[aron]

Culture is the currency with which we interact. It forms the shared meanings that we use to make sense of the world and share this sense with each other.

In the NT we see Greek philosophy/mythology in several places. The gates of Hades were supposedly the portal to the realm of the dead. They were made of adamantine, the hardest substance known, and once the dead went past them they never returned.

Jesus said that these adamantine gates could not withstand his ekklesia. If two or more of us agree on earth, the gates are broken and the dead are released. Very suggestive. And I believe that the hearers of Jesus would have this understanding when He spoke of the gates of Hades.

The reference to Tartarus by Peter is similar. It is a word picture, with an already established meaning, which Peter knows that his readers will have. So what if it traces roots to Greek mythology? The point is that Peter has something to say and he uses the currency of the day. It is just like if I say "cool" and if it is the year 1950 that means temperature and in the year 1975 if means an exclamation of praise. Meaning is a culturally-derived process. It is shared.

So there is nothing wrong per se with an American-flavored church group or a Chinese-flavored Christian philosophy. But let's call it what it is. Lee sold it as something else, and therein lies the problem. We spent an undue amount of time and energy in the Local Church/Lord's recovery pretending it was something that it's not.

(Now, having said that, the influence of the British Christianity on the young Nee and Lee is of course enormous. But again let's face it and not just say something stupid like "Then God raised up Watchman Nee to restore the vision of the proper church" or some other dreck.)