MOTA - Lurkers Allowed!

[leastofthese]

Just kidding - Lurkers WELCOME!!!

I'd love to hear from people inside the LSM churches. I've cut and pasted a good portion of text from afaithfulword.org article on the MOTA - click the link below to access the entire text.

Do folks in the Local Churches still hold to this theology?

Would you consider this central to your relationship with Christ?

If the concept of MOTA is flawed, or Lee isn't a MOTA - how does that change how your church would function?

https://afaithfulword.org/articles/V...ster/#Minister

AThere is only one blueprint and one master builder in the proper, correct building. The only master builder is the architect who has the blueprint in his hand. This is true in every age. The Lord issues the blueprint, the revelation, and the utterance, and through one man, He supervises and completes the building work. All those who do not build, speak, or serve according to the blueprint released by the Lord through that man are void of light and revelation and are not serving according to the vision. Today in the Lord's recovery, some are preaching and publishing messages. The portions in their messages that impart light, revelation, and the life supply invariably derive their source from this ministry in the Lord's recovery. Other than those portions, there is no revelation or vision in their writings. ( The Vision of the Age , p. 30)

To say that there is a unique minister of the age who is the one used by God to present the vision of the age does not negate the truth that there are many ministers (2 Cor. 3:6) participating in the service of the one New Testament ministry (Acts 1:17, 25; 2 Cor. 4:1; Eph. 4:12; 1 Tim. 1:12). In fact, the article "The Content of the Vision of the Age" in The Ministry Magazine affirms this truth:

We are here in the church life, and this ministry of the age is being carried out through us. (Benson Phillips, "The Content of the Vision of the Age", The Ministry Magazine, vol. 7, no. 6, August 2003, p. 36)

Had the term "minister of the age" been defined as anyone participating in carrying out the ministry of the age, then all of the saints who have been perfected "unto the work of the ministry" (Eph. 4:12), who are standing with the Lord according to the vision of the age, would be "ministers of the age". That, however, is not the meaning of the term as the co-workers defined and used it. The term "minister of the age" was presented with a specific denotation and to reinterpret it is to deny the function of the five-talented members the Lord has given to His Body. In the co-workers' usage, the minister of the age is not just a person serving according to the vision of the age; he is the person the Lord uses to bring the vision of the age to His church, the person through whom the recovery of the vision advances.

... in every age there is a particular vision. This vision is released not through many persons but through one person who is the minister of that age. There is the vision of the age, and the one who receives this vision becomes the minister of the age. All the others who are with him are led through this one, and the vision is released to them. Then, all together, they speak out this one vision according to the leading of the one to whom the Lord has chosen to give the vision of the age. (Benson Phillips, "The Content of the Vision of the Age", The Ministry Magazine, August 2003, vol. 7, no. 6, p. 34)

This understanding matches Brother Lee's word on the vision of the age given in 1986. On pages 31 through 36 of The Vision of the Age, Brother Lee gave a brief sketch of the Old Testament showing that in every age there was a unique vision released through one man, starting from Adam and continuing through Abel, Enosh, Enoch, Noah, Abraham, Isaac, Jacob, Joseph, Moses, etc. He further demonstrated the same principle in the New Testament record of John the Baptist, the Lord Jesus, Peter, and Paul. He then applied the same principle to the history of the Lord's recovery beginning from the time of Martin Luther:

...At the time of the Reformation in the 1520s, when Luther was raised up, anyone who wanted to serve under a vision had to join himself to Luther. In the seventeenth century, anyone who wanted to serve under a vision had to join himself to Madame Guyon. In the eighteenth century, anyone who wanted to serve under a vision had to join himself to Zinzendorf. Even John Wesley received help from Zinzendorf. In the nineteenth century, J. N. Darby took the lead among the Brethren, and the vision was with him. In the twentieth century, the vision came to us. ( The Vision of the Age , p. 27)

The author of "On 'The Ministry of the Age' and 'The Minister of the Age': What did Watchman Nee Teach?" completely ignores Brother Lee's fellowship in The Vision of the Age , as well as all of Brother Lee's speaking on the uniqueness of Watchman Nee's ministry. It appears to be his intent to pit Brother Nee against Brother Lee based on Brother Nee's use of an indefinite article. This is indefensible in just the same way it is to argue that "a life-giving Spirit" in 1 Corinthians 15:45b does not refer to the Spirit in the Godhead. 1 It is noteworthy that in Brother Nee's identification of Luther as "a minister of the age" and of Darby as "a minister of the age," there is no overlap and no one else identified as a minister of their respective ages, even though there were many others serving and speaking contemporaneously with them. The point is that a minister of the age brings forth the vision of the age to govern the living and service of God's people in that age.

The release of the vision of the age is the sounding of the one trumpet to lead the Lord's people. The sounding of this trumpet must be unique and the one taking the lead to sound the trumpet is the minister of the age.

...God would not send out trumpeters to sound different trumpets for His army to fight the battle (1 Cor. 14:8; Num. 10:9; Judg. 7:18). This would be confusion. God is wiser than this. He will raise up only one trumpeter to sound one calling, one voice, so that His people on the earth can march on. ( The Testimony of Jesus , p. 99)

Why is this important? It is more than mere semantics. To designate a certain person as a "minister of the age" is to say that he is the person through whom the Lord's up-to-date vision is being or has been released. As a result, that person and the vision released through him exercise a leadership role in advancing the Lord's move in His recovery. The actual leadership in the Lord's recovery rests not so much in a person, but more in a governing vision.

Since we have the up-to-date and ultimate vision, we should closely follow after it. We are absolutely not following a man; rather, we are following a vision. It is grossly wrong to say that we are following a certain person. We are following a vision that belongs to the present age. It is God's consummate vision. ( The Vision of the Age , p. 49)

Therefore, you are not following a man; rather, you are standing with the Lord's ministry. You are following a vision, a vision that matches the age, a vision that inherits all that was in the past and a vision that is all-inclusive. It is up to date, and yet it builds on the past. If you remain in the book of Acts, you may have inherited everything prior to that time, but you are not up to date. Today as we stand here and ponder the revelations unveiled in the Lord's recovery, as we read the publications that are released among us, we can see that they cover everything from the church to God's economy to the New Jerusalem in the new heaven and new earth. This is a bountiful and all-sufficient vision. If you remain in this vision, you are serving according to the vision. If you are not in this vision, you could still be an Apollos, expounding the Scriptures in a powerful way; you could still be a Barnabas, visiting the churches; you could still be a James, serving piously; and you could even be a Peter, who served as the leading apostle. However, you would not be in the vision. ( The Vision of the Age , pp. 52-53)

It seems that those who seek to designate "many different ministers of the age" are seeking to establish their own credentials to lead the Lord's recovery in a direction different from the one delivered to us by Brother Nee and Brother Lee as the vision of the age. Actually, the dissenting ones have departed from this vision. One of the dissenting ones openly advocates returning to the model of the Reformation, a time when there were many different voices with different teachings contending with one another.

...Eventually the Lord raised up Martin Luther, along with many others of his generation. They might have held different views on some matters, but they complemented one another in the same way that Peter, Paul, and John had. (Frank Lin, "God Speaking in Many Portions and in Many Ways," Fellowship Journal, vol. 4, no. 7)

This one is willing to let history sort out the truth. To say this is to no longer stand on the shoulders of those who have gone before, but rather to abandon what the Lord has recovered among us of the practical oneness of the Body of Christ and to return to a pattern that has resulted in division after division. From as early as the first century, the failure of the church and even of the workers to enter into the vision of the age released through Paul became the cause of a general falling away and of division in the Body of Christ. This pattern has been repeated again and again throughout church history.

Why is it that there were divisions even from the time while the apostles, including Paul and John, were still here on this earth? Divisions began to take place from the last part of the first century and have continued to take place until the present century. There have been divisions after divisions, which have caused all kinds of confusion. What is the reason for all these divisions? They all came about simply because of different so-called ministries...

We need to be very clear that the foundation of all the denominations and the factor that produces each denomination are their different ministries. If all the Christians today would be willing for the Lord to take away their different ministries, they would all be one. The basic factor of all the divisions, their very root, is different ministries.... ( Elders' Training, Book 1: The Ministry of the New Testament , p. 14)

We need to see this principle throughout the entire Christian era. All the troubles, divisions, and confusions came from the one source of the tolerance of different ministries. Many Christian teachers have known the peril of different ministries; nevertheless, they have tolerated them. There has been a tolerance of different ministries. In the Lord's recovery, for the long run, we should not believe that this kind of creeping in of the different ministries would never take place. Rather, we must be on the alert. Such a peril is ahead of us. If we are not watchful, if we are careless, in one way or another the enemy would creepingly use some means, some ways, to bring in different ministries. Such a thing would end the Lord's recovery. ( Elders' Training, Book 1: The Ministry of the New Testament , p. 16)

Nevertheless, all of us need to realize that we are in the Lord's recovery. The first characteristic of the Lord's recovery is oneness. Once we lose the oneness, we are through. If we lose the oneness, we are no longer the Lord's recovery. Therefore, we need to see that there is a peril of different teachings and different opinions damaging the oneness. ( Elders' Training, Book 1: The Ministry of the New Testament , p. 29)

There is no doubt that Brother Lee considered Watchman Nee to be the minister of the age. Brother Lee's concluding word in his biography of Watchman Nee says: