I hope that your concept can be thoroughly changed so that you no longer would appreciate the traditional things of Christianity such as the magnificent chapels and the sermons given by famous preachers. We have to remove completely from our midst the habit of attending worship services. I studied the Bible over and over again, but I could not find any record of attending worship services. Instead, I found that the church in the home is mentioned a number of times (Rom. 16:5; 1 Cor. 16:19; Col. 4:15; Philem. 2). This shows us that the primary meeting place of the church in the early days was the homes of the saints. That kind of meeting had neither regulations nor the need of rituals. I hope that our home meetings will have no restrictions; people can even sit on the floor. Some may feel that this way is too disorderly and that it makes it difficult to bring people to be saved. The bankers, general managers, professors, doctors, and those with money and position may not be willing to come. That is correct. There may be some not willing to come, but those who are willing to come are not few. Actually, there are not that many who are rich and have position; rather, most are ordinary people. Paul in 1 Corinthians 1 says, “For you see your calling, brothers, that there are not many wise according to flesh, not many powerful, not many wellborn. But God has chosen the foolish of the world...and God has chosen the weak of the world... and the lowborn of the world and the despised...things which are not...” (vv. 26-28). At any rate, we have to change our concept toward meeting. The way of meeting as revealed in the New Testament is absolutely not like that being practiced by Christianity today.
By God’s mercy, I will boast a little. Through over sixty years of effort, I may say that I have studied the Bible thoroughly. In the United States, I spent twelve years to write footnotes in English for every one of the twenty-seven books of the New Testament. I have studied dozens of the reference books in Christianity such as the most authoritative translations of the Bible, dictionaries, word studies, and concordances. Sometimes, just to write one footnote, I spent over a week’s time and searched through nearly all the reference books. I have also spent time to study the history of Christianity; I have thoroughly studied the practices and beliefs of various groups and denominations in Christianity in the Western world. I say all this to you so that you will know that the decision we made three years ago to change the system was not a light matter. I have had over fifty years of experience in working for the Lord. I traveled through many places during twenty years in mainland China. After I went to Taiwan, I traveled back and forth for a period of ten years between Taiwan and Southeast Asia. Then I went to the United States where for twenty-six years, I saw, heard, observed, and studied from coast to coast and from the north to the south. Therefore, I have great assurance concerning the matter of changing the system. We have to push out from our midst this high mountain of attending church services. Then we can be delivered, and the Lord will have a way.
Some have said that the change of system which I have been speaking about for the last three years is scriptural in every respect, but they do not believe that the change of system can succeed. Brothers, can the Lord’s word not be fulfilled? Because it has not been fulfilled in the last two thousand years, does this mean that it will never be fulfilled? I believe that the heavens and earth will pass away, but every iota and every tittle of the word spoken by the Lord will be fulfilled. Sooner or later the Lord will have to clear the path and fulfill His own word. May every one of us by faith declare that this way will be successful! If it is not yet successful today, tomorrow it will be successful, if it is not successful with us, it will be successful with others.