GOD’S SOVEREIGNTY FOR THE PERFECTION OF THE NEW MAN
In addition to this, due to modern inventions, transportation and communication have been greatly improved. Today we have jet airlines, radio, television, satellites, and telephones not just for domestic calls but also for international calls. Whatever happens in America can be seen or heard in Taiwan. We have all these things to bring people together. These modern inventions have condensed the whole globe.
Forty years ago I was in the Lord’s ministry primarily in Chefoo in the north of China and Shanghai in central China. By plane today the trip between these cities is very quick, but at that time we had no other way but to take a steamboat. I had to be in the boat for about forty hours to get from Chefoo to Shanghai. I suffered sea sickness very much due to that trip. However, today one can fly from Los Angeles to Taipei in only thirteen hours. Through modern education people have also learned to speak other languages. There is a mingling of many different peoples.
Today the situation on the earth has been very much improved and made ready and ripe to have the new man. At the time of the Apostle Paul it was not like this. Paul did not have a brother among the American Indians, but in the new man today we do have brothers and sisters from among the Indians. Eventually, I believe that among the Indian reservations there will be some churches in the Lord’s recovery. The world situation has been raised up for the one goal of the new man. Now we have different peoples all mingled together in the one new man.
God’s purpose is to have a man to express Him and to exercise His dominion. The old man failed God, but God has raised up a new man to replace the old man. Still even today we could not see a perfect new man on the earth to replace the fallen old man. However, our God can never be defeated. Now is the very time for Him to accomplish His purpose to perfect the new man. This new man will come into full existence on the earth. God needs such a man to express Himself and to exercise His dominion. When this new man is perfected, that will be the time of the Lord’s coming, and the perfected new man will be the bride. We need such a vision.
If we would see the vision of the new man, all the ordinances, rituals, different opinions, and all differences will be gone. Today in certain parts of this country the white people and black people cannot come together in one church, but if both the white brothers and the black brothers saw the new man, they would realize that both white and black have no place in the new man, but Christ is all and in all. In the same way, if Christians with differing practices see the new man, they will say that none of them has a place in this new man, but Christ is all and in all. Sometimes certain ones among us may not like the way the church is practiced in their locality, or perhaps they do not like the elders or some of the sisters. But if we all saw the new man, we would all realize that in the new man all these things have no place, and Christ is all and in all.
Such a vision will not only keep us in oneness, but also will deliver us and rescue us from all things other than Christ. We need such a vision. Throughout the years some have said in a narrow way that each local church must have its own jurisdiction and its own autonomy, but we need to see that all the local churches in the different countries are one new man.
Human culture began with two rivers, the Euphrates and the Tigris, which formed the valley of Mesopotamia. Human culture then went on from these two rivers to the Mediterranean Sea. Before the time of Columbus, human culture was merely around the Mediterranean Sea, but from this sea, human culture expanded to the ocean. From Columbus until the time of the end of the second world war was the period of the culture of the oceans. The United States became and still is the leading country on this earth because it borders on the two oceans. The Atlantic and the Pacific are like the two wings of the “eagle.” For this reason the United States maintains a fleet in the Mediterranean to protect the Atlantic, and a fleet in the Far East to protect the Pacific. Since the second world war, however, human culture is not only a culture of the oceans but a culture of space.
According to history and according to the Bible, culture always goes along with God’s intention. Even though the fallen human culture is not of God, God is sovereign over all these things. God has brought human culture from the sea to the ocean and above the ocean to the skies for the purpose of perfecting the new man. Everything on this earth is for the perfection of the new man. Today with the world politics, scientific inventions, modern transportation and communication, and our understanding of languages, the world has been condensed into a small sphere. There is nearly no hindrance for the new man to be perfected. Today everything is ripe, ready, and prepared for the new man to come forth. We all have to see where we are. We are at the end time, and this is the most golden time. This is the right time for the Lord’s recovery. Our view must be broadened. There is only one new man, and nothing and no one has any place in this new man, but Christ is all and in all.
(The One New Man, Chapter 2, by Witness Lee)
