HISTORY OF THE CHURCH PART III

Eventually, at the time of the reformation with Martin Luther, the recovery of the Lord came into a definite form. The Lord used Martin Luther to recover the basic truth of justification by faith and the opening of the Bible. In the seventeenth century, some within the ROMAN CATHOLIC CHURCH started to have direct fellowship with God. These were the mystics, whom the Lord used to recover the experience of the inner life. In the eighteenth century, Zinzendorf recovered the initial stage of the church life in the oneness of the Holy Spirit. In the early part of the nineteenth century the Lord raised up the Brethren in England under the leadership of John Nelson Darby to recover the church life in a fuller way. The Brethren began in 1828, but within the ninety years they were divided into about one hundred divisions, because they did not see the unique Body of Christ, expressed locally, should just be one in each locality.

In the early part of the twentieth century, the Lord caught a young man in China named Watchman Nee, and the Lord used him to continue His recovery. In 1937 the ground of locality (one locality, one church) was recovered. Later Mainland China was lost into the hands of the communists who were absolutely against the Lord’s interest on this earth. He was imprisoned in 1952 till his death in 1972.

When Mainland China was about to be lost to the communist, Witness Lee was sent to Taiwan. After visiting several countries eventually he settled in the United States to continue the Lord’s recovery. Today, the recovery of the local churches, spreads throughout the globe as the Lord’s testimony in his dark, evil, and divided world. Now, we have recovered what was lost in the beginning during the apostle’s time. The principle concerning the local church is solidly founded in the pure revelation of the Holy Bible. Today we have thousands of local churches around the globe. Today many real Christians have seen the light in the Bible concerning the church being one in one locality, and with the local church the age of division and confusion due to the proliferation of thousands of denominations is over.

We are standing on the ground of oneness with all the genuine believers in the local church to testify the unique Body of Christ. We solidly stand on the ground of one locality, one church. When the church as the Body of Christ is divided it becomes a corpse. The BODY is the most beautiful item in the universe if all the members are one and a cut BODY is also the ugliest with its members cut into pieces and scattered. In the local church we stand as the Lord’s testimony of His one unique Body (I Cor. 12:13) to put Satan, the source of division and confusion, to shame!

B. A call to come out from false religion and divided denominations

The origin of pagan worship and idolatry is Babylon. The source of false religion is Babylon. In the book of Genesis they tried to build the tower of Babel which was full of idols. God did not want their idea thus He confounded their language and from there the Lord scattered them all over the face of the whole earth (Gen. 11-7-9(. Today in our time Babylon has become a mystery. Revelation 17:5 says, "MYSTERY, BABYLON THE GREAT, THE MOTHER OF THE HARLOTS AND THE ABOMINATIONS OF THE EARTH." The spiritual and religious Babylon has become a mother and has given birth to so many daughters. Who is the mother and who are the daughters? Without any doubt as we trace the Bible and the church history, the great ROMAN CATHOLIC CHURCH is the GREAT BABYLON, the mother and the daughters are the divided denominations who came out from Catholicism and practice the system of Catholicism.

Now, we are clear and the Lord is calling us to come out. In the Old Testament God called out Abraham from Babylon, the land of dead idols to serve the living and true God and to fulfill God’s eternal purpose. All the New Testament believers are all sons of Abraham by faith (Gal. 3:7) and in the same principle God is calling us out of today’s Babylon. Revelation 18:4 says, "… Come out of her, my people, that you may not participate in her sins and that you do not receive of her plagues." For those who are in Catholicism, Protestantism, and denominations God is calling you to come out and return to the proper ground of oneness in the local church to testify of the oneness of the Body of Christ. Division is the principle of Babylon while oneness is the principle of the New Jerusalem. In the New Jerusalem there is no place for religion or denomination. There will be no division and confusion but all the real believers will be in perfect oneness; no more divisive names but all are sons of God for eternity.

After knowing the truth, WHERE DO YOU WANT TO BELONG? Please see the diagram below and MAKE THE WISEST DECISION RIGHT NOW. Your CHOICE TODAY is your DESTINY TOMORROW!

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A.D. 33	A.D. 313	A.D. 1517
LOCAL CHURCHES	ROMAN CATHOLIC CHURCH	PROTESTANT CHURCHES
Founded by Jesus Christ and propagated by the apostles	Initiated by Constantine	Initiated by Martin Luther

Note: If we were to reckon the time according to the Reese Chronological Bible, the church in Jerusalem was established on June 5, A.D. 29 (Acts 2:41-42), this also fits the historical study that our dating system was four years advanced.