The deformed and degraded Christianity has left the God-ordained way for carrying out the New Testament economy. Christianity does not care for the New Testament economy, but God does. God’s New Testament economy is first to complete His Christ and then to propagate this completed, pneumatic Christ to produce the church. The entire Christianity is far away from this economy, having left the God-ordained way to carry out God’s eternal purpose.
This degraded religious system takes the natural, human, traditional, cultural, and religious way. Humanly speaking, religion is a good thing, but spiritually speaking it is something against God’s economy. God does not want a religion, but He surely wants to see His economy accomplished. We are not here for religion but for God’s economy, which is to propagate His completed Christ to produce the church as the Body of such a Christ. Christianity is not focused on the divine economy but is a human religion saturated with demonic and satanic things. This natural, human, traditional, and cultural religion is full of organizations. Without organizations, Christianity could not survive. The Catholic Church and all the denominations depend upon organization. Although we do not like to have organization, sometimes the leading brothers in some of the localities brought in and trusted in their organization. We must realize that organization kills. We trust in the living Spirit. The church as the Body of Christ should be a divine organism full of the living Spirit.
Christianity is also full of formalities and rituals. The new way that we are taking to carry out God’s New Testament economy has nothing to do with formalities and rituals. In Taipei we practiced to baptize the new ones immediately after they received the Lord. Sometimes the husband got baptized one day, and the next day he baptized his wife. A father was baptized one week, and the next week he baptized his son. The New Testament shows us that whoever preaches the gospel has the right to baptize those that they bring to the Lord.
In the past, we would not baptize someone unless he passed through the examination of the elders. As a result, a person who received the Lord could not be baptized immediately, but he had to wait. Sometimes a candidate for baptism could not pass the examination of the elders, so he was encouraged to learn more and come back next month to see if he could be baptized then. This practice is a formality that is not according to the Scriptures. In the book of Acts, whenever someone believed in the Lord, he was immediately baptized (8:35-38; 16:14-15, 31-33; cf. Mark 16:16). There was no waiting to be baptized. To wait is wrong. Mark 16:16 tells us to believe and be baptized. This is one complete step for salvation. Many in Christianity teach that we need to believe in the Lord Jesus and receive Him, but they will not baptize a person unless that person has passed through a formal examination. We should not practice any kind of formality.
The deformed and degraded Christianity is also full of regulations and of unscriptural practices. The celebration of Christmas is an example of an unscriptural and even pagan practice. Centuries before the Christian era, on December 25 the European pagans celebrated the birthday of the sun. When Constantine embraced Christianity, he encouraged the Roman citizens to become Christians, and he even rewarded many thousands for being baptized. Thousands who knew nothing of Christ were baptized and came into Christendom, bringing their pagan customs with them. Later, the name of Christ was attached to the birth of the sun god celebrated on December 25. We should have nothing to do with such unscriptural and even pagan practices.
The religious system of today’s Christendom also kills the living members of the Body of Christ. To some extent Christianity brings many people to the name of Christ in a good way. However, after people enter into Christianity, their function is bound and eventually killed. Nearly every so-called church service kills the function of the people there. Thus, the very people who have been brought to the Lord in Christianity are killed in their function. In the new way we need to stand against killing the living members of the Body of Christ. On the other hand, we need to be those who make people alive.
Furthermore, the deformed and degraded Christianity annuls the organic function of the members of Christ. About thirty years ago in Manila a group of brothers among us went to visit a sick person in the hospital. The brothers who went to visit this sick person all prayed one by one, and his relatives, who were also Christians, were shocked. They asked whether or not these brothers were pastors. They were told that none of them was a pastor but that all of them were just brothers. The relatives of this sick person said that they did not know how to pray and that they never prayed. They thought that praying was the job of a pastor. The prevailing concept in today’s Christianity is that preaching, teaching the Bible, and praying for others is the pastor’s job. A person goes to a pastor in the same way that he would go to an attorney or a doctor for specific services. This clergy-laity system annuls the functions of the members of Christ. The attendants in the so-called Christian services go there and do nothing. They do not know how to do anything. They only know how to sit there and watch a few others function. In the church life there should not be an annulling of others’ functions but a stirring up of everyone to function.
In the community meetings of the new believers in Taipei, they were all encouraged to function. In the training in Taipei, we charged the trainees not to replace the new ones in their home meetings. They are charged not to act as a pastor. They must behave like an ordinary, little brother among all the new converts, and they have to give place to everyone. They should not replace anyone. This is why the result of the Lord’s move in Taipei has been so successful. The new believers in these communities are encouraged to function to the uttermost. They have their own home meetings, and they themselves either rent a place or have a place in a home where the whole community can come together. They even set up their own offering box. They do everything by themselves, and they are not told what to do. We recently had a burden to purchase some land in Taipei. When these new believers heard this, they began to give for the purchase of this land.
We must believe that every believer is a living one because every believer has the living God, Christ, the Spirit of life, in him. We should afford every believer an opportunity to express his living situation as a living member of the Body of Christ. In today’s Christianity the living members are killed, and their functions are annulled.