Quote:
Originally Posted by aron
Nee the untouchable MOTA [Minister of the Age] became the template for Lee the untouchable MOTA.
And look at his method: Lee asked the Shanghai elders, "How did you feel, after you ex-communicated Nee?" It wasn't about righteousness, or truth, but about feelings. Nee's subjectivist "experience trumps all" was used against the church; they felt bad when they rejected Nee, therefore Lee had power over them...."This is what happens when truth no longer directs the path.
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In the Elders’ Training brother Lee mentioned that men of God have had defects in church history and he gave examples, but did not include Watchman Nee or himself.
Watchman Nee
I knew nothing negative about Watchman Nee until last year, 2014. I think that book by Lily Hsu was available on the forum in 2012, but I passed right over it not wanting to waste time with someone’s superficial findings and public story of a supposed dark side of brother Nee. I completely held the concept that many others held that he was a model God-man whose example in conduct and pursuit of Christ we could follow.
But the book was not superficial, as 10 endorsees record in its first pages.
ENDORSEMENT “King David is a special person loved by God. Besides our Lord Jesus Christ, the New Testament started with the name of David and finishes with the name of David. However, even such a special person like David, the Bible did not cover up his committed sins whatsoever. In addition, the price he paid for his sins was huge. He committed his sins in darkness. God humiliated him in broad daylight.” - Tiejun Xia Lay preacher, Ashburton Uniting Church, Melbourne, Australia
Learning the lessons from the history and holding the truth in love (Eph. 4:15) for the unity of the church are what we Christians ought to do. Our entire ministry is pursuing for God’s kingdom and His righteousness. (Matt 6:33.) _ Minister of a Local Church, Mainland China
I read the book and consider it pointing to “half” the story of Local Church history, which I knew nothing about. I think that exposure of the defects bring matters into the proper light, where mercy and grace can be properly ministered, according to truth alone.
The other "half" of Local Church history involves Witness Lee.
Witness Lee
One manifestation of the defective side of brother Lee is addressed transparently by Don Hardy (2001) “…Anyway SC [Samuel Chang] was VERY burdened, and started groaning deep within, praying (Steve, I did NOT know my spirit at that time, except hit n' miss). Then he said: "Don, I want to share something with you for prayer, and you must keep it to yourself. Bro.Lee LOVES the Lord, and is ALL-out for God and His recovery. BUT Don, he has a weakness, a big hole in his side, which we have to keep covered much in prayer: you see, his CHILDREN (7 of them) suffered very much in CHINA, and they are "always after him"; and he has a burden to HELP them as much as he can. But WL is very POOR right now. So he has tried to help Timothy in business, BUT....."
Then SC did a "strange" thing: he slapped his mouth with his hand and told me: "Oh, I SHOULD KEEP QUIET!! Forgive me bro. Don!" Just pray. Let's go back to the hymnal." Well Steve, I NEVER forgot that conversation...”
Before coming to U. S.
“Around 1959 Mr. Lee had some investment failures and he lost a great deal of money. This brought the first financial crisis to the church. All the donations and contributions from the church members were used, and still the church owed people a large amount of money. Because of this situation, Brother Lee forced the elders to sell a piece of land belonging to the church in order to pay the debt. That piece of land was located on 19 East Road, section 4, and had been bought by the church to build a training center and a new assembly building. Because of that, many coworkers and church members were especially unhappy about this fiasco. Mr. Lee knew this was something that he did wrong and because of that he went to the United States and stayed on the West Coast. “(Larry Chi, translated into English by a paid translator)
These two "windows" were early-on portends of the future, when many saints and churches were seriously impacted:
Brent Barber gives more insight into the problem of Witness Lee and his money-making schemes that caused much suffering to the churches and the saints. (Deviating from the Path,
Balaam p 87).
LSM does not give true accounts of this sort, but
"This is what happens when truth no longer directs the path", as Aron announced in post #50, regarding Lee's handling of the elders during Nee's suspension.