Colossians 2:2 says that Christ is the mystery of God. What is a mystery? A mystery is a story that is beyond human comprehension. That Christ is the mystery of God means that Christ is the story, the history, of God. Therefore, Colossians 2:9 says, “For in Him [Christ] dwells all the fullness of the Godhead bodily.” Furthermore, 1:19 says, “For in Him all the fullness was pleased to dwell.” All the fullness of the Godhead refers to all that the entire Triune God-the Father, the Son, and the Spirit-is, has, can do, has done, has obtained, has accomplished, and has attained; all of this fullness dwells in Christ bodily. Hence, Christ is the embodiment of the Triune God.
Today under the influence of the creeds, the speaking in Christianity concerning the Divine Trinity either leans toward tritheism or is very close to tritheism. There is a brother who worked with Brother Nee and me for over twenty years when we were in mainland China. In 1934 when the publication of The Christian was resumed and I was charged by Brother Nee to bear the editing responsibility, this co-worker also contributed articles to the magazine. However, in 1958 he condemned me, saying that I teach heresy when I say that “the Son is called the Father and that the Son is the Spirit.” One of our senior co-workers went to have a talk with him, telling him that if this were a heresy, then it did not start with me but with Brother Nee, who had written a hymn with these lines: “Thou, Lord, the Father once wast called, / But now the Holy Spirit art” (Hymns, #490, stanza 5). That brother’s reply was that Brother Nee could also be wrong. I felt then that that brother was not only short in his knowledge of the Bible but also inconsistent in his words and actions.
Then in 1965 while I was living in Los Angeles, this brother arrived at San Francisco, in the Bay Area. A brother who loves the Lord bought him an airplane ticket and sent him to Los Angeles. I went to the airport to meet and receive him to my home. During his visit, I asked him how many Gods there are. He clearly and definitely said that there are three Gods. He even went further to argue that in Psalms there are references to “gods” (82:1, 6; 138:1). I said that, by reading the context, we can know that gods in Psalms refers to angels. Therefore, I advised him not to say that there are three Gods, for that would be a great heresy. Please remember, today’s preachers and pastors preach that there is only one true God, who is three yet one; however, in their subconscious understanding there are three Gods. According to their concept, if there were not three Gods, how could it be that the Son was standing in the water at His baptism, the Father was speaking from the heavens, and still another One was in the air? They simply cannot comprehend this in their mind.
In 1935 in Shanghai, we were discussing whether we should receive a certain famous Chinese traveling preacher to the Lord’s table if he were to come in our midst. We had such a discussion because he believed that the Father, the Son, and the Spirit are three separate Gods. This is to show you that we have never been negligent in this matter. The early church fathers studied this matter in depth and with great accuracy. Concerning this matter, the creeds are very careful in their use of expressions. Although they repeatedly refer to the fact that in the Godhead there are the Father, the Son, and the Spirit, they still stress that there is only one God. Nevertheless, most preachers follow the teaching of the Eastern Orthodox Church; their teaching of the Trinity is actually tritheism.
Christ, the Son, is the mystery, the history, of God in totality. The totality of God, including not only His person but also all that pertains to Him (all the fullness of the Godhead), is in Christ. All the fullness of the Godhead refers to all that the entire God-the Father, the Son, and the Spirit-is, has, does, knows, has done, has obtained, has accomplished, and has attained; all this fullness dwells in the Son bodily. Therefore, He is truly the all-inclusive One. It is not too much to say that He is the Father because the Father is included in Him. And it is not wrong to say that He is the Spirit because the Spirit is implied in Him. However, we absolutely confess that the Father is the Father, the Son is the Son, and the Spirit is the Spirit and that the three are distinct but not separate. In the previous chapter we pointed out that the Son is the image of the Father (Heb. 1:3; Col. 1:15a; 2 Cor. 4:4) and that the Spirit is the eyes of the Son (Zech. 3:9; 4:10; Rev. 5:6). The image of a person and the person himself are distinct but not separate; the eyes and the face are distinct but not separate. This is the mystery of the Divine Trinity.
Zechariah 3:9 says that upon one stone are seven eyes; then 4:10 says that the seven eyes are the eyes of Jehovah running to and fro on the whole earth. Revelation 5:6 says that the Lamb has seven horns and seven eyes and that the seven eyes are the seven Spirits of God. In Zechariah it is a stone, but in Revelation the stone becomes the Lamb. Furthermore, the seven eyes are the seven Spirits. We must realize that there are no new things in Revelation. Every item that is mentioned in Revelation can be found in the Old Testament. That the seven Spirits are seven eyes is referred to in Zechariah chapters three and four, but the speaking there is not clear and has to be complemented by Revelation. Likewise, the stone in Zechariah becomes the Lamb in Revelation. The stone is for building, whereas the Lamb is for redemption. This means that to accomplish God’s building there must first be redemption. Hence, the stone must be the Lamb. These two are one; they both typify Christ, the Son. For this reason, I coined a new expression: “Stone-Lamb.” The stone and the Lamb are just one because both have seven eyes; furthermore, these seven eyes are the seven Spirits of God. This means that the Spirit is the eyes of both the Son and the Father, who are not two or three but one.
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