In the last five messages, we have pointed out that in the Lord’s recovery we preach the gospel for the purpose that God might gain what He desires. God desires that a group of His chosen people would experience Christ subjectively in a full way. This experience of Christ is not for religion, but for the proper church life, for the expression of Christ as the centrality and universality of God’s economy. This is the Lord’s recovery. The recovery today is of two main items: the experience of Christ and the proper church life. The recovery is not concerned with the objective knowledge of Christ for the doctrine of religion, but with the subjective experience of Christ for the practical church life. This always arouses the hatred of the enemy. Satan, the devil, the subtle enemy of God, instigates religious people to oppose us, attack us, and spread rumors against us. These rumors are mainly concerned with the doctrine of the Trinity and the church. The opposers accuse us of being heretical in these two matters. The critics accuse me of teaching heresy regarding the Trinity. They say that Witness Lee teaches that the Son is the Father and the Spirit and that this teaching is modalism. A definition of modalism is found in our booklet entitled, Modalism, Tritheism, or the Pure Revelation of the Triune God According to the Bible.
Throughout the past nineteen centuries, all the leading Christian teachers touched this matter of the Trinity. During the centuries, three main schools of teaching concerning the Trinity have emerged: modalism, tritheism, and the pure revelation according to the Bible. Modalism teaches that the Father, the Son, and the Spirit are not all eternal and do not all exist at the same time, but are merely three temporary manifestations of the one God. Tritheism teaches that the Father, the Son, and the Spirit are three Gods. To which of these schools do you belong? Are you a modalist? I beg you to have nothing to do with modalism, for that extreme view is a heresy. It is also a great heresy to teach that there are three Gods. Probably a great many of you in the past unconsciously held the idea of three Gods. Before coming into the church life you might have held this view.
In 1965, a brother came to visit me. He had opposed me in Hong Kong because I pointed out that the Bible says that the Son is the Father and that the Lord is the Spirit. He was the first to condemn me for this. All the rumors concerning my so-called heresies came from him as the source. This brother expected that I would no longer say that the Son is the Father and that the Lord is the Spirit. When I asked him how many Gods he believed in, he definitely answered, “Three Gods!” I immediately responded, “You should never say this. This is certainly heretical.” When he asked me about Psalm 82:6, which says, “Ye are gods,” I pointed out that the word “gods” in this verse does not refer to God, but to angels. I cite this example to prove that there actually was a person who told me that he believed in three Gods. Although many so-called fundamental Christians would not dare say this openly, within them they hold the concept of three Gods.
According to the natural law in God’s creation, there is the law of balance. Nothing can exist without having two sides. For example, the earth exists because of two forces: centrifugal force thrusts the earth away, and centripetal force holds it back. This is the balance of power. All the truths in the Bible also have two sides. This is even true of the matter of justification. Although many Christians have only one side of justification, the side of justification by faith, the book of James clearly says that justification is not only by faith but also by works (James 2:17-26). In order to hold a truth properly, we must hold both sides of it. The pure revelation of the Triune God occupies a central position between the extremes of modalism and tritheism.
In Catholicism, there is the great heresy which says that the virgin Mary is the mother of God and that we must worship her. There is some scriptural ground for claiming that Mary is the mother of God because the Lord Jesus, who is God, was born of her. It is absolutely correct to say that Mary was the mother of the Lord Jesus. But to claim that because Jesus is God and because Mary is the mother of Jesus, that Mary is then the mother of God is to go too far and to reach a heretical extreme. It is scriptural to say that Mary is the mother of Jesus, but it is heretical to say that she is the mother of God. The principle is the same with respect to the Trinity. Because the truths in the Bible have two sides, there are two aspects to the Trinity: the aspect of the one-in-three and the aspect of the three-in-one. Modalism is an extreme on the side of the three-in-one. There is, of course, ground in the Scriptures for the side of the three-in-one, but modalism, going to an extreme, far beyond the confines of the Bible, neglects and even annuls the side of the one-in-three. Modalism has gone beyond the confines of the Scriptures concerning the aspect of the three. Hence, it is a heresy on the extreme of the one. Tritheism is the opposite extreme. Tritheism stresses the side of the three and neglects the side of the one. It also has scriptural ground because the Father, the Son, and the Spirit certainly are three. But tritheism, like modalism, also goes beyond the confines of the Bible and becomes a heresy. Therefore, both modalism and tritheism, being extremes, are heresies. The diagrams below will help us to visualize this:
The Bible is not at either of these extremes; it stands in the center, testifying the twofoldness of the truth of the Trinity. In this matter, the Scriptures are balanced. The Bible, true to the principle of balance in God’s creation, is balanced and in the center; it does not go to an extreme. Are you sure that regarding the truth of the Triune God you are in the center?
Now we need to see the pure revelation of the Triune God in the Bible. Let us firstly read Isaiah 9:6. “For unto us a child is born, unto us a son is given: and the government shall be upon his shoulder: and his name shall be called Wonderful, Counsellor, The mighty God, The everlasting Father, The Prince of Peace.” According to this verse, a child is born unto us and a son is given unto us. The words “unto us” indicate that this is not a doctrine, but an experience. If I give you a watch, the watch given to you is not a doctrine, but a gift for your experience. In the Bible there is no such thing as the doctrine of the Trinity. There is the doctrine of justification by faith, but there is no doctrine of the Trinity. Every mention of the Triune God is for our experience. Here, in Isaiah 9:6, the Triune God is mentioned as a son given to us and a child born to us. Hallelujah for this “unto us”! Do not twist these words. A child is simply a child, and a son is simply a son. When the Bible says a child, I believe a child, and when the Bible says a son, I believe a son. This verse also says that “his name shall be called Wonderful.” He is called Wonderful because we cannot understand Him thoroughly or speak of Him adequately. He is unspeakable, ineffable. If we could understand Him fully, He would no longer be wonderful. Furthermore, this verse tells us that His name is “Counsellor.” Following this, He is called “The mighty God” and “The everlasting Father.”