[Thankful Jane]

Originally Posted by Cassidy

Witness Lee taught those same things. The difference is that he taught there is a process to achieve those things, what he termed mingling. But let's see if there really is a fundamental difference in our beliefs: Setting aside the term mingling for a moment (several similar terms will do in my opinion), would you say we are able to be holy apart from the life of Christ?

Originally Posted by Cassidy

Would you suggest that once we believe into the Lord and are joined/glued to Him that we can become unglued to the point of losing our salvation? Would you even suggest that a holy living as defined by the scriptures is possible without a dependency on the divine provision given to us by God Himself. Would you further suggest that the divine provision are "things" and not something of God Himself? Do you also believe that any exertion of the self will please God whether it be for living or service?

Let me propose and answer for both you and me: All holiness, all expressions of Christ, all display of the virtues of Christ, our attachment to Christ and our abiding in Him, all fruit of the Spirit, is not accomplished by self-effort, is not a result of naturally-born human virtue nor self-determination, is not found in good works of the flesh. Rather, only Christ can express Christ, only the life of Christ lived through the redeemed man can issue in the fruit of the Spirit, express the virtues of Christ, and issue in a holy living that is pleasing to God. It is the righteous who have life (zoe) and live by faith. We are righteous because of Him for without Him there is none righteous, no not one! If you agree with this then there is little to no disagreement between us on the fundamentals of the Bible teaching on this matter. Do you agree? I think you do.

Assuming you do, then the term "mingling" is a minor point. Witness Lee, does not say mingling is all there is, he said mingling is the way. He has hundreds of books on many topics related to the christian life and the church, they are not just about mingling as if that were the only topic. Does Witness Lee return to the topic of mingling? Yes, he does, because in his view the experience of the life of Christ and all related matters result in all the expressions of the christian life. You call it whatever you like. I prefer co-inhere but mingling will do too.

Don't discard the fact though you disagree with the term

I don't think I can answer the questions as you’ve posed them without a lot of explanation. In other words, many of the phrases and terms you use need to be defined and qualified as to what you mean by them and what I would mean by them. I face a similar delimma with your statement of what we believe that you think is in common. Since I find responding to all this to be a complicated endeavor, I think I’ll just go at it by summarizing the main points I hear you making in your questions and your statement and then respond to them. If I have missed, misunderstood, or misstated something in the following summarization, please let me know:

1. I hear you saying that the final result, whatever that looks like (holiness, virtues, abiding, fruit of the Spirit, righteousness), is all Christ Himself expressed, nothing of us, and that if we agree on that, we are basically in agreement.

2. I also hear you saying that terms do not matter that much. What matters is that we end up believing the same thing.

3. I hear you saying that Witness Lee does not say mingling is all there is, but rather he says that mingling is the way.

I’ll respond to each of these in the next few posts.