Today’s Christian theological seminaries teach theology but do not touch the deep truths of the Bible. They touch only the superficial things related to the Bible, such as the number of books and authors of the Bible, how many years it took for the Bible to be written, and where each book was written. They teach only shallow matters, such as the creeds and decisions made by the councils, biblical history, and biblical geography.
Regardless of whether you have been saved many years or you have only recently been saved, most of you probably do not know that the truths in the Lord’s recovery are the cream of all the truths in the Bible. In Christianity you cannot find the expressions transformation, enjoying the Lord, dispensing, or economy. All of these truths are foreign to most of the believers in Christianity. They are ignorant of these high-peak truths, yet some were so foolish as to attack us. This is the pitiful condition of today’s Christianity. The truths among us are truly abundant. This is why you need to exert effort to get into them. You are the most blessed group of people in this age. You have graduated from college, forsaken your future, given up everything to pursue the Lord, and put all your time and energy into the Lord’s recovery. For this reason, I will do the best I can to help you.
Brother Nee and I spent more than sixty years to study the truth. He began to pursue the truth in 1920, and in 1922 he began to publish periodicals that expounded the truths of the Bible. He carried out his ministry for thirty years until 1952. In 1952 Brother Nee was imprisoned. He remained in prison for twenty years until he went to be with the Lord in 1972. When I was in mainland China, a few brothers and I were under Brother Nee’s leadership. In 1949 Brother Nee sent me to Taiwan, and for the past thirty years since 1950 I have been publishing books in Taiwan. Over the past sixty years in the Lord’s recovery we have dug out nearly all the truths in the Bible—Brother Nee in the first thirty years and I in the last thirty years. I dare not say that we have dug thoroughly, but I can say that we have opened up the treasure stores, the mines, of the truths in the Bible and have put them before you. There is still much more for you to dig. If the Lord would give me the time to do so, I would rewrite the notes in the New Testament Recovery Version and conduct a life-study of the entire Bible once more. It is a pity that I do not have the time. Nevertheless, I praise and thank the Lord that Brother Nee and I have opened up the riches of the Bible to you. Now you need to dig deeper. We put our whole being into the study of the Word in order to get into its depths. You must dig into the Bible in the same way.
Understanding the truths of the Bible requires the learning of languages. The original language of the New Testament is Greek, and the original language of the Old Testament is Hebrew. It would be good for you to exert some effort to learn these two languages. Moreover, although you are probably quite proficient in understanding and reading Chinese, your mother tongue, you most likely encounter difficulty when you are trying to express the truth. This shows two things—that you are deficient in the skill of writing and that your knowledge of the truth is still vague. Moreover, in the recovery we often speak the truth in English. Thus, if you have not adequately learned English, your understanding of the truth will not be precise. Therefore, I hope that you would have sufficient knowledge of languages and of writing.
Yesterday I fellowshipped with the saints who serve in the bookroom. I said that in 1952 and 1953 I began to conduct trainings here. These trainings went on for ten years, with at least four months of training per year. Although so many were trained, no one has pursued and made adequate progress with regard to languages and writing. As a result, not one can write something that is weighty. This should serve as a warning to us. Thus, I am here to encourage the younger generation to exert effort to learn languages and to learn to write. When I began to serve the Lord in 1932, I felt that there was a lack in my learning. Therefore, I asked someone to buy me an Interlinear Greek-English New Testament in Shanghai so that I could study Greek by myself. I truly hope that in the Lord’s work you would not be average persons. Instead of being average, you should be learned ones. To speak in worldly terms—since you have decided to be in this trade, you need to look like one who is in this trade and be an expert in this trade. Do not follow the condition of Christianity. I do not despise those who are in Christianity, and I have no intention to condemn them, but the Lord’s work and His move have been hindered due to their shallowness. The Lord needs us to clear the way so that He can move on. If you would be desperate to learn, the Lord would have a free way among you to carry on His work.
All of Christianity in America was shaken up due to the lawsuit. This was not an ordinary matter, and there have not been many lawsuits in the history of Christianity. I hope that you all would read the “Statement of Decision” that was issued at the close of the lawsuit over the book The God-Men. This statement has to do with the content of our contending for the truth.
The lawsuit also caught the attention of Dr. J. Gordon Melton, the chief editor of The Encyclopedia of American Religions. This encyclopedia has a very good standing in Christian society and even in American society in general. Dr. Melton studied our truths and felt that they were fundamental and even worthwhile for Christians to read through. He then voluntarily published a book to testify on our behalf. This was more than we ever expected. I had never seen Dr. Melton’s face and I had never exchanged letters with him, yet he still recommended me. He said that I am the most outstanding teacher in the local churches and that my theology is altogether based on the Brethren theology, which is the most orthodox theology. Today Christians all over the world recognize that the Brethren theology is the best theology of all orthodox theology. What Dr. Melton said was absolutely right. We have been much influenced by the Brethren truths since the early times. Their theology is in the marrow of our bones. Hence, when our writings are published, they naturally bear the Brethren flavor.
The more effort you exert to know the truth, the more advantageous it will be to you. Any effort you exert to learn the truth will never be wasted effort. You are all blessed, because the publications in the Lord’s recovery are very rich. They include all the fundamental truths of the Bible. Thus, there is no need for you to try to collect riches from the writings of others. I dare not say that our speaking is complete, but I would say that there is surely no lack of truth for you to study in our books. The notes in the New Testament Recovery Version alone can almost serve as a compass for all the truths among us. Concerning the matter of the filling of the Spirit, for example, all you have to do is read the notes for Acts 2:4, 6:3, and 13:52, and you will be clear. To know the meaning of transformation, you just need to look up the notes for 2 Corinthians 3:18. I hope that you would deepen your efforts to learn the truth.