[Cal]

I wanted to point out something about this modalism subject.

Modalism properly defined is the teaching that the Father, Son and Holy Spirit identified by the Trinity doctrine are actually different modes or aspects of the One God, as perceived by the believer, rather than three co-eternal persons in God Himself.

Plainly Witness Lee did not teach this. However, Lee did teach things which suggest modalism and, I shall argue here, led to some of the problems which modalism leads to.

Why is it important to have a correct understanding of the Trinity in the first place? Does it matter? Clearly we want to be as close in our beliefs to the revealed truth of the Bible as possible, and the nature of God cannot be a trivial subject. Yet the Bible never suggests that having an incorrect understanding of God's triune nature is necessary for salvation. So what is the point of it, other than simply being correct?

I suggest that the point is that the nature of God is that from which our understanding of many truths springs, particularly in this case the proper relationship of unity and diversity, which has monumental impact on our view of man as individual and as members of society and the Church.

Stress the threeness of the One too much, and you not only risk lapsing into the vile heresy of multiple Gods, you also cut the cords of any claim that mankind should be one.

Stress the oneness of the Three too much, and you undermine the importance of the individual and the diversity of the group. This was the error of the LRC. I don't think it is any coincidence that their Trinity doctrine and their Church unity doctrine both go to an extreme when stressing oneness. I believe the latter sprang from the former. The disregard of the individual and diversity in the LRC sprang directly from the de-emphasis of the diversity in the Trinity. When they claimed the Father is the Son and the Son is the Spirit, they laid the groundwork for saying differences between believers and churches should be suspect and eliminated as much as possible as well.

The Trinity is our essential clue for understanding that at the very core of the nature of Reality is the principle of the one and the many, the individual and the group. The group is one and defines the boundaries of the individual's purpose. The individual finds his meaning, not in himself, but in the group. But he is not subsumed by the group, he is part of it and helps define what it is. The individual is not the starting point, the starting point is that the individual's purpose is found in relation to others. Without respecting contributions of the individual and the individuality he needs to retain to even make a meaningful contribution, the group loses a key essence and becomes a shell.

The LRC ran roughshod over this truth, defining the group as all and the individual as next to nothing. In doing so they have manifested the fruit of this error, running roughshod over individuals, treating them as interchangeable and expendable, damaging lives, families, reputations, real people. That behavior springs directly from their view of the Trinity, which is why the error of modalism is a serious error, and why Witness Lee's modalism-skirting teachings are a problem as well.