I sought before the Lord, what should we do if we do not take the way of Christianity? The Lord then showed me that, first, the church life is not in the big meetings. In the early days of the church, the church life was in the homes (Acts 2:46), such as the church in the home of Aquila and Priscilla. The New Testament mentions at least three or four homes in which there was a church (Rom. 16:5; 1 Cor. 16:19; Col. 4:15; Philem. 2), but it does not speak of a church in a large gathering. Therefore, we see the importance of homes. Second, the Lord showed me that the very basis of the way to carry out His salvation is to go out and visit people. The Lord Himself took the first step, leaving the throne in the heavens to come to the earth to visit man. During His three and a half years of work, He always went to visit people, yet not once did He invite people to come and listen to messages. He went to the house of Zaccheus (Luke 19:1-10), and He went beside the well in Samaria (John 4:1-8). He went and visited people. Through this, my eyes were opened, and I saw the errors of the past. In the past we exhausted much effort yet rarely produced a single fruit. Even if we gained one person, we could not hold on to him. This was our condition in the past.
The statistics of Christianity in the twenty-two years from 1964 to 1986 further confirmed my feeling: the way of Christianity does not work. Of the five major denominations, four have been decreasing in number drastically. Only one has stayed above water, but its rate of increase is a mere 1.48 percent. I have studied several historical events. After Martin Luther brought in the Reformation, the Mystics of the 1600s were greatly revered by people, but over time they seem to have vanished without a trace. The Brethren were the same. They brought in many truths to Christianity, thriving and flourishing for a time, but today they also have become desolate, with only ninety-eight thousand members in the entire United States. This is hard for me to believe. Likewise, the inner-life group, that Austin-Sparks was with, no longer has much influence.
Therefore, I arrived at the conclusion that the way practiced in the Bible is the only proper way, the unique way. The Bible tells us to “go”—to go and visit people, to go and disciple all the nations. The word go is found in John 15:16. The Lord said, “I chose you, and I set you that you should go forth and bear fruit.” If we do not go, we cannot bear fruit. This “going” is what we call door-knocking, which is to go and knock on doors to visit people. Door-knocking is for visiting people.
However, this going involves very many details. Most importantly, we go for the accomplishing of God’s selection and predestination. Before the foundation of the world, God chose and predestinated a number of people among mankind. Who is able to go and seek out these people? The Lord Jesus was the first to answer God’s calling. He came to the world to seek the lost. He sought out those whom God chose and predestinated. Next, He sent forth the twelve disciples two by two and charged them, saying, “I send you forth as sheep in the midst of wolves” (Matt. 10:16). The wonderful thing is that there are sons of peace among the wolves (Luke 10:6). In the Lord’s eyes, today’s society is like a pack of wolves. When we go, however, we need only be concerned with going house by house, because there will be the sons of peace. Regardless of which house we go into, if someone believes, he is one chosen and predestinated by God before the foundation of the world; he is a son of peace. Even though he is among the wolves, he is a son of peace. Today there are millions of wolves in the world, but at least some among them are the sons of peace. We must go to them and bring them back.
When we go door-knocking, we should make sure that we are not discouraged by people’s not opening their doors or by their rejection after they open their doors. Someone gave this kind of testimony. A certain brother went door-knocking, but no one received him. However, he was not discouraged; he told his companions to go back, and he continued to knock on doors by himself. He said, “I will not quit today until I get one person to be baptized.” In the end, he baptized someone in a home. There was indeed a son of peace among the wolves. We should believe that in the world there are sons of peace, ones chosen by God. We owe it to them to go visit them and lead them to salvation. Therefore, we need to “go,” going door-knocking and visiting people to seek out the sons of peace.
We have knocked on one hundred thousand doors in four months. We have found out that the faster the door-knocking is, the better. Once someone opens the door, we should know whether or not he is a son of peace. If not, we should politely say good-bye and quickly go to the next door. If we run into a quarreling couple, we should understand that they will not be receptive for the time; we should leave quickly and come back after two weeks. After we knock on the door and go in, we should give people only a taste and not linger for more than twenty minutes. We should lead them to believe within three to five minutes, lead them to prayer within ten minutes, and help them to be baptized within fifteen minutes. In this way, we can leave within twenty minutes. There is no need for more conversation. Although some people welcome us, once they start talking, they go on without end. The conversation goes from Confucius and Mencius to the current world situation, and two hours go by, but in the end they have not reached a conclusion. This is a waste of time. Door-knocking is not very simple.
Door-knocking is effective because, firstly, it is according to God’s will. Secondly, it is because we are carrying it out in a way that is altogether new from the inside out. From the time we began to meet in Chefoo, we often studied this matter without discovering its secret. After seeking for many years, we have truly seen through the way of Christianity, realizing that we should never take the way of one person speaking and everyone else listening. In the past, however, we have mostly adopted the way of Christianity. Although we tried to keep the good and get rid of the bad, we did not change altogether from the inside out. This time, we are truly changing altogether from the inside out. By changing the system, we have discarded the poor tradition of one person speaking and everyone else listening, and we are no longer waiting in the meeting halls and inviting people to come; rather, we are going door-knocking house by house.
In Matthew 28 the Lord Jesus said, “Go therefore and disciple all the nations” (v. 19). In Acts 1 He said, “You shall be My witnesses both in Jerusalem and in all Judea and Samaria and unto the uttermost part of the earth” (v. 8). Therefore, we need to knock on every door in the whole world, seeking out the sons of peace one by one from among the wolves. Thus, we will be able to hand over our account when we see the Lord.