46 THE TESTIMONY OF JESUS
the Jewish religion, but when He came out to minister, He
offended many people. He did not drug anyone nor did He
sweeten them. Rather, He came to people with God's purpose,
telling them not only of God's salvation but also of God's way
to fulfill His purpose. This offended all the Pharisees. Even-
tually, the ones who persecuted Him were not the Gentiles
but the Jewish religionists. The persecutors of Jesus were
pious religionists, who sentenced Him to death according to
their religious law. Therefore, the world that hated the Lord
Jesus was not the Gentile world, the secular world, but the
Jewish, religious world. It was the same with the apostles.It
was the high priest of the Jewish religion and those with him
who put Peter into prison (Acts 5:17-18),and it was the reli-
gious Jews scattered in the Gentile world who persecuted
Paul. Wherever PauI went to preach, the Judaizers followed
him to stir up opposition(13:44-45;17:5).The principle today
is the same. As I have been in this line of ministry for over
forty years, I have not been persecutedmainly by unbelievers.
Almost all my persecutors from the first day up until today
have been Christians. Likewise, the persecution against the
local churches in the United States does not have its source
in the Gentile world. In every locality,the persecutioncomes
fiom the source of Christianity.
EATING AND DRINKING JESUS
TO BE HIS COMPANIONS
IN THE FULFILLING OF GOD'S PURPOSE
This shows that not only is it impossible to fulfill God's
eternal purpose in religion, but religion is the top frustra-
tion to God's purpose, whether it is the Jewish religion or
Christianity. Religion may help people a little, but this reli-
gious help always turns into a frustration. Religion is a
system that teaches people to worship God and behave in a
good way in order to please God, apart from Christ. While
teaching people to worship God and to behave in order to
please God, religion keeps people away from the real experi-
ence of Christ. God's intention is to work Christ into all of
us that we may be the partners of Christ to fulfill God's
eternal purpose. Only those who partake of Christ can be His
WORKING OUT OUR OWN SALVATION 47
llartners, His companions, to fulfill God's eternal purpose
tHeb. 1:9; 3:14). However, Satan is subtle, using the typical,
scriptural religion to keep people away from experiencing
(lhrist. This is why the Lord Jesus tells us in Revelation 2
rrnd 3 that we do not need the teachings, doctrines, regula-
l,ions, rituals, and rites of degraded religion. We need only to
taste, eat, partake of, and enjoy the Lord Jesus as the tree of
life and the hidden manna (2:7, \7). To eat is to take some-
thing outside of us into our being. Day by day we need to take
the Lord Jesus into our being. The significance of the Lord's
table is that in our remembrance of the Lord we declare that
we live and have our daily life by eating and drinking Jesus,
who is our life and life supply. Day by day we live by Him, so
on the first day of the week we come together to testi{y to the
whole universe that eating and drinking Jesus is our way of
living.
BEING DELIVERED FROM
THE RELIGIOUS ELEMENT WI'IHIN US
First we must come out of religion, and then we must get
religion out of us. We need to jump out of the snare of every
religion: the Jewish religion, the Catholic religion, and the
Protestant religion. Then we must expel all the religious ele-
ments out of us. To some degree, we all hold on to some
religious element. If a brother comes out of the Jewish religion'
the element of the Jewish religion may remain unconsciously'
subconsciously, and deeply within him. This will cause trouble
for his fellowship in the Body. Likewise, some dear brothers
who have come from certain Christian backgrounds still
retain that element within them' This also bothcrs thcm and
frustrates the proper fellowship. someone may love thr: Lord
il and come out of religion to be a good brother in the church
I
life, but a certain amount of the religious element may still be
planted deeply into his organic tissues. In such a casc, thc
religious element will always rise up at a certain point' No
doubt, we have come out of religion, but has the religious ele-
ment been radically, fully, and thoroughly eradicated from
our being? If it has, then we will never be troubled in our
fellowship in the Body.
 T
44 THE TESTIMONY OF JESUS
Paul, and Paul was crucified to it. It is so good that today also
many are being saved from the religious world, the present
evil generation.
RELIGION BEING SUBTLY UTILIZED BY SATAN
TO HOLD BACK GOD'S PEOPLE
God has a purpose, but Satan is subtle, creeping in to
utilize and usurp what God has done. God chose two peoples,
Israel and the church. God used the Old Testament for the
fulfillment of His purpose, but Satan subtly utilized it to form
Judaism in order to hold back Israel from God's purpose.
Then in the New Testament time, God used the church to ful-
fill His purpose, but the subtle one crept in again to utilize
and usurp the New Testament, forming a Christian religion
to hold back Christians from fulfilling God's purpose. Now
Israel is held back by the Jewish religion, and Christians are
held back by the Christian religion. Eventually no one is left
to fulfill God's purpose.
UNHEALTHY MESSAGES DAMAGING
THE BELIEVERS' PROPER APPETITE
Much of what is being ministered in Christianity today
may be considered either as a drug or as candy. According
to a proper diet, neither drugs nor sweets are good. Sweets
damage the appetite. A proper wife will care for her husband
by restricting his eating of desserts. The husband may not be
huppy with this, but he should realize that this is good for
his health. Eating desserts without proper food damages the
appetite and creates bad behavior. The more sweets a child
eats, the worse his temper is. Children acquire bad behavior
from eating too much candy, but when their mothers stop
feeding them candy, the children become well-behaved again.
In addition to bad temper, high blood pressure and heart
problems are also made worse by eating too many sweets. A
country that is too rich in desserts will have a high rate of
heart attack and blood problems. This is an illustration of
the situation in Christianity today. Even the fundamental
churches minister too many "sweets" to people. They have
changed the appetites of the believers until even the real
WORKING OUT OUR OWN SALVATION 45
believers care to eat only "candy" and have no appetite for
solid food. Anyone who comes to minister solid food offends
them, because they have no capacity to digest and assimilate
it. They know how to drink only sweet, soothing milk. In our
early days, we very much appreciated a devotional book enti-
tled Strearns in the Desert, which compiles quotations from
Charles Spurgeon and others for the purpose of comforting
the reader. However, this book may be considered as a "dish of
candies," one for each day of the year. We eventually realized
that the sweet and soothing nature of this book damages the
appetite, causing the reader to care only for hearing comfort-
ing words and not to know how to receive unveiling words.
We may illustrate the shortage related to this kind of
book in the following way.A Christian husband and wife with
different natural dispositions may discover that they are not
very suitable for each other, but because thcy are Christians,
they cannot divorce; instead, they will both sufT'er. If' they
read a devotional book, however, they will be comforted. The
husband may read a portion that says that although his wife
is not submissive, she is still good for him; his situation wil-
be a help to him and will accomplish something for him.
Apparently this is a good word to comfort the husband. How-
ever, such a word will also strengthen his disposition. It will
not expose his natural make-up or unveil his natural disposi-
tion. Mrs. Jessie Penn-Lewis. however. was a writer of another
category. She taught that God's intention is not merely to give
comfort to people but to put them on the cross. However, if
the husband in our illustration were to hear thcsc words, he
would not be able to receive them, because his appctitc has
been fully accustomed to hearing only sweet, comlirrting,
soothing words as "candy" to be eaten day by day, ycar itfIcr
year. Who can fulfill God's purpose today? Many of'thc n'ros-
sages in Christianity contain either the drugs of heresy or'
sweet candy.
RELIGION BEING THE TOP FRUSTRATION
TO THE FULFILLMENT OF GOD'S PURPOSE
The Lord now needs some to rise up to speak unveiling
words. This is what the Lord Jesus spoke. He was born into
 WORKINGOUT OUR OWN SALVATION 43

- -'.rfollori ife was convinced and subdued by the Jewish religion. The
Lord could not go along with this, so after Paul paid the
:\penses for their vows, the Lord stirred up the situation
r-ith the people, and it was through this that Paul was put
-nto prison. Not long after this, in A.D.70, the Lord sent the
?,omanarmy under Titus to destroy the holy city and the holy
:emple, leaving no stone upon another (Matt. 24:l-2'1. Tlte
-ord could not tolerate to see His believers still for the things
f Judaism, which had been condemned.This demonstrates
,i-ratreligion is a great, subtle entanglement that has been
rlanted deeply into all of us. The element of Christianity has
it is difficult to get rid of it.
-otten into our blood, and
BEING SAVEDFROM THE CROOKEDGENERATION,
THE RELIGIOUS WORLD
The Lord Jesusused the word world a number of times in
.re Gospels.Many Christians hold the understanding that
ris refers only to the secular world. In fact, world many
.mes refers to the religious world, that of Judaism. The Lord
.-iid, "If you were of the world, the world would love its own;
-rt becauseyou are not of the world, but I chose you out of
:re world, therefore the world hates you" (John 15:19).The
-
-,rd choseHis disciples out of Judaism, the Jewish religion.
,-.-henthe Lord said that the world hated the disciples and
:rat they were not of the world, this did not mean that the
.-=cipleswere not of the Gentile world. Rather,it meant that
rev were not of the Jewish religious world. In Acts 2:40 Peter
-..-rd,"Be saved from this crooked generation."That genera-
- ,n was of the Jewish religion. The Jewish reiigion rvas the
' ,okedgenerationfrom which those Jews neededto be saved
r- the day of Pentecost.In Galatians 1:4 Paul sa1'sthat the
-
r'd Jesus Christ "gave Himself for our sins that He night
:sclr€ us out of the present evil age,"which is the religious
r'ld In 6:13-15Paul speaks of the world being crr"rcifiedto
. :r. and he to the world. Many Christians misapply these
:ises, supposing that world refers to the secular world
-,:ording to the context,though, world is a matter of circum-
..-on. which is a religious ritual. The proper meaning of these
:r':€Sis that on the crossthe Jewish religion was crucified to