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Originally Posted by MikhailianInception
Personally, Watchman Nee is my favourite Christian writer of all time. His books The Normal Christian Life and The Overcoming Life have really helped reveal Christ in me (Galatians 1:15-16). However, the people in the Lord's Recovery also read Andrew Murray, Charles Spurgeon, Madame Guyon, Count Zinzendorf, D.L. Moody, Martin Luther, Bernard of Clairvaux, George Muller, R.A. Torrey, Hudson Taylor, John Bunyan, M.E. Barber, and A.W. Tozer (solid men and women of God). My guess is I think they're experiencing the genuine Christ in some way through reading these authors. Of course, they don't just read these books apart from the Bible. Am I wrong about this? I learned to rest in Christ through this movement's teachings, and I'm sure some of the other Christians here have as well, right? I am just curious about this.
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I was the same way with Watchman Nee. I adored his writings, considering them deep and spiritual.
But over time (I have not met in LC groups for years now) I have reconsidered his works more objectively. The main problem that I now have with Nee is twofold, and it is related.
1. He gets you to focus on your relationship with Christ, instead of Christ with the Father. Jesus on earth walked with the Father, always in obedience. I occasionally walk in obedience with Christ, and occasionally fail. Occasionally I do indeed "rest in Christ" as you note above. But occasionally I step outside of Christ, and fall. Look at Peter. Occasionally he was great, occasionally he fell. We don't want to use Peter's experiences as our guide, other than as warnings (as if we don't get enough already from our living!)
But Nee got you to focus on subjectivity. That leads to the second problem.
2. Once you focus on yourself and your experiences, you are ripe for manipulation. Enter Witness Lee (and the Blendeds, and Dong Yu Lan, and Titus Chu, and others). Those who would seize the Emperor's Throne now can seize you through your feelings, and put you under their dominion. Suddenly it is not about the Bible but about your feelings, about the latest teaching, about "being one with the brothers", about an abstract "church".
The great love of Christ for the Father led him to die for the sinful ones. The Father's love poured out through him, and reached us. "God loved us so much that he sent His Son". And the second part is as the first, that we should love one another. But look at the result of the Watchman Nee and Witness Lee programmes. No love for the brothers, for the poor, for the destitute, for the sick, for the imprisoned (both physically imprisoned and those who are caught by addiction etc).
Instead it is "being positive for the ministry" and whatnot. Going to ministry-sanctioned meetings and purchasing the latest ministry materials. Getting "trained" and "perfected". Giving money to the DCP legal arm so that they can fund lawsuits (I am not kidding).
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Originally Posted by MikhailianInception
... is then the Holy Spirit in this movement? Or does the Spirit work in spite of human errors within this movement? Is this movement truly of God? It seems like they do make much of Christ, just like Sparks, Nee, and Kaung, the only difference is the ground of the Church - Christ vs. Locality. I do find the issue of Locality to be sectarian, as I believe when one receives the revelation of Christ, the Body is magnified and much bigger than we ever anticipate on a universal level.
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As far as "locality" - we see references to locality, both geographical and political, in scripture, with various spiritual tag-ons (The Prince of Persia in Daniel's revelation, Principalities and Powers of the Air in Paul's revelation, the Angel of the Church in Sardis in John's revelation [etc etc etc]). But none of that subsumes nor should distract us from the command to love our neighbour. If we are being poured out as a drink offering for our neighbours, and we pray for God's larger move, I daresay we might be useful in God's hand. But without the love flowing out of us towards our fellow (many of whom are not lovely, loving, or lovable), any talk of "locality" or "church" is merely vague abstraction. Again, we are easily misled. Stay away from abstractions for the most part. Don't let some Descartian absolute drive your journey. Witness Lee was no different from Stalin or Mao. He was a tin-horn despot over his own kingdom.
But he was a believer, a brother, but horribly misled. Subjectivity became error became codified and institutionalized.
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Originally Posted by MikhailianInception
5) If anyone here has been in the Lord's Recovery and had left, what was your experience like? Or if you are still in the Recovery, what do you think about it? I would love to hear all your thoughts.
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Personally, entering the LC programme was a shock to my system. I went from being a pew sitter to shouting slogans with my fists striking forward. I had been a Sunday School teacher, and grew up in Baptist and Congregationalist Protestant Christianity, but the charismatic stuff, the euphoric repetitive shouting was all new. I became active going to trainings, conferences, practicing corporate living and migrating to localities to "build up the church". The despising of the poor I didn't like. The constant belittling of "poor Christianity" I disagreed with, for the most part. Of course there is error in Christianity but that isn't the point. If you love only "good people" then what is left?
Eventually I left because I wanted to minister, not just shout slogans. This was before the internet, and I knew nothing of Daystar, or Philip Lee. I only knew of distant "storms" and "rebellions".
Today with the internet we have access to more information about Watchman Nee and Witness Lee, and the various groups and associated ministries. Of course there is a lot of "chaff" but still, there are resources available.
May God bless your journey of faith. Jesus Christ shines forth in brilliant glory. One of my favorite verses is Hebrews 2:9. "But we see Jesus, made a little lower than the angels, crowned with glory and honour". His time on earth was short, but he reached out to the poor, the weak, those who had nothing, even less than nothing. Remember the woman who was bleeding, and she gave all her money to the doctors who could not heal her? Now she was bleeding, with no resources. But she had faith and reached out. Scripture shows us this Jesus, made lower than the angels, touchable, if we would reach out by faith.
(Now if that sounds subjective I suppose it is, but focusing on Jesus leads to our reaching out. Focusing on our subjective reaching out leads to error)
1 Peter 1:21 Through him you believe in God, who raised him from the dead and glorified him, and so your faith and hope are in God.
Our focus can be on this One. God raised him from the dead and gave him glory. He lowered himself, and was poured out in offering for our sins. Now God has raised him and given him glory. I see nothing else. Paul said, "I was determined to know nothing else, whilst I was among you", and to me this is the kind of thing he referenced. Abstractions and principles have limited utility.