Author: Amana Trust

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The Recovery of the Truth

However, the Lord enlightened some in Europe to rise up and protest the situation of degraded Christianity.

John Wycliffe (mid-1320s-1384) was a scholar at Oxford who stood up against the corruption of the Catholic Church and advocated for the translation of the Bible into the vernacular, the common everyday language of people.

Portrait of John Wycliffe | SourceKirkby, Thomas. John Wycliffe. 1828. Balliol College, University of Oxford. In Art UK. Accessed September 11, 2017. [Public Domain]

His writings influenced John Huss (1369-1415) in Bohemia, a region in what is now the Czech Republic, to focus on the Scriptures and expose the degradation of the apostate Catholic Church. Huss’s preaching and writing radically affected the region of Bohemia, which formed the basis for the Moravian Brethren three hundred years later.

Portrait of John Huss (Jan Hus) | SourceJan Hus (1370-1415). 15th Century. In Das Wissen des 20. Jahrhunderts, Bildungslexikon. Rheda, 1931. Accessed on September 11, 2017 via Wikimedia Commons. [Public Domain]

Brother Lee says in The Testimony and Ground of the Church,

Before Martin Luther, there were some who were quite enlightened and who rose up to speak for God in protest to degraded Christianity. Two of the most powerful ones were John Wycliffe on the British Isles and John Huss on the Continent. Both of them were very strong, and the light they received from the Bible was also quite clear. Before the time of Luther, they rose up and told people that the Roman Catholic Church was an apostate church, that she had left the revelation of God, and that her actions were completely against God; under her, they said, the church had become completely degraded. They gave numerous illustrations and released much light, and their words were received by many people. In their time, they laid a very good foundation for the Reformation. (p. 210)

Martin Luther (1483-1546) was familiar with John Huss’s writings early in his monastic career in Germany, was strongly influenced by German medieval mystics and Augustine, and became greatly impacted by the apostle Paul’s writings.

Portrait of Martin Luther | SourceMartin Luther (Brustbild im Rechteck mit faksimiliertem Namenszug). In Museum im Melanchthonhaus Bretten (Inv.Nr: P Luth 88). Accessed on October 06, 2017 via Museum-Digital:Baden-Württember. [CC BY-NC-SA 3.0]

As he studied the book of Romans during the 1510s, he realized the truth of justification by faith. Romans 1:17 was the key verse that sparked the Reformation in Europe—“But the righteous shall have life and live by faith.” Justification was not through the sacraments, rituals, or assenting to the teachings of the Catholic Church, but through faith, which is given by God. In 1517, when a Catholic preacher came to Germany selling indulgences to raise money for St. Peter’s Basilica in Rome, Luther protested by writing his 95 Theses. This act marked the beginning of the Reformation. From this point onward, the Lord would use many saints in Europe to recover one truth after another.

Martin Luther’s 95 Theses | SourceLuther, Martin. Disputatio pro declaratione virtutis indulgentiarum [95 Theses]. Nuremberg: Höltzel, 1517. In Digitiser: State Library of Berlin. Uploaded on August 22, 2016.  Accessed on October 01, 2017 via Wikimedia Commons. [Public Domain]

Ultimately, as Brother Lee points out, the most worthwhile and precious matter that Luther recovered was to open the Bible to the people by translating it into the German vernacular:

In the Reformation the first thing Luther did was to open the Bible to the public. He released the Bible completely so that everyone had a Bible in their hands to read. This is the most worthy thing of the reformation, and it is also the most beneficial thing to later generations. Some have said that justification by faith was the first thing recovered in Luther’s Reformation, but justification by faith is not the center of the Reformation. The most important item of the Reformation was the recovery of the open Bible. Luther’s recovery of justification by faith was based upon what he found in the open Bible. Therefore, the most precious item given to us by the Reformation was the open Bible. The second item was justification by faith, which was derived from the first. Although the Bible was made available to the public, not much of it was opened up, interpreted. (The Testimony and the Ground of the Church, pp. 211-212)

About the same time as the Reformation, movable type was invented in Europe…The reformers made use of the printing press to publish the truths they had seen. The Bible also could be printed instead of being copied by hand. As a result, it was spread among the people. Formerly it had been locked up by the Catholic Church. Martin Luther unlocked it. But the Bible was not opened up much; it was read but not really understood. (The World Situation and God’s Move, p. 65)

Sixty-two years before the publication of the 95 Theses, Johannes Gutenberg had printed the Bible (Latin translation) in western Germany on his printing press.

Gutenberg and his printing press | SourceHillemacher, E. Gutenburg’s Invention. In Great Men and Famous Women: a Series of Pen and Pencil Sketches of the Lives of More than 200 of the Most Prominent Personages in History, Volume 5, by Charles F. Horne, New York: Selmar Hess, 1894. On Internet Archive Book Images. Accessed on September 11, 2017 via Wikimedia Commons. [No known copyright restrictions]

Gutenberg’s invention of movable type was sovereignly prepared by God to facilitate the spreading of Luther’s translation of the Bible in Germany, the translation of the Bible in other European languages, and the publishing of new revelations seen during the Reformation. This move of the Lord spread throughout Europe: the Hussites were active and at one point gained almost all of the inhabitants in the region that is the present-day Czech Republic; John Calvin, who saw the revelation of God’s predestination, and Zwingli were raised up in Switzerland; the Reformation spread to the Nordic countries; and Henry VIII in England was influenced by reformers to split from the Catholic Church.

While Luther and the other reformers were bold to stand for the truths they had seen, they were weak in their standing for the church. As a result, they acquiesced in joining the church with secular authority and formed the state churches, which are prevalent in northern Europe.

Regarding Martin Luther’s legacy, Brother Lee says in The History of the Church and the Local Churches,

At the time of the Reformation, the Lord’s recovery came into a definite form. Martin Luther was a great servant of God. The Lord used him to recover the truth concerning justification by faith and to make the Bible open to the general public. Thank the Lord that justification by faith has been fully recovered. It will never be lost again. At the cost of his life, Luther stood for this truth, but when he came to the truth concerning the church, he was weak. He did not bring us back to God’s genuine intention to have the church life.

Luther realized that it was wrong to be joined with the German government, yet he still did it. Due to this big mistake, the state churches were produced. Besides the Roman Catholic Church and the Greek Orthodox Church, there are also the state churches. All the state churches are Lutheran churches except the Church of England, which is an Episcopal church. The German state church, the Danish state church, the Norwegian state church, the Swedish state church, and the Anglican state church were the issue of the seed sown by Luther. (p. 30)

However, some believers, like the Puritans in England (who later moved to America) and Anabaptists (who practiced baptism by immersion), dissented from the state churches and formed private churches. Many of these groups recovered an aspect of truth, but they would establish their own churches, resulting in division:

With the coming of the Reformation the Bible was released. This, coupled with the free thinking that developed once Catholicism’s hold on the mind was broken, led Christians to the discovery of many new truths in the Bible. It seemed that everyone who discovered a new truth became the founder of a new denomination…All these newly formed denominations were persecuted by both the Catholic Church and the state churches. This was true of the state churches even in northern Europe. These freethinking Christians were thus in peril for their lives. (The World Situation and God’s Move, p. 14)

 

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The Context for Christ’s Great Accomplishments
and the Spread of the Gospel 

“For Christ’s great accomplishments to be carried out, there was the need for the Roman Empire to be established.” (The World Situation and God’s Move, p. 10)

God was incarnated as a man, Jesus Christ, during the reign of the first Roman emperor, Caesar Augustus (27 B.C.-A.D. 14). The reign of Augustus initiated a period called the Pax Romana, a period of relative peace, in which the Roman Empire experienced little large-scale conflict. Also, because such a large area of land in Europe and the Middle East was under one rule, people were free to cross the borders of many provinces without restrictions and in a situation of order. The use of ships on the Mediterranean Sea and the extensive Roman road network facilitated travel.

It was God’s ordination that the Roman Empire should be in control of the Mediterranean area during the time of Christ. The order which Rome brought to that warring region made it possible for the Lord Jesus to be born peacefully into mankind. The Roman method of capital punishment, crucifixion, made possible the fulfillment of the prophecies concerning His death.

The spread of the gospel after the resurrection and ascension of Christ was greatly facilitated by the common language, the single rule, the roads, and the domestic order that Rome established.

Greek was the language of the educated classes. The New Testament, though written almost entirely by Jews—Luke was the only exception—was written in Greek, not Hebrew. Even before the rise of the Roman Empire, about three centuries before Christ, the Hebrew Old Testament was translated into Greek. This version, called the Septuagint, was translated by seventy scholars in Alexandria, Egypt. When the Lord Jesus was on earth, many times the Scriptures He quoted were from the Septuagint.The Roman Empire, then, was appointed by God to provide the situation in which redemption could be accomplished and the gospel spread. (The World Situation and God’s Move, pp. 10-12)

The gospel began to reach Europe in Paul’s second, third, and fourth journeys. During Paul’s second journey, as he and his co-workers were journeying through Asia after passing through Phrygia and Galatia, the Holy Spirit forbade them to speak the word in Asia. They went to Mysia and tried to go into Bithynia, but the Spirit of Jesus did not allow them. So they went to Troas, and there, Paul had a vision in the night.

A certain man, a Macedonian, was standing and entreating him and saying, Come over into Macedonia and help us. And when he had seen the vision, we immediately endeavored to go forth into Macedonia, concluding that God had called us to announce the gospel to them—Acts 16:9-10

The Journeys of Paul | © Living Stream Ministry.
Used with permission. Do not duplicate.

Paul then went into Macedonia, to Philippi, a leading city in that part of the province, and there, Lydia and her household were baptized. Later, Paul and Silas were imprisoned in Philippi, but while praying and singing hymns of praise to God, an earthquake opened the prison doors, and they preached the gospel to the jailer. He and his household were also baptized.

From Philippi they travelled to Thessalonica, Berea, Athens (where Paul preached on the Areopagus), Corinth, and Ephesus (Acts 17—18). Paul went again to Ephesus on his third journey, through Macedonia and Greece to Troas (in Asia), and from there he journeyed back to Jerusalem, where he was eventually seized and bound by the Romans. On his fourth journey he experienced a storm and a shipwreck and eventually ended up in Rome, where he ministered until his martyrdom. During this period, Paul also expressed a desire to go to Spain.

From Paul’s time onward, the gospel spread throughout the Roman Empire, which covered much of southern and western Europe. Then as Brother Lee points out,

Satan followed. What God uses, Satan also comes along to use in order to cause damage. The emperors began to persecute the Christians, and countless numbers were martyred. Persecution, as we know, did not terminate the Christians; it rather helped them. Then Satan changed his strategy. Under the rule of Constantine the Great [A.D. 306-337] the Roman Empire made Christianity legal, and Christians had the full freedom of worship. Because of the favors he granted the Christians, thousands of pagans were baptized and became Christians in name. These were the tares spoken of in Matthew 13:24-30 that ruined Christianity.

Under his influence the Nicene Creed was drawn up (A.D. 325). He acted openly as head of the Church, which in his reign was first called Catholic; at the same time he kept his title of high priest of the heathen.

This ruin progressed from the fourth to the sixth centuries, by which time the papal system was fully established. With this the Roman Catholic Church reached its full development; it claimed to be the one, universal church (catholic means universal) and exercised worldly power over people and nations. No protest or dissent was tolerated. Over the centuries when it held sway, the Roman Catholic Church killed more genuine Christians than the pagan Roman Empire had killed. Under such a dark Church, the so-called Dark Ages were produced, lasting about ten centuries, from about A.D. 500 to 1500. (The World Situation and God’s Move, p. 12)

The empire ultimately declined, and the western Roman Empire fell in A.D. 476, but Europe was under the power of the Catholic Church for another one thousand years. This period, known as the Middle Ages, has been called the “Dark Ages,” and for this long period of time Europeans were kept under the authority of the worldly church without access to the Word of God.

 

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And He made from one every nation of men to dwell on all the face of the earth, determining beforehand their appointed seasons and the boundaries of their dwelling—Acts 17:26

The events of world history have been sovereignly arranged by God for Him to carry out His purpose…The rise and fall of the kingdoms of earth and the boundaries of all the nations have been predetermined by Him…God’s move among men is wrapped up with the course of history. Whether we speak of His becoming flesh through the incarnation, or of the spread of the gospel, or of the raising up of the church life, or of the preparation of the bride, all these aspects of His move require the proper environment, as far as the world situation is concerned. (The World Situation and God’s Move, p. 5)

The world situation has always been the indicator of the Lord’s move on earth. (The World Situation and the Direction of the Lord’s Move, p. 8)

Europe has been a crucial region in the Lord’s move throughout the centuries. Brother Lee points out in The World Situation and God’s Move (1981) that “for the first step, the spread of the gospel, God prepared the Roman Empire. For the second step, the return to the Bible, God prepared Germany. For the third step, the recovery of the gospel, the teaching of the Bible, and the proper meetings—God in the last two centuries used Great Britain. Finally, for the fourth step God has prepared the United States” (p. 40). The Lord brought His recovery to the US via the Far East for the preparation of His bride. In 1991 Brother Lee says further in The World Situation and the Direction of the Lord’s Move that “the recovery has taken root in the United States and the Far East, but there is a void in Europe. For this reason, the Lord’s direction of His present recovery must be toward Europe” (p. 17). In the twentieth and twenty-first centuries God has moved and is continuing to move to gain a group of people who have Christ as their life and live Him and who are being built up for Christ to have His Body to prepare His bride for His return.

 

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• Introduction
• The New Testament Times to the Twentieth Century
  • The Roman Empire: the Context for Christ’s Great Accomplishments and the Spread of the Gospel
  • The Reformation: the Recovery of the Truth
  • The Mystics: the Recovery of the Experience of the Inner Life
  • The Moravian Brethren: the Recovery of the Initial Stage of the Church Life
  • Eighteenth Century Britain: Revival and Missionary Work
  • Nineteenth Century Britain: the Brethren, the Discovery of God’s Truth, and the Overcoming Life
  • Twentieth Century
    • The Lord’s Move in China
    • Watchman Nee’s and Witness Lee’s Visits to Europe
    • Brother Lee’s Visit to Europe in 1958
  • Summary
• The Lord’s Present Move
  • Nordic Countries—Denmark, Finland, Iceland, Norway, and Sweden
  • French-speaking Countries—France (and parts of Belgium, and Switzerland)
  • German-speaking Countries—Germany and Austria (and parts of Switzerland)
    • Germany
    • Austria
  • Italian-speaking Countries—Italy (and parts of Switzerland)
  • Baltic Countries—Estonia, Latvia and Lithuania
  • Switzerland
  • Benelux Countries—Belgium, the Netherlands, and Luxemburg
  • Eastern and Central Europe—Hungary, Poland, Romania, Czech Republic, Slovakia
    • Hungary
    • Poland
    • Romania
    • The Czech Republic and Slovakia
  • Balkans—Greece, Albania, Bulgaria, Croatia, and Serbia
    • Greece
    • Albania
    • Bulgaria
    • Croatia and Serbia
  • Iberian Peninsula—Spain and Portugal
    • Spain
    • Portugal
  • The British Isles—the United Kingdom (England, Northern Ireland, Scotland, and Wales) and the Republic of Ireland
    • The United Kingdom (England, Scotland, and Wales)
    • The Republic of Ireland and Northern Ireland
• Conclusion
• Bibliography

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The following compilation was prepared for the October 2017 International Training for Elders and Responsible Ones in Leipzig, Germany, and the blending trips and conferences involving eight regions across Europe in the following week.

It was compiled between June 2017 and September 2017 using existing materials and interviews and updated with new interviews and reports from saints across Europe. Since this presentation is in the nature of a compilation of recollections of the local saints, the amount written on each area was based largely on how much information was received in the time available.

We apologise for any items which may have been missed or which are inaccurate due to the speed with which the materials were compiled.

This compilation is not exhaustive concerning the Lord’s move in Europe. There are other European cities and countries that are not included here since their history is more related to the Russian-speaking churches. This compilation focuses on the countries hosting the blending trips and the regional conferences so that visiting saints joining the local saints can have some sense of the present situation. Nearly all the content came from the saints in these respective countries. In total, the geographical population of Europe is more than twice that of the population of the US.

This compilation is prepared for all who are participating in any or all of the three events occurring from the 5th to 15th of October: the International Training for Elders and Responsible Ones (ITERO), the blending trips in nineteen European countries, and the eight regional conferences being held in Copenhagen, Denmark; Thessaloniki, Greece; Stuttgart, Germany; Krakow, Poland; Florence, Italy; Paris, France; Madrid, Spain; and London, England. In principle, there are eight conferences, but there is only one content and one speaking.

We hope all of you enjoy this brief presentation and that you will pray for the Lord’s continued blessing on the one accord among all the saints and churches in Europe.

Saints serving with Amana Trust

September 2017