We see clearly from the revelation of the New Testament that when the Lord Jesus was on earth, He was acting under the vision. Outside His leading there was no vision. Others might have been in tradition or knowledge. Gamaliel was very knowledgeable; he was very familiar with God’s principles, but he was not under the vision. His speaking was not under the vision; it was a speaking that was merely words of knowledge. After the Lord’s ascension, it was Peter and his co-workers who were under the vision. We are not saying that Peter had one vision and John, James, and the other apostles had another vision. There was only one vision, which was the vision of Peter. This vision became the vision of his followers. When Paul was raised up in his ministry, he received a vision that touched the heavens, the earth, and Paradise (2 Cor. 12:2-4). Although Paul had many co-workers, no one except him saw any other vision. They all had one vision, which was the vision that Paul saw.
There is great controversy in Christianity concerning the matter of one vision for one age. However, God’s Word reveals to us clearly that in every age there is only one vision. At the time of Abel, Cain did not worship an idol and he did not build a shrine. He was doing the same thing that Abel was doing, offering a sacrifice to God. Under the vision, however, Abel offered a sacrifice that was acceptable to God, but Cain offered his sacrifice apart from the vision. If you were born in the age of Abel, you would have had to take the way of Abel; otherwise, you would have been off from the vision and in the way of Cain. At the time of Enosh, one man was under the vision, and he called on the name of the Lord. Other people might have feared God according to other ways, but such fear was not according to the vision. In the same way, at the time of Noah there were more than eight people who feared God; there might have been a hundred or even a thousand people who feared God. They might not have sinned as others did; they might even have been serving in some way. Yet their service was not governed by a vision. Noah’s family of eight people, by serving according to Noah’s pattern, became servants who served according to a vision. What Noah saw became what they saw.
The vision that Noah saw was the vision of the ark. To man this was very peculiar and unthinkable. How can a person give up everything that he is doing and spend all his time building an ark? The building took one hundred twenty years (Gen. 6:3). During those one hundred twenty years, Noah was, on the one hand, preaching the word of righteousness and, on the other hand, building the ark (2 Pet. 2:5). To others he was wasting his effort and his money; he was too foolish. When the one hundred twenty years were about to end, there was still no sign of any rain from heaven. Yet while men were saying “peace and security,” and while they were eating and drinking, marrying and giving in marriage, the flood of destruction suddenly came, as birth pangs come suddenly to a woman with child (Matt. 24:38-39; 1 Thes. 5:3). In the end, only Noah’s family entered the ark and was saved.
We find the same principle in the New Testament. God’s work in the New Testament is to produce and build up the church. This vision was given to Paul. For this reason, once Paul came on the scene, Peter’s ministry faded away. When Peter was old, he said, “Our beloved brother Paul, according to the wisdom given to him, wrote to you, as also in all his letters, speaking in them concerning these things, in which some things are hard to understand, which the unlearned and unstable twist, as also the rest of the Scriptures, to their own destruction” (2 Pet. 3:15-16). This means that even the aged Peter had to submit to the vision of Paul. He acknowledged that Paul’s word was as precious as the Old Testament Scriptures and that believers should take heed to it.
Based on this, the names of all those who did not join themselves to Paul’s vision were eventually dropped from the record of the Bible. For example, Barnabas was the one who initiated Paul into the service, but because he contended with Paul, his name was eventually dropped from the Bible. Apollos was very capable at expounding the Bible, but 1 Corinthians 16 records that he told Paul that it was not at all his desire to go to Corinth and that he would go when he had opportunity. After this, the Bible no longer mentions anything concerning him. Barnabas was zealous in his service, and Apollos was capable in his exposition of the Bible, but God did not use them anymore because their service was no longer under the vision. This is a very sober matter.
The Bible shows clearly that in every age God gives only one vision to man. We cannot find in the Bible that there were two visions in any age. What about those men who came after the apostles’ time? How did they serve God according to the proper vision? Today Paul is gone. If we are to serve God today, what is our vision? Today the inhabited world is much larger than at the time of Noah; there are more people today. There are more than one billion Christians all over the six continents of the world. They come from different denominations such as the Catholic Church and the Protestant churches. In the Protestant churches there are the Anglican Church, the Lutheran Church, the Methodist Church, the Baptist Church, and the Presbyterian Church. Among all these churches and all these Christians, who are the ones who are serving according to the vision? We can ask ourselves the same question: Are we those who are serving according to the vision, and if so, what is our vision?
Concerning this matter of following the vision, many Christians do not act according to the truth. Rather, they act according to their own taste and preferences. Some join our meetings because they think that the brothers and sisters here are very zealous, loving the Lord, and that the messages are good. This is the reason they join our meetings. Formerly, they only knew about attending “Sunday morning services.” When they hear that we go to church meetings, they also change their terminology and talk about attending “church meetings.” However, very few believers are clear concerning what it is to meet and serve according to the vision. All of you here are elders and co-workers. It is important that you consider this matter carefully. What is our vision? What is the vision that is governing our service? We cannot answer this question in a general way with only some spiritual terminology. Our answer must be based on a solid foundation.