[OBW]

HERn,

While there is definitely a difference in Lee and Nee, there is also evidence that Nee was early-on enamored with his personal knowledge, abilities, and unique position with God. His quite lengthy tome, The Spiritual Man (also now believed to be heavily lifted from another) includes several prefaces (since he wrote it in pieces over time). In at least one, he essentially says that no one else could have seen what God showed him.

He was essentially a kid at that time. Virtually unschooled in the Bible. Or more correctly self-schooled.

I used to think that his inner-life books were probably OK and his ecclesiological books were questionable. Since then I have read Sit Walk Stand again and find it to be the underpinnings of what Lee eventually more strongly referred to as "wait for more dispensing." Not truly bad, but I have to say off the mark of the meaning of the book of Ephesians.

Nee was a master of misdirect. His works begin by making bold declarations of things that might or might not be true. But they are phrased in such a way that you take them as true and then read on. Sometimes that might not be a real problem. Sometimes it is. Maybe he really didn't mean the kind of "just be saved and sit around no taking any action on it until you feel stronger" that Lee very clearly espoused in his dispensing teachings. But the implication is there in the whole idea that you first sit. Do nothing.

I say this because his way of directing the thinking in his ecclesiological books is clearly manipulative. He wants to change a word in a passage so he says that his choice is a synonym and just changes it. The way he says it forces you to accept him as an honest guy and go with him or declare him a liar and reject him. Unfortunately, most who open his books are already under the assumption that he is an honest guy, so he is assumed to be correct. So when you find "power" in the scripture, you should simply change it to "authority" because he said they were the same.

Did anyone actually think about whether power = authority? It is obvious that there are too many examples of authority with no power, and power with no authority to accept that as true. But he then rephrased several verses, including "for Thine is the kingdom and the authority and the glory forever, amen."

I would not deny that His is the authority. But it does not say authority there. It says power and they are not the same.

But it was part of the setup for a way of thinking that was then going to help you follow him wherever he wanted to take you.

He got saved at 17 and was publishing his own Christian newsletter two years later. He could read at an unheard of speed. And he could piece things together from it. The question is whether his overlay for analysis was valid and where did he get it? No known source other than himself and his past learning.

Do I trust Nee?

No. I believe that (at least early on) he thought he was doing a good thing. But I am not so sure that he was ever a worthy teacher of anything Christian.

Even when it seems benign, to quote Han Solo "I've got a bad feeling about this."