[UntoHim]

This thread is wondering guys. Let's tighten it up a bit. Our new friend Bible-believer has asked a specific question:

Originally Posted by Bible-believer

Is the Processed, Four-in-One God a sound doctrine?
I asked questions, but no responses from other members or elders could solve my confusion.
Please help me on this matter.

Applicable Quote from Witness Lee:

Ultimately, the church is a group of people who are in union with the Triune God and are mingled with the Triune God. The Triune God and the church are four-in-one. Because the Father, the Son, and the Spirit are all one with the Body of Christ, we may say that the Triune God is now the “four-in-one God.” These four are the Father, the Son, the Spirit, and the Body.
A Deeper Study of the Divine Dispensing p.203-204

Here are some helpful (I think) responses so far:

Originally Posted by Zezima

It’s not a trap, it’s healthy to compare a teaching to the Bible. It’s a trap not to do this.

Originally Posted by Trapped

1. What does Lee/ministry teach?
2. What does the Bible actually say? (or, does the Bible actually say that?)

Originally Posted by gr8ful

I was one who loved the theoretical theological explorations in W Lee's teachings. Really tickled my ear and the feeling of "WOW" gave me a buzz. When these things like 4-in-1 God were challenged, the only way they "worked" was to minimize the radicalness of the teaching by saying, "no, this doesn't mean..." or "well, in church history we find similar expressions from orthodox teachers, such as ...".

Originally Posted by Trapped

One thing that struck me about the excerpts was that they were chock full of Lee's specialized language - mingling, incorporation, God's economy, expansion, reproduction, corporate, processed, consummated. The Bible doesn't speak this way.
The Son and the Father are one and are in each other. But they are still a Son and a Father. The Son doesn't become the Father and the Father doesn't become the Son. As believers, we are in God and God is in us, but God does not become us and we do not become God. "Mingling" blurs the distinction between Creator and creation, and that's not something the Bible does.
Sorry, but Witness Lee or anyone may say whatever they want to say, but if Scripture doesn't also say it, they are wrong! To be one with God means you are one with God. You are you, and God is God, and you are one with Him. To be in God means you are in God. Neither of these things mean you are "part of a four-in-one God".

Originally Posted by Bible-believer

The Trinity is one God existing in three Persons. The body of Christ is his church composed of believers. Believers are human, not God. We believe in Him and have Him indwelled. But it never means we can be God.

Originally Posted by Trapped

Others can and have said this more clearly than I will be able to, but Lee taught contradictory things about God. He simultaneously taught that the three of the Trinity are distinct while also saying that they actually are each other.
The problem is not you, and the problem is not that you don't understand something that you should. The problem is that Lee was not a good Bible teacher, he had no one to correct him, and he taught lots of things wrong. This is one of them.
Where the Bible shows distinctions, Lee dragged them together and mushed them into one. He should not have done that.

Originally Posted by UntoHim

Then just when one wouldn't think that things could get worse, Witness Lee taught that "Because the Father, the Son, and the Spirit are all one with the Body of Christ, we may say that the Triune God is now the 'four-in-one God'." This is rank heresy. Nowhere did the Lord Jesus or the Scripture writing apostles even faintly imply that the Body of Christ is to be considered part of, or equal to, the Trinity. This kind of nonsense springs directly from Lee's notion that "the believers become the reproduction, expansion, and physical continuation of the incarnate and incorporate Son of God" (as quoted by LSM spokesman Kerry Robichaux) Again, nowhere did the Lord Jesus or the Scripture writing apostles ever teach such a thing.

Originally Posted by aron

Where did Paul present us with God processed in His economy? If Paul didn't say this, then why should we? Zezima mentions eisegesis, or putting ideas on the text, that don't come from the text. "God was processed in His economy" is surely that. Nowhere did Paul write of an intensified Spirit, for example. Yet WL claimed it was a "crucial and interdependent step of His divine economy." The divine economy according to who? Not any that Paul referenced.

Originally Posted by Nell

Of course, all men and women who read the Bible and arrive at an interpretation are fallen. However, those of us who form an opinion from reading the Word do not believe we are God. We do not claim a place in the Godhead as #4. We do not claim to be the one and only church on the earth. We do not bully the membership into submission to our teachings and practices. In fact, we don't even have teachings and practices. We just read the Bible, as we are commanded to do, and are blessed by the Holy Spirit...or not.

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