We have seen that the new way is God’s ordained way. It matches what God wants to accomplish in Himself. However, although it is now the New Testament age and the church age, there is still the old way. The reason for this is the degradation of the church. Not long after the church was established by the apostles and even before these apostles passed away, there were believers who had left the way brought in by the apostles. The church became degraded, and its nature changed. As a result, the service, worship, and meeting of the church all changed. Everything became according to man’s natural inclination resulting in fallen Christianity.
The degradation of Christianity did not come about suddenly, but through a gradual decline. Beginning from the second century, through the third century and extending to the sixth century, the degradation worsened. By A.D. 570 the archbishop of Rome was recognized by all the churches as the pope, and the Roman Catholic church was officially established. After that the Catholic church sealed up the Bible and forbade the ordinary believers to read it. Only the pope and the clergy were allowed to read it. The Bible was locked up, and this period is known in western history as the Dark Ages.
By the sixteenth century, Martin Luther rose up to begin the Reformation, and the sealed Bible was unlocked. This was a great accomplishment of Luther. Based on the Bible, he also recovered the truth of justification by faith. However, the ways of serving in the church and preaching the gospel remained unchanged.
From Catholicism, Protestantism developed. Early Protestantism was comprised of all the state religions. At that time the northern European countries all established their own national churches. In England, it was the Church of England. In Denmark, it was the national church of Denmark. Later, the private, independent churches, such as the Baptists and Methodists, developed from the state churches. All these are private churches. They have nothing to do with individual countries. At that time there was a gradual recovery of the church, but the recovery was not that thorough. There were still many things which Protestantism had inherited from Catholicism.
By the eighteenth century, Brother Zinzendorf was raised up by the Lord to lead others to a recovery of the church life. In the nineteenth century, there was a further recovery when the Brethren were raised up. After another century, around 1920, the Lord raised up Brother Watchman Nee in the Far East in Fukien, China. At that time I was in northern China. Although we were far apart, the Lord gained both of us. We loved the Lord and realized the real need to be delivered from the poison left by degraded Christianity. Sixty years ago we thought that we were quite thoroughly delivered from these things. Then the Lord enlightened us more and showed us that the degraded elements of Christianity had not been fully purged from us. It seemed as if we had inherited these fallen elements. Although we tried hard to be sterilized, the germs never left us.
We can take the way we meet as an example. Whenever we mention the meetings, there is the hope within us that as many believers as possible should be gathered together. A meeting of five hundred is better than one of one hundred, and eight hundred is better than five hundred. Of course, a thousand is even better than eight hundred. I believe that you are all very happy this morning because both the upper floor as well as the ground floor is filled with people. There are even those who are watching on closed-circuit television. All of you are listening to my speaking. You cannot say that this kind of meeting has no place. The New Testament records that when Paul went to Troas he stayed there for seven days. Because he was about to leave on the following day, he talked with the believers until after midnight. One young man by the name of Eutychus fell down from the windowsill of the third floor. When he was taken up, he was already dead. Paul went down and fell upon him. He told everyone that the young man’s life was still in him. Then Paul went up again and conversed with the congregation for a considerable time until daybreak and went away (Acts 20:6-11). Hence, there is occasion for this kind of meeting also.
However, the Bible reveals to us that the regular meeting of the believers should be from house to house (Acts 2:46). After the day of Pentecost when three thousand people were saved, Peter and John only went occasionally to the temple to speak to the multitude there. Most of the time they gathered from house to house. During those gatherings it was not just one speaking while all others listened. Rather, it was everyone speaking and everyone listening. There was fellowship, prayer, the breaking of bread, teaching, and the preaching of the gospel. All these were done in the meetings in the homes of the believers. This is also the original way ordained by God for the church to meet together.
Because of the degradation of the church, this kind of meeting has been lost. What one sees exclusively in Christianity today are big gatherings with one speaking and all the rest listening. They have all left God’s ordained way and fallen into human tradition. This traditional way suits man’s natural disposition and matches the spirit of the age. As early as 1948, Brother Watchman Nee said that this kind of gathering is like the Israelites following after the customs of the nations (2 Kings 17:8). It is not scriptural. It is not easy to see through this from the surface. There is hymn singing, sermon teaching, and gospel preaching, and men are being saved. It seems as if there is nothing wrong. However, what is hidden beneath is something contrary to the universal priesthood ordained by God.