The knowledge and discovery of divine revelation develop and advance with the ages. Today we are not in the age of Martin Luther. We are not in the age of Zinzendorf or the age of John Wesley. At the time of the Reformation in the 1520s, when Luther was raised up, anyone who wanted to serve under a vision had to join himself to Luther. In the seventeenth century, anyone who wanted to serve under a vision had to join himself to Madame Guyon. In the eighteenth century, anyone who wanted to serve under a vision had to join himself to Zinzendorf. Even John Wesley received help from Zinzendorf. In the nineteenth century, J. N. Darby took the lead among the Brethren, and the vision was with him. In the twentieth century, the vision came to us.
I am not “selling” myself here, but I would like to make a declaration. I began my relationship with the Lord’s recovery in 1925. I fully agreed with the Lord’s recovery, but during the first seven and a half years I was not in the Lord’s recovery but in the Brethren assembly. It was in 1932 that I officially joined the Lord’s recovery. Now, fifty-four years have passed. During the past sixty years, according to my observation and based on my knowledge of the Bible, my experience as a Christian, and my study of Christianity’s history and its present condition, I can say with full confidence that the Lord’s recovery is serving under the vision. There is no doubt about this.
This is not all. During these fifty-four years that I have been in the Lord’s recovery, I have seen many people both in the northern and southern parts of China who had high moral standards and a noble character, who had learned deep lessons in life, and whose spiritual condition was good. When they passed through the Lord’s recovery or met with us for a few years and then left, invariably they found their spiritual service fading and faltering. This is an amazing thing. Those who have never touched the Lord’s recovery can still somewhat go on, but those who have come and then left invariably find their end less than desirable. There is not one exception. This proves that the recovery bears the vision that the Lord has entrusted to this age.
At the time of Noah the vision was to build the ark. At that time anyone who was not building the ark was not serving according to the vision. At the time of Paul the vision was to preach the gospel and to build up the church. Anyone at that time who was not serving according to this vision was off the mark. This included such men as Apollos, who was capable at expounding the Bible, and Barnabas, who was zealous for his service. What is our vision today? Today in 1986, our vision is also to “build the ark.” The way to build this ark is to preach the gospel, set up home meetings, teach the truth, and have everyone prophesy. All those who do not practice these four things are not serving according to the vision. Perhaps you expound the Bible, and perhaps you serve very zealously, but your service is not “building the ark.” Such service will not be acceptable to God.
I hope that all the brothers and sisters attending the full-time training will read this chapter so that they will see this matter clearly. We are not trying to dictate to anyone, and we are not congratulating ourselves behind closed doors. We are saying this based on the movement of history and the pure revelation of the Bible. Look around at the entire situation of Christianity today. Where are the revelation and the vision? We have the same Bible in our hands, but some people have no light even after they have read it a hundred times. In the Lord’s recovery, every page, every verse, every sentence, and even every word shine with revelation and light. I believe that outside the Lord’s recovery it is difficult to hear a word about Apollos like the one that is recorded in this chapter. The reason for this is that there is no light.
If we study the letter of the Bible, we may conclude that Apollos was not too deficient. In 1 Corinthians 3 Paul said that Apollos watered, but in the same verse he told the Corinthians that he was the one who planted (v. 6). Whether or not there is a waterer is not that important, but the planter is indispensable (cf. Mark 4:26-28). Although Paul was humble in pointing out Apollos’s distinction, in the same verse he added, “According to the grace of God given to me, as a wise master builder I have laid a foundation, and another builds upon it...For another foundation no one is able to lay besides that which is laid” (1 Cor. 3:10-11). This means that anyone who does not build upon Paul’s foundation is not serving according to the vision. In the eyes of man, this is too presumptuous, but Paul was not apologetic at all. He said that he was a wise master builder. He had given everyone the blueprint of the building, and he was supervising the building work. The phrase master builder here is architekton in Greek. It denotes a person who has the blueprint and builds and supervises the building according to the blueprint. The anglicized form of this word is architect. We know that in construction, the only person whose word counts is the architect’s. This was Paul’s position. No one else’s word counts; only Paul’s word counts because he had the blueprint.
We see the same thing at the time of Moses. Moses received the pattern of the tabernacle from God, and he supervised the building work. Moses was the one who had the dimensions of the tabernacle and the ways to construct it with all the utensils. In the building of the tabernacle, only his word counted; no one else’s word counted. If everyone would have had his say in that work, I am afraid there would have been a hundred or two hundred different kinds of tabernacles. This is the situation with Christianity today. There are thousands of churches. Every one of them is different, and every one of them wants to build up its own group. The Anglican Church builds up its own church. The Presbyterian Church builds up its own church. The Catholic Church builds up its own church, and the charismatics build up their own tongue-speaking churches. Where is there a church that is built according to the proper pattern? There is none. No one is building according to the blueprint that Paul received; no one is building according to the revelation of the Bible. Everyone is building according to his own desire.
There is only one blueprint and one master builder in the proper, correct building. The only master builder is the architect who has the blueprint in his hand. This is true in every age. The Lord issues the blueprint, the revelation, and the utterance, and through one man He supervises and completes the building work. All those who do not build, speak, or serve according to the blueprint released by the Lord through that man are void of light and revelation and are not serving according to the vision. Today in the Lord’s recovery, some are preaching and publishing messages. The portions in their messages that impart light, revelation, and the life supply invariably derive their source from this ministry in the Lord’s recovery. Other than those portions, there is no revelation or vision in their writings.
Some have criticized us for not reading anything by outsiders or the denominations. But I would ask, why do so many enjoy reading the messages put out by this ministry? This ministry produces nothing but gold and diamonds. You can compare and see. For this reason, my dear brothers and sisters, today we are fighting the good fight for the truth. We are bearing on our shoulders the commission of this age. This is our vision. We need to be clear about this, and we need to serve God according to this vision.