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Originally Posted by alwayslearning
The common currency of restoration/recovery and their step-child remnant movements is that God specially selected them and gave them special light and they conveniently make church history match this position. They put themselves in a select stream of history. But if you look closely at the "new light" they supposedly have you'll find that many Christians before them "saw" the same things in the Bible.
What happened when Witness Lee came to the U.S. in the 1960s with his package of new light is he was met with 3 things:
1) Spiritual hunger especially among young people who had a willingness to hear new things
2) A general ignorance of Biblical truth among Christians
3) Many Christians dissatisfied with their existing "church life" experiences
So his teachings and practices of seemingly new things were not actually new but they were new to the people hearing them. Eventually some of these people realized that the new light he claimed to have were just rehashed Brethren and inner life teachings.
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Quote:
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Originally Posted by Larry Eskridge
Most Influential Authors/Books
Not surprisingly, the Bible was overwhelmingly the first response of the people who took our
survey-but this was expected. This list takes into account the other authors and titles (including
various new paraphrases/formats of the Bible that appeared in the `70s) that were mentioned most
frequently among initial responses.
1. ) Hal Lindsey (136)
2. ) David Wilkerson (78)
3. ) C. S. Lewis (75)
4. ) Watchman Nee (46)
5. ) Francis Schaeffer (43)
6. ) Josh McDowell (41)
7. ) Chuck Smith (23)
8. ) tie-Bob Mumford (18)
The Living Bible (18)
10. ) Billy Graham (16)
11. ) tie-Nicky Cruz (13)
Derek Prince (13)
John L. Sherrill (13)
Corrie Ten Boom (13)
15. ) tie-Dennis and Rita Bennett (11)
Hannah Hurnard (11)
A. W. Tozer (11)
18. ) tie--Arthur Blessitt (10)
Merlin Carrothers (10)
20. ) Pat Boone (8)
Other authors/titles with 5 or more "first three" mentions: Brother Andrew, Dietrich Bonhoeffer,
Bill Bright, John Bunyan, Charles G. Finney, The Good News Bible, Tim LaHaye, Letters to Street
Christians, Andrew Murray, Pat Robertson, Ray Steadman, John Stott, Mel Tari, Winkey.
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Another thing Witness Lee had going for him upon his arrival on the shores of the USA was the strong positive influence of Watchman Nee. Lee could peg himself as Nee's true successor and closest former confidant, and would immediately have spiritual credibility with many.
The second quote is from "God's Forever Family", published by Oxford U. Press in 2013. A revised PhD diss. by Larry Eskridge. Eskridge surveyed several hundred former Jesus People from the 1960s and Watchman Nee was 4th in name recognition/influence. So Lee traded on that, big time.