Question: If our consecration is due to the church’s arrangement, does this arrangement represent spiritual authority?
Answer: This question must be approached from another angle. For you to submit to the church’s arrangement, the church must be spiritual. If the church is in fellowship with the Lord, it will be spiritual. If the church is not spiritual, the arrangement will obviously be questionable. In a normal situation the church’s arrangement should be the leading of the Holy Spirit. At the same time, the church should also follow in whatever way the Holy Spirit leads. In other words, the church’s arrangement should be but a spiritual confirmation of whatever the Holy Spirit is doing in you. If you accept this arrangement, you will be benefited. On the other hand, you should not care only for the church’s arrangement without asking the Lord what His will is. Before the Lord you must make a proper decision and have a living fellowship with Him. In this fellowship you should have a feeling from the Lord and a decision from the Lord. But in order to avoid making a mistake, it is best to have the confirmation of the church.
From another perspective, we always need to learn spiritual lessons. To accept the church’s decision is certainly good; however, if your personal decision is not in accord with the church, yet you insist upon it, you have not learned the lesson. More specifically, you have not submitted to authority. To accept the church’s leading is to submit yourself to authority. This will cause you to learn a valuable spiritual lesson. Even if the church’s arrangement is wrong, as long as your heart is to submit to the Lord’s authority, you will still learn a valuable lesson. The unique cause of our spiritual problems is our self. God has established His authority in us so that we can lose our self and have no authority of our own. Spiritual authority is for dealing with our self.
What does the self refer to? What is the definition of the self? The self refers mainly to our opinions. Matthew 16 reveals that the self is related mainly to our opinions. The Lord speaks of not setting the mind on the things of God but on the things of men (v. 23). Then He goes on to say, “If anyone wants to come after Me, let him deny himself” (v. 24). This shows that the self is in the expression of one’s opinions, because to not set the mind on the things of God but on the things of men is to express oneself through the opinions in one’s mind.
In order for you to progress, there is an authority in you that causes you to lose your opinions; it causes your self to be broken. The church’s arrangement for you may be wrong, but the authority is right.
The more the arrangement is wrong, the greater the breaking of the self will be. Generally, none of us has a problem submitting to the arrangement of a spiritual person. But when someone who is not spiritual makes the arrangement, we find ourselves unable to submit; our self comes out immediately. If we are able to submit even to a wrong arrangement, our self will be severely broken.
Question: Sometimes the feeling we have within is unclear. Is it wrong to take the environment or the church as our confirmation?
Answer: Some people are very clear concerning what is right and what is wrong. Both the feeling within and the leading without seem to indicate a “yes”; the two are about the same. For some the “yes” may be very clear, but for others the “yes” may be very hazy. The end result, however, should be the same. When one is unclear, it is right to give oneself to the environment or the church. Some people are truly unclear and therefore can decide only according to what the environment or the church says. If you ask which kind of person is better, I would say that both are good. Whether or not you are clear, you should allow the environment and the church to determine your arrangement.
On the other hand, your being unclear within is an indication that you are not strong enough before the Lord; this is why you do not know or understand. Under these circumstances, you have no alternative but to give yourself over to the church or the environment. Of course, this is the right thing to do, but from the standpoint of your spiritual condition, this is not so good. We should always learn to be in the Lord more.
Question: There is a religion that teaches people to love all creatures. Is it all right for Christians to kill animals?
Answer: To not kill animals is a thought from Buddhism; it is a human concept. Strictly speaking, it is something from Satan. Before man’s fall there were two things that were different from today. First, before man’s fall God ordained that man would eat vegetables, not meat. Second, the other creatures did not harm man; in other words, there was no mutual killing. However, from the time man fell and sin entered into the world, God told man to eat meat (Gen. 9:3) and kill animals as sacrifices (3:21; 4:4). At the same time, animals began to kill one another. Hence, eating meat was something that came in after man’s fall.
To eat meat signifies that man is fallen and needs redemption. If man had not fallen, there would be no need for him to eat meat. It would suffice for man to eat only vegetables. In the Bible both meat and vegetables have a symbolic meaning. Meat denotes redemption. Redemption is a basic concept; it is a dispensational application that God has for fallen mankind. Satan created a religion specifically to counter this. The people who follow this religion believe that not killing animals is a virtue, not knowing that this kind of teaching is used by Satan to contradict God’s redemption. God says that, in principle, redemption requires the killing of animals, but Satan says that we should not kill animals. The religion created by Satan teaches moral cultivation, which depends on works; therefore, this religion advocates vegetarianism. Christians depend only on the blood of Christ for the forgiveness of sins (Heb. 9:22); based on this, Christians eat meat. The satanic religion declares to God that man will not depend on the blood but will depend on works. This is why Paul says in 1 Timothy 4 that the commandment to abstain from certain foods is the teaching of demons (vv. 1-5), which is of Satan. Eating only vegetables signifies man’s dependence on his own works. Religion discourages people from eating meat and encourages people to eat only vegetables; this is Satan’s idea.
The universe is filled with symbols of Christ (Col. 2:16-17). Thus, when the Lord Jesus ministered on the earth, He could use different things as figures of Himself. Religious people do not know that the teaching of not killing animals is a teaching from Satan, and they even consider that to abstain from killing animals is a good deed. Actually, this is Satan’s strategy to contradict God’s principle of redemption.
In Shansi Province there was once a sister who was demon-possessed. Under no circumstance would she eat meat, but she was very zealous. One day someone brought us a letter asking us to contact her. We asked her why she did not eat meat. She said that she simply would not. We told her that 1 Timothy says that abstinence from foods is the teaching of demons. She had no way to dismiss this proof from the Bible, but she still would not eat meat.
While she was abstaining from eating meat, we could sense that there were demons in her when we contacted her. When we meet a person who prays frequently, we can sense the measure of spirituality in that person. When we contacted this vegetarian sister, we could detect an atmosphere of confusion and darkness around her. If these two kinds of persons are praying in the same room, when we enter the room, we will sense a chaotic situation. On one hand, we will sense a spiritual atmosphere, but on the other hand, we will sense a dark situation. When we go to a place where a group of spiritual people is meeting, we immediately sense the warmth. This is not a psychological reaction; there is truly a spiritual element in this. When everyone is meeting together in a room to pray and sing, we will feel warm the moment we enter. Hence, we must realize that religious teaching to not kill animals or eat meat is from Hades and the demons.
Question: What should our attitude be toward blood?
Answer: The Bible says that we should not drink any kind of blood (Gen. 9:4) except our Lord’s blood (John 6:53-55) because only the Lord’s blood can save us. Blood is for redemption. Drinking the Lord’s blood signifies that we need redemption. Only the blood of the Lord Jesus can redeem us. The blood of animal sacrifices can only cover sins; it cannot take away sins (Heb. 10:4). This commandment regarding not drinking blood is still in effect even in the New Testament age. Blood has a symbolic meaning, signifying that Christ is our redemption. It is a mistake to drink the blood of animals, thinking that any kind of blood can save us. This is wrong. The proper receiving of the blood is the drinking of the cup at the Lord’s table meeting, which indicates that we acknowledge that only the Lord’s blood can save us.