Quote:
Originally Posted by ZNPaaneah
There are two very different ways to look at the situation.
Witness Lee's way is that there is a group of elite Christians, they meet in the proper way, on the proper ground, with the vision of the age. These ones alone are faithful to the Lord. We cannot compromise with "degraded Christianity" but instead they need to repent and join us. (I am summarizing many, many quotes of Witness Lee that I have posted already on this and the other forum).
The Second way is similar to how the children of Israel entered the good land. Initially only a handful were ready to enter the land. These were the elite, Joshua and Caleb. But they realized they needed to enter as a nation and not as a few. As a result the Israelites continued to wander for many more years before the second generation was matured enough to enter. Those that tried to enter on their own were wiped out. Instead of "degraded" the issue with this approach is a necessary maturation process. I would argue that you must distinguish between the genuine believers and the false ones (the synagogue of Satan, Balaam, Jezebel, etc). Then, for the genuine believers everything that happens to them is necessary. We need to overcome these various "diseases" but if we do we will be fully matured and the result will be the church in Philadelphia.
I personally do not believe that you can have the church in Philadelphia until you have overcome Jezebel and Balaam. This is why I do not like to look at these churches as "historical" but rather as necessary experiences that you need to go through to be fully matured.
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I can't say I disagree with you. I personally think of it is as either historical or present. For example, in a non-historical way, today we may say that our church might become this or that (and reference a certain church in Revelation). This is about our condition as a church.
In the context of Lee's ministry and his role in the world (and Nee's), in a prophetic and destiny sort of way, Lee saw it as a historical continuation of the process of reformation or what he called recovery. There was Catholic, then Luther, then Presbyterian, Baptist, brethren, pentecostal, etc then just "the church" (Nee/Lee).
Personally I do not see it as much of a historical thing as Lee did but a conditional one. It is possible for any local church to become one of the churches mentioned in Revelation.