Article: Beware of the writings of the Watchman

[Freedom]

http://thecripplegate.com/beware-the...-the-watchman/

I found this to be an interesting article and it seems the author hits the mark with some of the problems of Nee. Here is an excerpt from the article:

Perhaps the best way to describe Nee is to label him a confused Christian mystic. Here’s one lengthy but insightful example. I chose this example because it is indicative of his writing style, as well as an excellent example of his lack of clarity:
Some years ago I was ill. For six nights I had high fever and could find no sleep. Then at length God gave me from the Scripture a personal word of healing, and because of this I expected all symptoms of sickness to vanish at once. Instead of that, not a wink of sleep could I get, and I was not only sleepless but more restless than ever. My temperature rose higher, my pulse beat faster and my head ached more severely than before. The enemy asked, ‘Where is God’s promise? Where is your faith? What about all your prayers?’ So I was tempted to thrash the whole matter out in prayer again, but was rebuked, and this Scripture came to mind: “Thy word is truth” (John 17:17 ). If God’s Word is truth, I thought, then what are these symptoms? They must all be lies! So I declared to the enemy, ‘This sleeplessness is a lie, this headache is a lie, this fever is a lie, this high pulse is a lie. In view of what God has said to me, all these symptoms of sickness are just your lies, and God’s Word to me is truth.’ In five minutes I was asleep, and I awoke the following morning perfectly well” (The Normal Christian Life, 33-34).

While Nee places heavy stock in personal “spiritual” experiences of that kind, the more significant danger prevalent throughout his books is his consistent lack of clarity. Nee does not come right out and say that faith can cure physical illness, nor does he claim outright that he receives direct revelation from the Lord. He doesn’t hold his experience up as an example to follow, but simply relates it as it happened, and then passes it along to us.

This observation regarding of Nee's "lack of clarity" is a good point. As we know, in the LC, WN is held as a MOTA and as basically being infallible. When WN describes his experiences and doesn't provide any qualification about what these experiences should be taken to mean, it can lead to people trying to take this stuff too seriously. If he was a pattern for the LC, then members might strive to match his "experiences".

Sometimes its better to keep certain "experiences" to yourself. I believe that the experience that WN described here is one of those experiences. In the LC, the emphasis on "experiences" might not appear to be a problem at first sight, but there is, in fact, such a great weight placed on experiences. Following the example set by WN, there is not always clarification as to what these experiences should be taken to mean and thus it can lead to a lot of confusion.