About thirty years later, the aged John wrote the book of Revelation. After he finished writing concerning the New Jerusalem in the new heaven and new earth, God’s visions were complete. At the end of Revelation, which is the end of the entire Bible, there is the warning against any further addition or deletion. All the visions of God have been completed. After the book of Revelation was completed, three hundred years went by until in A.D. 397, at the Council of Carthage, the authority of the entire canon of the holy writings, including the books of Revelation and Hebrews, was recognized. In A.D. 325 when Emperor Constantine convened the Council of Nicaea, the books of Revelation and Hebrews still had not been recognized as part of the canon. These two books occupy a pivotal position in the vision concerning God’s New Testament economy. Hence, the creed produced at the Council of Nicaea did not include the revelation revealed in these two books. Today many Protestant and Catholic groups recite the Nicene Creed every Sunday in their services. While I was in the West fighting for the truth concerning the Triune God, I told people, “The creed that you hold is defective, for it does not say anything regarding the seven Spirits.” They had nothing to say in response.
By A.D. 397, the entire Bible was recognized. Today this holy Word before us is full of visions. Whether or not we can come up to the standard of these visions depends entirely on our understanding of the visions contained in these sixty-six books. During the first sixteen hundred years of church history, countless numbers of lovers of the Lord were raised up. Regrettably, all these lovers of the Lord, all these servants of God, were not able to be in one accord. The reason for this is that the visions they saw were all different. Some saw only the vision of the four Gospels. They liked it, and they faithfully adhered to that vision, but they did not advance any further. Some advanced a little and saw the vision of Acts. Spontaneously they became different from the first group, and they discovered that they could not fellowship with the first group. Other people advanced to the different visions recorded in the different Epistles, and similarly they held different views from the previous groups. Throughout the last sixteen centuries, many lovers of the Lord were raised up, yet they were not able to be in one accord. The reason is not that there was sin or evil among them, but that the vision each held was different in degree. Each remained in the degree to which they saw the various visions. Because the degree of the visions they saw was different, spontaneously there was no one accord.
In the nineteenth century, Hudson Taylor saw a vision. He felt that he should go to China to preach the gospel. We cannot say that his vision was wrong. We can only say that his vision was not up to the standard of the age. During the past three decades, we lost the one accord a number of times in Taiwan. The case with Brother Austin-Sparks was one example of such a time. Can we say that he did not love the Lord or that he was not spiritual? Even today I still recommend his books. Some of them are certainly worthwhile reading. However, he did not see what Brother Nee led us to see in the Lord’s recovery. Needless to say, all our differences were not caused by the flesh but by the difference in our visions. In 1958, there were some aspiring and promising young people who were saved and perfected through my ministry. I entrusted to them the crucial works on the island of Taiwan, including hall three of the church in Taipei and the churches in Taichung, Chiayi, Tainan, and Kaoshung. They became proud, and through Brother Austin-Spark’s influence, they decided to no longer speak concerning the ground of the church but to speak regarding only the fullness of Christ, the full Christ. They boldly proclaimed that they had seen a vision. At that time, the one accord was truly lost.
Although Brother Austin-Sparks was spiritual, he limited himself to the scope of his vision. His problem was that he was unwilling to see more. Moreover, he considered all those who saw something different to be wrong. He tried all he could to annul the “ground,” which was recovered among us. He told me personally in a meeting that he had been speaking for decades, but in his whole life he had not found one place with such a good audience. He also discussed with me the possibility of moving to Taiwan to set up a ministry station. In the end, however, he and we were still not the same. The reason for this is that our visions were different.