[aron]

Originally Posted by Igzy

Witness Lee: "Clearly, denominating is wrong, because division is something condemned by God. But the Lord desires that none of his children have this guilt of division. Sufficient effort will be needed to understand and spread this. I say that some of you must come together to study, pray and speak. This I wish and want you to do. This means to receive people according to the Son of God, the One who does not take sides. On one side are the Jews. On the other side are the believers chosen by God. God has no preference.

I would like to read to you “Christ came to be servant to the circumcision according to the truth of God, to confirm the promises given to the fathers, and for the Gentiles, to glorify His mercy." What is it to glorify God? It is to participate in the New Jerusalem. Right? For us to participate in the New Jerusalem is to glorify God in the universe."

Thank you Trusting for the introduction and the topic. I think Romans 15 is worth quoting in depth. I've bolded the part that Witness Lee quoted, plus sections that provide necessary context to what Paul was getting at there (else we create our own meaning).

Romans 15:5 May the God who gives endurance and encouragement give you the same attitude of mind toward each other that Christ Jesus had, 6 so that with one mind and one voice you may glorify the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ.

7 Accept one another, then, just as Christ accepted you, in order to bring praise to God. 8 For I tell you that Christ has become a servant of the Jews on behalf of God’s truth, so that the promises made to the patriarchs might be confirmed 9 and, moreover, that the Gentiles might glorify God for his mercy. As it is written:

“Therefore I will praise you among the Gentiles;
I will sing the praises of your name.”

10 Again, it says,

“Rejoice, you Gentiles, with his people.”

11 And again,

“Praise the Lord, all you Gentiles;
let all the peoples extol him.”

12 And again, Isaiah says,

“The Root of Jesse will spring up,
one who will arise to rule over the nations;
in him the Gentiles will hope.”

13 May the God of hope fill you with all joy and peace as you trust in him, so that you may overflow with hope by the power of the Holy Spirit.

14 I myself am convinced, my brothers and sisters, that you yourselves are full of goodness, filled with knowledge and competent to instruct one another. 15 Yet I have written you quite boldly on some points to remind you of them again, because of the grace God gave me 16 to be a minister of Christ Jesus to the Gentiles. He gave me the priestly duty of proclaiming the gospel of God, so that the Gentiles might become an offering acceptable to God, sanctified by the Holy Spirit.

17 Therefore I glory in Christ Jesus in my service to God. 18 I will not venture to speak of anything except what Christ has accomplished through me in leading the Gentiles to obey God by what I have said and done— 19 by the power of signs and wonders, through the power of the Spirit of God. So from Jerusalem all the way around to Illyricum, I have fully proclaimed the gospel of Christ. 20 It has always been my ambition to preach the gospel where Christ was not known, so that I would not be building on someone else’s foundation.

21 Rather, as it is written:

“Those who were not told about him will see,
and those who have not heard will understand.”

22 This is why I have often been hindered from coming to you.

23 But now that there is no more place for me to work in these regions, and since I have been longing for many years to visit you, 24 I plan to do so when I go to Spain. I hope to see you while passing through and to have you assist me on my journey there, after I have enjoyed your company for a while. 25 Now, however, I am on my way to Jerusalem in the service of the Lord’s people there. 26 For Macedonia and Achaia were pleased to make a contribution for the poor among the Lord’s people in Jerusalem. 27 They were pleased to do it, and indeed they owe it to them. For if the Gentiles have shared in the Jews’ spiritual blessings, they owe it to the Jews to share with them their material blessings. 28 So after I have completed this task and have made sure that they have received this contribution, I will go to Spain and visit you on the way. 29 I know that when I come to you, I will come in the full measure of the blessing of Christ.

30 I urge you, brothers and sisters, by our Lord Jesus Christ and by the love of the Spirit, to join me in my struggle by praying to God for me. 31 Pray that I may be kept safe from the unbelievers in Judea and that the contribution I take to Jerusalem may be favorably received by the Lord’s people there, 32 so that I may come to you with joy, by God’s will, and in your company be refreshed. 33 The God of peace be with you all. Amen.

The topic is that the Gentiles have now been invited to the Kingdom of God through the Fellowship of Faith in Jesus Christ, and now have an opportunity for practical fellowship, through Paul's hand, to the poor of Jerusalem. It's a topic of some import for Paul (Gal 2:10; Acts 24:17; 1 Cor 16:1-4; 2 Cor 8:1-9:15), and typically missed by preachers like Witness Lee, who cared little for the poor.

And this is not some temporary hobby of Paul's, without wider meaning: look at the end of the Bible, where the Gentiles (Gk, 'ethnoi', or nations) walk in the light of the NJ and their kings bring 'glory' into it (Rev 21:24,26). WL thought these were unbelievers (!!) who somehow made it through both the tribulation and the Great White Throne (!!!) and now had eternal life (!!!) outside the NJ.

Now, I know the thread's focus is Witness Lee's last published thoughts. We're not here suggesting to send $$ to the poor of Jerusalem (though we don't discourage it either); rather to show how easily scripture can be de-contextualised and re-appropriated for ignorant and selfish ends.

If the believing Gentiles were received by the Jews (through Paul'sministry), they should receive one another, and receive the Jews (via gifts and supporting Paul). That's the point of Rom 15 and WL was repenting that he'd mis-aimed and caused harm. But his follower RK told us with a stout face that he wasn't going to build any bridges to "the denominations". Yet Paul was doing nothing there but building them! Yet RK wanted what WL called "the guilt of division" to be shoveled high, to be a yawning gap between "the recovery" and fellow believers. To say nothing of the Gentiles and the Jews, Paul's original topic!

How did we get so far from God's revealed intent and good pleasure? Is the Bible now so passe, so outdated, that we re-invent it thus? Or were Paul (and John) so off the mark that they had to be re-interpreted so imaginatively?