Erroneous Teaching of Lee Concerning Natural Affection

[Jo S]

Originally Posted by Truthseeker

Witness Lee's teaching has made a big mistake concerning natural affection.

It depends how you define "natural affection". I don't think the Local Church teaching is in agreement with the actual scriptural meaning. The Greek word for natural affection in 2 Tim 3:3 is "astorgos" which is derived from the Greek "storge" or "familial love".

Jesus does talk about how ONLY having a type of reciprocal familial love is unprofitable (Luke 6:32).

Christians however are to love even our enemies and not only friends and relatives or those in our ideological circles or what have you. So if you're not able to love those that hate you and have hurt you, then maybe you do only know one type of affection, whether you call it "natural affection" or not. Or worse you have neither.

In Timothy, Paul is saying that a time will come when even those that only knew "familial love" will not even have that and so "Father will be divided against son and son against father; mother against daughter and daughter against mother; and mother-in-law against daughter-in-law.." (Luke 12:53). He's not talking about actual Christians.

Either way the Local Church teaching is deceptive and full of equivocation. Going to the root, the attack on natural affection actually started with Watchman Nee. Nee stated in The Latent Power of the Soul, "how useless was emotion" and in The Spiritual Man Nee states that "Our natural likes and dislikes do not have any part here; natural affection must lose its power" and other similar things.

If anything, the Local Churches only practice natural affection or love for only those within their ideological family. But even that's in question here.