[UntoHim]

I am always fascinated by people’s answer to the question “if you could go back in time and talk to any person who would it be”. It actually tells a lot about the person. Of course most Christians would no doubt say “the Lord Jesus”. Let’s just say the question was the same, but added the proviso of “anybody but the Lord Jesus”. Who would be your second choice? For the purposes of our discussions here, let’s just say we could go back to early 20th century Mainland China to witness the early life and times of Watchman Nee. What would we see? What would surprise us? What might even shock us? What would disappoint us? What questions would we have for him? If we could warn him of anything what would we warn him of? (personally, I might warn him about promoting a certain ambitious person who went by the name Witness).

I could be wrong, but I have serious doubts if the early Watchman Nee had any thoughts of starting a world-wide movement to be known as “The Lord’s Recovery”. While there is no doubt that Nee had a very dim view of the “Christianity” that was preached and practiced by Western missionaries of the day (and who could blame him), I would contend that his early focus was the preaching of the gospel to the unsaved, and the placing of godly men and women to take the lead among newly established churches. Again, this is the focus of the New Testament and not the establishment of an all-encompassing and all-controlling ministry for the age.

If there is to be a demarcation between early-Nee and later-Nee, then I would say we must determine when Watchman may have taken his focus off the gospel and “teaching them everything I have commanded”. At some point Nee, like so many Christian leaders, may have succumbed somewhat to pride, a spirit of arrogance and a misplaced notion of his importance in the Body of Christ. There is absolutely no doubt that one of his blind spots was this matter of “deputy authority”, but since he didn’t write (publish) a whole lot towards the end of his public ministry we don’t know for sure his view as compared to his earlier years.