Based upon what we have picked up by the crucial points and by the bird’s-eye view over an entire book and even over the entire Bible, we must learn how to go further based upon what we have read and studied. Church history shows us that throughout the centuries many Bible readers and teachers became contented once they got something really good from the Bible. They were not only satisfied with what they had, but they became contented and they became full. As a result, there was no more capacity in their being, so they became proud. They were stopped from going further, and they would not go on. You may have a bird’s-eye view of Matthew, Mark, Luke, John, Acts, and Romans. You may know all the crucial points in these books and you may even have a bird’s-eye view of the entire Bible. At this point you may have the attitude that you know the Bible and, thus, you would not go any further.
Church history tells us that at certain times God raised up and initiated some of His lovers into a new realm. They began to doubt the religious traditions of their day and they began to see something further. The Reformation is an illustration of this. About a century before Martin Luther’s time, the Lord raised up a certain environment that forced some of His seekers to realize that they were short in their vision and practice of what was contained in the divine revelation of the holy Word. Therefore, they began a new age and they were initiated into a new realm. They began to see. After Luther’s time, however, the Protestant churches stopped seeking further. The Lutheran churches and the state churches in Northern Europe held the belief of justification by faith, but these Protestant churches were mostly stopped from seeing anything further. Then there were many others who began to see things from the Bible, but the things that they saw were not in the central lane of the New Testament ministry. They began to see baptism by immersion, the presbytery, and the brotherhood of all the believers. Some others began to see some deeper things such as sanctification, but even they never got a proper, full, and thorough view of the Biblical sanctification.
Under the leadership of Zinzendorf there was a partial recovery of the church life in Bohemia. He was the first one to see something higher than the others, but still this was not adequate. Then the Brethren were raised up under the leadership of J. N. Darby and many precious Bible truths were unveiled. They saw something further, but they did not see the emphasis on Christ as life. They also never touched in a thorough and definite way the identification of Christ with the Holy Spirit. They knew Christ mostly in an objective way. They saw much more and went much further, but they did not call people’s attention to Christ as life and to Christ as the Spirit. They also talked about the church mostly in an objective way. They did not see the crucial, subjective aspects of the church, which include the church as the fullness, the new man, and the lampstand.
Later, thousands of missionaries went to China. Their teaching became shallow and superficial because they thought most of the Chinese people were not educated or knowledgeable. The missionaries had to establish schools to teach the Chinese. They even taught them their native language of Chinese so that they could be helped to read the Bible. Many of the missionaries at that time thought that the Chinese language was not adequate for the translation of the Bible. Even the Brethren held the attitude that in their “home assembly” they practiced faith in the Lord for their living; however, when they went to China they said that the Chinese people were not qualified to live by faith. Among the Brethren Assemblies in China, many of the British brothers were living by faith, but the Chinese preachers and “Bible women” were paid by the Brethren since they considered that the Chinese were not qualified, equipped, or able to live by faith. Also, when they taught, they taught in a low way. They lowered down their teaching purposely because they considered that the Chinese people could not understand the higher and deeper truths. They held the concept that they were superior. We should praise the Lord, however, that some among them were really men of God. They were not satisfied with this kind of preaching nor with this kind of attitude. They prayed very much.
I was born and educated in Christianity. I studied in a Christian school established by Americans and directed by an American principal. A number of us brothers, including Brother Nee, knew Christianity and were educated by Christianity. The Lord caught us and we began to investigate. Through much study we found that many of the things that we heard were superficial. Brother Nee took the lead to investigate the Bible teachings and to get into the depths of the Bible. He discovered that there were a lot of books written which were much deeper in their content than what we had heard. He began to buy many books and we were all influenced by him to buy many books concerning church history and the truths of the Bible. Then we presented everything in our mother tongue of Chinese—what the missionaries called the “native dialect.” As a result, we uplifted the preaching with a higher kind of Bible interpretation and we presented the higher and deeper truths. Then we expounded the Bible. This shocked many of the missionaries. They could not understand how native Chinese could expound the Bible in such a profound way. Some of them were convinced and turned to the way of the Lord’s recovery.
Because western Christianity had become more than contented, this kind of situation forced the Lord to do a new thing. Every denomination was contented. Even nearly every missionary was contented. Not many were seeking. But the Lord sovereignly created a kind of environment to raise up some “natives” to begin a new period of time. It was really new. We began to see new things from the Word. Actually, this was just a new understanding of the old, even ancient Bible. Actually this was nothing new. What we saw were old, ancient things already contained in the Bible, but to our view it was new. I relate this because I am concerned that you younger ones, after picking up the crucial points and the bird’s-eye view of the chapters, sections, books, and of the entire Bible, will become contented. Do not do this. All the things we have presented to you in the ministry are just “openers.”