The matter that I discussed with our dear brother is not a question of who we are but of where we are. It was not a question of whether we are the church but of what ground we are on. Are we on the ground of the Catholic Church or of the Protestant churches? Are we on the ground of the various denominations or on the ground of the church? In the case of the children of Israel, it was not a question of whether they were God’s people but of where they were. Were they in Babylon or Jerusalem? Were they in the wilderness of Arabia or in the land of Assyria or Samaria? I deeply sense that among those who stood up to speak for God in the past several centuries, too many knew only who they were. Hardly anyone who has stood up to speak for God has genuinely asked this one question on God’s behalf: “Where are you?”
Since the Lord has been merciful to us and led us into His recovery, we should always focus on this central question: “Where are we?” Throughout the ages God has recovered much, but there is still one matter that has yet to be recovered, that is, the matter of “Where are you?” The recovery of this matter began among us almost thirty years ago. Nevertheless, we must continue to ask, “Where are we?” It is not sufficient merely to do things correctly. We will be right only when we are in the proper place. Sadly, until today, those who are saved by God focus only on what they are, but they neglect, or even greatly oppose, the matter of the ground. Some who have much spiritual knowledge strongly oppose, blame, and condemn us concerning this matter. This is most grievous to our heart.
A subtle scheme of the enemy is to undermine the recovery through men who are very spiritual. This scheme of Satan is able to come in through almost anyone. No one is so spiritual that he cannot be used by Satan to damage the recovery. He is able to use any spiritual matter or any matter of faith as a covering. Today, at this critical juncture, we need to consider this matter clearly and carefully.
Although what we have encountered and heard may cause us to feel troubled, we cannot let ourselves be easily shaken. In the past thirty years we have paid a great price and suffered innumerable attacks. We have been slandered and reproached many times because of our desire to maintain the ground of the church.
We feel that we should not only refuse to accept any kind of erroneous influence; much more, we should even rise up and cry out concerning this matter. We should devote our whole being to this task until we go to be with the Lord. I have no desire to speak on any other topic than the ground of the church. The truth concerning the cross has been recovered and adequately preached, and the truth concerning resurrection has also been clearly and sufficiently preached. However, the matter of the ground of the church has not been adequately preached. What God is doing is practical and complete. Brother T. Austin-Sparks once said that since God was unable to get what He was after in the West, He came to the East. I truly say Amen and hope that Brother Sparks will also apply this principle to the matter of the ground of the church.
God raised up some people in the West who are willing to take the way of recovery; however, over the past six months the matter of the ground has been damaged by much action, work, and speaking. As a result, people in the West avoid speaking of this matter and consider it a shame to do so. If someone were to ask about it, he would be regarded as being the same as the Brethren. My point is that God has had no way in the West. As a result, He was merciful to us by coming to the East. For this reason, in the past thirty years it seems that we have not cared for any other matter. At the time of Martin Luther it seemed that he did not care about any matter other than justification by faith; however, we know that this is not true and that he did care about other matters. However, the reason people have an inaccurate impression is that Martin Luther emphasized the main point that God was recovering through him. Perhaps he could have discarded all other points, but God would not let him discard this one point.