Starting from October of 1984, the Lord has led us anew to have a change in Taipei. This does not mean that the truth among us has changed; the truth will never change. This change is rather a renewing of our way of serving, functioning, and meeting. From many perspectives we studied and observed the church history of the twentieth century to see how the saints on this earth in the churches have served, functioned, and met. We did this to find the proper way that is according to the Lord’s leading in the present age with regard to the meetings and service.
We have spent much time and energy to bring in such a change because we saw that even though the truth in the Lord’s recovery is rich, bright, and high, the increase in the number of saints among us has been very slow and low. We have studied the rates of increase of all the Christian groups as well as other major religious groups in human society, observing how they propagate. This is not to say that we intend to imitate them. Rather, we did this for comparison and reference. The thing that made us feel most ashamed is that among the five major religions, the one that has had the highest rate of propagation in the last few centuries is Islam. Their increase is measured not by percentage but rather by multiples. The rate of increase of Christians, however, has been extremely low.
I came to start the work in the United States in 1962. In the summer of 1964, a brother who was a worker in the Southern Baptist denomination showed us their statistics. The report indicated that in 1964 the Southern Baptist denomination had eleven million members. In 1985 their number increased by another three million, bringing the total to fourteen million. From the numerical point of view, this is very impressive. However, considering that this took place within twenty-two years, the rate of increase is only about 1.5 percent, not even 2 percent. This shows that their rate of increase is very low, and the spread is very slow. The rate of increase and spread of Christianity’s largest group—the Catholic Church—is also very low. Because of this, we felt even more that there is the need to study the situation.
The strange thing is that the two great heretical groups within Christianity, the Mormons and the Jehovah’s Witnesses, have had the fastest increase and spread within the past one hundred years. We have examined the publications of Mormonism and have found their literature heretical. They say that Jesus Christ was born of Mary and Adam. What other heresy can be greater than this? They acknowledge Jesus Christ, they also refer to the Bible, and they speak about the Holy Spirit. They explain the former rain and the latter rain in the Old Testament book of Joel by saying that the Holy Spirit descending on the day of Pentecost is the former rain, while the Holy Spirit descending in the future is the latter rain. Therefore, they call themselves the “Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints.” However, they say in blasphemy that the one in whom they believe and whom they preach was born of Mary and Adam.
Recently when I went to the mountains to rest, I contacted a real-estate agent there who was an upright man and also a member of the Jehovah’s Witnesses. One day he came to my resting place for a special visit. During the course of our conversation I found out that he is a zealous person who always sets aside two days out of the week for the purpose of door-knocking. When we came to some theological issues, I asked him, “Who is this Jesus Christ whom you worship and serve? Is He God?” He answered, “Jesus Christ is not the eternal God, who has no beginning and no ending. Since Jesus Christ has a beginning, He is not the eternal God, but the archangel Michael.” Right away, I opened up Romans 9:5 to show him that Jesus Christ “is God over all, blessed forever.” After he read it, he said that the punctuation marks in this verse are wrong. I said, “That is your way of taking it out of context. This verse in Greek clearly indicates that Jesus Christ is God, who is over all and blessed forever.” I say this to let you see that these two groups are heretical, but they are the fastest growing groups among all the groups in Christianity. They have the highest rate of increase of members. Therefore, we have to ask ourselves why it seems that we cannot spread out even though the truth is rich, the light is clear, and the vision is high among us in the Lord’s recovery?
When I started laboring in Taiwan in 1949, I made a decision that we should propagate the gospel in an aggressive way. What we did in Taipei is an example. We divided each district according to different streets and lanes. The brothers and sisters would claim a portion until each street and lane were claimed. The saints went from house to house to pass out gospel tracts until they covered all of Taipei. At the same time, we posted gospel banners such as “God loves the world” and “Christ Jesus came into the world to save sinners” on the big streets, small lanes, intersections, bus stops, and the doors of the houses of the brothers and sisters. There was also a gospel team that went out to proclaim the gospel in the evenings in the middle of the week. On the Lord’s Day, different teams took their route into the New Park. Every Lord’s Day afternoon, the three thousand seats at the amphitheater in the New Park were filled. We were able to bring back four hundred gospel name cards. The next night we distributed the cards to the brothers and sisters so that they could right away go door-knocking and visiting. Because of this, a great number of people were saved. Not only did we do this in Taipei, but other localities also practiced this. Therefore, when the work began in Taiwan, there were only three to five hundred people, but in five or six years the number increased one hundredfold, reaching forty to fifty thousand people. From this we also learned a lesson, realizing that we cannot only pray without taking any action. Prayer is first, but following the prayer there should be action. Only in this way can the Lord bless us.
In 1957 when we invited Brother T. Austin-Sparks to come and visit us, a small distraction ensued, causing the one accord among us to be damaged. From that time on, the increase of the Lord’s recovery has been going downhill. When I left the country and stayed overseas for more than twenty years, the number almost did not increase at all because there was the lack of proper action. We studied this segment of our history, and after making comparisons we felt that we needed to restore a proper action. In Matthew 28:18 and 19, the Lord Jesus said, “All authority has been given to Me in heaven and on earth. Go therefore.” The Lord already has the authority, but if we do not go, it is impossible to have the increase. This shows us that on the Lord’s side He has the authority, the power, but on our side we need to cooperate, to take action.
Starting from October of 1984, we studied this matter in Taipei, and we started to experiment. I also told the brothers and sisters that from that day on, all of our meetings, services, and activities would have to be changed thoroughly. We needed to put aside what we had from the past. We thank and praise the Lord that up to the first half of this year, our experiment has proved to be correct and totally practical. In this message I first want to fellowship a result that came out of our experiment: We should go door-knocking and preach the gospel from house to house in the communities and on the college campuses, not to people we are familiar with but by knocking on “strange” doors. Due to the influence of our backgrounds and past experiences, we have always felt that we would be turned down if we knock on a stranger’s door. However, our experiment has proved that as long as we are willing to knock, the door will open. Therefore, with this kind of situation, we have to learn how to visit by door-knocking.