O Lord Jesus, Thy redeemed ones

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.

Goal of God's eternal plan.

(Hymn #976 in Hymns)

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.

I have spent much time to study the last two chapters of Revelation concerning the New Jerusalem. I thank the Lord for this. When I was in mainland China, I understood the New Jerusalem to some extent, but I was not completely clear until after I came to Taiwan in 1949. At the beginning of the 1960s, when we were fixing our hymnals both in Chinese and in English, I wrote some new hymns. Four of these are concerning the New Jerusalem (see Hymns, #975, #976, #978, and #979). These hymns express the understanding of the intrinsic reality of the Body of Christ. In the universe there is something called the Body of Christ. The Body of Christ is not something physical like the human body. The Body of Christ is a figure of speech to indicate that the church is an organism. This figure of speech must be used because no one can explain it. Things which are mysterious and intrinsic must be described with figures of speech.

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.

The Lord has opened up to us the truth of God's economy with God's dispensing. First Timothy 1:4, Ephesians 1:10, and Ephesians 3:9 all use the word economy, a translation of the Greek word oikonomia. This economy with God's dispensing will consummate in one city. When we composed our hymnal thirty years ago in 1964, I wrote a number of hymns on the New Jerusalem (Hymns, #971-972, 975-976, 978-980). Since 1984 I have given many messages on the New Jerusalem. The last nineteen chapters of the book entitled God's New Testament Economy are concerning the New Jerusalem. After my study of the Bible for the past sixty-nine years, what have I seen? I would say that I have seen the New Jerusalem. This is my vision, this is my revelation, and this is my ministry. I have been in the United States for thirty-two years, and I have published approximately four thousand messages. I have stressed the Triune God, Christ, life, and the Spirit, and the church, the Body, and ultimately, the New Jerusalem.

In Acts Jesus said, "You shall be My witnesses both in Jerusalem and in all Judea and Samaria and unto the uttermost part of the earth" (1:8). To witness is to speak something, which is to prophesy. To be a good witness of Christ, we must be able to prophesy. Romans 10:17 tells us, "Faith comes out of hearing, and hearing through the word of Christ," If we do not know how to prophesy, people will not be able to hear God's word. What is the word that people should hear? It is not merely, "Honor your parents," "Love your neighbors," and "Do not steal." If we go as members of a vital group to visit people and speak these things, they will reject us. We must go to people to prophesy concerning the high peak of God's revelation, including the high peak of God, the high peak of Christ, the high peak of the Spirit, and the high peaks of the divine life, the church, the Body of Christ, the constitution of God and man, and the New Jerusalem. We must know how to prophesy concerning the New Jerusalem. We can visit someone and say, "Sir, I come here with a burden to tell you that at the end of the Bible there is a city." When he asks if this is a heavenly mansion, we can say, "It is the New Jerusalem, of which the base is God, the gates are Christ, and the wall is the Spirit." He will want to hear this, and he will invite us to come again. Many years ago when we composed our hymnal, I included a number of songs on the New Jerusalem (see Hymns, #971-972, 975-976, 978-980). This indicates that I was able not only to prophesy about the New Jerusalem but also to make a song out of my prophecy. We must all be able to prophesy concerning the New Jerusalem. In 2 Timothy 4:2 Paul says, "Proclaim the word; be ready in season and out of season." To proclaim the word is to prophesy at every time, in season and out of season. In the training we are building you up to know the eight foregoing items of the truth and to prophesy concerning these things.

The apostle Paul said that we are God's farm to grow Christ and God's building (1 Cor. 3:9). As we grow in the divine life, we are transformed into precious material for God's building: gold, silver, and precious stones (v. 12). The New Jerusalem is constituted with transformed precious material: gold as the base, pearls as the gates, and precious stones for the city's wall. If we build up the church with ourselves, with the world, or with earthly things, we are building with wood, grass, and stubble, which are fit only to be burned (vv. 12b-13). But if we build the church with the Triune God—the Father as the gold, the Son as the pearl or silver, and the Spirit as the precious stone—our building work will be a part of the New Jerusalem. In other words, our work will go into eternal life. The New Jerusalem as the totality of the eternal life is God's goal. The chorus of Hymns, #976, a hymn concerning the New Jerusalem, says, "Lo, the holy city,/Full of God's bright glory!/It is God's complete expression/In humanity." Christ has become the sevenfold intensified Spirit to intensify His organic salvation and to produce the overcomers for the consummating of the New Jerusalem.

When we all get there in the new heaven and the new earth as the New Jerusalem, we will be in ecstasy. We will be crazy to the uttermost! The New Jerusalem is much better than a physical, heavenly mansion. It is the full mingling of the Triune God with His redeemed, regenerated, and transformed people. The mingling of God with man can be seen in typology in Leviticus 2:4 with the meal offering, composed of fine flour mingled with oil. The entire New Jerusalem will be the fine flour mingled with the oil. The chorus of Hymns, #976 says that the holy city is God's complete expression in humanity. Humanity is the fine flour and God is the oil. The coming New Jerusalem will be a great meal offering, a big cake, made of fine flour mingled with oil. The Triune God is being mingled with us today and this mingling will consummate in the New Jerusalem.