Those who translated the Bible into Chinese translated 1 Corinthians 14:31 as, “For you can all be prophets to teach.” “To teach” still has the old flavor of religion. Our Chinese Recovery Version has gone a step further by translating it into “prophesy to speak.” Over ten years ago in the United States, based on this portion of the Bible I said, “We can all be apostles, evangelists, and teachers; we are all speakers.”
First Corinthians 14:23-25 says, “If therefore the whole church comes together in one place...But if all prophesy and some unbeliever or unlearned person enters, he is convicted by all...and so falling on his face, he will worship God, reporting that God is really among you.” Perhaps you would argue with me that Paul said “if” all prophesy. That is right. However, if it were not possible for all to prophesy, how could Paul speak this word? Hence, if we read the context, we would see that it was Paul’s desire that when the whole church comes together in one place, all would prophesy. If some gospel friends come to our meeting tonight and see the meeting hall full of saints upstairs and downstairs all standing up to prophesy one by one, they would be completely subdued by what they see and hear.
Twenty-eight years ago in Taipei, five leading ones from Christianity came to see me. They said, “It is a very serious matter that you speak of Christianity as ‘degraded Christianity.’” Right away I checked with them, “If today’s Christianity is not degraded, then what is degraded?” My speaking of degraded Christianity is not for the ears of the outsiders. Including ourselves, whatever falls below the standard of the Bible is degraded. Today, all of Christianity is degraded, and we also have become accustomed to degradation. We have the Lord’s life and the Lord’s Spirit, and we read His Word daily. How can we come to the meeting without saying a word? Is this not a great miracle? I do not like to speak unpleasant words, but I speak in this way because I love you—and not only because I love you, but because I have a burden within me. This burden causes me to exhaust my entire being, even unto death. This burden causes me grief and makes it difficult for me to sleep or eat well.
In the beginning of September there was a special meeting in the San Francisco Bay area. On the weekend the young people of the seven churches in the area invited me to attend their evening love feast. I went there happily. I was rejoicing within to see the entire room filled with young people. I thought that I could at least rest and enjoy for two hours. However, to my surprise, suddenly a leading brother in one of the localities, who is also a co-worker in the Bay area, stood up to call a hymn. Since I knew them quite well and did not need to be so polite, I quickly got his attention and said, “What are you doing? Are you taking the lead?” Then I turned to the young people and asked, “Whose meeting is this?” They said, “This is our meeting!”
That day I purposely wanted to show everyone that the elders and co-workers should not do this anymore. Since the young people initiated that love feast, why did we need co-workers to call hymns? This is like a big family where the elderly father has been in charge for so long that even when the son is fifty-eight years old, having grandsons of his own, the elderly father is still the one who handles all the family problems. Once he appears, who would dare to say anything? After hearing this the young people in the Bay area responded, “We have failed today. Let us try again tomorrow.” I said, “Very good!” This is why I like young people. When they fail, they will try it all over again. Then I asked, “How long has this brother who made the announcement for another love feast tomorrow been saved?” They replied, “He was saved three months ago.” This is marvelous! Someone who had been saved for only three months was already taking the lead.