What then is our vision? A young brother once said, “Brother Nee used to speak of the cross, but we do not speak concerning it anymore.” This is a shortsighted remark. Who says that we no longer speak concerning the dealing of the cross? By reading the messages on the New Jerusalem, we can see that in order to become the gates of pearl we must pass through the Lord’s death. We need to enjoy the secretion of the Lord’s resurrection life through His death. Only then can we become the pearls. Furthermore, every one of the nineteen items in the book The Experience of Life involves dealings that are related to the cross. We need to speak regarding the dealing of the cross, but we should not make this truth our limitation or our issue. In the West some people emphasize tongue-speaking. We do not oppose tongue-speaking, but if someone emphasizes tongue-speaking to the point of strongly promoting it, it becomes a great damage. One may do this out of harmless zeal, but if his listeners receive his speaking and enlarge upon it, it will bring a problem into the church. We must remember that the vision we have received does not concern itself with such small matters. This is not the focus of our vision.
What is our vision? Our vision is that God so loved the world that He gave His Son to die for us to redeem us, the sinners, in order that we can have the life of Christ and be regenerated by Him to be God’s children, enjoying the riches of the Triune God to become the Body of Christ. In practice, the Body is expressed as the local churches in various localities, practicing the Body life in a practical and proper way. This Body, the church of God, is the focus of God’s economy.
In the theology of the early church fathers there was such a term as economy, but in the Lord’s recovery, during the period when we were in mainland China, we did not use this term. It was twenty years ago that I first picked up this term in Taiwan, but it was only two years ago that we saw the entire New Testament economy of God. At the same time, we saw the mingling of God and man and the divine dispensing, which is the Triune God dispensing all His riches in Christ as the Spirit into us to constitute us the Body of Christ. This is God’s economy.
During the past few centuries, no one saw God’s economy. Even if some did see it, no one spoke concerning it. No one spoke of the mingling of God and man, and no one spoke of the divine dispensing. Some spoke regarding sanctification, but that speaking was somewhat ambiguous. From the Bible we see that sanctification is of three stages. There is separating sanctification, positional sanctification, and dispositional sanctification. Dispositional sanctification is transformation, and transformation includes the dealing and breaking of the cross. But even the inner-life Christians, including those attending the Keswick conferences and the many spiritual giants who have written on the subject of the spiritual life, did not clearly explain what transformation is. The teaching of transformation is an item which is characteristic to the Lord’s recovery.
The vision that the Lord has given to His recovery is an all-inclusive one. It includes the economy of God, the mingling of God and man, the dispensing of the Divine Trinity, and the believers’ salvation in Christ, including God’s selection, calling, regeneration, sanctification, renewing, transformation, conformation, and glorification. In the history of the development of Christian doctrine, this entire set of truths finds its full recovery only among us. Such truths as selection, calling, regeneration, sanctification, renewing, transformation, conformation, and glorification were not recovered much before us, and the recovery of these truths will not increase much after us. This set of truths has found its full recovery among us.
The problem among us is that some are bound by the little experience and vision that they have. Some have said that Brother Lee is now different from Brother Nee. This is a remark made not only by those outside the Lord’s recovery or by some who have left us but by some who are still among us. Actually, if there is anyone on this earth who knows Brother Nee, I must be that one. He fellowshipped with me all that he had seen, and I received tremendous help from him. If anyone says that my work is different from Brother Nee’s, he is an outsider with regard to the vision. Of course, because of the lack of opportunity on his part, Brother Nee did not develop the vision as far as I have. We may use the Recovery Version of the New Testament as an example. I spent twelve years day after day writing the footnotes, yet what I wrote was nothing more than what Brother Nee had sown earlier. I can only say that the seed has sprouted and grown, although, of course, it has not grown to the fullest. I ask the Lord to give me more years so that I can develop this seed within me. If the Lord would give me another twelve years to rewrite the Life-study messages, I will have another set of Life-studies. It will not be different, but it will be new. If anyone thinks that I am different from Brother Nee, it is because such a person has not come up to the standard of the vision of the age!
I would like the co-workers, the elders, and all the churches in the Lord’s recovery to realize that today we have not changed. If we are different in any way from others, it is because we hold to all the visions of the Bible, from the first vision of Adam in Genesis to the ultimate, consummate one in Revelation. If anyone sees only a part of this entire vision and condemns us for being different, it is not merely because we are different from them; it is because they do not have the vision that matches the age.
We cannot blame those whose vision does not match the age for doing what they are doing. James was very pious. We cannot criticize him for his piety, yet he did not have the vision that matched the age. In the end he not only destroyed himself, but he destroyed the work of God and brought trouble to all the saints in the land of Judea. Because of his inertia and reluctance, the Roman prince Titus marched with his army in A.D. 70 and ransacked Jerusalem. The temple was destroyed, and not one stone was left on top of another. Josephus the historian told us the tragedy of the whole story. Many Christians were killed. Even children were murdered. Who would have wished that the whole matter end this way? However, God was forced to do this. If God had not done this, the result would have been even more unmanageable. Christianity would have become entirely mixed with Judaism. Faced with such a murky situation, God had to step in to clear the atmosphere. The fact that Jerusalem was burned to the ground and that thousands of people were killed was altogether James’s fault. This is not a small thing. This is what the Chinese mean by “off by a fraction of an inch, missed by a thousand miles.” One faulty step resulted in the loss of tens of thousands of lives. History bears a tragic testimony to this.
Today the Lord has been merciful to His recovery. Within a short period of sixty years, He has brought us to the ultimate consummation of all the visions. I hope that all of us will seriously study the messages that we have published, especially those in the Elders’ Training and Truth Lessons series. If we study them thoroughly, we will have the full view; we will see the vision that the Lord has given us in His recovery, and we will realize what is the ultimate consummation of all the visions—the New Jerusalem. Within this ultimate consummation everything is included, such as gospel preaching, loving the Lord, the dealing and breaking of the cross, the resurrection life, and the outpouring of the Holy Spirit.
Regrettably, today on the earth, when believers see a little revelation in the New Testament, they begin to think quite highly of themselves. They become very zealous concerning that one point that they see. So naturally they think that our actions and words are too extreme. There is no doubt that many Christian groups are very busy on the earth today, but not only are they not able to be one with us; they are not able to be one with each other. They cannot be one mainly because they have different visions; they see different things. This difference is a difference in degree, although the basis is still the same. We have the same Bible, the same God, and the same Savior, and we have received the same Spirit and the same salvation. We all believe in the blood of the Lord, and we all share the same faith, but any further advance beyond this basis ends in differences. Some advance only a few steps and then stop; others advance a few steps more; and some advance even further. We thank the Lord for giving us the same basis. We are all saved, and we all have God’s life and nature. We all have the same standing. However, while the Holy Spirit is moving on, we may remain where we are. The minute the Holy Spirit moves on, some decide to follow, but others decide to stay. The more the Holy Spirit moves on, the fewer there are who follow Him. In the end, we are the only ones left who have followed Him all the way.