After discussing these matters with him, the brother was still not willing to submit. He said that God’s eternal will is to obtain a Body to be His testimony. In this Body all the members are dependent upon one another. He also said that there is one Spirit in this Body and that no one can divide the Body. He spoke confidently and was right in regard to the positive side. Based on his word, I asked him, “Since this is the case, is there one church in Taipei today?” He said, “As far as the Spirit is concerned, the church is not divided.” I responded by telling him that because the Body is one and the Spirit is one, there cannot be division and there is no division. Nevertheless, consider today’s situation: Are all the Christians in Taipei one, or are they divided? We cannot deny that according to the present situation, they are divided. Who has divided this Body? In other words, who has divided the Spirit of God? He could not answer this question.
Ephesians 4:3-6 speaks of the church as the Body of Christ, the substance of which is the “oneness of the Spirit,” and it also speaks of the seven “ones” that keep the church in oneness. These seven “ones” are one Body, one Spirit, one hope, one Lord, one faith, one baptism, and one God and Father. Christians know the truth concerning oneness, but I asked this brother whether or not this oneness has been practically lived out and expressed by the believers in Taipei. He had nothing to say.
Eventually, he told me that he had forsaken organized Christianity. Then I asked him, “Where are you today? Can you say that the Presbyterian Church is right and that you should be in it? Or can you say that the Baptist Church is right and that you should be in it? Where do you put yourself today?” He again had nothing to say but replied with a conventional answer: “I am in Christ.” I said to him, “This statement is in the air because it is too abstract. It is true that you are in Christ. But on the practical side, where do you serve God? In which group do you serve? In which kind of coordination do you serve? Where are you practically? With whom do you coordinate in the matter of serving the Lord?” He could not give an answer and was totally subdued in regard to this point.
As Christians, we should not be independent; rather, we need to serve corporately. Our service should be corporate, and our work should be in coordination. Where should we coordinate? Should we place ourselves in those groups that we consider to be wrong? Where should we place ourselves? Since we have a physical body, we must place ourselves somewhere. Where should we in Taipei place ourselves? If a person says that he is in the universal church, where is the universal church? Is it hanging in the air? It is too idealistic and impractical to say that a person is in the universal church. Practically, the universal church must be expressed in a definite location. Doctrinally, it is correct to say that we are in Christ and that the church is one and has the Spirit as her essence and cannot and must not be divided; nevertheless, how is this carried out? The only way is to have the local ground of the church.
This brother wanted to coordinate with us in carrying out his work. Since a local church must include all of God’s people within its locality, he hoped that he would be able to find co-workers from other groups as well. I told him that what he is trying to do can be likened to a person going to Martin Luther and telling him, “Brother, I think that you are the closest to God’s will, and my group is most connected to yours. Hence, I would like to coordinate with you in the work.” However, if this person also invited different ones from the Catholic Church to preach at Luther’s place, how could they have preached? Would it be logical for a brother to say that Luther was closest to God’s will and then invite people from the Catholic Church to come and preach in Luther’s group? In his day Luther opposed the Catholic Church. If someone on his side had been invited to preach in the Catholic Church, could that person have justified the Catholic Church? In the same principle, it is a contradiction that the brother from the National Taiwan University does not justify today’s organized Christianity, yet he desires to work among them.