Quote:
Originally Posted by aron
If Deputy Authority was so crucial, then why did Nee leave the Anglicans? His grandfather was an Anglican minister, and Nee went to an Anglican college. And Lee likewise was raised with the Baptists - if obeying those above you were such an issue, then why reject the admittedly imperfect Baptists?
Oh, because first we have to "recover" the local ground, which conveniently removes us from the taint of foreign control. Then, we look in the Bible and lo and behold! We discover the DA. But if we'd discovered the DA first, we never could have left the denominations. The timing is altogether too convenient (self-serving) for my liking.
Was ME Barber the so-called spiritual giant, the DA of the early 20th century, or was there another? If Nee was attached to her, and she had "rebelled" against some sending missionary authority, and gone to China on her own, and Nee joined her in rebellion, how is this? Conversely, how was she not subject to any authority, unless she was God's DA herself? Only the DA is exempt from getting in Nee's proverbial line - "Find out who's in charge, and get in line" - if MEB exempted herself from this, then either she was God's DA or she was in rebellion against God's DA.
Again, I find it far too convenient for my taste, to presume that God has restricted his move on the earth to you and you alone. (Not saying that this is what MEB taught, but that what WL et al seem to ascribe to her, to flesh out the DA idea, and the 'Barber-Nee-Lee' lineage thereof.)
|
For both Nee and Lee, I think there were many reasons the deputy authority teaching was appealing. Part of it was cultural, some of it was the example of M.E. Barber, both men wanted to be recognized as having "new light", and Lee in particular, wanted to operate as a one man show. The deputy authority teaching was thus the perfect fit for a variety of reasons.
If we were to give both Nee and Lee the benefit of the doubt and say they didn't have ulterior motives, then above anything else, it would seem the deputy authority teaching was the necessary ingredient to make the ground of locality work. For Lee in particular, because the ground of locality became his pet doctrine, thus he needed it to work at any cost.
The more I've read, the more I've come to realize that the problems created by the ground of locality doctrine were visible and apparent even from Nee's time. Because the doctrine was something that both Nee and Lee felt was something they had received from the Lord, they were concerned with making it work, not with evaluating the doctrine itself. Everything was fine and dandy until "turmoils" started to happen. Deputy authority became the key to addressing these "turmoils". Whenever a problem came up, suddenly Nee or Lee would turn into the supreme leader and attempt to reorganize everything.
Without some type of headquarters or authority structure, I don't believe the ground of locality could have been practiced at all. Everything falls apart the minute you have two churches in a city both trying to say they are the church in X. In Nee's case, what happens when his own church excommunicates him? Deputy authority provided the quick-fix solution to those problems that should really have brought up questions about the doctrine of the ground of locality itself.