We have seen that the divine revelation was completed within the first century, but the truths of the divine revelation were soon lost as the church degraded throughout its history. Whatever we are seeing today is not something new but ancient. It was with the saints nearly two thousand years ago, but it got lost throughout the centuries. We call the scriptural way to practice the Lord’s present recovery the new way because it is new to us, but in fact it is the ancient way to which we must return. Through century after century the Lord has been recovering item after item, and He is still going on among us today. In August of 1988 the Lord passed on the words organic and organism to us in order to advance His recovery even further. In September in Cleveland, Ohio a series of messages were released entitled The Organism of the Triune God in the Organic Union of His Divine Trinity. Our eyes need to be opened to see what the Lord is recovering in the present advance of His recovery. We need to be impressed with three major items.
Today the Lord is moving to recover the organic building up of the Body of Christ (Eph. 4:12, 16). This organic building can be seen in the New Testament. Paul tells us that the church is built up with precious materials, and among these precious materials are the precious stones (1 Cor. 3:12). Physical stones are lifeless, inorganic, and a building made of these stones is inorganic. But in 1 Peter 2:5, Peter tells us that we are living stones, stones that are full of life. God’s building is organic because all the stones are living. Peter says that as living stones, we are being built up into a spiritual house. Since God’s building is a living building, Paul tells us in Ephesians 2:21 that it is growing. We can illustrate the difference between an inorganic item and something organic by comparing a piece of wood to a person’s finger. If a piece of wood is cut in half, and the pieces are put together without any glue, they will remain separate. But if a person’s finger is cut in half, and a doctor puts the two pieces together, they will grow together because they are organic. Their coming together is organic. Because we are organic members of the Body of Christ, our building together is totally organic. We have not seen much of the organic building among us because we have not taken the organic way. The old, traditional, and unscriptural way is good for organization but not for the organism of the Triune God, the Body of Christ. It is good for the organizational building but not for the organic building.
Some who are opposing the Lord’s present advance in His recovery have said that I have deviated from the Lord’s recovery. I have not deviated from the Lord’s recovery, but I have surely deviated from the old way. My deviation from the old way has brought me more into the recovery. Today I am in the Lord’s recovery more than ever before. Sixty-one years ago in 1927, I officially left my denomination. That was the initiation of my deviation from Christianity. According to my feeling, my deviation from Christianity was fully completed in August of 1988. Now that the old way is being annulled, some older co-workers have to consider where they shall be. Should they remain in the old way or go forth into the new way? To go forth into the new way, we have to pay a price. Some older co-workers were a success in the recovery according to the old way, but now the old way is being annulled. This is the root of all the troubles among us today. All the other things are on the surface. I must testify that instead of deviating from the Lord’s recovery, I have entered into the Lord’s recovery more deeply.
Much of what we carried out in the past according to the old way was organizational. Some of it was organic, but the main situation of our practice was not organic. Today the Lord wants us to be absolutely organic in everything. He wants to recover the organic building up of the Body of Christ. The Lord does not want to build up a congregation but an organic Body. I would like to check with the elders in the local churches whether the local church in your locality is just a congregation or a part of the Body of Christ? The difference between an organization and an organism can be illustrated by comparing a robot to our physical body. A robot is an organization of inorganic parts, but our human body, which typifies the Body of Christ, is altogether organic. The church in our locality may be mostly congregational instead of organic. We have to deviate from the organizational and congregational way into something organic. We all need such a deviation.
The organic building up of the Body of Christ is not only by the gifted persons but also by every member of the Body. We must admit that in many of the local churches, the building up has been mostly by the elders and the co-workers, the leading ones. We may say that we do not agree with the clergy-laity system and that among us in the Lord’s recovery, we do not have the class of the clergy. Actually, though, we have to admit that there has been a strong clerical class in the Lord’s recovery. Some among us have been the clergy and many have been the laity. In his epistle to the church in Ephesus in the book of Revelation, the Lord revealed that He hates the clergy-laity system (2:6 and note 1—Recovery Version). When I went back to Taipei in 1984, there were about three thousand saints attending the meetings. Of these, only about one hundred were serving. There were about five serving ones in each of the twenty-one halls. Unconsciously there was a strong clergy among us. We may say that we do not have a clergy, but in fact we have had it.
When I returned to Taipei in 1984, I took note of many of the saints who were brought into the Lord’s recovery when we began the Lord’s work there thirty-five years ago in 1949. I checked with them whether or not they could speak a word for the Lord on certain truths such as reconciliation. None of them said they could do this. Actually, a small number of the saints were in the clerical class and the rest had become the laity. The clergy-laity system is what the Lord hates, and yet we have practiced it. Should we not deviate from such a situation? We all have to rise up and say, “Lord, we want to deviate from this system that You hate. We want to build up Your Body, not only by a few gifted ones but also by every member of Your Body.”
The building up of the Body of Christ is not in the organizational way but in the organic way. The organic building up of the Body of Christ must be the first item that the Lord desires to recover. I believe that the Lord is earnestly after this one thing. He desires to see His Body being built up organically on this earth. This must be absolutely recovered. If we mean business with the Lord that we love Him, we have to rise up for this organic building. We need to tell the Lord: “Lord, You hate the clergy-laity system and so do I. I do not want to remain in this system anymore. I want to get out of this system.”