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Originally Posted by Unregistered
Well if it is indeed true that most of the Recovery Version notes come from established and respected Christian authors, I would suppose that criticism of the contents of the notes should end.
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I think that the above comment was made sincerely, and if so shows the extent that defenders of Lee will go to "see no evil." If Lee trashed 'Christianity', in toto, as deformed, fallen, as daughters of the harlot of Revelation 17, so be it - let the chips fall where they may. Lee just called it like he saw it - a straight shooter. Too bad if you got offended.
But if anyone sees anything against Lee's ministry, hey, nobody's perfect, right? Quit harping.
Again and again, it comes back to "when Lee does it, it's okay"; a thought-system based on unquestioned, culturally-derived assumptions. That's how you get into his thought-world: don't think, don't ask, don't question. If he criticized someone that was his perogative as MOTA. We on the other hand, should know better than to lift our hands against God's anointed apostle.
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Originally Posted by Hope
I knew Witness Lee personally. He was like an older brother and friend. He gave me good personal advice on more than one occasion. Unfortunately, those in the LSM/LC had a myth about the brother. He was excellent in all things period. No problems were ever addressed. Thus his flesh developed. As we mature in age, if we are not under the daily experience of the cross our natural tendencies will grow more prominent and we will become stronger in the works of our flesh.
Eventually his self promoting reached an extreme level. One of the manifestations of this was his inability to take from other Christian teachers and feel no compulsion to acknowledge them. Yet, he zealously guarded his own work and always sought recognition for his work and contributions.
It is possible to have great gifts and to be entrusted with much and have a bad ending. Look at Sampson. What a failure!! And the entire nation suffered as he did not lead the tribe of Dan against the Philistines. Look at Solomon. Is he not perhaps the greatest failure in the Bible? He built the temple but the nation was divided because of his life.
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Lee's work was sloppy scholarship, frankly, yet had his work been subject to the pruning forces of the market-place of ideas, there might have been some good from it. Certainly the man had talents, and his enthusiasm and energy were nearly limitless (from a human perspective). But as the years wore on, and the corrective voices were expelled, one by one, and the sycophants and cheerleaders crowded round, and told the Great Man what he wanted to hear, the tendency to imagine himself unassailable, and all others wrong, became even more pronounced. Any pretense of modesty or reticence was abandoned. As
Hope put it, "Thus his flesh developed". Indeed.
When we find that he was cribbing sources, unattributed, the apologist says, "This shows that his doctrines were sound!" Yeah, I guess we could see it that way; if we really, really wanted to.