This week we come to a wonderful yet sobering conclusion of the crucial points of the major items of the Lord’s recovery. We enjoyed many crucial matters related to the economy of God, the Triune God, the all-inclusive Christ, the consummated Spirit, the eternal life, the recovery of the church, the oneness of the Body of Christ, and the local ground of the church. Now we come to the Lord’s recovery versus the present evil age and the eschatology of the church.
First, we have the recovery of God’s economy, that is, knowing that God’s plan is to dispense Himself into us to be our life, life supply, and everything to produce and constitute the organic Body of Christ consummating in the New Jerusalem.
With God there’s an economy, and with us there’s a recovery; today we are being recovered back to the mark of God’s economy (the mingling of the divine Spirit with our human spirit) and the goal of God’s economy (the building up of the Body of Christ).
As we are carrying out God’s economy in time and space, there is a certain context, which Paul calls, “the present evil age”. This age envelops us everywhere, and it is used by Satan to oppose and even nullify the Lord’s recovery.
We need to realize that there’s a war raging in the spiritual realm between the present evil age (which is religion) and the Lord’s recovery. We also need to realize that, even though we may not know the day or the year when the Lord Jesus returns, we are approaching the end of this age; “the eschatology of the church” refers to how does it all end, how does the recovery looks like when it ends, and what happens to this present evil age.
The Lord’s Recovery is Versus the Present Evil Age – the Evil Age of Religion
In Gal. 1:4 Paul said that Christ gave Himself for our sins that He might rescue us out of the present evil age according to the will of our God and Father. In the context of the entire epistle, this present evil age is the religious aspect of the world system of Satan. It is not a general term to identify the world as a satanic system, but it identifies the religious world, that is present and evil.
Judaism was a religion founded on God’s word, but it became a system keeping God’s people away from Christ; it used many outward traditions, regulations, and teachings to keep genuine seeking ones from coming to Christ and becoming the Body of Christ to fulfill God’s economy.
Brother Witness Lee once expressed his deepest concern regarding the Lord’s recovery, which is that the Lord’s recovery might end up being part of the degraded Christianity, that is, that the history of Christianity may be repeated in the Lord’s recovery. “Christianity” does not refer to a person or persons but the religious system in Christianity.
We may be in the Lord’s recovery yet we may not discern between the Lord’s recovery and Christianity, and so we may continue the degradation in Christianity in the church life. We need to have some degree of discernment between the Lord’s recovery and the present evil age. God views religion from the view of His eternal purpose, and Paul was one with God to call the religion of his day – Judaism – as “the present evil age”.
We are blessed to be in the church life in the Lord’s recovery, but we need to have God’s view, outlook, and feeling toward the present evil age so that we would never compromise with it but burn every bridge toward it and preserve the Lord’s recovery in its nature.
In Paul’s days some came to the churches in Galatia and preached another gospel, saying that the Gentile believers need to be circumcised and keep the law in order to be saved; this eventually led to a council being held in Jerusalem, and the temporary solution was for the Gentiles to be released from such requirements.
But based on the light in the New Testament we need to see that today there’s a religious, present, evil age; Christianity as a system is evil, because it distracts people from God’s purpose in His economy, and it departs people from Christ. When people have religion they don’t have Christ. We’re not talking about a foreign philosophy or teachings but the system in Christianity, the present evil age.
In Paul’s time the mixture of the present evil age in Jerusalem reached to such a state that it was incurable, and God used the Roman army to destroy the city of Jerusalem and even the church in Jerusalem, less a polluted stream would flow from it. May the Lord show us the present evil age and give us His appreciation and feeling for it, and may we be one with the Lord to be saved from Christianity according to the will of God and Father!
Lord Jesus, deliver us from the present evil age, the religious aspect of the world system of Satan! Lord, show us the degraded Christianity and its influence on us, and cause us to be delivered, rescued, and plucked out of Christianity according to the will of God and Father! Oh Lord, shine on us that we may see how the Lord’s recovery is versus the present evil age, the evil age of religion. Save us from religion, deliver us from the religious system in Christianity, and fully recover us back to Your original intention in Your Word!
Christ Gave Himself for our Sins that He might Rescue us out of the Present Evil Age
The Lord’s redemption is multi-faceted and all-inclusive, and one major aspect of the Lord’s death on the cross was to rescue us out of the present evil age according to God’s will. It is the will of God that we all get out of the present evil age, out of the religious system in Christianity.
We need to come to a time in which we say one with Paul, I am dead to the world – I am dead to Christianity, and Christianity is dead to me; no compromise and no reconciliation!
An age is a part of the world as the satanic system. An age refers to a section, an aspect, the present or modern appearance, of the system of Satan, which is used by him to usurp and occupy people and keep them away from God and His purpose. The world system of Satan has different ages, different sections….The present age is the present section of Satan’s cosmos, his world system. Whereas sins are devilish, the present age is satanic. As the devil, God’s enemy is involved with sins, and as Satan, he is involved with the evil age. God’s enemy is subtle, lurking behind sins and the evil age. Apart from the crucifixion of Christ, we have no way to deal with sins, behind which the devil hides, or the evil age, behind which Satan hides. Christ was crucified for our sins so that He might rescue us from this evil age. This indicates that only Christ can save us from the devil and Satan. Both sins and the evil age have been dealt with by Christ crucified. He gave Himself for us on the cross according to the will of God. He died for our sins so that we might be delivered from the present evil age. Therefore, if we would be delivered from this evil age, our sins must be dealt with. If we, through the preaching of the gospel, help others to have the forgiveness of sins, they will begin to realize that they need to be rescued from the present evil age. (Witness Lee, The Conclusion of the New Testament, pp. 775)
The present form and manifestation of the evil system of Satan in Christianity is the present evil age, from which we need to be saved, delivered, plucked out, and extracted. The present evil age keeps us as God’s people away from God and His purpose; the religious course of this world distracts us from Christ and God’s economy, and we need the Lord’s salvation to be drawn out and plucked out of this system!
We do not limit Christ’s redemptive death to only this particular aspect, but Paul clearly says that Christ gave Himself up on the cross so that we, His people, may be rescued, plucked out, extricated, out of the present evil age (Gal. 1:4).
What matters is not circumcision or uncircumcision but a new creation; therefore, the world is crucified to us and we are crucified to the world, that is, the present religious world is dead to us and we to it (Gal. 6:14-15).
Christ’s death on the cross to deliver us from the present evil age was according to the will of God, which concerns Christ and the church (Col. 1:9). Paul prayed for the Colossians to be filled with the full knowledge of God’s will, and Epaphras always struggled on their behalf that they may stand complete, fully assured in all the will of God (Col. 1:19; 4:12).
The will of God is for the all-inclusive Christ to be everything to us for the producing and building up of the Body of Christ. The will of God concerns Christ and the church, and the present evil age is opposed to the will of God. There are many books written on the will of God, but most of them are part of the present evil age, so they can’t tell you what the will of God is.
The will of God is that we may enjoy Christ all the time so that we may become in reality the Body of Christ as the expression of Christ. For the will of God, we need to be rescued from the present evil age!
Lord Jesus, thank You for giving Yourself for our sins so that we may be rescued out of the present evil age according to the will of our God and Father. Lord, pluck us out, extricate us, and rescue us out of religious world, the religious course of the world today! We want to enjoy Christ as our everything for the building up of the church as the Body of Christ for the fulfillment of God’s purpose! Lord, cause us to see the present evil age and be rescued from it according to and for the fulfillment of the perfect will of God!
References and Hymns on this Topic
- Inspiration: the Word of God, my enjoyment in the ministry, brother Ron Kangas’ sharing in the message for this week, and Collected Works of Witness Lee, 1977, vol. 1, “The Recovery of Christ in the Present Evil Age,” chs. 1-2, as quoted in the Holy Word for Morning Revival on, The Crucial Points of the Major Items of the Lord’s Recovery Today (ITERO 2015 fall), week 9 / msg 9, The Lord’s Recovery versus the Present Evil Age and the Eschatology of the Church.
- All Bible verses are taken from, Holy Bible Recovery Version.
- Hymns on this topic to strengthen this burden:
# It pleases God to rescue us / Out of this present evil age, / And to reveal His Son in us— / Most peerless One of all! (Song on being rescued)
# We have been many years in religion, / We have been many years in our mind, / We have been many years in emotions, / Always seeking, but never to find. / Now we’re learning to turn to our spirit, / Now we’re learning to take Christ as life; / Now we’re learning to feed upon Jesus / And be freed from all struggling and strife. (Hymns #1141)
# See the vision of Christ and the church; / Count the cost; reckon all things as loss; / Pay the price. The prize to gain Christ, / Burn the bridges; leave the world behind; / On God’s economy your heart be set / To live a life. (Song on paying the price)
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Literally, the Greek word translated “rescue” in Galatians 1:4 means to pluck out, to draw out, to extricate. The present evil age in this verse, according to the context of the book, refers to the religious world, the religious course of the world, which at Paul’s time was the Jewish religion. This is confirmed by Galatians 6:14 and 15, where circumcision is considered part of the world—the religious world to which the apostle Paul is crucified. Here Paul emphasizes that the purpose of Christ’s giving Himself for our sins was to rescue us, to pluck us out, from the Jewish religion, the present evil age. This is to release God’s chosen people from the custody of the law (Gal. 3:23), to bring them out of the sheepfold (John 10:1, 3), according to the will of God. (Witness Lee, The Conclusion of the New Testament, pp. 775-776)