Quote:
Originally Posted by NeitherFirstnorLast
Okay, you're either being petty or obtuse. Duddy quotes Lee from a book Lee entitled "WL, Christ and the Church Revealed and Typified in the Psalms". The quote stands alone, but you're saying that Duddy has to do a full exposition of Lee's book as well in order to be able to quote from it?
Z, this quote from the book of Lee's is understood by all of us - including you - to be typical of Lee. Why do you insist on trying to torpedo a book you've never even read?
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I asked you a simple yes or no question, you provided a quote that Duddy presumably made of Witness Lee's writings, he gave the page number but that is much less helpful than the Psalm. If you don't have it just say so.
I have found it. The quote is based on 2 verses psalm 128:5 and psalm 129:5
Psalm 128:5 The LORD shall bless you out of Zion: and you shall see the good of Jerusalem all the days of your life.
So you explain this verse from a New Testament perspective.
The second verse is 129:5 Let them all be confounded and turned back that hate Zion.
Here is Witness Lee's word, quoted by Duddy, with the verse context.
"Now let us go on to Psalm 128:5, “The Lord shall bless thee out of Zion: and thou shalt see the good of Jerusalem all the days of thy life.” The Lord’s blessing is out of Zion, and the good is of the city Jerusalem. In these Psalms of ascension, the concept is always of Zion, Jerusalem, the house and the city. “Thou shalt see the good of Jerusalem (the good of the city) all the days of thy life.” All my expectation is that I may see the good of the local churches as the city all the days of my life. I have been seeing it for forty years now, and I hope to see it until the day I shall see Him. The Lord bless thee, brothers; the Lord bless thee, sisters, out of the local churches! O what a blessing it is to see the good of the local churches all the days of our life! We have only tasted a little, but according to this taste, suppose that there should be no more church life. I believe that many of us would be weeping. What a barren desert that would be! But, praise the Lord, we are in God’s recovery; we are living in the local churches.
Now let us go on to Psalm 129. Here we have a contrast. Psalm 129 is a negative Psalm, yet it helps to enhance the city. Verse 5, “Let them all be put to shame and turned backward that hate Zion.” These are the real backsliders. The hate of Zion brings in shame and turning backward. Anyone who hates the local churches will be put to shame and turned backward. I have witnessed many like this. In my entire Christian life I have never seen one Christian who, when he criticized and opposed the local churches, was ever blessed by the Lord from that time forth. I have observed that all those who have opposed the church life have become backsliders. There has not been one exception. Let them all be put to shame and turned backward. It is not a small thing. The Psalmist continues, “Let them be as the grass upon the housetops, which withereth before it groweth up: wherewith the mower filleth not his hand; nor he that bindeth sheaves his bosom” (vv. 6-7). If you hate the local churches, you will have no more growth of life. There will be no rich reaping and no rich harvest. “Neither do they which go by say, The blessing of the Lord be upon you: we bless you in the name of the Lord” (v. 8). No growth, no rich harvest, no blessing.
We who have been in the church life in Los Angeles over the past years may look back over our history and see the condition of those who have opposed the local church. There is only shame and backsliding—no growth, no rich harvest, and no blessing. The Lord will vindicate Himself. He is for Zion; if you hate Zion, you are through. The Lord desires Zion. If you reject it, it is not a small thing, it is not a matter of doctrinal disputation. Let them all be put to shame and turned backward that hate Zion." (Chapter 21, Section 2, Christ and the Church revealed and typified in the Psalms, Witness Lee)