(3)
In the past several messages we have mainly covered the history of Noah. In those messages we saw how the ark made by Noah passed through the water and ushered Noah and his family into a new age. According to typology, at that time Noah and his family were living in resurrection, and that kind of living was a shadow of the church life. This shadow of the church life in resurrection reveals how the church people are resurrected with Christ, how they worship God with Christ, and how they resume God's original purpose of expressing God and representing Him. Furthermore, this shadow shows how the church people live under God's covenant. We may call them the covenanted people. Whatever they do is under God's covenant and is full of blessing. We have also seen that, unfortunately, in that shadow of the church life there was a failure, for, in a sense, Noah, God's deputy authority, failed God. Due to that failure certain things were exposed. Some received a blessing and others received a curse.
In this message we must consider an aspect of the church life that is not pleasant. There is a glorious side to church history and there is also a shameful side, an unpleasant side. We need to look at this unpleasant side.
After the flood, Noah and his family had a new beginning. There was a real unity among them. They were one in everything. Firstly, they were one with God. As people in resurrection (in typology the number eight denotes resurrection) these eight people were one with God. They worshipped one God. Secondly, they had only one goal: to express God and represent Him. Their goal was to return to the purpose that God had at the beginning. At the beginning, God purposed that man would express Him with His image and represent Him with His dominion. After the flood, the new race returned to God's original purpose, expressing God and representing Him. Thirdly, these eight people were one in their opinion, language, concept, and understanding. They all spoke the same thing. They were all truly one.
As the days went by, more and more people were produced. The population increased tremendously. The result was division. They were not only divided into families and generations, but also into nations. A nation is a kingdom, an empire in which someone exercises authority as the so-called head. Whenever someone exercises authority over others, that is an empire, a nation. At the beginning of the new age of life in resurrection, there was only one deputy head, Noah, who represented God, the true Head. There was one family with one head. That was a complete unity. Eventually, however, the descendants of Noah were not only divided into families, but also into nations. That was terrible.
As we have pointed out several times in previous messages, Genesis, an all-inclusive book, is a book of seeds. Nearly everything that is revealed in the entire Bible is sown in this book as a seed. The seeds sown in the book of Genesis develop in the remaining books of the Bible, becoming a harvest in the book of Revelation. This is also true of the seed of division. The seed of division is sown in Genesis 10, grows in the New Testament Epistles, and becomes a harvest in the book of Revelation. Now we must take some time to consider this seed of division among God's people.
Originally God's people were one. Why were they one? Although they were one because the family element held them together, the main factor of their oneness was their one God. Noah and his family worshipped one God. This one God is the main factor that keeps God's people in unity. Noah's family was one because they worshipped the one, unique God. The worship of God is crucial. When the worship of God is changed, the whole situation among God's people is also changed. When there are different worships among God's people, there are divisions among them. Thus, the main factor that preserved the oneness of the new race was that they had no God other than the one, true God. Likewise, we have only one God. We worship the unique God. Our God is uniquely one. Therefore, we also are one. Eph. 4:6 speaks of one God and Father. Because we have only one God and Father, we are one.
Furthermore, as I have already mentioned, Noah and his family were one because they shared one, unique goal. Neither Noah nor his sons were for their own interests. They were all for God's goal. What was God's goal? God's goal was that man should express Him and represent Him. Noah and his family had no other God and no other goal. Their goal was not farming, education, or industry. Their goal was not their own self-interests. Their unique goal was to express God and represent Him. We must be deeply impressed with this. Although we have one God, we may have different goals. If we have different goals, we shall be divided. What is your goal? Is it to make a name for yourself or to be famous? Is it to build up something other than God's purpose? We are here in Anaheim to express God and represent Him. We have a strong standing to declare to the whole universe, even to Satan and to all the rebellious angels, principalities, powers, and demons, that we, the local churches, are standing one with God for His purpose. Our unique goal is to express our God. We are here to express Him.
I would like to say a simple word to some of the new ones who have been visiting our meetings. Do you realize what we are expressing here? Our people are not that intelligent or well-dressed. The leading ones have no beauty, form, or attraction. We have no grand piano or pipe organ. We do not even have a sign. What are we? We are nothing. We are just a voice in the wilderness (John 1:23). When you come to our meetings, you can see nothing outwardly. But in all probability you do see something — God Himself expressed. Perhaps after attending a meeting you wonder within yourself, "My, it was very good there with them, but I can't pin down exactly in what way they are good. Their singing is not that musical. No one is dressed in an attractive way. There is no outward beauty or form. But, there is something there among them." This "something" is the expression of God. God is our expression. He is our form, beauty, and attraction. As the church, we have returned to God's original purpose, to the purpose He had in the beginning — that man express Him and represent Him. This is the Lord's recovery.
As the church, we do represent God. This is why many times we pray, "Lord, we give You the command. You must do something. We are here representing You, not ourselves. Since we are Your representation, You must do something for Yourself." Can you pray such a prayer? Do you dare to pray in this way? Unless you stand in the position of representing God, your conscience will not allow you to utter such a prayer. But once you stand in the position of representing God, your conscience will confirm and strengthen you to say, "Lord, we give You the command. You must vindicate Your way. This is Your recovery, Your purpose. You must intervene. Since we are not here representing anything else but You, Lord, You must come in." This is the proper church life. As long as we are such, we have the unique unity. We are uniquely one. There is no need for us to say, "Brother, let us be one." If we need to say this, it is already too late to be one. As long as we go back to the beginning, to God's original purpose that man express Him and represent Him, we are spontaneously one. We are one because we have one goal.
Why, then, were the people divided? They were divided because they began to have different worships and because they had different goals, interests, and purposes. Genesis 10:31 reveals four ways in which the people were divided: according to their families; according to their languages, that is, according to their different words, concepts, understandings, and utterances; according to their different lands; and according to their different nations. Let me say a little about each of these four items.
What does a family signify? It signifies a relationship in the flesh. Many people do not care for God, for His purpose, or for His interests. They only care for their family. Why are they one with their family? Simply because their family is composed of their relatives. The principle is the same among the Lord's people today. Many divisions have been caused by relationships in the flesh. Every fleshly relationship is the start of a division. Although we may not be in the same family according to the flesh, we may have a fleshly relationship nonetheless. Perhaps you love a certain brother because he is the kind of person that you love, yet you may not love other kinds of people. If you love certain people because they are the kind of people that you love, you are a fleshly family, forming relationships according to your fleshly taste. Thus, in order to maintain genuine unity, we must overcome the fleshly relationships.
Another cause of division is language. Language not only means speech; it means the utterance of your understanding. Language is the expression of your concept. Divisions may be caused by our differing understandings and concepts. You hold one concept, I hold another, and a third person holds still another. Eventually, the three of us will speak different languages. Although we all may speak English, we each speak in our own way, talking in our own language. This will result in fighting and division. We have families because of our fleshly interests and we have languages because of different concepts and utterances. These different utterances cause fighting, and fighting brings in division. Look at Christian history. At the beginning, many dear saints were absolutely one. However, at a certain time some of those saints took in different concepts and began to speak differently; they began to talk a different language. That caused trouble. This is the history of the division in Christianity throughout the centuries. Language truly is a factor of division.
What do the lands signify? They signify territories. When I was young, I learned that the missionaries who went to my province preaching the same Lord and the same gospel held a conference in which they divided a part of that province among themselves. They said that a certain territory belonged to the Southern Baptists and that other territories belonged to the Presbyterians, Open Brethren, etc. They divided that part of the country into four or five territories. They were strict about this, saying to those who encroached upon their territory, "Why do you come to our territory to preach? Don't you know that we have agreed to divide this part of the country into territories?"
The Lord has led us to release the matter of the church ground of locality in the United States. Ten years ago the church ground of locality was strongly opposed. Now it has become a hot item on the market. People are talking about the local church, and many are proclaiming that they are the local church in their locality. However, so many groups have not become local churches but local sects. Some have said to us, "We are the local church here. Don't come to bother us." Others say, "We are the local church here and we have the autonomy." What is this autonomy? It is the dividing of the land for the sake of the self. When people say, "Don't bother us — we are the local church in this locality," in God's sight they are a local sect, not a local church. Today the divisive people will use any excuse to be divisive. Yes, all the local churches are locally independent, yet universally they are one Body. We may say that there are many local churches, but we can never say that there are many bodies. Although there may be a thousand local churches, the Body of Christ universally is still one. Christ does not have more than one Body. If the brothers here in Anaheim would proclaim that they are the church in Anaheim and that others should not bother them, they immediately become a local sect. They have divided the land.
Let us take the example of the United States, a nation composed of fifty states. These fifty states are not divided lands. We can travel from one state to another. You may be a citizen in California today and a citizen in Oregon tomorrow. A short while later you may move to Arizona and become a citizen there. Although the United States is composed of fifty states, it is not divided into fifty lands.
Once you have become a fleshly family, you will have an opinionated language and a divisive way of dividing the land. Eventually, you will become a nation. It is meaningful that in English the word denomination includes the word nation. In typology, it is a nation; in Christianity, it is a denomination. A denomination means that which is denominated. In typology there are the nations, such as Ethiopia, Egypt, Sheba, etc.; in Christianity there are the denominations, such as Lutheran, Presbyterian, Episcopalian, etc. All of these are nations or denominations. All are divided.
When I was saved, all the pastors and ministers were happy to use the word denomination. Then the Lord raised us up to condemn the denominations, and the pastors and ministers stopped using this term. Although they no longer used the term denomination, they still held on to the different names. Do you realize that every name is a division? Every denomination, every naming, is a division. Do not say that our name is "the local church." We do not have a name. The moon, for example, has no name; it is just the moon. We should simply call the moon "moon." Some people have said that the American moon is brighter than the Chinese moon. But there is no such thing as an American moon or a Chinese moon. The most you can say is the moon in America or the moon in China. It is one moon. There is only the one moon. Likewise, the church is simply the church. The term "local church" is not our name; it is the designation of our nature. We are not the divisive and divided so-called churches; we are the church in a locality. Thus the term "local church" denotes our nature; it is not our name. Do not consider "the local church" as a name. The most we can say is the church in a certain locality, such as the church in Los Angeles, the church in Anaheim, etc.
There is no king in a family. The head of the family is not a king. When you differ in your opinion or expression, you still do not have a king. When you divide the land, there probably is still no king. However, once you become denominated and become a nation, you acquire a king and you are divided immediately. Originally, unity was based upon one God and one goal and division was caused by many different worships, even worships of different objects with different interests and purposes. Eventually families were formed, language was expressed, the land was divided into territories, and the nations, or we may say the denominations, were formed. The result was division. If you look into the history of Christianity, you will see that it was divided in precisely this way.
During the 1930's I spoke a great deal on this matter of denominations. One day, upon returning to my hometown after a period of absence, some friends invited me to feast with a number of older Christian leaders who knew me quite well. When I went there, I discovered that I, a man of a little over thirty years of age, was surrounded by a group of old men, each one being more than sixty years of age. One of them, taking the lead to speak to me, said, "Mr. Lee, in the past years in your preaching you have condemned the denominations. We wish to ask you why, since you have been preaching against the denominations, you yourself have formed another denomination?" They thought that they had already defeated me. I replied, "I am glad to be here with you all, for this is the best time for me to clear up this whole matter. The Apostle Paul rebuked the Corinthians for saying, 'I am of Apollos,' 'I am of Paul,' and 'I am of Cephas.' Some even said, 'I am of Christ.' The Apostle Paul rebuked all of those divisive persons at Corinth (1 Cor. 1:11-13). You all say that you are either Baptist, Presbyterian, or the Chinese Independent. Tell me from your sincere heart, if the Apostle Paul were here, would you be approved by the Apostle Paul?" They said, "No. Of course, Paul would never approve us." They were honest. They had to be honest because I had pinned them down already. Then I continued, "Since you agree that it is not right to say, 'I am Baptist' or 'I am Presbyterian,' then where do you put me? Will you put me in your Presbyterian denomination, or in your Baptist or Chinese Independent?" They said, "We don't put you anywhere." Then I said, "But you have to put me somewhere. Shouldn't I stay somewhere?" They were shocked. Then I proceeded, "By the Lord's mercy and grace, I surely love Him. Since I love Him, I must preach the gospel to the unbelievers. Many have been saved through my preaching. Where shall I put them? To which denomination shall I send them — to the Baptist, Presbyterian, the Chinese Independent?" They had nothing to say. Then I said, "Do you see the situation? Now do you see why on the one hand I preach against divisions and why on the other hand, it seems to you that I form another division? We need to come together. We are not one with you because you force us into not being one with you. Now if you promise me that from tomorrow you will take down all of your signs and forget about all your different names, then I promise you that I will have fellowship with all the brothers tonight and that we will close our meeting hall immediately. Then we can come together as one church in this city. How about this?" At this point, they said, "No, we can't do this." I concluded, "Since you will not do this, then who is responsible for the divisions?" After that night until the day I left mainland China, none of them bothered me again. They had lost the case in the heavenly court. They wanted to keep their divisive, denominational names. Some wanted to say, "We are the Chinese Independent. Nothing is better than this." Others would say, "We are third generation Presbyterians. How can we renounce this name?" Still others wanted to say, "We are Baptists. The Baptists are much better than Presbyterians. They only have sprinkling, which is not right, but we have immersion." We are all familiar with this kind of fighting.
When we came over to the island of Taiwan, the Lord blessed the work. We increased in number from less than five hundred to more than twenty thousand. During a ten-day conference in Taipei in 1957, I gave at least thirty messages on the ground of unity. After those ten days, all the elders felt that we should contact some of the leading free groups in the city of Taipei. There were at least two or three groups claiming to be nonsectarian or nondenominational, simply meeting in the name of the Lord. At first, we sent two or three elders to visit these groups to have a thorough talk with them regarding the unity among the saints. Then we invited each of the groups to send some of their leaders to meet with us. When we all came together, we said to them, "Brothers, perhaps you are thinking that since we are so great in number compared with you, we will maneuver the situation. Be at peace. We have a sincere heart in talking with you. We mean business for the Lord's recovery and for the genuine unity of the Body. We are willing to resign from the eldership and allow you brothers to be the elders. We are willing to put all the properties of all the meeting halls into your hands. Furthermore, we are willing to hold a conference to tell all the saints to be one with you and to be submissive to you all. We promise you this and we are even willing to put it in writing and sign it." They were pinned down immediately. Then they said, "Brothers, we appreciate your sincerity, but we still want to be by ourselves." The leaders of each group said the same thing. We learned from this that they did not want to be one. Why were they unwilling to be one? Because they enjoyed having their own little empires, their own little nations.
After World War I, Mr. Wilson of the United States and the leaders of Great Britain and France formed the League of Nations in an attempt to unite all the nations of the world. It ended in failure. Then, after World War II, Mr. Roosevelt and other world leaders worked to form the United Nations. Are the nations really united? They are only united in their fightings. The same thing in principle happened in my hometown about fifty years ago. Soon after I was saved, I went to see my pastor and asked him why the Christians were so divided. He said, "Oh, you must be encouraged. I have some good news for you. All the denominations in our town are going to be united." After not long a time the same pastor told me that the more they tried to be united, the more they divided. In their conference held for the purpose of unity they were fighting against one another. If you do not believe me, gather together all the leaders of the denominations and see what will happen. All of them will utter something different. They may all speak in English, but they will all be talking with different concepts. You will see the divisions among them.
It is a curse to be dissenting and to speak differently. If you are dissenting, you will be the first to suffer a curse. If you speak differently, you will deaden your spirit first. Undoubtedly you will damage the church life, but you yourself will suffer the greatest loss. It is never a blessing to be dissenting or to speak differently; it is always a curse. During the past forty-five years of watching and observing, I have never seen one dissenter who did not suffer a loss. Brothers, there is no need for us to be dissenting. Do we not have one God? Do we not have one Bible? Do we not believe in the one Lord? Since we have one God, one Bible, and one Lord, let us forget about all the dissenting concepts, and speak the same thing for the Lord's interests. This was the reason that the Apostle Paul admonished us all to "speak the same thing, and that there be no divisions among you, but that you be attuned in the same mind and in the same opinion" (1 Cor. 1:10), and "to be likeminded one toward another according to Christ Jesus, that you may with one accord and one mouth glorify" God (Rom. 15:5-6).
During the first year of my work in the Lord's recovery in this country, I was invited to Tyler, Texas. Because I knew that Christians always hold different opinions, I was quite careful and cautious. I did not shout or say, "Amen, Praise the Lord," in a loud way. While some were praying, I sat there and quietly said, "Amen, Lord," thinking that no one could hear me. Eventually, someone said, "Brother Lee, you probably don't know the custom here. The people are not accustomed to hearing amen." I stopped my audible amens. Later some came to me and said, "The people in this country do not agree with saying amen in the service." Years ago, in some of the so-called Wesleyan churches they had an "amen corner," and anyone who wanted to say amen had to sit there. We should not be bothered by such things as saying amen. Whether or not people say amen or whether they say it loudly or quietly, it should be all right with us.
There is much argument regarding baptism. Some say that sprinkling is the right way. Some say that only immersion is scriptural. Some insist on immersing people forwards, some backwards. Some insist on immersing once, some three times. Others argue about the type of water used, whether it should be hot or cold, salt or fresh, in a man-made pool, or in a natural lake, river, or sea. There are many different opinions. We should not be divided by all this. As long as we all worship one God and believe in the one Lord Jesus Christ, the Son of God, who was incarnated to be our Savior, who died on the cross for our sins by shedding His blood for our redemption, who was resurrected on the third day, and who is now the Lord in the heavens as well as life within us, we should all be one and not be divided by anything.
After the Lord led us to practice the pray-reading of God's Word and to call on the name of the Lord, some Christians began to oppose us in these matters. Some criticized us and others even condemned us evilly for these two things. If pray-reading or calling on the name of the Lord will change one's life, then I am in favor of it. It is ten thousand times better than going to the movies or attending sporting events. And it is much better than rock music.
Regarding the matter of the Trinity, according to the Bible we believe in the one God, the Triune God — the Father, the Son, and the Spirit. We believe exactly in what the Bible says. But some say, in their definition of the Trinity according to their concept, that the "Father, Son, and Spirit are three distinct persons in the nature of one God." Then what about this one God? Is He not a person? As the Father is a person, the Son is a person, and the Spirit is a person, so God Himself must also be a person. If so, then there must be four persons in the one God. To talk about the Trinity with this kind of terminology causes trouble and entangles those who use it. We should not get involved in it. Griffith Thomas, famous for his exposition on Romans, says in The Principles of Theology, "The term 'Person'... must not be pressed too far or it will lead to Tritheism..The truth and experience of the Trinity is not dependent on theological terminology." The Trinity is an unfathomable mystery. No one can explain it adequately. We can only say that according to the Bible there is one, unique God; that He is triune, the Father, Son, and Spirit; and that Isa. 9:6 says that the Son is the Father, and 2 Cor. 3:17 tells us that the Lord is the Spirit. We simply believe all that the Bible says. We can say nothing more. Those who hold the concept of three distinct persons "in the nature of one God" may be Christian brothers, but they are divisive because of their opinion and terminology. Even if they hold that kind of concept, as long as they believe in the one, Triune God, the Father, the Son, and the Spirit, and in the Lord Jesus who is the Son of God incarnated to be our Savior, who died on the cross for our sins by shedding His blood for our redemption, who was resurrected on the third day, and who is now the Lord in the heavens as well as life within us, we would recognize them as brothers in Christ. We believe in the Trinity according to the pure Word of the Bible. We should not be opinionated by holding divisive theological concepts or terminology. We are here for the unity of the Body in the Lord's recovery. Dissenting brings in the curse, but unity brings in the blessing. "How good and how pleasant it is for brethren to dwell together in unity, for there the Lord commanded the blessing, even life for evermore" (Psa. 133:1, 3).
Out of the nations, Babel came up. This signifies that out of the denominations, Babylon came out. All the divisions and denominations will consummate in the great Babylon. Babylon is the Greek equivalent of the Hebrew word Babel. If you read the New Testament, you can see that from among the divisions of Christianity, that is, from among all the denominations, Babylon comes out. All the nations in ancient times issued in Babel, and all the denominations in Christianity eventually will consummate in the great Babylon. Once again we see that Genesis is a book of seeds, for here in Genesis 10 we have the seed of Babylon and in Revelation 17 and 18 we have the harvest of Babylon the great.
Babel came out of the nations that were along the line of the curse (10:6, 8). The cursed line was with Ham. Cush, the builder of Babel, was Ham's son, and Nimrod, the son of Cush, became the first king over the kingdom of Babel.
This is a type of Christianity. Christianity is altogether typified by the nations. Out of the nations Babel came out of the cursed line. What was the cause of the curse? Rebellion. Ham was cursed because of his rebellion against God's government. The descendants of Ham, under God's curse because of Ham's rebellion against the divine government, were utilized by Satan to set up his satanic system, Babel. The same is true today. Babylon has been built by Christians who do not care for God's government but for their own kingdom.
In every denomination, including the Roman Catholic Church, there are real, saved Christians. They are God's people belonging to the Lord. But the organization of the denominations in which they are is not of God. The denominational organizations have been utilized by Satan to set up his satanic system to destroy God's economy of the proper church life. All real believers, regardless of where they are, in the denominations or even in the Roman Catholic Church, are saved, but the system, the evil organization, is under God's judgment.
Nimrod was the first king of Babel who, according to history, brought in many idolatrous things (10:10). That idolatrous worship invented a most demonic emblem, the Madonna with her child. According to the book, The Two Babylons, the Madonna was the mother of Nimrod and also his wife. This emblem, invented by the Babylonian worship, spread throughout the earth — to Egypt, India, Greece, pagan Rome, Tibet, China, and Japan. It even has pervaded Roman Catholicism. When the Roman Catholic Church sent missionaries to China a few hundred years ago, those missionaries found the same emblem in the Buddhist idol temples and sent a report about this back to the Vatican. This is documented in The Two Babylons. Before I was saved, I went, as a child, to a Catholic cathedral in China and saw this emblem. In the same period of time, I visited a Chinese Buddhist temple and saw the same picture there. After I was saved, I told people in my preaching that, in some things, Catholicism and Buddhism are of the same source. The same emblem of a mother embracing her child is found in the Catholic cathedrals and in the Buddhist idol temples. This exposes the source of some of the things in today's Catholicism.
As the nations issued in Babel, the denominations eventually will issue in the great Babylon. These are not pleasant words to hear. But do not be troubled. When the nations became Babel, God intervened to call out Abraham. He did something better than what He had done before. The history of Abraham is much better than that of Noah. Who are today's Abraham? The church people. In a sense, we are today's Noah; in another sense, we are today's Abraham. Concerning this evil generation, we are today's Noah and concerning denominational Christianity, we are today's Abraham who has been called out of Babel. We shall see more of Abraham's life in the following messages.
