PUBLISHING – Part 2 (Open Letter pages 115-121).
I pray, Lord, that those rows and rows of books be burned at the stake for they are contrary to Your Word, contrary to Your Spirit, and they deceive Your simple ones. Yet I do not want to be unrighteous and throw all Christian literature into one bag. God forbid. Just as You always had a remnant in Israel, just as You always had a remnant in the Church, so You have a “remnant” in literature – so that the remnant of Your Church can be fed with wholesome food.
I praise Your Name, Your Wisdom and Your Ways! Even though multitudes in Christianity had been throughout centuries feeding on a few grains of truth mixed in with much trash, You always provided necessary supplies of a wholesome food; spoken, or written, or both.
I do want to bring before You one of Your true servants of this century, among others, that You blessed so much, that served You so faithfully and that has been so much neglected and despised. His name is Watchman Nee – and I thank You for him, for I have received great blessings through his ministry. That he was Your true and blessed servant proclaiming Your truth, it is evident, if only in the fact that he had been rejected by the majority of the Church and its leadership.
He reproved, rebuked and exhorted with all longsuffering and doctrine … he probed too deeply into our misery, his words were too heavy and too unpleasant for our flesh. No wonder he was taken from the bookshelves in many places and is not taught at seminaries, theological faculties, religious schools and establishments. Only some of today’s hierarchy, and only some of today’s “laity” have a passing knowledge of some of his works and teachings.
Only Your remnant feeds on him, appreciates him and loves him. But I thank You for him, for I should not be far from the truth by calling him the “Martin Luther of the twentieth century”. Why? Just as You used Martin Luther to bring light into dark and dead Catholicism, so You used Watchman Nee to bring light and life into dark and dead Protestantism. Lord, You judge whether this is so or not.
And yes, I do thank You also for other servants through whom You blessed me, whether a little or immensely, and who faithfully ministered Your Truth, Light and Life. I shall not name them here, even though a number of them were rather obscure and forgotten men and brothers. But You know them all, beloved Lord, and I thank You for them.
I thank You also for all those whom I never knew; yet, they fed Your Church with Truth, Light and Life. Blessed be Your Wonderful Name, Lord Christ Jesus.
At this point I have to mention another fact concerning the publishing ministry. The fact is, that there are some publishing ministries which do provide “good food for the soul” and thus bring believers, including the leadership, to higher levels of intellectual maturity concerning spiritual things.
I testify, Lord, that I also received “good food for my soul” from several sources. It had helped me at my younger age. I now want to mention two publishing ministries as representative examples, one from the South and one from the North of the United States.
The one from the South is a magazine published also in other countries. You brought it to my hand about a decade ago and I “plunged into its pages head-long” and I felt I was drinking a new wine, something different, something that my soul was thirsting after. And I did drink and it did have a ministry in my life, and I thank You for it and for the men around it.
I appreciated that food and I could hardly find in it anything contrary to my own feelings and understanding of the truth at that time. And by far, I was not the only one who appreciated it and who was helped and blessed by it.
So far so good, Lord. But later on, You had tested even this magazine and its Editor and had shown me the result. What was the result? After the Editor “challenged me before God to financially support the magazine”, I wrote back a piece of my heart and faith. I never got any reply. Had I kept mailing my cheques, I would have surely remained a praiseworthy brother – even a core-member, whatever that was. But since I questioned their well-meant but unscriptural challenge, I ceased to be worthy even of a few lines and a stamp! So much for the spirit, Lord.
And then later on, You showed me the contents especially in several of the last issues that I received. You, as it were, took away the veil and let me see the spiritual realities. The realities are these. I have to judge righteously and declare that there were many excellent articles in the numerous issues that I received, with sound doctrines and sound reasoning – but no life! Your Spirit was mentioned on every page – but He Himself was nowhere to be found nor His touch. It was all sound mind and sound legalism, good suggestions, good directions, good humor, good stories, good interviews … good for the enquiring mind of a young or an older Christian, for a “pew-warmer” as well as a pastor or a missionary. But the living touch of Your Spirit was missing.
The “Barrier” between the intellect and the spirit seems to have never been broken through! It is sad, Lord, very sad, for it severely limits this otherwise sound, even excellent publishing ministry.
BUT if the men around it have the spirit similar to that of the Editor, then there is little hope for true progress or breakthrough into the world of Your Spirit.
I pray, Lord, this would not be the case, rather, that the beloved brethren, some of whom are much older and much more experienced in practical religion than I, would not hesitate to step out of their “boat” and walk toward You on water! Let them truly break through, O Lord of Glory. Thank You. Amen.
And then up North, there is another publishing ministry which prints its own teachings and studies in the Bible and distributes them freely to anyone interested. I do not question the human sincerity behind this ministry nor their courage to go beyond, even far beyond the traditional limits of Christian thinking and believing.
Nevertheless, Lord, I do question the true origin of their doctrines and interpretations that they dare to publish. The very dangerous feature of this ministry and similar ministries is in the fact that a large portion of any doctrine or study they propagate starts as very sound and scriptural, but at some point it begins to stray. And the straying may be ever so subtle that only Your Spirit will detect it immediately. What a nice and pleasant way to become deceived!
But the derailment from the biblical track can also be sudden and, if so, it should shatter the initial faith and confidence of any reader and bring him to attention. Any man who “knows” the Bible so well and can skillfully juggle a concoction of verses from various corners of the Bible, then writes that “God created love”, does not write in Your Spirit but in his own spirit and zeal. And the disaster is in the offing – because “there is a way which seemeth right unto a man, but the end thereof are the ways of death” (Pr.14:12). And if such a stray track is followed for long enough, quite strange and complicated doctrines and teachings result.
A typical example of such straying is the absurd doctrine about Adam being both male and female before Eve was created. This absurd doctrine then leads to the absurd teachings of The Brideship and Sonship, and many others. These teachings are truly the fruits of the “Bible studies” by imaginative human brains soaked in lusts – but they are NOT the revelations granted to us by Your Spirit!
How many simple and naîve Christians have become the victims of these color dreams? How many Christians would really hate to receive and believe attractive, pleasant and glorious “facts” about themselves?? And how many Christians would really love to know and receive the bitter truth about themselves?? Only You know, Lord.
To the authors of such dangerous heresies, mixed in with some scriptures, I say that they cause divisions and offences within Your Body. They bring DEATH into Your Body and not Life. And this is the word I received from You concerning them: “Now I beseech you, brethren, mark them which cause divisions and offences contrary to the doctrine which ye have learnt and avoid them. For they that are such serve not our Lord Jesus Christ, but their own belly, and by GOOD WORDS and FAIR SPEECHES DECEIVE the hearts of the SIMPLE” (Rom.16:17,18).
And toward my beloved simple ones, I say in Your Name that “I fear, lest by any means, as the serpent beguiled Eve through his subtilty, so your minds should be corrupted from the SIMPLICITY that IS IN CHRIST”! (2Cor.11:3).
These were two additional examples in the publishing ministry. And so I may conclude, Lord, that one can find anything and everything in this publishing area, from an abominable trash oozing from dark, proud minds and lusts of flesh, right up to wholesome food for the mind and soul. And then, even some true spiritual food beyond the intellectual barrier, food inspired by Your Spirit, revealed by Your Spirit, worked in by Your Spirit and carried by Your Spirit into the spirits of the readers.
It does not feed our minds primarily, but our spirits, for it has the power to penetrate the soul and the intellectual barrier, which is the divide between the spirit and soul – Heb.4:12. After thus feeding ourselves, we KNOW deep down within our spiritual consciences we read the truth, we ate the truth, we digested the truth … and that truth BECAME an indivisible part of us! No man takes it away!
So I pray, Lord, that You would lead Your people to that bookshelf and to that material which they need at their particular time – but that You would keep them away, miles away, from all the trash heaped around the true pearls. In Christ’s Glorious Name! Amen.
brother Hanola
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