What is Berea?

What Berea pursues is to emulate the faith of the Bereans and adopt their attitude of faith. Berea is to preach the word of God alone. It is neither to interpret the Bible, nor research it using a scholar’s theory. It is simply to have faith.

The Berea Movement is a theocentric movement of faith. Theocentricism is to approach the Will of God as Righteousness. The First Righteousness is to that ‘God loves the Son’, the Second Righteousness is that ‘the works of the devil have been destroyed by the Son’, and the Third Righteousness is that ‘mankind has been saved by the meritorious blood of Jesus Christ and they have received eternal life’. Just as God has fulfilled His will in heaven, the Son has fulfilled it on earth.

To drive out demons, to heal the sick, and to speak in tongues are what follows to those who believe in Jesus. Therefore, every Christian must have this experience. But one cannot please God for having these experiences alone. To believe the word, to teach it, and to preach it is what pleases God. This is His good, pleasing will. The will of God is that we abide in Jesus. Just as Jesus abode in the Father, we abide in Jesus and as a result we abide in the Father. In this way, not only are we able to love God, but we are able to please Him.

When we preach the word, we do not do so to please men. Rather, we let them know that Jesus Christ suffered for them, and that we ourselves must also struggle against sin to the point of shedding out blood, and at last be victorious. What is the gospel of the Lord Jesus? It is that the Lord Jesus bore our sins and redeemed us, that we have the courage to come before the Lord, and under his wings of grace, we clothe ourselves with the Lord’s blood and receive justification. Who can condemn those whom the Lord has justified? Just who can cut us off from the love of the Lord?

Faith is love. More specifically, it is the act of loving God. With all one’s heart, with all one’s soul, with all one’s strength, with all one’s mind, and with all one’s life, one must love God. 1 John 4:6 says: ‘We are of God. He who knows God hears us; he who is not of God does not hear us. By this we know the spirit of truth and the spirit of error.’ We must pay close attention to this word.

To gain faith is not through man’s wisdom, but by the help of the Spirit. And to conduct one’s pastoral ministry is not by man’s wisdom, but by the wisdom of God. The wisdom of God is the word of truth as recorded in the Bible.

I am a man of weakness. Therefore, I believe in the power of the blood of the Lord Jesus. I am lacking in human knowledge. But I trust in the word of the Bible. I lack human wisdom. Therefore, I wholeheartedly trust in the wisdom of the Bible. If anyone denies what I have done in response to faith in the blood of the Lord Jesus, and holding to the word of the Bible and the wisdom that comes from the Spirit, he does not deny me, but he denies the Lord Jesus. This is because the Lord Jesus has poured out His blood, His word and the Spirit into our souls.

The Bereans are those who are humble before the Bible. Let us all become true Bereans and love the church with all sincerity.

Semuon