As we shall see, there is a progression downward from Babel to Babylon and from Babylon to the great Babylon. Toward the beginning of the Old Testament, we have Babel, but toward the end, we have Babylon. Furthermore, toward the end of the New Testament, we have the great Babylon. Babel, Babylon, and the great Babylon all come from the source of the tree of knowledge. This means that the issue of partaking of the tree of knowledge is division.

Life, on the contrary, is the essence of oneness. The oneness in God's economy, the great oneness revealed in entirety in the Scriptures, can be preserved only by life. Without life, there can be no oneness.

Man's body illustrates this. Although there are many members in the body, all the members are one because they all share one life, the life of the body. Hence, the oneness of our physical body is its life. However, when a corpse is buried, it eventually decomposes because it does not have life. When life is removed from the physical body, the members of the body become detached. This illustrates the fact that the essence of the oneness of man's physical body is his physical life. If there is no life, there is no oneness.

In a very real sense, today's Christianity is not the Body; it is a corpse. The dry bones in Ezekiel 37 not only are an illustration of the situation of the children of Israel, but may also be used as an illustration of the situation of Christians today. In this portion of the Word, the Lord caused Ezekiel to see a vision of a valley full of dry bones, bones that represent "the whole house of Israel" (v. 11). Originally, the children of Israel were a living body. But after they had been divided and scattered, they became dry bones, each detached from the others. Because the life had gone out of the bones, the essence of oneness was lost, and the bones were detached. In a negative way, this reveals that life is the essence of oneness.

The one corporate man created by God was destined to produce a great number of descendants. How could these descendants remain one? By education? By some kind of power? By organization? The only way oneness can be maintained is by life, in life, and with life. If Adam had eaten of the tree of life, all his descendants, even though they number in the millions, would have been kept in oneness. But because Adam partook of the tree of knowledge, the essence of division was injected into him, and his descendants were divided. The essence of Babel that is manifested in Genesis 11 was put into man in Genesis 3. This indicates that divisiveness and divisions are the issue of taking into our being something other than life. This element is the factor, source, and essence of division. The essence of oneness, on the contrary, is life. Only life can keep us in oneness.