What's happening here is nothing more than mythmaking, supporting something raised and rejected in the NT, that group leadership is "lording over one another", or "being great", which Jesus dismissed as "of the gentiles", or "of the nations". If you look at source material, what little exists, of practices in China of the Little Flock, this unbiblical pattern emerges. Then it got propped up by flimsy reeds, e.g., 'drunken Noah', and subsequently became the foundation of predatory, abusive and non-Christian behaviours.
Quote:
Originally Posted by aron
Quotes and sources for J T-H Lee 2005 paper on Nee
"What happened inside the Little Flock communities?. . . It has been difficult for Chinese and foreign researchers to conduct fieldwork among the Little Flock in China today. It's also difficult to piece together the thorough account of their leader. There are a few biographical works on Watchman Nee written by Christians abroad. Aimed at the Overseas Chinese churches critical of Communist religious policy, these works emphasize the saintly character of Watchman Nee without addressing the contexts in which he interacted with the government. Recent studies by Leung Ka-Lun and Ying Fuk-Tsang of Hong Kong are important for our understanding of the subject. Drawing on published and unpublished Chinese official sources, Leung and Ying present invaluable findings about the changing attitude of Watchman Nee towards the Communist state and his ambiguous relationship with leaders of the Three-Self Patriotic Movement." ~p.70
~Leung Ka-Lun, Ni Tuosheng de rongru shengchu [Watchman Nee: His Glory and Dishonour] (Hong Kong: Alliance Bible Seminary, 2003); and Ying Fuk-Tsang, Ni Tuosheng yu sanzi gexin yundong [Watchman Nee and the Three-Self Movement, 1949-1951] Jian Dao: A Journal of Bible and Theology 20 (July 2003): 129-75
Then Lee's 2005 paper covers how Nee reversed field completely from autonomous local churches to a centralized movement, and adds this:
"Institutionally speaking, the Shanghai Assembly was the de facto headquarters of the Little Flock Movement in China. The authority was concentrated in the hands of "God's apostles", namely Watchman Nee and his female co-workers, Li Yuanru, Wang Peizhen, and Yu Chenghua, who were famous evangelists before joining the Little Flock. The Home of Deacons and Guling in Fuzhou was the national training center of Little Flock leaders while the Gospel Bookstore in Shanghai published Christian pamphlets. There were many such business enterprises run by Watchman Nee in support of the Little Flock activities." ~p.79
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What happened more recently with RK is just one of the later iterations of a process which predates WL coming to the United States in 1962.