At the end of the New Testament the Great Babylon will be destroyed (Rev. 18:2), and on the other hand the New Jerusalem will descend from heaven (Rev. 21:2-3). This New Jerusalem is also called the “tabernacle of God,” or the tent. Thus at the end we still see the tent, the symbol of the overcomers, as an opposing testimony against the city, which represents the world.

These biblical records convey the spiritual meaning of the tent in opposition to the city. The city is the symbol and center of all human, self-devised life, and thus represents the world. The tent, erected in the wilderness, that is, outside the world, represents the pilgrim life outside of the world. Those who live in the tent signify that they are not submerged in the world; rather, they lead a sojourner’s life outside the world. When man failed and lost God, he succumbed to the world; when man was saved by God, he subsequently left the world and lived in a tent as a stranger and sojourner, serving only God.

The Bible discloses that the altar always accompanies the tent. If there is a tent, there is an altar. If there is no tent, there is no altar. After his departure from the ark, Noah erected a tent and built an altar. When Abraham went to Canaan, he also erected a tent and built an altar. But during his sojourn in Egypt, he lost the tent, and consequently the altar was gone. Likewise, the Israelites during their slavery in Egypt had no altar, but when they left Egypt and came into the wilderness, they lived in the tent and re-established the altar. When there is the altar, then consecration, service, and worship follow, because the altar is the place for man to consecrate himself and the means to serve and worship God. These were the natural outcome of man’s life in the tent. Whenever man succumbed to the world, he lost his consecration, service, and worship.

The tent life is the position, not only where man serves God, but also where God meets him. This principle is evident in the lives of Abraham and Lot. God appeared to Abraham while he sat in the tent door. This bears witness to his victorious position over the world, which enabled him to obtain God’s manifestation (Gen. 18). However, God Himself did not appear unto Lot (Gen. 19); instead, two angels were sent to Sodom. They found Lot sitting at the gate, which proves that he had already succumbed to the world. Although the angels came to his rescue, God Himself did not appear to him. He cannot appear to those whom the world has claimed. Once man falls into the world, he is gained by Satan and can no longer see light in the face of God.

Since the world possesses God’s children and destroys God’s purpose, God saves man in two aspects: from sin and from the world. Salvation from sin delivers us only from our fallen state, whereas salvation from the world delivers us from our fallen position. When we preach the gospel, we give much attention to deliverance from sin, but we seldom speak about deliverance from the world. This is not sufficient.

In the Old Testament, the salvation of God is seen in two important types: the ark of Noah and the exodus from Egypt. Each type shows both aspects of deliverance from sin and from the world. The eight members of Noah’s family were saved by the ark and by the water. The ark delivered them from God’s judgment of the flood; the water delivered them from the corrupt world. Similarly, Israel was saved by the Passover and by the Red Sea. The Passover denotes their deliverance from God’s judgment of death; the Red Sea denotes their deliverance from the ruling power of the world.

Likewise, the perfect salvation we enjoy today also has two aspects-faith and baptism. Through faith we are delivered from sin by the blood. Through baptism we are delivered from the world by water. Noah’s family was saved through the flood which destroyed the world and thus was delivered from the corrupted world. The Israelites were saved through the water of the Red Sea which drowned the Egyptian army, and they were thus delivered from the Egyptian world which ruled over them. Baptism is foreshadowed by these two incidents of passing through the waters of death (1 Pet. 3:20-21; 1 Cor. 10:1-2). Baptism by immersion delivers us from the world. Therefore, when a believer is baptized, he has passed through both the flood and the Red Sea. His ascent from the water denotes his separation from the world and his new position relative to the life of the tent and the altar. We who have been chosen and saved should continually live a tent life as a testimony that we have been delivered and separated from the world. In this manner we shall be delivered from being possessed by the world and be a people living completely unto God by the way of the altar.
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