[UntoHim]

Originally Posted by NeitherFirstnorLast

Some LC people have privately confessed belief that Witness Lee is the apostle of this age. No spokesman for the executive branch of the Local Church has corrected that understanding, or tried to dissuade members from embracing that view.
A striking anecdote illustrates Witness Lee's view of the complete sufficiency of his apostleship. Lee once told an elder that the church was like a car; it has only one driver at any given moment. And, he went on, nobody appreciates a back-seat drive. Passengers should cover their eyes, closer their mouths and never distract the driver. Lee demonstrated proper "passenger posture" by putting his hands over his eyes and mouth. During similar conversations Lee's climactic statement had been that, even if the car were headed for a cliff, driver and passengers alike should all go over the edge together."
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This book is NOT just about the published writings of Witness Lee (although that covers some of the "teaching" part of the review of the teachings and practices) Duddy et al suspected (and were correct in suspecting) that as with most groups like the Local Church of Witness Lee, there is a facade of orthodoxy put up for public viewing. Behind the doors of the meeting hall is where the real story can be discovered. And discover they did. It was probably even worse than they originally thought. In any event, they dug enough to find and report on what "some LC people privately confessed". Back in the day the notion that Witness Lee was the Apostle of the age was so drilled into the mentality of the entire Movement that there was no need for it to be in black in white...anymore than one would need to carry around their birth certificate to know that their father was their father. Things changed towards the end of Lee's life, when he had nothing to lose, he then allowed it to become official - in black and white.

The "striking anecdote" provided above is not very striking to those of us who know the real Witness Lee. It was his mindset, so it just came out of his mouth...all the time. Most of the time it was edited out or maybe smoothed over by Kangas and the other editors, so it didn't make it to print. But Duddy knew to dig further. He interviewed current and former members. He knew better than to just talk to a few elders and ministry leaders. This is how he found out about how Witness Lee was truly viewed by the average LC member, and it's how he found out how Lee truly viewed his position in the Movement.

Those of you with only "book knowledge", or only want to discuss what is published in black and white, may want to consider sitting this one out. This is about the teachings and practices AS THEY ARE ACTUALLY TAUGHT AND PRACTICED. This is the focus of this book, and this is what we should be discussing in this thread.