[OBW]

Originally Posted by Indiana

Always Learning,

Originally Posted by Indiana

I have been writing in response to Why there was such a blessing in the local churches in the U. S. pre-1974. And it was partly because people were coming out of denominations on their divisive grounds and coming up to Jerusalem to the proper ground - to the place which the Lord your God shall choose to put His name there.

I say, when that position was taken by Nee and brothers in China the word of God opened more to them. What the saints in America inherited came out of Nee. Lee came out of Nee. New Testament ministry came out of Nee and Lee at a high level and with rich, full content in a stewardship to the saints of grace to bring them into a Christ-centered church life full of vision and purpose and function as members. The songs came out, the saints were rejoicing, and “we were home”.

This last paragraph is a view of history that is not founded in reality.

The following would be a true statement: What the followers of Lee in America inherited came out of Nee. And Lee came out of Nee.

But the assertion that the "New Testament ministry came out of Nee and Lee . . ." is not supported by the studies I have done.

Nee did not handle the Word of God well. In the few somewhat random books that I have opened to see what he wrote, I have almost consistently discovered that he would almost immediately start redefining things such that he created a premise for the rest of his book that was not actually supported by the words in the scripture that he used. For example, insisting that "power" means "authority." That "authority" can be substituted for "power" where it is found in the verses he targets, and so a pattern of authority is developed from verses that do not actually mention or imply authority.

Based on this somewhat consistent pattern, I cannot agree that the Word was actually "opened" to Nee and Lee. They were not getting things out of the scripture. It would be more correct to say that Nee, then later Lee, would put into the scripture enough "changes" to reset "reality," then bring out of this revised word (no longer Word) and create what you and so many others call "the New Testament Ministry."

Based on the scriptural nonsense out of which Nee and Lee taught, we were lead to believe that there was a "ground" that had something to do with political divisions, most specifically city boundaries. And discovering that "rule" was said to be discovering Jerusalem.

It is fantasy. You believe it because you want to believe it. Your believe it because it makes you into a special Christian. No matter how many times we referred to ourselves as "just a little brother (or sister)" inside we considered ourselves quite special because we were "in Jerusalem" while all those other Christians were "back in Babylon" (another misreading of scripture by Nee and Lee).

Until you are willing to actually look at the underpinnings of the garbage teachings that gave us those feelings of superiority, you will continue to cling to a lie. And while Nee and Lee may not have set out to lie to us, Satan did and he used Nee and Lee.