The Recovery of the Local Churches
The Recovery of the Local Churches |
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Additional Local Church Quotes by Witness Lee on The ReformationNow let us see the importance of the boundary of locality. Perhaps we first should look at history. We have seen that in the beginning the churches in the Bible were local. Later, these churches were united to form provincial or district churches. Still later, they were united into an international church under the pope. When the churches were harmonious with God’s purpose in the beginning, they were local. Gradually, however, they degraded until there was only one church in the whole world, the Roman Catholic Church. During the Reformation, the Roman Catholic Church was broken up. In this breaking apart, the original local churches were not restored. Subsequent to this breaking apart, the international church became national churches with state churches in different nations. There was some improvement, some advancement, at this stage, with the churches being somewhat closer to the likeness of those in the beginning. The state churches later became independent churches. Within a nation, there were scores, hundreds, and even thousands of small churches. These independent churches took another step closer to the situation in the beginning. We must realize how difficult it was for these independent churches to be established. For example, the church in many nations insisted that sermons could only be preached in holy places. These holy places were the dedicated sanctuaries. John Wesley rose up and said that preaching could be done anywhere. He was greatly persecuted! The state church declared that messages preached in undedicated places were defiled. In addition to the place being dedicated, the person preaching the message had to be ordained; no ordinary person was allowed to preach. This is the reason Darby said that Paul, Peter, and John could not have preached according to this view, because they were not ordained. For the state churches, preaching was serious, location was serious, and setting up new churches was even more serious. Even Luther, during the Reformation, dared not establish a church. It was the political power that forced him to do so. Nevertheless, after Wesley was raised up, the climate gradually changed as independent churches were established. The international church had evolved into national churches, and the national churches had evolved into independent churches. (Watchman Nee, Collected Works, Set 3, Vol. 56, 370-371) Luther came out of Babylon, but he did not return to Jerusalem yet. He brought politics into the church and thought that by so doing, it would help the church. Little did he realize that no political power can help the church. On the contrary, any political power will only damage the church. In the end, the national churches were formed. The national churches are partnerships between politicians and believers. The one contributed Germany whereas the other contributed the doctrines, and the result was the national churches. In Germany, the Lutheran church became the national church. The reason the Lutherans embraced the power of politics was that Roman Catholicism was too strong. But by so doing, what we see was a change of nationality instead of a change of the church. The church was changed from a Roman church to a German church. In England, it became the Anglican church. (Watchman Nee, Collected Works, Set 3, Vol. 57, 52) | ||||