History has clearly shown us that the existence of a denomination, free group, or the genuine church life all depends on the doctrines. If there are no doctrines, there is no church. Since the Lord’s recovery has come to the United States, we have stressed very much that the building up of the church depends upon the experience of Christ, upon the life-giving Spirit, and upon the matters of life. Seemingly, I am saying something different now, but in the past I occasionally indicated that the Pentecostal movement could never have anything built up. The Assembly of God, the solid and big denomination built up by the Pentecostal movement, was established in 1914. After fifty years of their existence in 1965, I heard that through their practice they had learned to charge their theological students not to go out with the expectation that the so-called Pentecostal gifts could build up the church. They charged their students to realize that the way to build up the church is to put out doctrines or teachings. Therefore, in the Assembly of God meetings they do not practice speaking in tongues. Mainly, they preach the gospel and teach the doctrines for edifying the saints. This does not mean that they gave up the speaking in tongues, but that they exercise these gifts in their private lives.
I say this to show you that even in the past I occasionally indicated strongly that the so-called “Spirit” cannot build up the church, but the solid truth or the solid doctrines can. Certainly, what kind of church you will build up depends upon what kind of truth you teach. Since 1962 here in the United States we have stressed greatly that the churches are built up not by mere doctrines but by Christ, by the Spirit, and by life. Since 1962 a great many messages have been put out on the truth. If we had not put out any messages on the truth since the recovery came to this country and we had merely learned to pray and to exercise in the gifts such as tongues and healings, today’s situation would be very poor. In the past, we practiced in this way for a short time, and we found out that the issue was poor. Through the years, however, we have stressed Christ, the Spirit, and life. In all the messages what we condemned was the empty, dead doctrines of dead letters. However, we fully realized that to produce the church, to have the church exist, and to build up the church we needed to put out the solid, living truths full of Christ, full of the Spirit, and full of life. God’s way to carry out His economy is to use His holy Word.
Suppose that on this earth among the human race there had never been such a book as the Bible. If we had not had a Bible in our hands during the past 2,000 years since the Lord Jesus resurrected and ascended to the heavens, everything would be in the air and nothing could be solid. Even the things concerning the Spirit could not be solid. The Spirit depends upon the Word. This is why the Lord said that the words that He spoke to us are spirit (John 6:63). The words which the Lord speaks are the solid spirit. Without the Word the Spirit is not so solid. Without the Word the Spirit might be just “a phantom.” Today, however, we have the Bible. In innumerable instances we have seen that whenever people contact the holy Word, many times they get the Spirit, but it is hard to give an instance where people touch the Spirit and then they get the Word. There are a great many instances, however, which show us that when you touch the Word you get the Spirit. This is history. A principle has been set up through history that there is the desperate need of the living truth to produce the church, to help the church exist, and to build up the church.
Through the past ten years up to the present time it has been fully proven among us that the most profitable writings and publications are the Life-study messages with the notes of the Recovery Version. I wrote these things, not for scholarly study for people to get a degree, but for life ministering, for truth releasing, and for opening up the books of the Bible. We do not need scholarly writings or any kind of books that build up peoples’ degree. That is not our purpose. To some extent, we would not agree with this. We are not for theology, but we are for “theos,” God. Our publications are not for any kind of “ology,” but just for God, the Triune God, the processed Triune God, and the Lord, Christ, Jesus, the Spirit, life, and the church. Our publications are for a living Person, not for any “ology.” We are not for the ology of God, the ology of Christ, the ology of the church, or the ology of the divine things. However, I do have a burden to publish things full of Christ, full of the Triune, processed God, full of the life-giving Spirit, full of life, and full of the church. The Lord’s recovery is just for the recovery of the processed Triune God to be dispensed into us, and the living Christ, the Spirit, life, and the church are the crucial contents of the Lord’s recovery. There is no other place to pick up other books which are so rich, so enlightening, and so nourishing concerning the recovery of Christ, the Spirit, life, and the church. Since this is the real situation and the real condition, I feel that we have no choice but to use the Life-studies, because we realize that this is the best way to bring people into the holy Word.
The holy Word itself says in Psalm 119:130: “The entrance of thy words giveth light.” Millions of copies of the Bible have been distributed. They have been placed in hotels, in homes, and in many places. Nearly everywhere you go today you find a Bible, but who has entered into the Bible? There has nearly been no entrance. Many have a copy of the Bible, but the Bible has been closed and nearly never opened. Now the Lord has given us a key, an opener. I consider our writings as the opener to open the holy Word. I believe that those of you who have read the Life-study messages can testify honestly that these messages with the notes of the Recovery Version have opened up a certain chapter or a certain book of the Bible to you. This is not to replace the Bible, but to bring people into the Bible.