A full-term child is born after being in the mother’s womb for nine months, but doctors also know that a child born after only six and a half months can also live. Nevertheless, whether a child is born full term or premature, he will die if you neglect him after birth. The mistake we make in our practice today is that we neglect people after we baptize them, just as someone may neglect a child after birth. Begetting but not nurturing is our greatest fault.
After a child is born, he must be nurtured to grow properly. When my youngest daughter had her first boy, both my wife and I were very happy as we went to the hospital to see them. We hoped that the boy would be healthy and chubby. But when we got to the nursery, we found him to be very tiny. My wife and I eyed each other thinking, “How can this child survive? Is there any hope that he will live?” However, today he has grown up very well; he is tall and strong, and he won first place in soccer at school. Though he was born weak, he is healthy and strong today because he was properly cared for and nourished to grow up into such a big boy. In height, weight, and strength, he surpasses many of his age. Hence, nourishment is a very important matter.
A child after birth must not only be nurtured but must also be taught. In this way, he can grow up to be an adult. Therefore, after a person is baptized, the first thing we must do is to enter into an agreement with him, telling him, “From today on we will often visit you at your home, bringing the meeting to you.” Then you have to be faithful to feed him, to visit him every week, fifty-two times a year, after his baptism. If you practice this way, do you think that this baptized person will be saved or not? Someone may say, “He was not saved when he was baptized, but he got saved after baptism through our nurturing and teaching until he became clear.” It may be that he became clear about salvation only after a certain time, but his need of becoming clear is merely your own criterion. In God’s view, there is no such criterion. God’s Word says that if the gospel is preached to a sinner, and he receives it, repents, confesses, believes in the Lord Jesus, and also prays, then in the eyes of God he is saved. His spirit has been regenerated.
Actually, the truth regarding salvation is not simple. According to the Bible, salvation is rather involved; it involves a procedure, a process. There is the salvation of the spirit (John 3:5-6), the salvation of the soul (1 Pet. 1:9), and the salvation of the body (Phil. 3:21; Rom. 8:23). If you ask me today, “Have you been saved?”, I would have to ask what you mean. My spirit has already been regenerated and saved, my soul is undergoing transformation in the process of salvation, but my body is still the body of an old Chinese man without any change and is not yet saved. In this age, we can receive the salvation of our soul. The salvation and redemption of our body will not be accomplished until the Lord Jesus comes back. At that time our salvation will be complete.
When a person hears the gospel, repents, confesses, prays, calls on the Lord, and receives the Lord, this is the beginning of his salvation. However, we must not stop there. Rather, we have to continue to feed him and teach him, not allowing him to remain in his original condition. We must immediately care for him and nurture him, just as we would a child after he is born. If we wait a few days to care for a newborn, he will die. In the same way, after a person is baptized, we must immediately make an appointment with him within that week to set up a certain day to visit him and nourish him weekly. This is to enter into an agreement with him.
Following this, we must lead him to open his home for meetings. This is one thing that we must help others to do. As we talk to the new ones, we must lead them to open up their homes for meetings. This is a very important step which we have neglected in the past. Formerly our emphasis had only been to contact and gain an individual. Now we have seen that what is more dependable is not the gaining of an individual but the gaining of his household. The sphere of gaining an individual is too narrow; the gaining of a household is much broader. Therefore, after much research at this time, our conclusion is that the unit of gaining people is not the individual but the household. We also have seen that this is in accordance with the teaching in the Bible.
In the Old Testament, Noah’s salvation was not of one individual but of his household of eight people. On the day of the Passover, the Israelites did not have one lamb per person but one lamb per household. In the New Testament the Lord said to Zaccheus, “Today salvation has come to this house” (Luke 19:9). The Philippian jailer asked Paul, “What must I do to be saved?” Paul said, “Believe on the Lord Jesus, and you shall be saved, you and your household” (Acts 16:30-31). Moreover, in the example of Cornelius, the angel told him, “Send men...and send for Simon, who is surnamed Peter, who will speak words to you by which you shall be saved, you and all your house” (11:13-14). These examples indicate that God takes the believer’s household as the complete unit of salvation.
We did not do an adequate gospel work in the past because we took the individual as the unit of salvation. Consequently we suffered loss. From now on we must take the household as the unit. When we contact people, we contact not only the individual but also his household. When we knock on doors, we are knocking not only on the doors of men’s hearts but also on the doors of households. We need to always have this as our goal. After a person is baptized, our speaking with him should emphasize the opening of his home for meetings. This is the gospel secret that we must learn. May the Lord have mercy on us at this time so that through this secret all of us may become revived.
Once a home is opened for a meeting, we need to grasp the opportunity to set up a time for the next meeting. Anyone who opens the door of his home to us is willing to talk to us and is desirous for us to visit again. It does not matter whether he is just trying to be polite; as long as he says, “Come again when you have time,” that is good enough. We should simply grab on to this word and take the opportunity to set up a time with him, saying “Yes, not only are we willing to come again, but we would like to come many more times. Can we decide on a time right now?” In this way, the time is set. With a set time, that home can be considered as opened. Hence, the first visit is to gain a person individually, but after he has been gained, we should immediately set up a time to meet again in his home, to open up his home, so that a further step can be taken to gain his whole household. We must practice this matter until we become skilled.
Recently, a brother from a certain locality testified that only about seventy people went out door-knocking, but within a few days they had visited five hundred homes. The brothers from another nearby locality visited more homes, over one thousand. Even though all the people prayed, the brothers did not have the confidence to baptize them. It is not that those people lacked faith; rather, those who preached the gospel did not have the knowledge or the faith. This is our pitiful condition. We are always hoping that there will be someone to testify for a person, to recommend him; then we will feel confident to baptize him, considering this the safe way. Actually, whether it is safe or not does not depend on others’ testimonies but totally on our cooperation with the Lord and on the Lord’s grace and mercy. Therefore, as long as a person believes and prays, we should immediately baptize him. If you say, “We might baptize a false one,” I would answer, “Many after baptism are eventually found to be real; whereas after a certain delay, the real ones whom you would not baptize, are found to be false ones.” Baptism is not a small matter; it is a matter of life and death. How a person turns out depends on this one’s baptism. Therefore, we need to know what to do and how to do it properly. What the Chinese consider as the ideal time to cook something is very important. In the same way, you must grab the opportunity to baptize a person. Then after baptism, you must set up a time with him. Once the meeting time is decided, his home is open, and you have the opportunity to gain his household.