River of living water

In all the writings of Christianity we never read that God and His elect are incorporated into an incorporation. This incorporation has three results: the Father's house, the Son's vine, and the Spirit's new child (John 14:2-3; 15:5; 16:21). All the regenerated, transformed, conformed, and glorified saints are the many abodes of the Father's house, the many branches of the vine, and the many members of the new man. These are English words, but the language is new. Today. we are dealing with messages that are very new and are spoken in the new language of a new culture. This culture is in the Bible, but the human mind has not grasped it. Today Christians read the New Testament without thoroughly understanding it. No one previously has seen the four ins in John 14—the Spirit as the Comforter in the disciples, the Son in the Father, the disciples in the Son, and the Son in the disciples (vv. 17, 20). Even John Nelson Darby, the "king" of biblical interpretation, said that the Father's house is a heavenly mansion. Robert Govett, who was highly appreciated by Charles H. Spurgeon, insisted that the New Jerusalem is a physical city. These great scholars of the Bible did not understand what the New Jerusalem is. More than thirty years ago I wrote a number of hymns concerning the New Jerusalem (Hymns, #972, #975-976, #978-981, #984), but it was not until the last few years, when I wrote "What miracle! What mystery!" that I saw the full picture with all the pieces of the puzzle. After that, my speaking and writing changed. We need to realize these things and spend our time, energy, spirit, and prayer to get into the new writings of the new culture with the new language.

Now we want to see the ultimate consummation of the transformation for the composition and constitution of the New Jerusalem (Rev. 21:1-3, 9-23). The conclusion of the sixty-six books of the Bible is a divine building, the New Jerusalem. This building is a gold mountain, constituted with precious stones and twelve gates of pearl. This is the issue, the consummation, of the entire revelation of the whole Bible. Surely this must be very meaningful. This is why we purposely wrote a number of hymns related to and concerning the New Jerusalem when we were composing our hymnal (see Hymns, #971, 972, 975, 976, 978, 979, 980, 981, 984). I hope that we would learn to sing all these hymns.

At the end of the Bible a wonderful city is revealed, a city of gold with twelve pearl gates and with a foundation of precious stones. In the early days of our gospel preaching we referred to this city as a heavenly mansion and encouraged people to believe in Jesus in order to flee from the lake of fire and go to this mansion. Eventually, however, we saw that this wonderful city was not a heavenly mansion. Revelation 21:10 says that John saw the holy city "coming down out of heaven from God." In that day, if we go to heaven, we will find that the "mansion" has come down to the earth. This revelation caused us to begin to see the real significance of the New Jerusalem (see Hymns, #971-985). Eventually, we saw that the end of the Bible and the beginning of the Bible reflect each other. In Genesis 2 there is a garden with a tree and a flowing river, and there are the precious materials. Moreover, there is a man who marries a bride. In Revelation 21 and 22 there are the same items, but the garden has become a city. In the beginning there was a garden, not built but natural and created by God. At the end of the Bible, however, the garden is transformed into a city. In this city also there are the tree of life and the river (Rev. 22:1-2). This city is built with gold, pearl, and precious stones, which are the same as the materials in Genesis 2. Moreover, the city itself is the bride, and the Triune God in the Lamb is the Husband (Rev. 21:9-10). They are a universal couple.

Suppose a Christian who was baptized many years ago has been living according to the flesh and has become old. One day, after having been enlightened by the Holy Spirit, he realizes that he is old, full of the flesh, deadened, and depressed. Therefore, he has a strong desire to bury his oldness, and he eventually goes into the water to be buried. According to the Bible, we cannot say that what he did is wrong, because there is such a matter in the Old Testament typology, which we cannot overlook. This typology is an accurate description of the experience of many Christians. In the Old Testament there is the type of the children of Israel crossing the Red Sea and entering into the wilderness, and there is also the type of the children of Israel crossing the Jordan River and entering into the good land. Between the crossing of the Red Sea and the crossing of the Jordan there was a gap of thirty-eight years, and there was also a great geographical distance. In the Red Sea the Egyptian armies were buried, whereas in the river Jordan the old man of the children of Israel was buried. Since there is such a matter in typology, burial for ridding oneself of oldness has its place.

CONCERNING THE TRUTHS IN THE HYMNS

Hymns, #984 and #251

In order to preserve the saints from the confusion and poison that come with the blowing of the evil winds, we will address some of the dissenting opinions concerning the wording in our hymnal. Hymns, #984, which is on the flow of living water, is a hymn that we wrote. The first line of this hymn says, "River of living water." In this line the word river is singular. Hymns, #251 is a hymn written by others, and the first line says, "Rivers of living water." Here the word rivers is plural. We know that in Revelation 22:1 the river of water of life is only one. Hence, the opposers have said that rivers (plural) in Hymns, #251 is a mistake. We need to understand that the emphasis of Hymns, #251 is not only on the river of water of life proceeding out of the throne, as seen in Revelation 22, but even more on the rivers of living water flowing out of us, as recorded in John's Gospel. John 7:38 says, "He who believes into Me... out of his innermost being shall flow rivers of living water." According to the Greek text, rivers in this verse is plural. Therefore, it is correct for Hymns, #251 to use rivers (plural). The river in Revelation 22 is the river that proceeds from the throne, and it is one river, whereas the rivers in John 7 are rivers that flow out of us, and they are many rivers. The emphasis of Hymns, #984 is on the river that proceeds out of the throne; hence, it uses the singular form. However, Hymns, #251 concerns the rivers flowing out of us to supply others; hence, the plural form is used. The criticism of the dissenting ones is due either to their prejudice or to their lack of thoroughness in reading the Bible. We need to fellowship concerning these matters clearly so that we may not be poisoned or damaged.

A new final stanza is added:

5. Lord, Thou at Calv'ry wast broken,
That living water flow free;
Now let me also be broken,
Flow living water through me.