Should I Quit Reading LSM Publications?

[Truthseeker]

We've already known very well that in the local churches under LSM direction Witness Lee has been idolized in every aspect of this organization. Lee's publications such as HWMR, 1984 messages of Life-study and another so-called spiritual books of LSM are equalized to the Bible (maybe above the Bible and Lord Jesus's teaching). So, LSM publications are contaminated with idolatry of Lee's teaching.

So, should I quit reading them?
Sometimes, I still share excerpt from the Life-study or another LSM publications in many platforms of social media.
Are my actions considered as idolatry?
I'm afraid I will partake of idolatry of Lee's teaching by reading them more than Bible directly. I'm afraid I will just have human teaching more than the Lord’s Himself. So, should I stop reading LSM publications and stop sharing them? I feel like I'm under curse of idolatry of Lee. I feel like have no peace until now.
What should I do?

[WitnessMe]

I just threw away all LSM stuffs. You need to replace Witness Lee false gospel with true gospel. The more you read true gospel, the more you realize that the LSM publications contain the distorted Bible information to support Witness Lee false views. You should stop reading all Watchman Nee and Witness Lee information immediately. The purpose they wrote those books is to mislead and confuse you, and lead you away from the true God.

[Nell]

Originally Posted by Truthseeker

We've already known very well that in the local churches under LSM direction Witness Lee has been idolized in every aspect of this organization. Lee's publications such as HWMR, 1984 messages of Life-study and another so-called spiritual books of LSM are equalized to the Bible (maybe above the Bible and Lord Jesus's teaching). So, LSM publications are contaminated with idolatry of Lee's teaching.

So, should I quit reading them?
Sometimes, I still share excerpt from the Life-study or another LSM publications in many platforms of social media.
Are my actions considered as idolatry?
I'm afraid I will partake of idolatry of Lee's teaching by reading them more than Bible directly. I'm afraid I will just have human teaching more than the Lord’s Himself. So, should I stop reading LSM publications and stop sharing them? I feel like I'm under curse of idolatry of Lee. I feel like have no peace until now.
What should I do?

The worst thing Lee did was to pressure us to obey him (Lee) instead of obeying the Lord. We need to learn to walk with Him. Pray and ask the Lord what to read and what not to read.

Nell

[ThankfulForever777]

Originally Posted by Truthseeker

We've already known very well that in the local churches under LSM direction Witness Lee has been idolized in every aspect of this organization. Lee's publications such as HWMR, 1984 messages of Life-study and another so-called spiritual books of LSM are equalized to the Bible (maybe above the Bible and Lord Jesus's teaching). So, LSM publications are contaminated with idolatry of Lee's teaching.

So, should I quit reading them?
Sometimes, I still share excerpt from the Life-study or another LSM publications in many platforms of social media.
Are my actions considered as idolatry?
I'm afraid I will partake of idolatry of Lee's teaching by reading them more than Bible directly. I'm afraid I will just have human teaching more than the Lord’s Himself. So, should I stop reading LSM publications and stop sharing them? I feel like I'm under curse of idolatry of Lee. I feel like have no peace until now.
What should I do?

Hi Truthseeker,

It's a great joy to see that God, in His mercy, has revealed this to you. I’ve been out of the Local Church of Witness Lee for about two years now, and with time, I've come to realize that the teachings of Watchman Nee and Witness Lee do more harm than good. The teachings they promote are fundamentally flawed. Once, I held their teachings in high regard and considered them profound truths. Now, I see them as twisted, dangerous, and heretical.

These teachings include concepts like man becoming God, the idea of "dispensing and mingling," God's economy, the practice of excising our spirits and getting out of our minds, the subjective feelings of life and death, the so-called "ground of the church," overcomers and 1000 year punishment in the outer darkness, the belief that Christ became the life-giving Spirit to enter the human spirit, and practices like pray-reading and calling on the name of the Lord, to name just a few. Their loaded language and invented complex terminology is harmful too. Instead of bringing freedom from sin or making me more like Christ, these teachings instilled fear, guilt, confusion, spiritual pride, and a distorted understanding of God and His will.

In Matthew 5:13, the Lord says: "You are the salt of the earth. But if the salt loses its saltiness, how can it be made salty again? It is no longer good for anything, except to be thrown out and trampled underfoot." Salt loses its saltiness when it is contaminated with foreign elements like sand or dirt. Once this happens, it becomes useless and must be discarded.

Similarly, the teachings of Watchman Nee and Witness Lee are like that. The Bible has been diluted with human opinions, philosophy, and even deceptive demonic teachings. You will be much better off if you discard these teachings altogether and start afresh by reading the Bible diligently and humbly, like a child. In addition to the Bible, you may find helpful to read various Christian books by a range of authors. When I first left the LC, I read some books by authors who had similar experiences—those who had been trapped by false teachings and controlling churches but were eventually delivered by God. They shared valuable lessons that I found very helpful.

There are many excellent, Bible-based books available that can provide support and wisdom in various areas of life, such as dealing with emotional traumas, overcoming addictions, handling conflicts, parenting, marriage, friendships, church involvement, service, finances, and more. In the LC, we were often discouraged or prevented from accessing this wealth of spiritual wisdom. Now, we have the freedom to explore and benefit from these resources, and they can offer valuable support and guidance on our spiritual journey and in everyday life.

However, we must read these books with discernment and never allow them to replace the Bible. The Bible should always be our primary source of truth and guidance, with other books serving to complement our understanding and growth in faith.

I honestly just continue to be amazed at the level of “high” that the local church leaders are at. It’s absolutely astonishing! Nether are they able to hear anyone, nor are they interested in actually going through real history and verifying the things that their men said to them.

I read an article on LSM about needing to correct everyone who is outside the Leeism, because they are lost and need to be recovered. I often wonder: why these men always seek to offer a correction to everyone, BUT FAIL CONSTANTLY to receive any corrections from everyone who tells them anything?

Here is a basic principle that Jesus taught, but unfortunately it doesn’t apply to the leadership of the Lords Recovery movement:
“Matthew 7:5.
You hypocrite, first take the log out of your own eye, and then you will see clearly to take the speck out of your brother's eye.”

Their eye have such huge logs in them that they no longer can even consider opening them, let alone receiving any kind of correction or anything that Lee has installed. It is dead, there is no Gods speaking or no Gods leading! It’s all about what the Lee said, every article posted, every message spoken, every HWMR published.

The meeting hall of “THE church in San Antonio”, is just a total imagination of some lost men, lifting themselves up to feel better than others, taking money from the people under the name of Jesus while building an empire for the Lee clan. It’s feels & sounds disgusting reading about it, let alone seeing it every day or driving by it. I wonder a lot of things, but of one thing that I’m pretty certain: listening to anyone or anything that comes from the institution known as the LSM or the Lords Recovery, is like taking hemorrhoids medicine when you have a cough, or getting a chemotherapy when you have a toothache!

[Bible-believer]

Yes, you should.

[countmeworthy]

Originally Posted by Bible-believer

Yes, you should.

I agree. The more we read the scriptures, the Word of God ourselves, God the Holy Spirit will give us individually understanding of what He is saying. It is good to ask the Holy Spirit to teach us, to open our eyes to understand the Word of God.

God has also anointed good Godly teachers who also help us with understanding the scriptures. We should ask the LORD to lead us to them But we are not to put them on a pedestal and idolize them! We should also ask the Holy Spirit of Truth to lead us away from false teachings that could toss us to and fro with every wind of doctrine out there. And we don’t want to be tossed to and fro with every wind of doctrine.

I once heard a teacher say “the Word of God was written FOR US all. SOME of it is written to us But not all of it is written to us”. Case in point: God required animal, sacrifices, grain, offerings, peace, offerings all kinds of offerings in the Old Testament to be taken to the priest and the High Priest. That was written to the Israelite Jews. Not to us. But it is good for us to know this.

And as We all know, Jesus is not only our Great High Priest, but He is the ultimate sacrifice for our sins.

Praise be to the Father. Praise be to the Son. Praise be to the Holy Spirit THREE in ONE

BLESSINGS Be upon all of us through Christ Jesus, our King of Glory

Carol G

[LeftLR]

You should stop reading LSM published materials and stop attending any "Local Church" or any meeting associated with Living Stream Ministry or Witness Lee's teaching. Lord's Recovery movement ONLY based on Witness Lee's writing and his speeches. Witness Lee is not a prophet, he is a regular man.

[Ex-LC-Rosemead]

You should at least learn how to check what you are getting from them, that is the Life-Study messages and other writings from LSM. I think the problem with many of us that were in the LC in the past was we did not check the doctrine we were getting from WL & LSM and confirming it with the Bible. The teachings provided by WL & LSM sounded so good and so right, because they use a lot of bible verses in their material, that we neglected to double check what they were putting out as truth and new revelations. We took it without questioning it for a long time. But once we started checking the doctrines of WL & LSM their ideas and theories began to fall apart quickly.

So the point is to check what you are getting and not take it as truth and new revelation because it sounds so good and spiritual. For example one of the doctrines put out from WL & LSM, in my time the mid 1980 was the word "zoe" refers to the divine life. But if you check this word out in the bible it means life in general, because animals, fish, plants have "zoe" too! So it can not just mean the divine life. The context in the portion your are reading will help define the meaning of what "life" it is referring to. So be-careful and double check what you are getting. Not all of the teachings are bad but some/many are misleading and you can get caught thinking WL & LSM are so rich but in reality very poor. Someone I heard said the LC is a swamp, nothing fresh coming in and nothing fresh going out.

[JorgeP]

Fraternal greetings. Paul rightly made it clear to us that we put everything to the test and hold on to what is good (1 Thes. 5:23). Thanks to the biblical teaching of exercising the spirit, (without stop my humanity, but still using it) I have been able to advance on a personal level in the discernment of spiritual things and the things of the human life. Although I hardly read the recovery materials now, when I can I want to read all the notes of the recovery version to test them and retain the good. All ministries have strengths and weaknesses, and it is necessary to learn to filter and discern. Being active in the church life in this ministry, through my personal fellowship, I was able to discern many things that were wrong, thank to abundant personal reading of the literal written Word.

Now I am investigating the ministry of the brothers of Onebody life, directed by Henry Hon and it can be seen that the good that the brothers received as a legacy of the recovery ministry, they are knowing how to combine with their new ministerial endeavor, since they are brothers who lasted many years in the recovery movement. It may help if you continue researching the recovery material to take the comments as what they are "comments" and not take them for granted as truth simply because they are in the footnote in the recovery Bible. In fact, the recovery version is a excellent translation, and I continue reading it as well as others that I read before other versions.

Now that I have a more mature multi-ministerial vision, I continue to learn to see ministerial strengths and weaknesses and I take what I consider good and what I consider bad I reject. We cannot say that everything in this ministry is bad or that everything is good. This is why it is necessary to learn to be flexible when it comes to investigating secondary topics, and regarding the main topic, we must all be clear and be radical in maintaining our common faith, which is basically that we believe that Jesus is the only true God and only Him and no one else. The rest can be debated everything else, having empathy and brotherly love with points of view and perspectives different from ours.

I think that something that took me awhile to realize after I left the movement, is that one of the main reasons (besides $$$) that they have been and continue to publish books written by Lee, because all of the books that were written before his death aren’t palatable for current generations. I know it may sound crazy, but a mere overview of the old books would have people cringe at the ineptitude, lack of serious biblical and historical support for the statements made by their MOTA. Solution for this? Rewrite, desensitize, mute, change statements, install subscription firewall to prevent most people even within the movement from getting to the roots of the teachings, beliefs and principles.

It’s a proven strategy that huge majority of people will never dig down to get to the bottom of things, especially if you keep telling them that they aren’t capable of understanding anything unless it’s provided to them by those who “know”. Just read the HWMRs, then if you feel as if you matured a bit you graduate to the Ministry Magazine, and then if you able to eat real meat, read WL directly. Took me years to get to the point where I could see all of the fakeness, all of the propping up of the empty claims, see all of the duct tape and bailing wire that they have to use to sell, make one believe their narrative. It’s when I started reading WL and WN directly, I left the movement within 6 months, and stopped reading it all. I got rid of everything that has their name on it, and it’s the best decision I’ve ever made!

[Ohio]

The writings of Née and Lee contain a multitude of riches from God’s Word, mainly because they received from others and passed them onto us. I personally believe that 19th Century England was the period of the greatest church scholarship. Many deficiencies among the Reformers were corrected and many of the challenges of the German high critiques were answered.

For example, many Recovery teachings were sourced with Robert Govett. Anyone who reads his works will realize the balanced genius in his approach to scripture. But he was not alone, numerous others in Victorian England (post-Napoleon) were called by God to search the scriptures. So all the Née/Lee teachings based on these works are very good.

But when they developed their own doctrines, the errors were introduced. This forum is filled with discussions sifting thru Née/Lee teachings to determine what is healthy and what must be discarded. To simply discard everything, as some have done, is to throw out scripture also. Error and truth are so interwoven in the Recovery that many find it impossible to discern. Comparing all Recovery teachings to scripture is a healthy, worthwhile, lifelong endeavor.

[Ohio]

Originally Posted by countmeworthy

I agree. The more we read the scriptures, the Word of God ourselves, God the Holy Spirit will give us individually understanding of what He is saying. It is good to ask the Holy Spirit to teach us, to open our eyes to understand the Word of God.

God has also anointed good Godly teachers who also help us with understanding the scriptures. We should ask the LORD to lead us to them But we are not to put them on a pedestal and idolize them! We should also ask the Holy Spirit of Truth to lead us away from false teachings that could toss us to and fro with every wind of doctrine out there. And we don’t want to be tossed to and fro with every wind of doctrine.

I once heard a teacher say “the Word of God was written FOR US all. SOME of it is written to us But not all of it is written to us”. Case in point: God required animal, sacrifices, grain, offerings, peace, offerings all kinds of offerings in the Old Testament to be taken to the priest and the High Priest. That was written to the Israelite Jews. Not to us. But it is good for us to know this.

This is a great saying concerning the Bible. It goes like this: The OT was written for us, and the NT was written to us.

Originally Posted by Ohio

The writings of Née and Lee contain a multitude of riches from God’s Word……

Here are some riches that I heard, claiming to be directly from the Word of God.
(Paraphrasing many years of brainwashing)

- “If dogs begets dogs, and cats beget cats, it’s only make sense that God begets “gods”. That’s the extent of theological achievement in Lords recovery”.

- “We don’t know much of church history, but what we know is what Lee told us, and it’s 100% truth”

- “We don’t believe in anything about right or wrong, good or evil, we just go with the “flow” - as it pertains to our bank accounts”

- “We don’t need a men’s, women’s, marriage & family ministries, we just need to make sure that the “coworkers” and blended bros are treated well and served on every occasion”

- “We don’t hide the abuse in our movement, we just covering it in the proper way.”

- “We don’t meddle in the affairs of each locality, we just quarantine them for disobedience of the proper order”

- “We don’t offer any apologies for our actions, we just sue and demonize those who cut us red handed”

- “We built an empire on the backs of many people, while collecting six figure salaries. That’s just a cost of being Levites in this age turning generation”

- “We don’t want anyone that would ask questions, we love the people who are at peace with whatever we tell them”

- “We aren’t a cult, we paid a lot of money to have that be the thing of the past.”

- “We have deeper pockets than most groups, we even fully employ a team of lawyers to prove it.”

- “We follow orthopraxy as prescribed by our founders, because everyone else is deformed and insufficient”

- “We follow the recovered economy - in which the people are a commodity, building a community of likeminded and mingled expression. One day when we reach the peak of godhood, the tower will be completed.”

- “We don’t believe or follow any holidays, we use them as feasts. It’s an excellent opportunity to eat the best chicken without feather and bones. Unlike other Christians who haven’t seen the proper way to separate things - like Lee could.”

- “We quote Lee in every single message, article & video. Since Christianity asks WWJD, we look up on what Lee did and said.”

- “We don’t know much about grace and love, but we can offer a spot at the Grace Gardens-and you will love it! We spent millions of the church money on it, and it’s pretty exclusive honor to be there next to the founder of our movement”

- “We spent millions on the purchase of real estate around the world, - but unlike McDonalds, our processed food are highest of quality. - I’m loving it- will be the mantra in your future. Just don’t watch Super Size Me or visit LCD forum, it’s full of death!”

- “We have more websites than DT and KH combined during the election season. However, don’t worry about that. The internet is evil and death. We just there to take away ground and create proper narrative regarding our plans and visions”

- “We prefer to go after young people on campuses, women and children - it’s just kind of logical in this spiritual war!”

- “We are the only lampstand in a city, regardless if 99.9% of people within a mile radius never seen the bulb turn on even for a moment”

- “We don’t mind you coming over for a visit. But leaving your mind at home would enhance your experience, enjoyment and your emotional responses. After all, you probably can’t even know without us if what you experiencing is of the right tree!”

[JorgeP]

Originally Posted by JorgeP

Fraternal greetings. Paul rightly made it clear to us that we put everything to the test and hold on to what is good (1 Thes. 5:23). Thanks to the biblical teaching of exercising the spirit, (without stop my humanity, but still using it) I have been able to advance on a personal level in the discernment of spiritual things and the things of the human life. Although I hardly read the recovery materials now, when I can I want to read all the notes of the recovery version to test them and retain the good. All ministries have strengths and weaknesses, and it is necessary to learn to filter and discern. Being active in the church life in this ministry, through my personal fellowship, I was able to discern many things that were wrong, thank to abundant personal reading of the literal written Word.

Now I am investigating the ministry of the brothers of Onebody life, directed by Henry Hon and it can be seen that the good that the brothers received as a legacy of the recovery ministry, they are knowing how to combine with their new ministerial endeavor, since they are brothers who lasted many years in the recovery movement. It may help if you continue researching the recovery material to take the comments as what they are "comments" and not take them for granted as truth simply because they are in the footnote in the recovery Bible. In fact, the recovery version is a excellent translation, and I continue reading it as well as others that I read before other versions.

Now that I have a more mature multi-ministerial vision, I continue to learn to see ministerial strengths and weaknesses and I take what I consider good and what I consider bad I reject. We cannot say that everything in this ministry is bad or that everything is good. This is why it is necessary to learn to be flexible when it comes to investigating secondary topics, and regarding the main topic, we must all be clear and be radical in maintaining our common faith, which is basically that we believe that Jesus is the only true God and only Him and no one else. The rest can be debated everything else, having empathy and brotherly love with points of view and perspectives different from ours.

Greetings brothers, blessings, when I quoted the verse I made a mistake placing 1 Thes. 5:23 and I was referring to 1 Thes. 5:21. I want to take advantage of the opportunity to encourage you to persevere in reading, research and in the exercise of discerning things, retaining the good and discarding the bad. Although this forum is primarily about discussing the recovery movement, I believe that the gospel is intended to unite and not divide the Body of Christ.

This is why secondary topics that are not directly the person and work of Jesus can be freely debated but should not divide us, since unity is only in the person and work of Jesus. When we seek communion with other believers, let us persevere in the only communion we have in common, which is in the person and work of Jesus. One of the things that I now realize is that all ministry, preaching, service and Christian work must have as its goal unifying believers and not dividing them, even the debate of secondary issues should not have as its objective to divide us but rather to seek the truth in terms of topics that are not so clear.

How beneficial it is to allow the Lord to shape our attitude and perspective to see that the gospel really unites believers and does not divide them. Let us be more prudent when debating so that the effect is positive in persevering in unity and not encourage more division than there is.

I’m curious if Lords Recovery used racial and prejudice excuses why people refuse to follow their beliefs? I haven’t heard that before, but it must be a new low of how they defend their cultish behavior and practices. It’s in the article below.

https://shepherdingwords.com/why-we-...d-witness-lee/

It’s all about $$$$$$$$!

I found it interesting looking and reading over the LSMs mission statement on their tax filling that their purpose of existence is:

-“1 Briefly describe the organization’s mission: TO PROMOTE THE ENLIGHTENMENT AND REVELATION REGARDING THE BIBLE AS INTERPRETED BY THE TEACHINGS OF WATCHMAN NEE AND WITNESS LEE, AND TO PREPARE, SELECT AND DISTRIBUTE INFORMATION OF ALL KINDS WHICH MAY BE USEFUL FOR THE GROWTH OF SPIRITIAL LIFE AMONG CHRISTIANS.”

So much for preaching the gospel. They rather promote blind men and sell books! Over 100 million worth of them.

https://projects.propublica.org/nonp...9300223/IRS990

PS.
I wanted to see how much money did all “Lord’s Recovery” organizations, churches, non profits benefited from covid money during the past 3-4 years. If someone has that info, please post the links.

[Ex-LC-Rosemead]

I think their tax info says it all, thank you for the link. I was not only amazed but shocked at that information. I downloaded it so that the information would not be lost in case your link is broken or lost due to time.

Hi everyone, thank you so much for sharing, and I sympathise with your disillusionment and the polarisation that religious denominations have caused to our understanding of and relationship with God. Surely, we are all imperfect creations by God to be saved by Him.

For this matter, I do not find this community actually helpful, because the users here are playing LC and non-LCs against each other, when we are all rightfully and solely followers of God (and should we say, through Christ we know, experience, and exhibit God). We should never forget that, no matter from where, who, or what we obtain the knowledge, wisdom, and revelation of God, we are all followers of God to be judged by Him alone, not by any of us.

We must recognise that our relationship with God is fundamentally personal, so that when we enter into fellowship among the humankind, we do not take charge at others for their false beliefs and pretensions but to reflect upon our fellowship and continually refine our faith amid this treacherous and sinful journey we call 'human life' while on the way to His kingdom. In this regard, personally, I am open to all sorts of ideas and claims to being the 'word' of God. I want to debate, reflect, compare, and continually assess my faith towards God.

To this end, I am open to learning about and expose myself to the various interpretations, revelations, and translations of the 'word' of God. I must confess I am recently exposed to the Lord's Recovery, LSM, the Life Study, and things related to Witness Lee. I care not about his history or background because all is irrelevant in front of God and as a student of God.

I have looked through most of the user's comments and am particularly struck by ThankfulForever777's comment about the false teachings of Witness Lee and his translated bible:

"These teachings include concepts like man becoming God, the idea of "dispensing and mingling," God's economy, the practice of excising our spirits and getting out of our minds, the subjective feelings of life and death, the so-called "ground of the church," overcomers and 1000 year punishment in the outer darkness, the belief that Christ became the life-giving Spirit to enter the human spirit, and practices like pray-reading and calling on the name of the Lord, to name just a few. Their loaded language and invented complex terminology is harmful too. Instead of bringing freedom from sin or making me more like Christ, these teachings instilled fear, guilt, confusion, spiritual pride, and a distorted understanding of God and His will."

Can any of you, please, tell me what is wrong with the teachings here? Are there different interpretations? Particularly, are these things ("the belief that Christ became the life-giving Spirit to enter the human spirit"; "practices like pray-reading and calling on the name of the Lord, to name just a few"). Are they not quoted and mentioned in the bible (and in which bible)? If they are indeed mentioned in the bible, then can you please explain how are the quotes misused by authors to misled individuals into believing in the concept of the Triune God? I am not convinced that anything ThankfulForever777 raises here is actually harmful. Are these inventions from Witness Lee himself? If it's invention, can one be judged wrong if one has a revelation? And who is to judge whether one's revelation is faithful to God other than God Himself?

Could a fellow believer of God please help clarify? I am new and want to learn about and reflect on the various ideas in the journey to His kingdom.

[Nell]

Originally Posted by UnregisteredPurity

Hi everyone, thank you so much for sharing, and I sympathise with your disillusionment and the polarisation that religious denominations have caused to our understanding of and relationship with God. Surely, we are all imperfect creations by God to be saved by Him.

For this matter, I do not find this community actually helpful, because the users here are playing LC and non-LCs against each other, when we are all rightfully and solely followers of God (and should we say, through Christ we know, experience, and exhibit God). We should never forget that, no matter from where, who, or what we obtain the knowledge, wisdom, and revelation of God, we are all followers of God to be judged by Him alone, not by any of us.

Yet here you are, passing judgment on us, regarding matters that you admittedly know little to nothing about.
...

Could a fellow believer of God please help clarify? I am new and want to learn about and reflect on the various ideas in the journey to His kingdom.

Perhaps this should have been your opening statement, instead of your last.

If you truly desire clarification, there is but one way to the Kingdom of God. That is, through God Himself. The teachings of men are just that...man made interpretations of the Bible. You might start out by reading the gospel of Matthew. Don't skip the genealogy. Look at the names of those lives who preceded Jesus. This is how the Kingdom of God came about.

Otherwise, it seems that you are yet another new guy who has already made up your mind, come onto this forum to lecture those of us who have had our hearts and souls ripped to pieces, lives and families destroyed, due to trying to follow the teachings and practices of Witness Lee's Local Church. Note that I included "practices" and "teachings" of Witness Lee and his Local Church.

My suggestion is this. Since you know enough to lecture us about Lee's teachings, make a committment to find out for yourself what the LC practices are like and join up with a Local Church yourself. Take your questions there. Ask them to explain their teachings vs. practices to you, with verses. Experience being shunned and ostracized yourself when you ask questions or ask for explanations of what they're teaching.

The Local Church cares more about Lee's teachings than those of us who tried to live the Christian life following Lee. Every new guy should keep this in mind.

Check out the topic on this forum "Writings of Former Members" to get a first hand account of the fruits of Witness Lee's "ministry." After all, ministers are known by their fruit...not by their teachings.

Start here.

Nell
Admin/Moderator

This is a first for me....recommending that someone join the Local Church.

[bearbear]

Originally Posted by UnregisteredPurity

Can any of you, please, tell me what is wrong with the teachings here? Are there different interpretations? Particularly, are these things ("the belief that Christ became the life-giving Spirit to enter the human spirit";

Here's a counter point to this doctrine from Jane Anderson: https://lemonstograpes.com/forums/to...-as-a-heretic/

Romans 8:11
"But if the Spirit of him who raised Jesus from the dead dwells in you, he who raised Christ Jesus from the dead will also give life to your mortal bodies through his Spirit who dwells in you"

Romans 8:11 describes a Spirit that raised Christ from the dead and dwells in believers, giving life to their mortal bodies.
This verse implies that the Spirit existed before Christ’s resurrection is the same Spirit that raised Christ and now dwells in us.

"practices like pray-reading and calling on the name of the Lord, to name just a few").

"And when you pray, do not use vain repetitions as the heathen do. For they think that they will be heard for their many words."
Matthew 6:7

The practice of calling on the Lord repetitively as the way it is practiced in the LC is the opposite of how Jesus taught us to pray.

Calling on the Lord is more than saying the words repetitively, it issues forth from a heart which seeks God for salvation and results in repentance and turning away from wickedness to the Lord.

Isaiah 55:6-7
"Seek the Lord while he may be found; call upon him while he is near; let the wicked forsake his way, and the unrighteous man his thoughts; let him return to the Lord, that he may have compassion on him, and to our God, for he will abundantly pardon."

Psalm 145:18-19
"The Lord is near to all who call on him, to all who call on him in truth. He fulfills the desire of those who fear him; he also hears their cry and saves them."

2 Timothy 2:22
"So flee youthful passions and pursue righteousness, faith, love, and peace, along with those who call on the Lord from a pure heart."

In fact Jesus disowns people who call him Lord but do not repent of wickedness in Matthew 7:21-23. It's not that they were once saved and lost their salvation but that they never had it in the first place. Jesus says he never knew them so they never belonged to him and they were never his sheep and hence they do not inherit eternal life.

Matthew 7:21-23
“Not everyone who says to me, ‘Lord, Lord,’ will enter the kingdom of heaven, but only the one who does the will of my Father who is in heaven. Many will say to me on that day, ‘Lord, Lord, did we not prophesy in your name and in your name drive out demons and in your name perform many miracles?’ Then I will tell them plainly, ‘I never knew you. Away from me, you evildoers!’

John 10:27-28
"My sheep hear my voice, and I know them, and they follow me. I give them eternal life, and they will never perish, and no one will snatch them out of my hand."

So if Witness Lee got the conditions for salvation wrong you can imagine why this could be a big deal. He could be misleading thousands of people into false conversions. He could be giving people false assurance of salvation, who think they are saved but really aren't truly born again.

https://www.middletownbiblechurch.or...e/freegrKS.pdf

Matthew 15:14
Let them alone; they are blind guides. And if the blind lead the blind, both will fall into a pit.”