Good to see more scrutiny on Nee. If the root of the tree (nee) is found to be rotten, then what should be expected from the branches?
This is the part that has captured my attention for the past year or so.
Quote:
Originally Posted by aron
Nee adopted the idea that “to leave the denominations . . . require[s] our obedience” in the latter half of 1922, two years after his professed conversion in 1920 at the age of seventeen—from that point on, he viewed “the Presbyterian Church . . . the Methodist Church . . . the Baptist Church” and all other denominations are unscriptural.
While Paul required a simple pastor not to be a novice (1 Timothy 3:6), only two years after Nee’s professed conversion he was able to found a new denomination, which he affirmed was not a denomination, but a recovery of the true church. The “church life . . . the truth of the Lord’s recovery . . . began to be practiced in Watchman’s home town in 1922,” and by “1926 he . . . established gatherings for the Lord’s recovery [his new denomination] in Amoy, Tung-An, and nearby places [in] . . . south Fukien.” (see Nee's "Authority and Submission", chs 2, 7, and Lee's "Watchman Nee - a Seer of the Divine Revelation", pp 41-43, 173-178, 201)
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The 11 (and presumably many more, including the one who replaced Judas) followed Jesus for 3+ years learning. Paul, despite much learning in the Jewish tradition and scriptures, spent many years before he stepped out to take the gospel to the Gentiles. And when the got to any place, they didn't just pitch a revival tent, hold a week's worth of meetings, declare that there was a church with a few converts and leave town. They spent much time. And typically left someone behind (or found someone among the locals) who was worthy of the task of leading the flock. Timothy evidently spent quite some time in Ephesus.
But a 17-year-old kid (a brilliant genius, but still a kid) with no record of any training other than a lot of private reading, mainly from the mystics, is ready to lead everyone into a truly new way of meeting. And that way will answer to no man other than him.
Even at 17, Nee was probably used to being the smartest person in the room. At least in terms of what has been taken in. He could probably regurgitate anything he could read. And he evidently could read a lot in a very short time. So a lot of "facts" (or at least written things) stored away for recall.
No evidence of anyone really helping to mold a truly Christian perspective from which to assess and use that knowledge. (There was no one smart enough to do that.) So he began to work with it from his existing base. Whatever that was.
Not saying he was evil. But he was deluded into thinking that, in true Protestant "sola scriptura" form, his superior mind could take the Bible, along with these writings by others, many of whom were working from the same "sola scriptura" base, and find the "right way" to go.
At least as it seemed right in his eyes.
I do not believe that Nee set out to do this in an evil or underhanded way. But he was blind to his own lack of wisdom and knowledge that could not be filled-in by simply gathering information. At some level, Nee's ability to read entire books in mere minutes provided an overload of information in a way that most of us only see when trying to find valuable information from a Google search.
Nee had 17 years of understanding the world in his own way and an unspecified change in that way (if any) over the next 2 years, and he was now ready to dismiss all potential peers because he was always the smartest man in the room.
It would take another 25 or so years to codify his status within the room when he indirectly placed himself above human scrutiny in
Spiritual Authority (aka
Authority and Submission). And he learned from no one else over those years. Even when shut out of his position in the early to mid 40s, he was busy preparing the messages that would guarantee that it never happened again. (Any by this time, while still likely deluded, he was clearly skipping past too many verses that screamed at him to step down and go away. He no longer was just deluded. He was willful about it.)