Some of us have been listening to messages in the church for more than thirty years. How do we feel? Are we numb and without any feeling, are we very satisfied, or do we sense a lack and grieve because of it? A few decades have gone by, and we have been listening to messages, going to trainings, and participating in certain services, yet if the Lord comes back today, are we able to settle accounts with Him? What sort of account can we hand over?
Because I have worked in Taiwan for many years, the saints have given me the ground to speak, and so I speak: Taiwan pains me the most. Since 1980, I have observed that the condition of the churches in Taiwan is at a standstill, and even going backward. More than sixty years ago we came out of the denominations in China, and over thirty years ago we started the Lord’s work in Taiwan. However, up until four years ago, we completely had gone back to the old ways.
We all know that Christianity gathers a group of people for a church service. They hire a speaker who has theological knowledge, who is very eloquent and capable, and who is able to run an organization and bring people together. Such persons are rare in Taiwan but quite common in the United States. They are all well-known persons in Christianity, but the work of these well-known persons has “killed” every one of their church members. On the one hand, these church members have been brought to the Lord through them, but on the other hand, their speaking has “killed” these church members. Some may say that kill is too strong an expression, but at least we can say that the members have become accustomed to listening to messages; they have been drugged and become numb. They only know that a Christian should be a proper and good person and that he should attend the church service every Lord’s Day; that is good enough. However, from the perspective of the spiritual supply of life, such a way completely annuls the members’ function.
The Bible says that all who are saved and regenerated have been transferred out of Adam and into Christ; they are all members of the Body of Christ. Moreover, each member of this Body has his function and should function (Rom. 12:4; 1 Cor. 12:14-22). Let us use our physical body as an example. When we talk or move, even the little finger and the ear function, because when we talk, we do it as living persons with lively gestures. In the same way, since we are members of the Body of Christ, we should function in the church. However, the functions of the fellow believers in Christianity have been nullified by the preachers and replaced with the clergy. It is the same for us. Very often it is only the responsible brothers who speak in the meetings. This practice utterly kills the saints. The more the responsible brothers speak, the less the saints need to function and the more they lose their function.
If in a meeting only a few speak and speak too much, that is the practice of the clergy. As for the ones listening to messages, the more they listen, the more they are drugged and lose their function. Every week when they attend the service they are injected with a shot of anesthetic. There are fifty-two weeks in a year, which means fifty-two shots of anesthetic per year. After a whole year, will they have any feeling left? They will be only dumb and ignorant.
The saddest thing is that some saints, who were very lively in the beginning, after listening to messages for over thirty years have gradually lost their function, as if they no longer have any feeling. The Bible tells us that we live in expectation of the Lord’s coming. In Matthew 25, after the Lord told the parable of the ten virgins going forth to meet the bridegroom (vv. 1-13), He also told a parable of the slaves receiving talents (vv. 14-30). This means that when the Lord comes again, not only will we go forth to see His face, but we also will hand over our account to Him. Therefore, we need to work for the Lord; we need to serve Him. If we do not work and do not serve the Lord, when He comes, we will be unable to hand over our account.
The slave who received one talent hid all of it in the earth. He said to the master, “Behold, you have what is yours” (v. 25). But the master immediately rebuked him and said that he was an “evil and slothful slave” (v. 26). Apparently, the slave did not do anything wrong, yet he did not use the possessions the master gave him to do business or accumulate interest. In other words, he did not bear fruit. Therefore, the master rebuked him. We are sad and in pain because many saints have lost all their function, not after listening to messages for thirty years in the denominations, but after listening to messages for thirty years among us. All of them were born, grew up, and received spiritual education in the Lord’s recovery, and they also pursued the books in the Lord’s recovery, but the result has been no different from being in the denominations. How can we listen to messages under the same roof for thirty years and still remain exactly the same as we were thirty years ago? What excuse do we have?
This is why we say repeatedly that the way of Christianity is terrible. One person speaking and everyone else listening only kills us and numbs us and causes us to lose our function. Not only Christianity but all religions restrict people. A school textbook defines religion in this way: “Religion circumscribes the heart of man.” Religion is used to regulate man. Therefore, the benefit of Christianity is that due to one’s belief in this religion, he observes all the rules and regulations and no longer does bad things. Nowadays we seem to have fallen into such a condition. Ordinarily we follow the rules and regulations, and on the Lord’s Day we attend the church service. However, this causes us to lose our function and feeling. This is Christianity; this is religion.
Our more than thirty years of work in Taiwan is now in such a state. How can we not be in pain? It was not like this when we first began to work in Taiwan. Then we were full of vigor, and the saints all functioned. Hence, there was a thirtyfold increase at the end of the year. The first year yielded a thirtyfold increase, and after the fourth or the fifth year we had a hundredfold increase. Within just a few years, the number multiplied from a few hundred to tens of thousands. There were joint meetings, meetings according to halls, meetings according to groups within the halls, and meetings under the leading ones within the groups. However, by 1980 in every church only the few good speakers spoke. For example, Taipei plainly had ten to twenty thousand saints but only four or five elders. How was it that no one else could be an elder? That is why in 1984, when I went back to Taiwan to change the system, more than eighty elders were added. We cannot have the practice of religious hierarchy, annulling the opportunity for the saints to function. For the increase of the church, we need to help every saint to function.
I certainly have an indignation welling up within me because Taiwan has shown no progress. Since the churches in Taiwan were produced through my service, I will save the politeness and be blunt. However, this is not a matter of being polite or of keeping a good relationship, nor is it a matter of saving their face. If I cared for these things, I would not be here doing the Lord’s work. I abandoned my own career and my own life for the Lord’s work. I am not speaking words of conceit; I would have had success even if I did not love the Lord and had pursued a career in the world instead. However, that is not what I want. What I want is for the Lord’s recovery to be on the earth.
Taiwan is in such a condition, and it is the same in the United States. I have told the responsible brothers in the United States that this situation is altogether wrong. This forced me to return to Taiwan, to reconsider the entire situation, to reconsider the way to meet in the Bible, and to re-examine the practices of all the groups in Christian history. I have even studied the existing denominations, as well as Mormonism and Jehovah’s Witness, and even the way people do business in the world. As a result, the Lord opened my eyes and showed me that I need to completely abandon all of Christianity’s ways. Not only should we come out of Christianity, but we should also abandon everything of Christianity. Whatever is of Christianity as a religion we cannot have and we do not want.