At the end of the last century, this school of theology was very prevailing and strongly influential in Europe. But at the beginning of this century, in 1914, war broke out in Europe, and the fighting was very severe. This struck a heavy blow against the Reformed Theology. After the war in Europe, European theology put particular emphasis on the study of prophecies. At that time, the Lord’s recovery was just being raised up in China. Many of the spiritual books I read came from Europe, and they were all concerning prophecies. That was because people all felt that the world was becoming more and more chaotic and more and more evil, so they would no longer listen to teachings about utopia. Instead, they had to see what the Bible said. Later the world situation became even worse. In 1931 Japan invaded the northeastern part of China, and war broke out again. Then Italy invaded Ethiopia, and Hitler invaded the countries bordering Germany. By 1939 Europe was embroiled in another great war that eventually developed into the Second World War, which covered an even greater area and was more severe than the First World War. After this, nobody believed in the Reformed Theology anymore.

Today, however, forty years after the last great war, this school seems to be showing signs of gradually raising its head again. It still emphasizes that Christians have only one nature and do not have another nature inwardly. Also, it emphasizes that regeneration is merely to change a person’s original nature. This is just like what the Chinese mean when they say that we have to “daily turn over a new leaf” and “develop our bright virtue” so that we would become “renewed people”; this means that we have reformed ourselves. Having been influenced by such a doctrine and having accepted it, many seminary students in America do not believe that Christians have two natures and two lives. The Bible, however, clearly states that when we are regenerated, we are born of the Spirit (John 3:6) and we have received the life and nature of God into us (vv. 15-16, 36; 2 Pet. 1:4) to make us a new creation. This is not merely reforming man’s original nature.

The reason I am speaking so much about this matter is that I want to show you that many Christians today are not at all clear about what regeneration is. Twenty years ago when I first went to America, I released a message telling people that we need regeneration not just because we are fallen, but that even if Adam had not fallen, even if all men had not fallen and had not the slightest bit of sin, we would still need to be regenerated. Take the example of grafting. Grafting is not done because a tree has fallen and therefore one of its branches has to be cut off and grafted into a tree that has not fallen. We all know that grafting has nothing to do with whether or not a tree is fallen. Grafting is a matter of the inward life and nature. Even though you as a tree and the Lord Jesus as a tree are of the same species, your life and nature are too poor, so you need to be grafted into the Lord Jesus, whose life and nature are the best. This is why in Genesis 2 before man had fallen, God placed him in front of the tree of life. God meant to tell man that he had a life within which was merely the human life and not the divine life. Therefore, God put man in front of the tree of life that man might receive the life of the tree of life, which is a higher life.

In Matthew 1:21, the angel of the Lord told Joseph in a dream, “She [Mary] will bear a son, and you shall call His name Jesus, for it is He who will save His people from their sins.” It is true that the problem of sin is here. But we must realize that our need for the life of God is recorded in Genesis 2 before sin had come in; sin did not come in until Genesis 3. This proves that it is not because of our fall that we need God to come into us; instead, it is something originally ordained by God. God created us as His vessels (Rom. 9:20-24) to contain Him. Romans 9 says that we are vessels of mercy, then we will become vessels unto honor, and eventually we will be vessels unto glory. The honor of a vessel does not depend upon the vessel itself but upon its content. When man was created, God did not immediately get into him; hence, at the most man was a vessel of mercy in which there was no God, much less glory. Today, however, we have God, so we have become vessels unto honor; in the future when we are in glory, we will become vessels unto glory.

The purpose of a vessel is to contain things. A vessel may have fallen into the garbage can due to carelessness, but that does not mean that it is no longer a vessel and does not need to contain things. It is true that because we had fallen into the garbage can of sin and had become dirty, we needed God to wash us clean. But God’s purpose in cleansing us is that we may contain Him. In this respect, even if we had not fallen into the garbage can of sin and we had been clean, yet without God being put inside of us, we would still be empty. We need to be filled with God. This is the purpose of God’s creation of man revealed in the Bible.
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