According to His economy, God created man, accomplished redemption, and produced the church. His desire, however, is that out of those whom He created and redeemed He would gain a group of people who truly live for Him on the earth. Yet two thousand years after God accomplished redemption and produced the church, He has yet to gain this group of people that He longs for.
History shows us that in the Old Testament God had gained the patriarchs throughout the generations and also the people of Israel. Later, the Israelites became degraded. God was greatly disappointed so He judged them. Even today, the Israelites are still under God’s judgment. Although God in His grace left them a seed (Rom. 9:29) and also allowed the nation of Israel to be restored in 1948, today in our generation, before our eyes, the nation of Israel is in a condition far away from God, not knowing God at all. What they have passed down through the generations consists only of the Old Testament, which is a book of letters, and Judaism, which is a religion formed with Old Testament laws and regulations. If we travel to the land of Israel, we will see that everything is according to the letter, superstition, ritual, and religion. They know absolutely nothing concerning God, God’s economy, and what God wants to gain on this earth. There is a very great gap between what they possess and what we have received in the church in the recent years.
As to the church, in the last two thousand years we can see the Catholic Church, the Protestant churches, and the Eastern Orthodox Church. Similar to the Jews, they have only the Bible remaining with them. They may read it, but many comprehend only the letter with nearly no understanding of the spiritual significances contained in them and without the knowledge of even the basic truths. In addition, we see a formal religion, that is, the so-called Christianity, which has become a great religion. Even today in Taiwan, there are many pastors and believers in Christianity who are no different from the people in the world. Therefore, even though God created man, accomplished redemption, and produced the church, it seems that He has gained nothing.
Throughout the ages God has been doing a continual work of recovery. He recovers again and again, recovering repeatedly. However, the degradation of the church keeps going downhill. We all know that when a torrent of water rushes down a mountain, nothing can withstand its force. It is impossible to reverse the flow of the water. In one sense, it is truly quite glorious that you and I were born in this age, but in another sense it is painfully sad, because all that we encounter is corruption, degradation, and a downward situation.
Starting from the time World War I ended in 1918, when I was only fourteen or fifteen years old, I paid much attention to the world situation; it has been nearly seventy years since then. When I was studying in junior college, by coincidence, I came across a Chinese newsmagazine. By reading it my eyes were opened, and I started to understand the world situation. While I came to understand historical events from books, I also observed the development of the world situation. I came to the United States in 1961. In 1963, at a meeting where life and truth were released, I spoke a prophecy to all the people there. I said that one day the military forces of the world will gather in the Middle East to fight for the oil fields; because of the oil fields, the world’s wealth and its center will shift to the Middle East. This is what I came to understand through sixty years of observation of the world situation and my study of history and biblical prophecies.
We can say that the entire world history is a fulfillment of the prophecies in the Bible. However, the Bible does not have a prophecy concerning a great revival of the church at the end of this age. A century earlier, a group of teachers who expounded the Bible claimed that there would be a great revival. Although I believed their claim at the time, after reading the Bible again, gradually I realized that there is not such a thing. Using the early rain and the late rain in the Old Testament as the basis (Deut. 11:14; Jer. 5:24; Joel 2:23; Zech. 10:1), those teachers said that the early rain denotes the Holy Spirit coming in an early stage, while the late rain denotes the Holy Spirit coming in a later stage, typifying that there will be a revival at the end of this age. They have misinterpreted the Bible. In the Bible, the early rain and the late rain are mentioned not in reference to the church but to the children of Israel.
The last book of the Bible, the book of Revelation written by the apostle John, contains seven epistles. The seven epistles are not long. They point out the errors of the churches, that some commit fornication and others practice idolatry. In principle, almost every epistle tells the church that she should repent and that if she will not, the Lord will come to her in a negative way. Then afterward there is always this word: “To him who overcomes,” or “He who overcomes.” This shows us that the Bible does not have a prophecy concerning a final revival; rather, it contains promises to the overcomers.
Now we would like to see what recovery is. Simply speaking, recovery is to overcome. Therefore, to be in the Lord’s recovery is to be in the Lord’s overcoming. To be in the Lord’s recovery is to turn around, by the Lord’s grace, and stand against the tide that is going downhill. This is not to say that we can reverse the tide but that we can stand in the middle of the current and not be carried away by it or flow along with it. This is to be in the recovery. We desire that the churches in the Lord’s recovery would all be able to stand against the tide. However, we are displeased and disappointed by the fact that the Lord’s recovery has been among us for only a little over sixty years, but in less than a century’s time, to our shame there have been some cases of failure every ten years. Some came into the flow of the Lord’s recovery, yet after a period of time they failed. Decade after decade, a group of people came in and another group dropped out. Therefore, with great sorrow we say that to this day, even in His recovery, the Lord has not been able to gain the group of people He wants to gain.
For this reason we have initiated the practice of changing the system and taking the new way. By changing the system and taking the new way we mean that we drop the old things and begin anew with a new way. What is the new way? It is the way that fully meets the Lord’s standard. What the Lord desires today is to gain a group of people that fully meets His standard, living on the earth for Him.
In Genesis the first matter mentioned after God created man was related to eating. “Behold, I have given you every herb yielding seed that is on the surface of all the earth and every tree which has fruit yielding seed; it shall be for you as food” (1:29). Food is of supreme importance to the Chinese, and it is even more so to God. In the past in China, when we went out to invite people to hear our gospel preaching, we were frequently asked by some naughty ones, “Does Jesus provide meals? If He does, I will definitely go.” Of course, Jesus provides our meals; in God’s ordination man needs to eat for his existence.
The second matter mentioned in the Bible is marriage (2:18-25). Eating is for man’s existence, while marriage is for man’s continuation. The Bible does not say that eating should be held in high regard, but it says, “Let marriage be held in honor among all” (Heb. 13:4). The third matter mentioned in the Bible is clothing. God made for man coats of skins to cover his body (Gen. 3:21). The traditional but incorrect concept is that when we begin to love the Lord, we do not care about eating, marriage, and clothing. In other words, we give up everything and care only for the Lord. In actuality, eating, marriage, and clothing are three great necessities of human life. We are not to give them up, but we should not be occupied with them. We do not live for eating, marriage, or clothing; we live for the Lord. Today, however, two thousand years after Jesus accomplished redemption, God still has not gained such a group of people.