church and the Greek Orthodox Church claim to be the church. However, we would never admit that they are the church. In a sense, the Roman Catholic Church believes in the Bible. Of course, the Roman Church believes the Bible in its own twisted way, claiming that the Bible can only be understood by the clerical hierarchy of the church. Through this subtle means, the people are deprived of the Bible. The Roman Catholic Church even includes the books of the Apocrypha as part of the Scriptures. These apocryphal books were not even recognized by the Catholic Church until A.D. 1645, when the pope decreed that they must be recognized as sacred Scripture. Some of the books of the Apocrypha, however, are like legends. Would you recognize legends as being inspired Scripture? Certainly not. Nevertheless, the Roman Catholic Church practices this. The Catholic Church does believe in God and somewhat in Jesus Christ.
When we say that the Catholic Church is not truly the church, some would reply, “It is not fair to say this. The Catholics have the Bible, they believe in God, and they have Jesus Christ.” Although this is true, the Catholic Church is still the great harlot. According to the Bible, she bears the name “MYSTERY, BABYLON THE GREAT, THE MOTHER OF THE HARLOTS AND THE ABOMINATIONS OF THE EARTH” (Rev. 17:5). God is a divine mystery. Besides this divine mystery, there is a satanic mystery. This second mystery is a mixture. In this mystery earthly things are mixed with heavenly things, and paganism with the truths of the Bible. Furthermore, this mystery is filled with idols. Once, I visited a Catholic cathedral to study the situation there. Along the walls of the cathedral were idols. Underneath these idols were cards saying that anyone who prayed to the image for a certain period of time would be able to reduce the suffering of a relative in purgatory. This, like Buddhism, is superstitious and blasphemous to God. I cannot understand how educated people in a modern nation can believe such foolishness. How can scientifically trained people pray to an idol? What nonsense to say that the Catholic Church is truly the church!
Besides the Catholic Church, there are all the Protestant denominations, including the state churches, such as the Church of England and the Church of Denmark. Even today West Germany still has a state church, and all the citizens of that country must pay the church tax. The pastors of the state church are paid by the government. As we all know, the queen of England today is still the head of the Church of England, and all those born British citizens are members of the Church of England by birth. Would you recognize this as a church? Surely it is not the church.
After the rise of the state churches, the independent churches, such as the Presbyterians, the Baptists, and the Methodists, came into being. In the early part of this century, the Pentecostal movement reached the United States, landing in Massachusetts and spreading across the country to California. In 1915 the Assembly of God was formed. At the beginning, A. B. Simpson was there. However, when the decision was made to say that speaking in tongues was the unique manifestation of the baptism of the Holy Spirit, Simpson and others opposed this, withdrew from the Pentecostal movement, and formed the Christian and Missionary Alliance. Can the Catholic Church, the state churches, and all the independent churches be truly recognized as churches? No, they are divisions.
After World War II, a great many free groups were raised up in the United States. In 1963 I was told that in Southern California there were hundreds of small free groups. If all these free groups can be recognized as the church, then there must be a countless number of churches in the universe. The Catholic Church, the denominations, the Pentecostal churches, and the free groups all claim to be the church. Which group is the church? What should the Lord do in this situation? In order to answer this question, we must come back to the holy Word. In addition to the plain words of the New Testament, we should also consider the pictures, the types, in the Old Testament.
Let us now consider the picture of the recovery of the proper ground in Jerusalem after the dispersion. As we have pointed out already, many Christian teachers neglect the significance in typology of the history of Israel after their captivity in Babylon. Ezra, Nehemiah, Haggai, and Zechariah are books of recovery. Even Daniel is a recovery book. Of course, we do not see the actual recovery in Daniel. But we do see a man according to God’s heart. Although he did not return to Jerusalem, he prayed for God’s economy, opening his windows toward Jerusalem three times a day (Dan. 6:10). He prayed for the Lord’s recovery of Jerusalem, and he expected to see it. Eventually, the Lord answered his prayer. The latter part of the Old Testament concerns the recovery. In this age of confusion, the only way for the Lord to carry out His economy is by recovery. Recovery means that in the midst of today’s confusion and division the Lord is calling out a remnant of His people to return to the original ground, to come back to the original standing. After their seventy-year captivity, a small number of Jews returned to Jerusalem and rebuilt the temple. Although this temple was inferior to the original temple built by Solomon, the site, the ground, of the temple was the same. That is the Lord’s recovery.
According to the book of Deuteronomy, the Jewish people realized that God wanted His people to build His temple only in the place He had chosen. This place was Mount Moriah, which later became Mount Zion. No Jew has ever had the boldness to build the temple in any other place. Today the Jews are anxious to rebuild the temple, but they do not have the site. When the ancient Jews were scattered, they were taken to Egypt, to Assyria, and mainly to Babylon. One day God called them back to their own land, and a small minority returned. That was the recovery. Suppose, while Daniel was praying, one of the scribes would say, “God is omnipresent. If God could be there in Jerusalem, can He not also be here with us in Babylon? Let us build a temple here.” But even if they had built a temple exactly the same in design, size, and material as the temple constructed by Solomon, it would not have been recognized as the temple because it would have been on the wrong ground, the wrong site.
Those who actually returned to Jerusalem were not as good as Daniel was. When I was young, I could not understand why, according to Ezra and Nehemiah, so many poor Jews returned to the good land. It seemed that they were in a pitiful situation. However, although they built a temple that was smaller in size, inferior in material, and different in design from Solomon’s temple, because it was built on the proper site, God confirmed by His glory that it was the temple. Today the Jews are awaiting the return of this site, which is presently occupied by a Muslim mosque. Under this mosque is supposed to be the place where Abraham offered Isaac. Throughout the centuries many have recognized that the site on which this mosque now stands is the site of the temple. The fact that the so-called Wailing Wall is not far from the mosque confirms this. Although the Jews may have everything needed for the rebuilding of the temple, they do not yet have the site. By this we see that the site, the ground, means a great deal.
Now we must consider what the ground of the church is. The ground of the church is the genuine oneness. The church is one. No division has the ground of the church, for division is the opposite of oneness. The way to discern whether or not a Christian group is a division is to apply the six tests given in the foregoing chapter. We need to ask whether a group has a particular name, a particular fellowship, a particular doctrine, a fellowship that is not universal, a separate administration, or a hidden connection with some organization.
Now we need to consider further the question of motive. When it comes to the church, we must have a pure motive, seeking nothing for ourselves. Our motive must be singly for the Lord’s recovery. Although we may be ignorant to some degree, if our motive is pure, we shall be always ready to receive light. But if we are unwilling to receive light, this indicates that our motive is not genuine. We must consider whether our motive is absolutely for the Lord’s recovery. If not, our motive is wrong. We may be right in every respect outwardly, but we are still wrong inwardly.
I first came to Shanghai in 1933. At that time I met a brother who had come into the church at the very beginning of the practice of the church life in Shanghai. He earnestly desired to be an elder. Although apparently he zealously loved the Lord, he was not the proper person to be an elder. He simply did not have that kind of capacity. He came into the church life in 1928. When twenty years later, in 1948, he was still not an elder, he set up another meeting in his hometown and supported a preacher, doing the same thing as Micah in Judges 17.
During the past fourteen years, there have been a few among us in the United States who expected to become elders. When they were not appointed an elder in one locality, they moved by way of migration to another locality. The more they expected to become elders, the more obvious it became that they should not be elders. After going from city to city without being put into the eldership, they eventually turned their back on the church and left. Nothing tests our motive like the church. The church is a pure golden lampstand, and it cannot tolerate any mixture. We all must be purified. We need to pray, saying, “Lord, make me pure. Now that I am in Your recovery, I ask You to purify me.”
None of us in the Lord’s recovery should be ambitious. In the recovery, ambition is over. Moreover, none of us should be conscious of position. It is much better not to have any positions. Furthermore, never expect to be a leader. Likewise, you should not say that you would never be a leader or that you do not like to be a leader. Whether or not in the Lord’s life you have the capacity to be a leading one is up to the Lord. But you must be the same whether you are a leader or not. If you are not a leader, then you must still be a living, functioning member. Otherwise, the Lord will have no way among us. You should not be humble and say, “I will never be a leader.” Neither should you be ambitious and desire to be a leader. If you feel unhappy when a brother or sister is made a leader, it reveals that your motive has not been purified.
My heart is constantly aching because of the situation among Christians. Look at the situation in Catholicism, Protestantism, Pentecostalism, and the free groups. Where is the way for the Lord to build up His church? We need to be clear about the Lord’s recovery and His economy, and we must be pure in our motive.
None of us should have a condemning attitude toward others. You must exercise wisdom in applying what you hear in these messages. The messages in the Lord’s ministry must be faithful to His burden and tell people the real situation. However, this does not mean that you should go out and criticize those in Catholicism, the denominations, or the free groups, telling them that they are divisive and that only the local church is right. This is not wise. On the other extreme, you should not be political, pretending to be something that you are not. We all must be what we are, yet with the exercise of wisdom. When we contact people, we must help them according to their condition and situation. Do not tell the unsaved about the church. Rather, minister to them something concerning the forgiveness of sins and the imparting of life. You may meet some who are saved but who have never consecrated themselves to the Lord. Thus, you should help them become consecrated people. At some point you may meet a person who truly loves the Lord and who is seeking after the Lord’s heart. Then, with discernment, you may share something with him concerning the Lord’s economy and His recovery today.
In this day of division and confusion you must be on the alert not to be cheated, deceived, or influenced by anyone. At the same time you must have much contact with the Lord, praying individually and corporately and fellowshipping to seek the Lord’s leading in contacting people according to their situation and condition. I hope that the young people will come together in groups to pray and fellowship about all these matters. This will make you more clear about them and help you to contact others.
The most crucial need among the young people is to learn how to be strong in spirit and rich in the experience of Christ. Whenever you come to the meetings of the church, you must have a strong spirit, and you must be rich in the experience of Christ. These are the two items covered by the Lord Jesus in John 4:24. In this verse the Lord said, “God is Spirit, and those who worship Him must worship in spirit and truthfulness.” Truthfulness here refers to Christ experienced by us. As we have pointed out, in ancient times God’s people were commanded to do two things in their public worship of God. First, they had to go to the place chosen by God, which was Jerusalem. Second, they had to bring the rich produce of the good land to offer to God. Today we are no longer in the type; we are in the reality. The place to which we must go is not the physical Jerusalem; it is our human spirit. We must come together to meet in our spirit, the New Testament Jerusalem. Not only should we come in our spirit; we must come with our hands full of Christ, full of the rich produce of the good land. We should be in the spirit, and we should have the riches of Christ to offer to God for His satisfaction. Then, with others, we shall enjoy this satisfaction before God and with God.
Young people, you must be clear about four matters: the church, the way to contact people, the spirit, and the experience of Christ. Do not come to the meetings in your mind—come in your strong spirit. To meet with others in the mind is to be in Babylon, but to meet with them in spirit is to be in Jerusalem. We must meet together in our human spirit, the place designated by God. But do not come empty-handed—come with your hands full of Christ. Come to the meetings in a strong, fresh, bold spirit, and come full of the experiences of Christ. Please pray about these matters and then practice them.
