After we spent time before the Lord seeking His will concerning the different aspects of the church, the Lord in my spirit has given me the sense that we should touch the matter of the church according to the actual situation of the saints. In principle we can divide this topic into two aspects: the first aspect concerns the Bible, and the second aspect concerns the inner life.
Every genuine Christian has a Bible in his hand. To us the Bible is so clear, secure, and reliable. As long as God’s children have some reverence and godly fear in their hearts, they will never object to the Bible. Everyone must respect the position of the Bible before God and treasure the authority of the Bible among God’s children. We need to praise God for giving us the Bible outwardly as our greatest heritage and a priceless treasure. The Bible has been passed down to our hands and translated into our language so that we can easily understand it; this is a great blessing that the Lord has given us. Hence, when we speak of the matter of the church, we must check with the Bible concerning the condition of the church. We should examine the Bible when we measure a church. All the children of God who are godly must confess that we cannot accept anything that is not according to the Bible, that cannot stand up to the scrutiny of the Bible, or that clearly violates and is against the teachings of the Bible. Thus, every person who is godly and belongs to God must eventually examine the matter of the church according to the Bible.
About one century ago, the Lord raised up a group of brothers in England. Because they had many questions concerning Christian groups, they began to check whether their condition was according to the record and teaching of the Bible. After comparing the situation with the Bible, they discovered that all the Christian groups they encountered had some problems. These Western saints had a simple slogan: “Back to the Bible!” They hoped that the condition, content, and activities of the church and all of their work would be according to the teaching of the Bible. However, after these brothers passed away, their so-called church degraded into unseemly Christianity, which has gone astray from the Bible in many things and does not match the Bible.
One hundred years ago the Holy Spirit raised up a group of brothers to come back to the Bible. They wanted to drop everything that was not in the Bible, and by the Lord’s grace, they wanted to recover everything that was in the Bible. Even today, both in the East and in the West, there are still many godly people among God’s children who are answering the Holy Spirit’s call and bringing the matter of the church back to the Bible. They want to drop everything that is not in the Bible and recover everything that is in the Bible, according to what they have seen in the Bible and according to the grace that they have been shown. The church must be according to the record of the Bible. Whatever man can see and touch related to the whole condition and situation of the church should be according to the teaching of the Bible.
Today, in this age of confusion in Christianity, the first question we should ask, regardless of which Christian group we contact, is whether their condition is pleasing to God. We should not quickly accept that they are on the ground of the church. We should compare the condition of every Christian group with the Bible. This means that we should use the Bible to determine the matter of the church. If we judge according to the will of man, we get into trouble because everyone has his interpretation and view. If we try to answer the question of the church according to man’s view, we will only become more and more confused. We must all learn to drop our views, cease from our opinions, and bring the question of the church to the Bible.
Some people may say that even though there has been one Bible throughout the ages, everyone has different interpretations of the Bible and different definitions of the meaning of its words; therefore, there will still be many arguments. This word sounds very logical, but actually it is not. In the past twenty years we have met thousands upon thousands of people who belong to the Lord. We can testify that as long as a person has a godly fear before God and is willing to put himself aside, not having his own prejudice or opinion, then when the Bible speaks of the number ten, he will not read it as nine or eleven. Unless a certain person has some prejudice, his reading of the Bible will not be different from what it actually says.
For example, there are two methods of baptizing in Christianity: one way is to baptize by sprinkling water, and the other way is to baptize by immersion, burying a believer in the water. If a person reads the Bible without any prejudice, he should not have a second view concerning this matter; he would surely regard the view of baptism by immersion. In the past I was baptized by sprinkling. I had no feeling at the time, and because I was not serious, I did not pray. Strictly speaking, I was not saved. My name appeared on the list to be baptized only because I passed an interview with the pastor and attended a communion worship service. I stood before the crowd, and as I held a bronze basin, I was sprinkled with a few drops of water and then received the communion. However, I was not saved. The following year, however, I touched the Holy Spirit and was genuinely saved. Then I began reading the Bible. Because of the Lord’s grace, I desired the Lord’s word like a newborn babe who desires milk (1 Pet. 2:2).
One day I saw the matter of baptism in the Bible. When I read that the Lord was baptized into the water and came up from the water (Matt. 3:16), I began to wonder, “Have I not been baptized? Why did I not go into the water and come up from the water?” I went to my pastor and asked him. He answered that it was proper to be baptized by immersion, but some people think that baptism by immersion is too troublesome and that it is more convenient to be sprinkled with water. He said that when the weather gets cold, and both men and women need to change clothes, it becomes troublesome. This reply did not satisfy me, but I did not want to argue with him, because I was a young person. So I asked, “Is it not true that we should follow the Lord’s footsteps? If we do not follow the Lord in the matter of baptism, on what matters should we follow the Lord?” This pastor was very eloquent in answering, so he said, “If you truly want to imitate the Lord, you should go to the Jordan River.” I did not answer him, but inwardly I was not happy, and I felt that he was arguing irrationally.
After I went home, I read the Bible again and discovered that John the Baptist was baptizing in Aenon “because there was much water there” (John 3:23). This shows that baptism does not have to be in the Jordan River, and “much water” undoubtedly indicates that the people were baptized by immersion, not by sprinkling, because baptism by sprinkling does not require much water. Then I read in Acts 8:37-39 that Philip baptized the Ethiopian eunuch, and they both went down into the water and came up out of the water. I felt that I had more ground, so I went again to the pastor. After he listened, he did not argue, and he said, “There are two ways in our church. If someone wants to be baptized by sprinkling, we baptize them by sprinkling, but if you want to be baptized by immersion, we will baptize you by immersion.” I could not be satisfied with his answer, and I could not agree with him inwardly because the truth can be only one, not two. If the Bible says that we should baptize by immersion, we should not baptize by sprinkling, and if the Bible says that we should baptize by sprinkling, we should not baptize by immersion. I could not agree with his way of speaking, because once we practice this, it will only produce problems, including problems in matters other than only baptism. There are many areas in which we might not be according to the Bible.
From that day on, I stopped trusting what that pastor said, and I listed all the situations that I saw and compared them one by one to the Bible. Because I began to look into the matter of baptism in the Bible, I began to look into many other matters, including the church. As a result, I found that many items were not according to the Bible. One day I read in George Müller’s biography that he too had been baptized by sprinkling. When a sister spoke to him concerning baptism by immersion, he did not agree with her. She only asked him to read the Bible thoroughly, and because Müller paid attention to the Word of God, he read the New Testament again. Müller concluded that the Bible speaks concerning baptism by immersion more clearly than it speaks concerning prophecies. Therefore, he was baptized by immersion. If we bring a matter to the Bible and put aside our own views and opinions, and if we examine and compare the matter with the Bible in a thorough way, we will become clear and understand it without any dissension.
Today the confusion in Christianity is not because the record in the Bible is confused; instead, confusion is produced by man’s opinions, ideas, and ways of doing things. If we are careless, we will be led in circles by the confusion of Christianity, but if we are serious, we will bring all the matters concerning the church to the Bible and compare them with the Bible. We should accept everything that is in the Bible, and we should reject anything that is not in the Bible. If we have a fear of God, and if we compare all the matters of the church to the Bible, we will discover any situation in Christianity that is not according to the Bible. If we are not serious Christians, there is not much else to say, but if we want to be serious Christians, we must fear the Lord and respect His Word, bringing all the matters concerning the church under the light of the Bible to obtain God’s rule and standard. Then we will have God’s final decision. Everything other than this belongs to man’s opinions, views, standards, and ways of doing things. Anything that belongs to man or follows the world will be rejected by God. The Bible is great and divine; everyone who fears God should come back to God’s Word in this way.