Is it the Message, or the Men?
While checking out the
list of LSM churches I caught a blurb on the left of the site.
I clicked and went to this link:
http://www.watchman-nee.net/
On this site "
it's the man" Watchman Nee. This is obviously a Living Stream/Lee/Blended bros. story.
In this story of Watchman Nee he has to be
"consecrated to the Lord even before birth," I guess this is the LSM version of a virgin birth.
And he has to be:
"keenly intelligent" and, "an exceptional student, always ranking first in his class as well as in the entire school from grade school through college."
And:
"he acquired an exceptional knowledge concerning God's purpose, Christ, the Spirit, and the church through his study of the Bible as well as the writings of spiritual men and women. During his early ministry, he spent one-third of his income on books by Christian authors such as D.M. Panton, Robert Govett, G.H. Pember, Jessie Penn-Lewis, T. Austin-Sparks, John Nelson Darby, William Kelly, and C.H. Mackintosh. He was brilliantly gifted in his ability to select, comprehend, discern, and memorize appropriate material. Watchman Nee gleaned all the good, scriptural points from his collection of over 3,000 of the best Christian books, including nearly all the classical Christian writings from the first century on. In addition to the spiritual knowledge he gained, he received much spiritual edification and perfection early in his Christian life from Margaret E. Barber ..."
In other words Nee had to have a "gifted mental apprehension of God's truth" ... the very claim M.E. Barber made of him and Faithful Luke in her private letter in 1926.
So this is all about "
the man." Lee's Recovery movement depends on "the man," Nee, being exceptionally gifted mentally.
This means that to them it's important that Nee was guided by his intellectual abilities first and foremost. Just as Barber stated of him.