[Hope]

Dear Posters,

This morning I received an email from Brother Nigel. It is copied below.

Dear Brother Don,
Here is a quote from Watchman Nee exactly along the lines you brought out about God starting again/afresh with each generation/era concerning Acts 13:36 David served his own generation: "David 'served his own generation,' and slept (Acts 13:36). He could not serve two! Where today we seek to perpetuate our work by setting up an organization or society or system, the OT saints served their own day and passed on. This is an important principle of life. Wheat is sown, grows, ears, is reaped, and then the whole plant, even to the root, is plowed out. That is the Church, never rooted permanently in the earth. God’s work is spiritual to the point of having no earthly roots, no smell of earth on it at all. Men pass on, but the Lord remains. The spiritual testimony of believers is to be heavenly, not earthly. Everything to do with the Church must be up-to-date and living, meeting the present—one might even say the passing—needs of the hour. Never must it become fixed, static. God Himself takes away His workers, but He gives others. Our work suffers, but His never does. Nothing touches Him. He is still God.” [W. Nee, What Shall This Man Do? in the Collected Works of Watchman Nee, vol. 40, pp. 84-5]

WN certainly said about what I had written only much better. I assume that the messages for What Shall This Man Do came from the early ministry of WN.

This discussion has caused me to mull over some saying of WL. I heard him countless times relate the circumstances around his leaving Mainland China for Taiwan just before the communist took over. He shared in private and in public how WN told all the co-workers that they all could go to the Lord for what they should do but that Witness Lee must leave in order to preserve the Lord’s work should they on the mainland be wiped out. IT IS IMPORTANT TO UNDERSTAND WHAT IS MEANT BY THE SPEAKER REGARDING THE MEANING OF WORDS. I assumed WL was referring to truth and testimony. I now realize that it was the continuation of a movement.

When WN and WL referred to “Work” they did not mean the work of the Lord in a generic sense but rather their particular work and not just their particular personal work but a movement and particular entity which had a life and direction of its own.

The concept of “the Work” was a huge mistake by WN and was and continues to undermine many truths that he did open up to the Body of Christ.

I have had several interesting talks with former co-workers from the mainland. They all have their own version of what happened before the communist came in. As far as I am concerned most, including WL’s account, are in the category of myths and endless genealogies referred to in 1 Timothy. Unfortunately all the various versions eventually have a central point. That is, the continuation of the “Work” of WN. The stress will always eventually come to how WN would want his work and legacy carried on and who is doing so in the truest way. Thus you have the basis for all the purges and storms of the last 60 years.

Hope, Don Rutledge

A believer in Christ Jesus who is seeking to be a true disciple