I’ve been troubled for some time with the problem of exposing the errors that Lee introduced into the Local Church, and the serious acts of Lee and various of his underlings over the course of many years, without simply trashing the very existence of the Local Church as a group of assemblies.
Without discussing the nuances of organization v organism, I intend “Local Church” or “LC” to refer to the group of assemblies that have sprung up by whatever method and are followers of the teachings of both Nee and Lee. There are arguments to be made concerning whether the LC, or at least that portion that holds strongly to all the materials published by the LSM, is a denomination. But as I have argued recently elsewhere, I find little significance in the determination that a group is or is not a denomination. There is now a clear split in the whole of that group, however, there are still many characteristics and teachings from Nee and Lee that remain in all such assemblies. To the extent that any particular item discussed by me applies to the whole of the LCs, I do intend it as such. But to the extent that the result of the recent split(s) has been to remove some of the errors from some, those are not presumed to be included.
The problem with analyzing everything together as if it is a homogenous unit (Lee, Nee, other leaders, and the assemblies that comprise the LC) is that it is not entirely true. For example, I could I could analyze any particular LC assembly on several points and find many combinations of characteristics. Let’s consider The Church in ____. It is a composite of Christians, beliefs and practices as follows:
- The core of its faith is consistent with the basics that virtually all of Christianity accepts and believes.
- While the membership “enjoys” the elevated status of certain teachings like “Christ is the Spirit” they still strongly believe in the simultaneous existence of so-called “persons” of the Father, Son and Spirit.
- They have accepted the edict to have “ministry station meetings” and use HWMR as the basis for their PSRP.
- Despite the strong warnings about materials from other sources (especially from non LSM sources within the LCs) many of them read other Christian materials and find insight in them.
- Many of the members did not agree with the lawsuit against Harvest House and consider it a stupid undertaking of others who want to waste their money.
- While they would never consciously think that they accept everything Nee, Lee or the BBs say without a second thought, that is what they do.
- They may have heard that some persons somewhere else (or even in their city) were reprimanded for what would appear to be unscriptural reasons, but they acknowledge that each church, and each person, including the leadership, is different and that individuals do make mistakes. They may have even heard the rumors about why it was that John Ingalls left in the 80s, but rather than simply accepting that the “apostle of the age” can do no wrong, they have accepted the lie that it was a FALSE ACCUSATION and ignored it.
The list could go on and on. The point is that each assembly is a peculiar collection of individuals. Despite all the efforts of Lee and the LSM and the BBs to make everyone “say the same thing” and look and act almost like clones (and any outsider’s view that it is working at some level), they are not cookie-cutter churches.
And despite my strong opposition to a certain thread here for reasons that did not include the stated purpose of the thread, some of the teachings and practices, even if mostly as the result of misunderstanding overstated hyperbole to be “a word for God,” have lead to actions by individuals in their dealings with their spouses, children, parents, coworkers, other Christians and even the general population that even the worst of the LC leadership would stand against. (Unfortunately, some of the LC leadership was involved in some of it.)
Now when it comes to deconstructing the teachings that Nee and Lee pushed onto the LCs, there would surely be the discovery of teachings that we believe should be eliminated from the theological base of any church inside or outside of the LC. Whether that should be accomplished by simply rejecting Lee outright and then rediscovering truth or retaining Lee and trying to cleanse the errors is their decision. I do have an opinion about it, and have stated it repeatedly over the past years. But, I do not find anything in scripture that says that a church should simply throw out its understanding of scripture and start over because they might have some error in that understanding.
But when it comes to accepting or rejecting Lee, I believe that the correct answer is to reject him outright. I believe that because, consistent with my analysis of his teachings and the fruit of those teachings, the tree is bad. (While less obvious, I actually believe that Nee is in the same position.) I do not believe that Lee stands with Paul, Peter, Apollos, etc., as a true worker on God’s farm and/or building. Instead of allowing Lee and Nee to remain in the company of the workers, they should be rejected as those who are teaching differently. In the case of Lee, there is also evidence that he was using his position in the LC to feed his belly, and the greed and lust of his sons. Such persons are not qualified to be teachers.
The fruit of one church one city is the de-legitimization of all others and their denigration as “poor,” and even “apostate.” The fruit of “turning to your spirit” and “walking by the spirit” (rather than “walking by the Spirit”) is excuses for being the ones in Galatians that Paul said were indulging in the sinful nature. (Paul did not say get more Christ then you will stop. He said stop.) The fruit of deputy authority is gross misconduct accepted as OK because of the presumption that a deputy of God cannot sin. The fruit of following after a person is that such person’s errors become yours and the division from others concerning that person is your error.
The list goes on and on. The fruit is clear. I believe that it says strongly to reject Lee, and less strongly to reject Nee.
Then certain persons argue that we should just leave Lee alone and leave the churches that accept his teachings alone. While I do agree somewhat with respect to the churches, I do not agree with respect to Lee. To reject is to take a stand and reject. And to the extent that a church decides to not reject Lee, I believe that they should continue to hear the reasons to change their position.
But the church itself is not necessarily subject to being closed and shuttered because it determines that its primary source of food was actually a cesspool. That determination can only be made by the people. If they determine that the church is too ingrained with the errors and that remaining together would simply perpetuate them, then closing may be the answer. But if not, I would not dare to demand that they close anyway.
I know that my speaking here in opposition to many of the teachings and actions of Lee, and even the teachings of Nee (I cannot find evidence of errors in Nee’s actions), will at times bleed over into statements against the LC. My intent in that is not to condemn the many good Christian brothers and sisters who meet together in the LC, but to point to the systemic errors that have been institutionalized due to the decades of Lees’ teachings and the over-lording of his coworkers and now the BBs. And due to the willful perpetuation of many of Lee’s errors, many of those coworkers should be rejected as potential leaders of a “Lee-less” LC. And while we can at least wonder how they don’t individually see themselves as being “of Lee” we might also be able to understand that at the individual level they do not believe that to be the case.
This has rambled on for long enough now. I was having one of those “what are you doing and why are you doing it” moments and thought that I would put it into my blog. I think that I have somewhat redefined my position and intent. I hope that it shows up in my future writing.