How I Came To Believe in Biblocality?

"And the things which thou hast heard from me among many witnesses, the same commit thou to faithful men, who shall be able to teach others also. Suffer hardship with me, as a good soldier of Christ Jesus" (2 Tim. 2.2,3). If the church were to consistently follow this advice, it would expand geometrically, by passing on what we have learned "for the work of the ministry...till we all attain unto the unity of the faith" (Eph. 4.12,13).

This is what convinced me in Biblocality but took some time to convince me: Which Church I Should Join. The order of my reading was as follows:

One

 I found the Bible difficult to read initially after I was saved in Jan, 2001, so I started with The Spiritual Man (Christian Fellowship Publishers, white cover) by Watchman Nee because someone drew me to it, but I found TSM difficult to read. I thought what was being said in the first 3 chapters to be very true but I was not moved yet. Likely this was due to what Nee said that the first three chapters of TSM are describing what the spirit, soul and body are, which do not get you directly into experiencing the dividing of your spirit, soul and body. So I read a couple other Christian books like The Bait for Satan and Fear of the Lord by John Bevere and The Case for Faith and The Case for Christ by Lee Strobel to then come back to TSM. Then it came alive to me. I began to get it. I got what was being said, and from then on things flowed for me and have never been the same since. Bible reading came alive! It's no fun reading the Bible when you don't feel it and sense it intuitively, but when it opens up, Wow!

One of my experiences while reading TSM and the Bible together was that for about a half an hour I was overcome by something out of this world. I remember saying to myself, Please Lord don't let this stop, this is so wonderful! Possibly this is what people meant by Third Heaven experience. I don't know if it was, but It was like heaven was opening up to me, and I felt I was on the verge of being raptured in a spirit of rapture. All areas of my spirit, soul and body were in a state I had never been before. I don't know how to put words to what I experienced to give it credit. Just know that I have never experienced this since in 2001, except on one other occasion, but to a much lesser extent. I think that is why my faith is so strong is because not only do I trust God's Word objectively with the 4 Step Perfect Proof for God of the Bible, but that experience keeps me in remembrance emotionally and intuitively. If I get sloppy in life, I just remember the gift of that experience was in agreement with God's Word. It is possible that I have not experienced to that depth or greater since then because my consecration was not enough to get there to fulfill the condition for further grace on this level or because God first graces us with such experience, but does not want us to remain there because there is much work to do. He gives it to us as a gift of faith and a sign of our relationship with Him, but then wants us to continue on in the work. We should not stay in our former spot, but keep moving forward. And such experience is not given to everyone, just as other experiences are given to others that I will not receive. We do not all receive the same gifts. But one thing is common that we all go through the same pathway of spiritual life starting through the same door of salvation.

I have read The Spiritual Man now 8 times completely: this is the ultimate book on Scripture, because if you get into it deeply the dividing of the spirit, soul and body, it really happens and you can sense it in order to know God's will for your life. You dare not give it up, because this sensitivety in your intuitive conscience is very precious to God. TSM is the best work done to date on the dividing of spirit, soul and body (Heb. 4.12, 1 Thess. 5.23), and because Nee is so right on this crucial area, it so happens that this is the best work ever done on the subject.  I give Nee more credence than I would any other writer that avoids this subject. I found out Nee had a photographic memory and an extremely high IQ. He is considered the most famous Christian in Chinese church history, was martyred in jail the last 20 years of his life, and there were 200 apostles he said were in agreement with him at the height of his apostolic work before the number of apostles began to wane. This information is what convinced me to read a little more of Nee (CFP & CLC only!) while others I knew stopped short. My thought was, why stop short? Were his writings to be dismissed after people I knew stopped short once highly valuing TSM? Why agree so well with the TSM but not read further the other deeper truths if they existed? The Holy Spirit drew me in to read more!

Two

Then I wanted to really know Revelation and end-times, so I read the "Rapture" section in King and the Kingdom of Heaven (CFP). I did not yet accept partial rapture (separate rapture), but wanted to be completely unbiased before I decided if it was true or not. I was convinced. Then I read Nee's writings on Matthew 24 & 25 in King and the Kingdom of Heaven followed by Aids to "Revelation".

Three

Next, I wanted to be sure about the proper creation view in Mystery of Creation. Having done all this, I agreed with Nee's assessment and could prove the case of 1) our being tripartite, 2) separate rapture, and 3) gap restoration. The one thing I could not accept was Biblical locality, that is, the apostles work regionally to appoint Elders of a city locality. I don't know why I couldn't accept it, but I just couldn't. The flesh was winning. One of the reasons was I knew of a cult called The Local Church by Living Stream Ministry which held this view partially. Though I never went to any of their meetings even to this day it was clear they held to something similar, but I did not want to get involved with them because of their false teachings which we may call the 6 major sins of leeism. The reason their operations are not Biblocality is because they distribute mostly their products to their various outlets and the money flowed back to them and the physical family descendents of its founder in control of this system. I have contacted them, but they refuse to accept error in altering Nee's writings. I rationalized to myself the church unit should be the local meeting place in area within a couple miles walking distance based on local ground rather than a Biblical locality or Scriptural city. However, through much prayerful study and consideration I finally realized the truth that Biblocality was true!

Four

There was the ongoing battle between calvin and arminian. As I read the Bible I knew I was once-saved-always-saved. Salvation could never be lost, and this was Nee's position clearly also. But I did not agree with calvinism at all, because they teach the reason you choose is because you were saved or given faith first to cause you to choose the cross, while others were not saved or given faith so they could never come to the cross. In other words, calvinists believe you were premade for salvation like a robot or premade for hell without first regard for your choice indiscriminately. This is unacceptable, since God does not make us robots, but we are made in God's image with a free-will as sovereign beings. Though fallen but not totally deprave, we could yet choose like Abel gave a freewill offering, and in John 3.16 to encourage you to receive Him, Jesus said "whosever believeth" may be saved. God does not in vain encourage someone to receive the cross as He spoke to Nicodemus if that person is already causes to believe or not believe robotically. God wants to walk with those who receive His life, not robots forced. God will not save a person the calvinist way. The key to understanding why calvinism is wrong is understanding proper cause and effect. If God were to cause you to be something without first regard for your choice made in His image, then you kill the image of God and it is not real free-will. The Holy Spirit has convinced me that Satan's facsimile is calvinism, and the unsaved tares who try to look like the saved wheat are many including the calvinists. There are these unsaved tares operating within the sphere of the kingdom of heaven, but they are not members of the body of Christ. Watchman Nee explains this well in Matthew 13 in King and the Kingdom of Heaven. Not unsurprisingly, Watchman Nee and I agreed about osas arminian. That's now four for four! (steps 1 through 4).

I even recall seeing someone accuse Nee of being arminian. Did you know that Arminius in his writings said that of himself he did not believe in non-OSAS, only that it seemed like some verses pointed in that direction. Even so, he remained a true believer in OSAS which was against the non-OSAS view of the Roman Church, the great harlot of religious Rome. Study Revelation 17 to see how she makes drunk the nations with the wine of the wrath of her fornications (Rev. 14.8). What Arminius may have overlooked is those verses which seemed like they could point to non-OSAS were really pertaining to loss of rewards of reigning during the 1000 years. But if you don't believe in the 1000 year reign of Christ on earth when He steps down on the mount of olives (Zech. 14.4, Acts 1.11, Rev. 1.7), then you will not have this option available to you. You can see why amillennialism, postmillennialism and various kinds of preterism are all false teaching. The nations will not be deceived (20.3) by war in the 1000 years as they are now, nor has one third of the people of earth died in a great cataclysmic event (Rev. 9.18) when an army of 200 million machines congregate in the middle east to battle over oil and to attack Israel.

I have tried to help calvinists with various articles such as this one: Help for a Calvinist. True preservation of the saints is the view held by the osas arminian.

Five

So I come back around to deal with the one issue I just can't seem to get through my thick skull...Biblical locality. But as I continued to read the Word of God profusely and Nee's proofs, through repentance I was convinced and amazed at how stubborn I was. I read,

1) Assembling Together (CFP)

2) Assembly Life (Church and the Work, Vol. 1 CFP)

3) Rethinking the Work (Church and the Work, Vol. 2 CFP)

I was sold on Biblocality somewhere while reading Assembly Together and Assembly Life and have preserved these truths here.

Because Biblocality was the toughest thing for me to accept in Christ, but I finally realized the truth, Biblocality.com has been created in honor of this truth which is what God needs and requires for the Church before His Son will return. Why is it needed? Because in order to set up the organization that the Son of Man will reign by and reward overcomer believers to reign with during the millennium, there needs be at least some working prototype beforehand. I am certain of this for the Holy Spirit has revealed it to me in no uncertain terms in agreement with God's Word and other members of the body of Christ who agree completely.

I find that I am complete agreement with Watchman Nee when he wrote on page 123-124 of Ye Search the Scriptures:

In the books of Kings the building of the temple by Solomon typifies the building of the church by Christ. Just as the holy temple was in Jerusalem, so the church which the temple signifies gathers and worships in the Lord’s name. For God’s name was placed in Jerusalem; it was the only place where God was recognized and where He chose to set His name (see 1 Kings 14.21). When Jeroboam rose up to be a king over the separated kingdom of Israel, he set up altars as places of worship in Bethel and Dan. His action was condemned by God, because God was only pleased with worship in the place where His name was set and not in any other place. During times of revival some kings rose up to destroy these altars, but some kings did not destroy the altars. This serves as a shadow of the various conditions during revival times in church history. Afterwards the temple was destroyed, which action is a type of the ruin of the church. Eventually, as we see in the later historical books of the Old Testament, Ezra, Nehemiah, Zechariah, Zerubbabel and others returned to rebuild the temple and the city. Though the restoration never reached the former glory, it nevertheless began to be recovered to the original position. This typifies the recovery of the church which shall be consummated at the return of the Lord. Then shall the church become a glorious church.

I don't want to point to me and my experiences at all, but give glory only to God. However, I have noticed people have a tough time with these 5 deeper truths. May people appreciate where I am coming from and why this mission is so important! For the sooner it happens, the sooner Christ will return. Wow! The question then becomes, how do we make it happen? The problem in the Church today is that the apostles are not in agreement like they need to be. This condition trickles down to all members of the body of Christ. The 37 questions at registration and in your profile at Biblocality Forums solve the problem by establishing apostles in complete harmony and agreement. They can be adjusted as need be by the agreement of the apostles. God's Plan for Christians and The Plans of the Trinity for Biblocality Forums forms a complete working model establishing apostles in agreement to work in their own regions to appoint elders of a locality and for those elders to appoint the elders of meeting places in their locality, also making use of the Meeting Place Finder for the Body of Christ.

Praise the Lord!

Troy Brooks

by the Apostles for the Church