Quote:
Originally Posted by WitnessALot
Gubei, do you think there are elements of Chinese philosophy in Nee's or Lee's teachings?
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WitnessAlot,
1) Buddhist flavor of WL’s teachings
WL doesn’t seem to have been exposed to the doctrines of Buddhist philosophies. I’ve read/listened to most of his works, and he sometimes talked about the Confucian teachings but not Buddhist teachings. The reason someone criticizes him of the similarity of his teaching with Buddhist is that Buddhist teachings, especially those of Mahayana Buddhism, are quite similar to some aspects of the NT teachings. Some new religions’ leaders or Theosophy leaders have claimed that Jesus was under the teachings of ancient India or Buddhism, but to my best knowledge, on the contrary, the Greek philosophies and/or Christian teachings might have been brought to Asia through the conquest activities of Alexander the Great. Currently, many people believe that the canons of Mahayana Buddhism were initiated in Bactria, a central Asia city, where Alexander the Great established his base for East conquest.
In addition, Taoist teachings are also very similar to the organic aspect of growth of divine life within us. Xingmingguizhi(性命圭旨) is a very famous ancient Taoist book, where the author claims that we should learn and practice how to raise up/breed the embryo of truth or little Buddha within us.
And calling upon the name of the Lord is seen in the OT and NT. BTW, one of middle age Mahayana Buddhist Oder said calling upon the name of Buddha is crucial, in this case Amita Buddha, and doing it will deliver you from this sinful world to the paradise, and that teaching has spread extensively in Asia. Now, you can see many Asian films, especially martial arts film, where Buddhist monks always recites Amita Buddha (sounds like AMITABU or AMITAFO or AMITAFA). In Japan, middle age Buddhist Monk Shinran said our salvation is not through our own good works but from Buddha himself something like that. So western theologians dubbed him as, kind of, the Luther of Asia.
Anyway, the three Asian philosophies (Buddhism, Confucianism, and Taoism) all to some extent claims that human beings should be one with the divine entity or God. But, just because they claim this doesn’t necessarily mean the NT teachings or WL’s teachings are from the ancient Asian thoughts. If we delve into the details, there are so many discrepancies.
2) Social acceptance
I guess we can use social acceptance exchangeably with culture. It is very of course that we should follow the culture of a specific time and place, like When in Rome, do as the Romans do.
According to a newspaper article in 2022, Rev. John Piper, a famous Bible teacher and writer in US said that regardless of time and space, all the Christians should practice the holy kiss as a greeting in Church. You can check here
https://www.desiringgod.org/articles...y-affectionate
Really? In Asian culture, it is absolutely impossible to use kiss as a greeting, socially unacceptable.
3) Ancestor worship and seniority rule in the Church
Ancestor worship is the hallmark of Confucianism. We know respecting our parents are one of commandment of the OT’s Ten Commandments. However, I guess Confucian teachings went too far in this matter. Not only parents, so many ancestors should be respected by way of strict Confucian rituals by descendants. This means they put too much emphasis on the big family collectively rather than individuals. In Confucianism, this filial obligation is extended to King-servant relationship, where servant should be perfectly obedient to King. That’s why ancient Chinese feudal leaders accepted Confucianism as their governing principle.
"One publication" remindes me of the Emperor's edicts of ancient Chinese feudal system. This is not acceptable to most of modern Asian countries.