What Does The Spirit Mean According To Witness Lee

[James]

Witness Lee says that the Spirit is the life-giving Spirit that Jesus became. Isn't the holy Spirit, the third person in Trinity, called the Spirit? I got so confused here.

[UntoHim]

I got so confused here.

Join the club! One of Witness Lee's core teachings is that the Holy Spirit is "The consummation of the processed triune God." He also taught that "The Father became the Son and then the Son became the Spirit." (paraphrase) And the confusion, of course, comes in when Lee would teach a much more orthodox view of the Trinity right along side of his modalistic teaching.

So, what does the Spirit mean according to Witness Lee? Well, it depends on which message and from what conference and in what year you want to go with. Lee has been known to teach something very similar to the traditional, orthodox understanding of the Trinity, and he has also been known to teach some pretty wacko, off-the-charts, heretical stuff, which has been well chronicled on this very forum.

Witness Lee says that the Spirit is the life-giving Spirit that Jesus became.
Yep, he sure did. He also taught that the 7 spirits in Revelation are actually "the seven-fold intensified Spirit". He also taught that "humanity was added to the Holy Spirit". He also taught that the Holy Spirit, along with the Father, Son and the church became "the four-in-one" God. And these are just a few of the doozies that come to mind. There are many more.
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[bearbear]

A few months ago I also asked my wife what Witness Lee really taught concerning the Holy Spirit. She attended years of "God Ordained Way" trainings and also forced me to attend after we got married yet she couldn't explain to me clearly as well. When I was in those trainings, I felt stupid because I could not comprehend the doctrines being taught.

Everything I heard seemed to consist of incomprehensible word salads. Yet it seemed like everyone in the training knew what was up and I was the only stupid one in the room. Looking back I wonder if everyone truly knew the doctrines or they were just pretending. It was probably a huge challenge to arrive at comprehension because Witness Lee spoke different things at different times as UntoHim described.

2 Timothy 3:7
always learning and never able to arrive at a knowledge of the truth...

[Bible-believer]

Most pretend they understand, you ask questions, and they can only read off the remarks or life study series. And if you ask further, they will doubt your motives. At least, that's my experience.
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[James]

And the confusion, of course, comes in when Lee would teach a much more orthodox view of the Trinity right along side of his modalistic teaching.

I don't think Witness Lee taught orthodox doctrine anymore, at least in his recovery version Bible. One of the example is that in the footnotes of John 1:1 doesn't not clearly differentiate the Word and God are different persons in Trinity. From my observations, in the footnotes for verses that can prove Trinity, he will say something to mislead you to think that there is only one person in the trinue God.

[Unregistered]

I don't think Witness Lee taught orthodox doctrine anymore, at least in his recovery version Bible. One of the example is that in the footnotes of John 1:1 doesn't not clearly differentiate the Word and God are different persons in Trinity. From my observations, in the footnotes for verses that can prove Trinity, he will say something to mislead you to think that there is only one person in the trinue God.

Because like others said he teaches different things at different times. But his teachings are so spread out that it’s hard to really catch it. He also has some correct doctrine on these things as well. So he vacillated between correct and heretical doctrine

Moreover I have absolutely read him saying that “the Triune God is a mystery.” So it’s all just variable depending on what book you’re reading or whatever point he’s trying to hammer home. Whatever conveniently backs up what he’s saying at any given time

My understanding of the trinity is it’s fairy simple- God is triune- father, son, spirit. They cool here but function different for different things and in different contexts, yet they are never fully separate

It’s hard to say that the son aspect of the trinity doesn’t include the humanity of Jesus because the Bible does back this up. So when Lee says Jesus says is fully God and fully man I believe that’s true

But when Lee said that there is such a thing as the four in one he went too far and basically added something on to the scriptures. It sounds plausible because if the church is an expression of God, who is triune, then the church is sort of intrinsically linked to the trinity. But this is something else than the Bible teaches. It’s not that that is such a stretch as opposed to it’s more of just adding something onto the Bible. The Bible says we behold and reflect the glory of God and are transformed into his image (2 Corinthians 3:18). But to my knowledge it doesn’t say that we are becoming part of the triune God

Lee taught that when we partake of the sport we get the triune God into us. Well maybe, but is that encompassed in what we assimilate of God? Does our eating God as the spirit really include the trinity? Again, this is something Lee added and he did so by taking scripture and sort of running with it with kind of implied logic. Which again, is sort of adding to the word

The truth is God is just triune and we contact him in our spirit (John 4:24) and we don’t need to worry about tit beyond that. You don’t really need to know everything about the food your eating, you just enjoy the food and it becomes a part of you