My burden is that we would see that religion is in our blood. The brothers in Jerusalem and the apostle Paul tolerated it. They were trying to calm the situation, but the Lord allowed a riot to rise up against Paul, which resulted in his arrest before he completed the purification (v. 27). The Lord did not allow him to be purified in that way, for that was not a purification but a contamination. Paul’s history was wonderful, but in this matter he was contaminated. He was weakened by the religious concept in Jerusalem, but the Lord did not tolerate it and sent him far away from Jerusalem to a prison in Rome. There Paul was truly purified and later wrote the Epistles to the Ephesians, Timothy, and Titus, Epistles of purification.
The church in Jerusalem became a mixture of the Old Testament economy and the New Testament economy, a mixture of the law and of grace. Because the Lord could not tolerate this mixture, He sent the Roman army under Titus to destroy Jerusalem in A.D. 70. The Christians as well as the Jews suffered persecution. This was another purification. Nevertheless, after the Lord purified the church through persecution, the church went back to mixture with religion. The religious element is still mixed with the church today.
We need to see the Lord’s way. The church in Jerusalem was built in a new way—with the baptism of the Holy Spirit and with the Triune God—but it eventually became a mixture with religion, with the law and Judaism. Throughout church history, mixture has come in again and again. In the 1500s Martin Luther was used by the Lord to recover the truth of justification by faith, but Luther did not help the condition of the church. Rather, it was through him that the state churches came into existence. Afterward, the private churches were formed. The recovery of the proper church life did not begin until the 1700s with Zinzendorf and the Moravian brethren in Germany. A further recovery of the church life occurred a hundred years later, in the late 1820s, when the Lord raised up the British Brethren. This was a further step in the recovery of the church practice, but it was eventually damaged through division caused by doctrinal concepts. Then the Lord was forced to go to China. The first meeting of a local church in China took place in Foochow in 1922. Throughout the years the Lord has shown us more of the proper way to practice the church life. Because this present step of recovery stands on the shoulders of the previous steps, the light is clearer.
We must be watchful that mixture would not come into the Lord’s recovery. In 1962 I was commissioned by the Lord to sound the trumpet of His recovery in the United States. At that time I was advised by some co-workers not to teach concerning the local church, but I was burdened by the Lord to teach this truth. Now many years later, local church has become a popular term in the Christian market, appearing in radio broadcasts and printed materials. Various groups even claim to be local churches. First, some opposed our teaching concerning the practice of the church life; then others received it and mixed it with denominational practices. Even some among us have begun to compromise with religious mixture. If Peter and the other apostles could compromise, it is possible that we too could err in this way.
I am sorrowful to see the situation today of mixture, compromise, and toleration. However, the Lord will never change; rather, He will leave the old generation and have a fresh start with a group of young people, just as He did in Galilee. The Lord was not able to use the Pharisees, Sadducees, or even good ones like Nicodemus. The Lord left them in Jerusalem and spent three and a half years to train some young fishermen. Today the Lord will train a group of young people and send them out. The most crucial areas of the earth today are Europe and the United States. I believe that the United States is today’s Galilee, and Europe is today’s Jerusalem. The Lord will use the United States to train a group of young people and then send them to Europe, especially to the college campuses. The Lord will gain the United States and Europe by capturing and training a group of young people.
We must say no to mixture, compromise, and toleration. The United States and Europe are full of superstition, tradition, and organized religion. We need to see that the Lord has no way with today’s religion, just as He had no way with Judaism, the old religion. The Lord dropped Judaism, and He will also drop today’s religion.
I hope that many saints from the United States will migrate to Europe and Israel. Those who stay in the United States need to carry out three main functions: gain students on the college campuses, pray for those who migrate, and supply the sent ones materially. Those who migrate may go as students, enrolling in a master’s program to study the language of the country they are in. If some young ones have a burden for Europe, they may study French or German as an undergraduate in the United States and then enroll in a master’s program in France or Germany. While they are studying, they can contact their fellow students. They should not care for gaining a large number. In the years that it takes to earn a master’s degree, they may gain several of their classmates. That group will become a nucleus for the Lord to raise up a church in that place. In this way the Lord can raise up churches in every country in Europe.
Today the young people need to prepare themselves in three ways to go either to Europe or to a college campus in the United States. First, they need to learn languages. I encourage all the young people to learn foreign languages. At the present time European languages are the most useful. The young ones need to learn the languages thoroughly, learning the grammar, pronunciation, and composition until they are able to speak fluently, translate, and compose. When they migrate to a country, they should already be able to express themselves clearly. The young people also need to learn human history in order to understand the national disposition and character of the people whom they contact. I encourage the young people to go to Europe, not to work but to enroll in school to master the language. While studying, they can contact local young people. After three years, they will have mastered the language and gained a number of young companions to form a nucleus of believers to gain the country.
Second, the young people need to gain the experiences in the church life to learn how to care for others. In this way they will be prepared to take the lead and be responsible ones in the churches that are raised up where they go.
Third, the young people need to learn all the truths—the truths concerning such matters as the gospel, the church, the kingdom, life, and grace. They need to read and study all the books that we publish in order to be fully instructed. Then, when they go out, they can teach the truth to others. The young people need to be prepared in these three ways—learning languages, gaining the church life experience, and learning the truth.
In this way the Lord will be able to prepare His bride. Soon every European country and every major campus in the United States will have a nucleus as a small army fighting the battle and raising up new churches. We all need to pray and stand with those who go out. Otherwise, it will be difficult to overcome the religious mixture. We must have a new start. The Lord needs a new current to flow Himself out. We must give the Lord a way to have this new current.