In the Old Testament the church was still a hidden mystery within God. In the Old Testament God did not reveal the church to anyone. He kept it as a mystery within Himself. Yet in the Old Testament there were a lot of types, prefigures, and shadows of the church. For instance, Ephesians 5 tells us that Eve, the wife of Adam, was a type of the church. She was a wonderful type of the church. If we had only the New Testament, we could not know the church so much as we can through Eve as a type of the church. Not only so, if you go to Genesis 24, you have Rebekah, the wife of Isaac. The Bible students know that Isaac is a type of Christ, and Rebekah is a type of the church. She typifies certain crucial points of the church, such as how the church was selected mostly from the Gentiles, from out of the world, and brought to Christ.
In the next book, Exodus, the tabernacle was not only a type of Christ but also a type of the corporate Christ, that is, the church. The ark within the tabernacle was a type of the individual Christ, but the tabernacle was a type of the corporate Christ, the church.
The biggest type of the church in the Old Testament was the people of Israel. As a collective people the people of Israel were a type of the church. This type was the biggest among all the types of the church because the church in the New Testament is also a people, a collective people. In the Old Testament God had a people, and in the New Testament God also has a people. The people in the Old Testament were a type of the people of God in the New Testament. What the history of the children of Israel depicted was a type of the history of the church. Many crucial aspects of the type in the history of Israel cannot be found in the New Testament. The types are very meaningful and rich to help us know the church.
Many Christian teachers have spent time studying the New Testament to find out how Christians should meet. Every one of them could testify he didn’t find the adequate way. Just by reading or studying the New Testament, you surely cannot see adequately how the Christians should meet. Only a few verses mention the matter of meeting. First of all, in Matthew 18:20 the Lord said that, where two or three are gathered together in His name, He was in the midst. This verse only tells us something about meeting together into the Lord’s name. Of course, the Brethren teachers grasped this verse as a real ground. They expounded and enlarged this verse to condemn all the denominational names because the Baptists meet into the name of Baptist, and the Presbyterians meet into the name of the Presbytery. The Lutherans meet into the name of Luther. The Wesleyans meet into the name of Wesley. So the Brethren teachers condemned this practice as a kind of spiritual fornication, saying that we should gather only into the unique name, that is, the name of our Lord Jesus Christ. He is our unique husband. We should come together into this unique name. If we come together into any other name, that is a kind of spiritual fornication. This is quite serious.
Then you may go on to the book of Acts. You may think that the book of Acts should tell us how Christians should meet. Actually, you can find very little. In chapter twenty it does tell us that the disciples met on the first day of the week to break bread. Of course, some picked this up and said that we have to meet on the first day of the week. And this is confirmed by 1 Corinthians 16:1 which speaks of setting aside of certain amount of income on the first day of the week as a gift to the Lord. Also in Acts you could find some verses telling us that when the Christians came together they continued in the apostles’ teaching and fellowship (Acts 2:42).
The only verse in the New Testament that tells us how to meet is 1 Corinthians 14:26. The Brethren teachers made a big subject out of this verse. Based upon this verse the Brethren teachers practically annulled the so-called services in Christianity. But still 1 Corinthians 14:26 does not adequately tell us how to meet. Years ago I studied this verse very much and tried my best to find out something. After so much study I could not find something adequate on how to meet. Even I noticed that the Brethren with whom I met didn’t practice that verse as much as they should. That was mainly a verse to them as a ground for their teaching to annul the Christianity services. But they didn’t practice that verse in full. The point is this: just by the New Testament, we cannot find out how to meet.