I hope that every one of us can have a clear vision of the church being the reprint of the Spirit with Christ. The church is a reprint, a reproduction. This has been missed in today’s Christianity. Christianity is merely a religion and a human organization; it is not the reprint of the Spirit with Christ. The Lord’s recovery today is the recovery of the church as the reprint of the Spirit with Christ. For this reason we have a burden that not only in one locality or in one country but in every locality and in every country there could be a living testimony of the church. This does not depend on having a big number or a small number of people; rather, it depends on having some saints who meet together in the Lord’s name, in the Lord’s person, as Christ’s reprint, Christ’s reproduction.
Let us consider what the reprint of the Spirit with Christ really means. We all know what a reprint is. If we have an article that has been typeset, with every word correct and lacking nothing, all that is needed is to reprint the original on many sheets of paper. One original can be reproduced on thousands of sheets of paper. This is the meaning of a reprint. Christ is one and the Spirit is one, but the Spirit with Christ wants to reprint Christ onto the church. Whatever is in the original is also in every reprint, without “different words” or “missing punctuation.” This is the church. The church is the reprint of Christ; it is a “printed book” of the Spirit with Christ.
What, then, is the content of this reprint? The revelation in the Bible concerning this matter is not simple. Because it is not simple, the Bible uses figures to make it clear. For example, the tabernacle as a type of God’s dwelling place involves a great deal; if we do not have a picture but only use words, we cannot explain it thoroughly and clearly. Therefore, in His wisdom God gave us the tabernacle as a picture. When we look at this picture, spontaneously we understand what God’s dwelling place is. This kind of representation is clearer than a thousand words. The church being the reprint of the Spirit with Christ cannot be clearly explained even with thousands of words. Therefore, there is a symbol in the Bible to show it, yet the symbol itself is not easy to understand. We have seen that the golden lampstand apparently is simple, yet it is not simple when we really get into it.
In the previous chapter we mentioned four things: the lampstand, Jehovah, the Lamb, and the stone. We have proved that the lampstand is Jehovah, Jehovah is the Lamb, and the Lamb is the stone. The key to our proof is the seven lamps. These seven lamps are the seven eyes, and the seven eyes are the seven Spirits. The seven lamps of the lampstand are the seven eyes of Jehovah (Zech. 4:2, 10); naturally, this shows that the lampstand is Jehovah. Jehovah with seven eyes equals the lampstand with seven lamps. The Bible also says that the seven eyes of Jehovah are the seven eyes of the Lamb (Rev. 5:6). Hence, this also proves that Jehovah is equal to the Lamb and the Lamb is equal to Jehovah. Moreover, the Bible says that the seven eyes are the seven eyes of the stone (Zech. 3:9). This proves that the stone is equal to the Lamb. Eventually, the Bible says that the seven eyes are the seven Spirits of God (Rev. 5:6). Therefore, we can say that the lampstand equals Jehovah, Jehovah equals the Lamb, the Lamb equals the stone, and the stone equals God. There are seven lamps, seven eyes, and seven Spirits. The seven lamps belong to the lampstand, and the seven eyes belong to Jehovah, the Lamb, and the stone. The seven eyes are also the seven Spirits of God.
If we put these few passages of the Bible together, we can definitely see that the seven lamps are the seven eyes, and the seven eyes are the seven Spirits. Based on this, the lampstand is Jehovah, Jehovah is the Lamb, the Lamb is the stone, and the stone is God. This kind of saying may prick the ears of theologians. They may ask, “How can you say that the lampstand is Jehovah and that the stone is God? What kind of theology is this?” This is the authentic theology in the Bible. Many theologians do not know the Bible; mostly they know traditional theology. They do not see God’s direct revelation, the divine word. If, for example, the Lord Jesus had not said with His own mouth that “the stone which the builders rejected, this has become the head of the corner” (Matt. 21:42), I am convinced that not one theologian would be willing to make such a statement. Even though the Lord Jesus did say this, today’s theologians do not speak much about it because they do not understand it clearly. They do not know how the Lord Jesus can be a stone and how this stone can be the stone which was cut out without hands to smash the great image in Nebuchadnezzar’s dream and eventually become a great mountain to fill the whole earth (Dan. 2:31-35).