Quote:
Originally Posted by Terry
When used within Local Church circles, is the phrase ["continuing steadfastly in the teaching and fellowship of the apostles"] meant strictly towards Biblical text or is the phrase intended to be used extra-Biblically?
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That is precisely my point. The ministry of Witness Lee is held to be effectively the equivalent of the teaching and fellowship of the apostles, given that church writings from the second century onward are ignored (unless they can be used to buttress "The Ministry"). So to be precise in my answer, I would say it is meant strictly toward the Biblical text
as it has been interpreted and explained by Witness Lee, which thus makes it de facto extra-Biblical.
Let me go back to Psalm 34 for example. Lee held that David rescued himself from Abimilech and the camp of the Philistines. This is in contrast to God's rescue of David from the lion, the bear, from Goliath, from Saul, etc. Where does this dichotomy come from, save Witness Lee? Has any other writer from the second century onward made this kind of effort, parsing the Psalms into "revelatory" versus "natural" texts? If not, how is Lee's effort construed as continuing steadfastly in the teaching and fellowship of the apostles? And how are we doing so, if we are following exclusively this ministry as the equivalent?
Psalm 34, and David's experience in the Philistine camp, is not some minor detail to be ignored at Lee's word. Just as Jonah was in the belly of the whale, just as Jesus was in the heart of the earth, so was David among the Philistines. Can you imagine what the dark forces emanated as they crowded around the descended soul of Jesus the Nazarene? Jesus had been made sin on our behalf, and died in a despised and shameful way for us. He went into Hades because of us, and was joined by the defeated ranks. They said to Him, "You also have become weak, as we are; you have become like us." (Isaiah 14:10).
And then Jesus, in death, somehow cried to the Living God. "Father I praise You; You will not let the ocean cover Me; You will not let the pit close its mouth over Me" (Psa 69). And God inclined His ear to the cry of His Righteous Son. Jesus was the true Son of Oil: He lived (as) God's Word so thoroughly in His human life that He could speak it in death and its power over Him, and us, was broken. The Logos, the Word, exhibited and declared the Father even in the midst of Hell. We were there, and He took us out (see Ephesians 4, on His taking "captivity captive").
The story of David with Abimilech should not be dismissed so lightly. Unless the Living Streamers can show Witness Lee carrying on the tradition of previous Christian expositors in dismissing the Biblical text as "natural" versus "divinely revelatory", we should be wary in receiving these as a continuation of the apostles. Or we, in following his lead, risk dismissing the very Christ revealed therein.