local church, witness lee

Another lawsuit was filed by the Church against Neil Duddy, the primary author of The God-Men. In early January 2010 Norman Geisler authored a rebuttal, co-signed by Ron Rhodes, in which they made numerous accusations against both CRI and the local churches. Church Life Beyond "Uniqueness" If anyone thinks himself to be something, when he is nothing, he deceives himself. Harvest House sued the Church in Fullerton on December 14, 2001, in an Oregon court, claiming that the letters of protest and accompanying documentation sent to them were a form of harassment. [32][33][34][35] Meanwhile, SCP was independently developing Wallerstedt's manuscript into a book titled The God-Men. Modalism is the view that the persons of the Trinity are not coexisting person, but merely represent three moods of divine revelation (Dictionary). The church said because the local church was written about, in the Encyclopedia, a normal reader would conclude the church was involved in the things listed above. One was undertaken by a panel of faculty members from Fuller Theological Seminary, including President Richard J. Mouw, Dean of Theology Howard Loewen, and Professor of Systematic Theology Veli-Matti Krkkinen; the other was by Christian Research Institute, headed by Hank Hanegraaff, along with Answers in Action, headed by Gretchen Passantino. Jean Garvin, Dear Jack and Arnie, August 4, 1975. Here are the titles of other books he wrote: Nee helped to teach Christians through his books. Both of his parents were Methodist and he was baptized through the Methodist church when he was a young child. According to vocabulary. Local churches (affiliation) - Wikipedia He was also the founder of Living Stream Ministry. In 1934, Nee explained the practices of the local churches during a series of teachings. Spiritual Counterfeits Project, undated flyer. Among those who disagreed with these publications was Dr. J. Gordon Melton, who published an open letter in which he faulted the research and apologetic method of The God-Men and stated that Witness Lee's teachings had been grossly misrepresented. The church in a city and the church in a house. [142] Furthermore, he noted that even though there were thousands of believers in Jerusalem, the church there was referred to in the singular and there was only one group of elders in the church.[143][144]. Lee went and visited Watchman Nee in Yantai, China. Witness Lee on the Local Church Witness Lee cited the example of the meal offering in Leviticus which is composed of oil mingled with fine flour (Lev. [111] He taught six basic principles concerning the Triune God: However, critics have accused Witness Lee and the local churches of teaching modalism, due to his identification of Christ with the Spirit based on 1 Corinthians 15:45 and 2 Corinthians 3:17. [127], Critics claimed that mingling of necessity involved the producing of a third nature, which is known in history as the Eutychian heresy. He became a Christian at the age of 19 in 1925. Witness Lee was critical of the church and the body of Christ. Neither of these courts ruled on the correctness of the Appeals Court decision, nor did they review the merits of the churches original complaint. Many believers interpret the phrase this way, but is this what the Bible teaches? There are many substitutes for the living person of Christ; The clergy/laity system nullifies the proper function of the believers; and, The divided state of the denominational/free group system is contrary to biblical injunctions to keep the oneness of the Body of Christ. In 1943, Lee was arrested due to suspicion of him being a spy and a Christian. Christian Websites. [40] InterVarsity Press, the publisher of the second edition of The God-Men, received a response including over five hundred pages of supporting documentation refuting the book's charges. The local church members attempted to communicate with Sparks and Braun about their books after the second editions were published, but they never received a response. A leader, Peter Gillquist, over NCAO worked as head of books at Thomas Nelson Publishers. Thus began a long and strange saga of charges, counter-charges, lawsuits, strife, and misunderstandings between the Local Church movement and the evangelical community that has left much wreckage in its wake, and has yet to be fully resolved. In addition, some criticized the teaching of Witness Lee on the nature of God, God's full salvation, and the church. The controversy and disagreement focused on four areas of doctrine: the nature of God, the nature of man, the legitimacy of evangelical churches and denominations, and the lawsuits brought by the Local Church against Evangelical churches, publishers, and individuals. Many of his books included teachings he gave while traveling around China. The Start of the Local Church Movement [62] After reviewing the conduct of the court proceedings in his decision, Judge Seyranian declared: Accordingly, the Court finds that the manuscript by Neil. Main | Practice | Principles | Bibliography | Links. Although he attended a Baptist school and church, he never converted to Baptist. To this day, people study the works and books by Watchman Nee and Witness Lee. He was arrested for theft, cheating on contacts, bribery, and more. He further called for other more capable and responsible Christian scholars to review and examine Witness Lee's teachings. Massimo Introvigne Summary The Local Church Founders In my ministry to the Chinese Christian community in the Boston area, the Lord has led me to minister among a group known as the "local church" or All Rights Reserved, Two Aspects of the Church Universal and Local, The Oneness, Nature, Life, and Essence of the Local Church, The Local Churches are the Practicality of the Universal Church, The Six Characteristics of a Genuine Local Church, The Ground of the Church Sequentially Typified in the Old Testament, The Ground of the Church Revealed in the New Testament, The Testimony of Church History Concerning the Ground of the Church, Administration and Teaching in the Local Church, The Practical Building up of the Local Churches, The Meetings and Spiritual Exercise of the Local Church, The Relationship Between All the Local Churches in the Body of Christ, The Local Churches in the Book of Revelation, Christs Speaking to the Local Churches in Revelation, Gods Eternal Purpose Being Realized through the Local Churches, The Local Churches Typified in the Book of Psalms, The Experience and Enjoyment of Christ in the Local Churches, Its Nature, Ground, Condition, and Fellowship, The Recovery of the Ground and Practice of the Local Churches, The Universal church and the Local Churches, Eating and Drinking Christ in the Local Churches, Christ in Revelation - The One Walking in the Midst of the Local Churches, Christs Requirements of the Local Churches, Gods Revelation and Gods Recovery of the Local Churches, The Offices-the Official Positions-in the Church, Revealed by the Lord Jesus in Matthew 16:18, Revealed by the apostle Paul in the Epistles (house of God, Body of Christ, bride, new man), Miscellaneous aspects (e.g., the wineskin), Revealed by the Lord Jesus in Matthew 18:17, Revealed by the Apostles in Acts and the Epistles, The church, Body of Christ, is expressed in the local churches, The practical building up of the church is in the local churches, The practical administration or government of the universal church is realized in the local churches, The work of the apostles and prophets was carried out practically in the local churches and for the local churches, The practical coordination of the members of the Body in the local churches, All the local churches together constitute one universal church, We must advance from knowing the church in a general, universal way to knowing the church in a specific, local way, The difference between the ground of the church and the foundation of the church, Illustrations of the ground of the church, The unique place of Gods choice for keeping onenessDeuteronomy 12, The blessing on the ground of onenessPsalm 133, The loss of the ground of onenessdisvision and captivity, The recovery of the ground of onenessFrom Babylon to Jerusalem, The principle of the remnantEzra and Nehemiah, The progressive revelation of the ground of the church, The ground of the church being constituted of three crucial elements, The unique oneness of the universal Body of Christ, The church in a city and the church in a house, Paying the price to stand on the ground of oneness, The Body of Christ needs the local churches for its practice, The governing principles of the practice of the local church, Practical virtues for the church life [Romans 12:9-21; Hebrews 13:1-7, 16-19], Teaching emphasized in the local churches, Identical in nature, shape, and functionbearing the image and appearance of Christ, The seven lampstands as symbols of the local churches (Revelation 1:20), The seven lampstands being seven churchesonly one in a city, The progressive revelation of the lampstand in the Scripture (Exodus 25; Zechariah 4; Revelation 1), The substance, shape, and expression of the lampstand, In the Bible, lampstands always being related to Gods building, The Spirits speaking to the churches being in the local churches, In Revelation, the one Spirit of God being intensified as the sevenfold Spirit, The sevenfold Spirit meeting the need of the local churches, The universal and local aspect of the church, Every believer belonging to the church of God, The history of the local churches as seen in the New Testament, Watchman Nees seeing of the truth concerning the ground of locality, Watchman Nees burden for the local churches, Witness Lees revelation and taking of the way of the local church, For the display of Gods manifold wisdom to the principalities and powers, The church as the kingdom of God in the New Testament, The reality of the kingdom in the local churches, The organic development of the kingdom in the local churches, The relationship between the church, the Work, and the apostles, The principle of Jerusalem and of Antioch, The local churches not being entirely autonomous, The local churches and the oneness of the Body, The temple and the house of God as types of the local church, Experiencing Gods dealing in Gods house, Zion as a symbol of the universal church and the local church, The city of God as a type of the local church, The bride (the queen) as a symbol of the local church, Gods salvation to His people being practical in the local church, The local church being built up by Christ, The victory of God over His enemies being in His dwelling, Gods purpose being fulfilled through Christ and the church, Giving Christ the pre-eminence for the restoration of His dwelling place, The experience of Christ in the local church described in the Old Testament types, The enjoyment of Christ in the local church revealed in the Old Testament types, The experience of Christ in the local church revealed in the New Testament, The enjoyment of Christ in the local church portrayed in the New Testament, The nature, ground, and condition of a local church, The church of God, possessing the divine nature of God, The churches of Christ, being in the element of Christ, The genuine oneness of the Body of Christthe oneness of the Spirit, In the limit of the boundary and jurisdiction of a localitythe ground of locality, The Body of Christ being uniquely one universally, Each local church needing to fellowship with all the other genuine local churches on the whole earth, Every local church needing to receive all kinds of genuine believers in Christ, A believer to be kept away from the fellowship of a local church if committing gross sins and living in them, Not recommending any believer in the local churches to have any share in the divisions, Not rejecting any believer who does not promote anything divisive, but considering as divisive and rejecting anyone who promotes sectarian divisions, The way for the practice of the church life, One church for one city, one city with one church, The servants of the Lord keeping the results of their work in their own hands, The proper ways for the Lords servants to minister to the believers, The attitude and relationship of the workers, Our work being to minister Christ and to build up the church, Not keeping the results of our work in our hands, The three crucial elements of the church ground, The unique ground of locality of a local church, The genuine ground of the church keeping the genuine oneness of the church in practicality, The base of the genuine fellowship of the believers, The recovery of the practice of the local churches, The many expressions of the one Body of Christ, With the ministry of the apostles, prophets, evangelists, and shepherds and teachers, Without any absolute autonomy or federation, For the churchs administration in its locality, To bind and to loose with the authority of the heavens, As revealed by the apostles in Acts and the Epistles, Taking a city as the boundary and ground of each local church, Each being not greater nor smaller than its city, As lampstands to bear the testimony of Jesus Christ in separate cities, All the local churches being the one unique Body of Christ in the universe, The independence and oneness of the churches, A local church as the highest christian authority, Preserving the local character of the churches, The local church revealed in Revelation chapter 1, Walking in the midst of the Local churches, Having a voice as the sound of many waters, Having the seven Spirits and holding the seven stars, Anti-doctrines of Balaam and the Nicolaitans, The universal church being the unique Body of Christ, The universal church comprising all the local churches, The local churches being the local expressions of the Body of Christ, All the local churches constituting the one Body of Christ, The ground of localityone city, one church, The ground of the genuine onenessone Body universally, The local administration and the universal fellowship, The administration being separate and equal locally, The apostleship being universal and being over the eldership, The eldership being local and being under the apostleship, The elders not lording it over the believers, The Progressive knowledge of the four main figures in the Bible, Being up-to-date in following the Lord by knowing the local churches, The Lords recovery of the truth and practice of the church and the practicality of the churchthe local churches, The present age being the age of the local churches, Only the apostles having the position and right to appoint elders in the local churches, Not lording it over the church but being patterns of the flock, Taking care of the finances in the local church, Managing the business affairs in the local church, The full gospel according to the heavenly vision, The local church being the practicality of the church, The local churches being the destination of Gods revelation and manifestation, The local churchthe church manifested in a locality, No particular teaching in the Lords recovery, No hidden connection with other organizations, The Scriptural record of the local church, Four aspects of the practicality of the church. Many believers are quite clear concerning the universal aspect of the church, but relatively few have seen from the Bible its local aspect. Nee told Lee he needed to lead the elders of the church and buy land to make a new place of meeting for the church. Theologically, the Local Church is considered by most Christian apologists and countercult professionals to be a cult of Christianity. (Gal. God created and redeemed man for this purpose, that man might be the container into which He could dispense Himself. He had been a critic of Witness Lee and the local churches. Deification is one of the main beliefs critics used against Lee. More insights from your Bible study - Get Started with Logos Bible Software for Free! They did their part to debunk what the critics said. Witness Lee began studying Christian teachers after he dedicated his life to Christ. [11][12] Throughout the early 1970s Sparks and Braun, who knew each other through CCC, gave talks at CWLF gatherings against Witness Lee and the local churches to stem the loss of members to the (local) church in Berkeley. They both worked to bring the church to many different places in China. They even saw revival break out. Even though critics claimed Witness Lee supported modalism, he did not support it in his own writings. One response to The God-Man book was over five-hundred pages long refuting what was written about the local church and Witness Lee. The group's beliefs and practices are considered by many to be aberrant and cultic, although theologians . Neil Duddy, letter to Michael Woodruff and David Brooks, July 15, 1982. Originally we are not stones; we are pieces of clay. A Brief Response to An Open Letter to the Leadership of Living Stream Ministry and the Local Churches (lctestimony.org/ResponseToOpenLetter.pdf). [44] In China the Three-Self Patriotic Movement commissioned two men to write a book to provide justification for a nationwide persecution against the local churches. The local churches retained six experts to testify on their behalf. He said that God is one, and has three persons, the Father, the Son, and the Spirit. Does this refer to a church building on a city street corner, possibly among many others in the same city? In the ministries of Watchman Nee and Witness Lee, two prolific and visionary Christian writers, the terms "local church" or "local churches" recur frequently. #1 Hi, I registered to ask you a question about Witness Lee. 2001-2002. Witness Lee on Universal & Local Aspects of Local Church Not condition, but standing. It was co-written by Ron Rhodes. Witness Lee: The Practice of the Local Church [114][115][116][117] These publications discuss the error of modalism and affirm that the Father, the Son, and the Spirit are not temporary manifestations but are co-eternal. Critics claimed this was modalism. The time Nee and Lee had in Hong Kong was the last time they ever were able to speak to each other. They received hundreds of phone calls, letters, and in-person visits. [107][108][109], Some Lutheran and Reformed Christians reject the teaching of deification, some of these due to their rejection of Christian perfection. The press widely ignored both court cases and the outcomes. All defendants signed an agreement that stipulated financial recompense for damages and that Nelson issue a retraction[55] to be published in major newspapers and Christian periodicals nationwide. He was born in 1903 in Shantou, China. Ex-Insider's Analysis of Witness Lee & The Local Church Movement This, Lee said, showed that the elders in the church equaled the elders in the city, meaning that the boundary of the church was the city. Because of this, both books continued to shape peoples perception and view of the local church and Witness Lee. He was in prison for the last twenty years of his life. His writing ended up being published in a series of books called, Brothers, Hear Our Defense.. His most comprehensive exposition of this principle can be found in The Normal Christian Church Life,[135] although there are significant treatments of the subject in other books as well. [88] In late spring of the same year Hank Hanegraaff wrote an article titled Discernment in an Age of Information Overload, in which he outlined principles for performing discernment ministry using the article by Geisler and Rhodes and the 2007 open letter as examples of how not to do apologetics. As Ephesians 1:22-23 also shows us, the church is Christs Body, the fullness of the One who fills all in all. 1:11), etc. Jim Powell, letter to Sam Moore, September 24, 1976. The first is judicial and is carried out through the death of Christ, by which the believers are redeemed and reconciled to God. Watchman Nee taught the local church is an expression of the body of Christ. Meetings were held around the world about him and many of them condemned his work and beliefs. In his testimony book, he outlined four areas he would be focusing on: Shortly after this, he began publishing magazines. The local churches are a Christian group which was started in China in the 1920s and have spread globally. The Religious Affairs Bureau held a meeting in the church to discuss his arrest. He was able to lead many of his friends during this time to the Lord. It started in China and spread to the U.S. One of the hallmarks of the writings of Watchman Nee and Witness Lee is the matter of the practice of the local church. In this work, Lee explains why modalism is wrong. 1:2; Heb. Discussing beliefs is acceptable. Hanegraaf ended up writing fourteen articles in response to Geisler and Rhodess accusations. The unique ground of locality. This book was about Witness Lee and the local church. The ground of the church being constituted of three crucial elements. The movement, commonly known as the Local Church, a name derived from Nee's teaching of one church per city, draws its teachings on the writings of Nee and Lee, which are published by Living Stream Ministry. He said, My first turn was to know Christ, and my second turn was to know His Body. This page was last edited on 17 January 2023, at 01:57. Thousands of local church members were arrested and some were even killed. I will leave you with my favorite quote by Watchman Lee: When one tries to increase his knowledge by doing mental gymnastics over books without waiting upon God and looking to the guidance of the Holy Spirit, his soul is plainly in full swing. Through his research, he found Watchman Nees writings. What is the Church of Almighty God / Eastern Lightning? Despite the fact that they may live in different cities, in different countries, or in different centuries, they are nonetheless all one in Christ, and all are part of the church. The Body of Christ Needs the Local Churches for its Practice. The countercult community also ignored the outcomes. A. God is one (Deut. At the end of those proceedings, he stated that he was satisfied that the evidence presented was sufficient to decide the case without cross examination. It wasnt until 1932 that Nee and Lee meet in person. Modalism was a heresy that was condemned by the early church. The first book Gillquist commissioned was The Mindbenders by Jack Sparks. Copyright 2002-2023 Got Questions Ministries. On the day the court was to schedule the trial, SCP's attorneys, in anticipation of a judgment against SCP, announced that their client had filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy. St. George Church: Relic of Dinkelbuehl's Grand Past - See 218 traveler reviews, 302 candid photos, and great deals for Dinkelsbuhl, Germany, at Tripadvisor. What is the Local Church Movement? [76] Because Harvest House refused to sign a tolling agreement to extend the statute of limitations, ninety-nine local churches and LSM initiated a libel action against the authors and the publisher on December 31, 2001. The State of Oregon dismissed the charger in 2002. (A Reassessment of the "Local Church" Movement of Watchman Nee and Witness Lee) . The unique oneness of the universal Body of Christ. 3:18; Rom. Three years later, Watchman Nee was arrested. The issue included two statements by Hank Hanegraaff and an article by Gretchen Passantino in which she explained why she reversed her earlier critical opinion. Do not attack people's personal beliefs. May all the glory be to the Lord. In the mid-1970s LSM published four booklets to explain their understanding of the Trinity. Neuapostolische Kirche Weissenburg - Weissenburg, BY | Local Church Guide Quotes by Witness Lee and Watchman Nee on the Local Church Sites By the 1960s the writings of Watchman Nee had become popular among evangelicals,[1][2][3] including many in Campus Crusade for Christ (CCC). Others, however, offer support to the language and doctrine of deification.[110][97][94][95]. Many of the messages he spoke were later put into a book called, The Normal Christian Life. Jack Sparks and Arnold Bernstein, A letter from the elders to the people of the church which includes CWLF, undated, [approximately July 1975], 3. Appeals were made by the local church, but they were denied. Witness Lee ( Chinese: ; pinyin: L Chngshu; September 5, 1905 - June 9, 1997) was a Chinese Christian preacher and hymnist belonging to the Christian group known as the local churches (or Local Church) in Taiwan and the United States. Based in southern California and founded by the late Chinese-American preacher Witness Lee (pictured to the left), the "Local Church" movement has for the past forty years been spreading a unique variant of Christianity across the globe. [67][68][69][70][71] Elliot Miller, Editor-in-Chief of Christian Research Journal, later described the countercult community's rejection of the court's decision as suppressing truth for the sake of a common cause and camaraderie among colleagues.[72] As a result, The Mindbenders and The God-Men shaped others' perceptions of Witness Lee and the local churches for many years. Both books made accusations against the local church. Our mission is to nurture a diverse and welcoming community, committed to following fearlessly wherever God is leading us and make Disciples of Jesus Christ for the transformation of Wassertrudingen and the world! In Acts and the Epistles | He wrote, The result of our primary research is encapsulated in the following three words: We were wrong! The issue also contained two more statements by Hanegraaf, an article in which Gretchen Passantino explains why she was reversed her opinion on the local church, and more. 9:6; Heb. These principles for the practice of the local church have been comprehensively presented in the ministry of Watchman Nee and Witness Lee, two faithful Christian writers whom the Lord used greatly in the twentieth century to recover not only the scriptural truth, but also the scriptural practice of the local church. From there, he went on to teach more conferences. 1:8; Acts 5:3-4); All three of the Godhead are eternal (Isa. This caused quite the stir within the local churches. As the God-man He possesses two natures, and in Him each nature is distinguishable. Get our Question of the Week delivered right to your inbox! Living Stream Ministry has published many articles showing how critics took Witness Lees beliefs about the church out of context and blew it out of proportion. Are the Local Churches, Founded by Watchman Nee and His Protg Witness He fully explains his beliefs in his book, The Normal Christian Church Life. Receiving All Genuine Believers. The discovery process was subsequently consolidated to expedite the cases. You can read his book here. This encyclopedia was written by John Ankerberg and John Weldon in 1999 and published by Harvest House. [17][18][19], In 1974 three CWLF members founded a subsidiary countercult ministry, Spiritual Counterfeits Project (SCP). In 1979 six of the original seven NCAO apostles appointed themselves bishops of the newly formed Evangelical Orthodox Church (EOC). These two groups were the Christian Research Institute (CRI) and Fuller Theological Seminary. He worked to publish the book The Mindbendersby Jack Sparks. The start of the controversy with him begins with the Christian World Liberation Front and the countercult ministry. Bankruptcy Halts Trial of Religious Group, Bill Squires, The Lawsuit in Perspective,, Cults Lawsuit Drives Christian Company to Bankruptcy,, Bankrupt: Spiritual Counterfeits Runs Out of Money,, Libel Suit Forces Ministry into Bankruptcy,, Prolonged Legal Battle Forces Research Organization into Federal Bankruptcy Court,, Elliot Miller, Part 5: Addressing the Open Letters Concerns: On Lawsuits with Evangelical Christians,. [38][39] Before and after each edition of either book was published, members of the local churches wrote letters of protest to the authors and publishers and attempts were made to contact them both personally and by phone. Many false arrests were being made during this time. What is the Recovery Version of the Bible? He also pointed out that the Eutychian heresy was rejected at the Council of Chalcedon. Christianity. We Were Wrong: A Reassessment of the Local Church Movement of Watchman Nee and Witness Lee,, Hank Hanegraaff, From the President: We Were Wrong!,. Paying the price to stand on the ground of oneness. Critics claimed Lee was attacking all Christians. A Longer Response to An Open Letter to the Leadership of Living Stream Ministry and the Local Churches (lctestimony.org/LongerResponseToOpenLetter.pdf). Local Church / February 22, 2020 by Julia Oates. Five Christian apologists evaluate the teachings of Witness Lee and The
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