We must all realize that on the earth today there are four negative items: Judaism, Catholicism, Protestantism, and worldliness. The first three are in the category of religion. Today’s generation, particularly in the United States, is filled, composed, and constituted with worldliness plus Judaism, Catholicism, and Protestantism. A capable, young man in America may love his car, education, house, job, wife, and family. Moreover, he may attend a synagogue of Satan, a cathedral of demons, or a Protestant church that is dead. Such a person needs to take the word that Peter spoke on the day of Pentecost, “Be saved from this crooked generation” (Acts 2:40). According to the context of Acts 2, it was the Jewish religion with its leaders, priests, and elders that crucified the Lord Jesus (vv. 22-23, 36). This was the crooked generation that they were a part of. Now they needed to save themselves out of this generation. This simply means that they should give up their religion and come to Christ and the church. As Peter was standing there speaking to the people, the glorious church was there, and the Jewish religion as the crooked generation also was there. Those people needed to make a decision concerning their destiny, whether they would remain in the crooked, religious generation or come to the straight, glorious church life.
Paul also told the churches in Galatia that Christ died on the cross for their sins not to bring them into heaven but to rescue them out of the present evil age (Gal. 1:4). What bothered and frustrated the churches in Galatia at that time was the evil age composed with two elements, the Gentile world and the Jewish religion. Today the principle is the same. The evil age in the United States is composed of four elements: worldliness, Judaism, Catholicism, and Protestantism. Even many of the free groups today are a damage to the building up of God’s testimony. Thus, they also are a part of today’s crooked generation, from which we need to be saved.
Today there are only two things on the earth: the crooked generation and the testimony of Jesus. When Peter stood on the day of Pentecost, the crooked generation was the Jewish religion, and the testimony of Jesus was the church. Likewise, when Paul wrote the letter to the Galatian churches, the present evil age was the Gentile world plus the Jewish religion, and the testimony of Jesus was the church. Today the crooked generation is modern worldliness plus Judaism, Catholicism, and Protestantism, and the testimony of Jesus is still the church. Whoever is not in the church as the testimony of Jesus today is in the crooked generation. Whether someone goes to the casinos in Las Vegas, a Jewish synagogue, a Catholic cathedral, a Protestant chapel, or a meeting place for a free group, as long as he is not built up in the church, he is in the crooked generation.
We look to the Lord that He would grant us a full revelation of the testimony of Jesus. We must never be drugged by worldliness, Judaism, Catholicism, and Protestantism. The satanic, demonic, devilish generation today is composed with not only the casinos in Las Vegas but also with the cathedrals, sanctuaries, chapels, and meeting places of many divisive, dissenting groups. As long as someone is not in the church, he is not in the testimony of Jesus. Rather, he is in the generation of today’s crooked world. May all the veils be taken away from us, and may we have a clear sky concerning the testimony of Jesus.
Satan and the demons are very subtle, so we must be careful. We have seen some dear ones seduced and deceived by Satan to speak critically of the church. We must be warned. For over forty years I have never seen anyone who opposed or criticized the church receive God’s blessing. If the recovery of the churches is something of the Lord in His governmental way, we must be careful about touching it. It is not a small thing to touch the church. If this is my work, your work, or the work of a movement called “the local churches,” we can reject it without opposing the Lord Jesus, but if this is the Lord’s governmental move, His economical administration, we must be careful. Some have condemned us, saying that we are heretical. If they were right, they should have received the blessing from God. However, they did not receive the blessing. Time will vindicate who is under God’s blessing and who is not. We must be saved from today’s crooked and perverse generation—from modern worldliness and from Judaism, Catholicism, and Protestantism. Then we must come to the church as the testimony of Jesus today. Hallelujah, we are here for the testimony of Jesus! This is not a gospel-preaching work, a mission work, a Bible-teaching work, or a work merely to edify Christians. This is the testimony of Jesus. May the Lord open our eyes, and may the heavens be open to us in these days.