Quote:
Originally Posted by Ohio
But let's call a spade a spade, an apostle an apostle, and a bishop a bishop.
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One wise principle is operate in a way that does the least damage. Nee did question whether apostles existed, but concluded that since the NT had apostles, then we must have them now, even though he really did not follow the NT pattern of identifying an apostle, which included their being able to perform miracles (1 Cor 12:12) (I'm of the thought that apostles at the level of the first generation no longer exist, 1 Cor 12:12 helps confirm this belief.)
So Nee thought it would be better to act like someone was an apostle, that to consider that there were none. Now it doesn't take a genius to realize how this can go wrong. I don't want someone operating on me who is not a surgeon, and I don't want someone assuming to be an apostle who cannot be confirmed as one. But Nee was so zealous to get back to the early church he cut corners. He gambled that is was good enough that people assumed to be apostles, whether they were or not. This did a lot of damage and continues to do so.