At present, the same kind of problem exists in all the localities-we are not in perfect harmony. Although we do not harbor any evil intentions against each other, everyone is speaking according to his own preference. As a result, in the church it appears that there are two trumpets, which produces an uncertain sound. An army can have only one trumpet; then the whole army will have a unified command. If there are two trumpet sounds, even if one of them is very weak, it will cause a problem.

The Greek word for truth is aletheia, a word which is quite difficult to explain. It is used more than one hundred times in the New Testament. There is a very good Greek dictionary-Theological Dictionary of the New Testament-which explains every word in the New Testament. It was written in German by a German brother whose last name was Kittel. The entire New Testament uses more than 7,600 Greek words, and Kittel’s research puts them into ten big volumes, clearly indicating the usage of every Greek word. He explains the changes in their meanings from their most ancient uses to their classical usages. He also gives clear explanations of how the words were used when the Greek language pervaded the Mediterranean region. Not only so, in these volumes he also discusses the meanings of each word as used in the New Testament writings, as well as their meanings in ordinary usage outside of the biblical writings. From this book we see that Greek words have different usages according to five periods of time. Kittel points out all these usages for us. Because of this book we can get to the depths and carefully study every book of the New Testament.

Take the word truth for example. In the New Testament usage this word has eight meanings, all of which are clearly written in note 6 of 1 John 1:6 of the Recovery Version of the New Testament. We only need to enter into this footnote diligently to obtain its riches. When we study the truth, what we need to do is read the Recovery Version and life-study messages carefully. This is because what was written in them did not come out of our imagination. What we wrote is absolutely based on the meaning of the Greek text and is according to the truth.

From the time Brother Watchman Nee laid the foundation of the truth for us until now, the Lord’s recovery has been among us for over sixty years. These sixty years may be divided into two periods. The first period, from 1922 to 1952, covers the first thirty years, which was the period of Brother Nee’s ministry. In 1922 Brother Nee started the first meeting of the Lord’s recovery in Foochow, and in 1952 he was put into prison. This period of exactly thirty years was the period in which he released the truth. We came overseas in 1949, but we may say that in 1952 we formally started to release the truth, and until the present time it has been thirty years also. In the latter thirty years, the major part of the truth was released mainly through me.

The truths in these two periods are a perfect match and are all centered on Christ and the church. We have never deviated from this right track: Christ as the mystery of God and the church as the mystery of Christ being the economy of God and a great mystery. The thousands of messages we have spoken, regardless of how they were presented, were all concerning the economy of God. Therefore, I hope that all the saints among us would see this, and I especially hope that those who minister the word would no longer try to produce something “new.”

Putting aside the riches of Brother Nee and the messages I have given, some among us have gone to the books of Christianity looking for some material to preach. This is really foolish. We have obtained the riches among us by standing on the shoulders of our predecessors, yet today some want to go and search for something under the feet of our predecessors. What a pity this is! Since we are all human, of course we prefer to speak our own messages. However, we need to see what marvelous riches the Lord has given us and that what He wants us to preach is His economy only.

Whether we are older or younger, in the future we all may become teachers of the truth. May none of us try to speak “new things” by ourselves. What we speak must be concerning the economy of God-Christ and the church. Anything we speak apart from this economy is a different teaching and will result in much damage to the Lord’s recovery. We must pay close attention to this matter.
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