Additional Quotes about the Local Church
by Witness Lee and Watchman Nee

The Recovery of the Ground of Oneness—from Babylon to Jerusalem

Chapter one of Ezra tells us that God stirred up the spirit of some of the captives in Babylon. After their spirit was stirred up, they rose up to go back to Jerusalem, bringing with them vessels of gold and silver. Their intention in going back was to build up the house of God. Ezra 3:1 then tells us that “the people gathered themselves together as one man to Jerusalem.” The seventh month was come, and although the people of Israel were in the cities, no oneness had yet been realized. But then “the people gathered themselves together as one man to Jerusalem.” That was the real oneness, the real harmony; not in the cities, but in Jerusalem. Jerusalem was the unique ground, the unique center for oneness and for unity.

How do we apply these things to ourselves today? If we are the remnant from captivity that has come back to Jerusalem, we need the real oneness and harmony. We all must be one. We must be gathered together as one man. We all must be as one man, not in this place or in that, but in Jerusalem. It is not according to my opinion or your way, my concept or your teaching. It is according to Jerusalem. Jerusalem is the center. Can we forsake all our opinions for Jerusalem? Can we forget about all our concepts for Jerusalem? We all have come back, but we must not come back with the influence of Babylon. We must forget about the things of Babylon. Do not come back with the teachings of Babylon. Let us all come up to Jerusalem. Then nothing will be according to you or me, but according to Jerusalem, for Jerusalem is the unique center and the unique ground for oneness.

(Witness Lee, Recovery of God's House, 15-16)

...the children of Israel were allowed to build the temple only on one particular site, on Mount Moriah, where Abraham had offered his son Isaac. That unique site was the ground on which the temple was built. That ground preserved the oneness of God's people. I went on to say that God's people were not allowed to build a temple in Babylon, even if the temple would have been the same in size and design as the original temple in Jerusalem. A temple constructed in Babylon could not have been the center of oneness. On the contrary, such a temple would have been a center of division. All those who returned from captivity were required to go back to the ground of oneness, to Mount Zion, where the temple was rebuilt. Hence, the temple on Mount Zion was built on the ground of oneness. This portrays the genuine oneness of believers today, a oneness on the proper ground, on the ground of locality.

(Witness Lee, Genuine Ground, 138-139)

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