The Local Church, Recovery Movement, Witness Lee

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Bookends
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The Local Church, Recovery Movement, Witness Lee

Post by Bookends » Wed Mar 04, 2015 6:28 am

A few years ago I ran into a man who is well versed with the teachings of Witness Lee and the Local Church. We had fellowship for a full year, I broke off regular fellowship because of their teaching I disagree with and was tired of the disagreements. However, we are friends and keep in touch, and I sincerely believe he loves the Lord. His name is Mike, so I'll refer to him as Mike.

Mike seems to teach "Greasy Grace" or "easy believism" and "Lordship Salvation" or "inward sanctification." Some that aren't familiar with WL's teachings my ask how is that possible? For those who don't know, they treat the soul and spirit of man as two separate parts of man that need salvation. Meaning that, a man could receive eternal life through the salvation of their spirit, this they would consider the individuals "born again" moment, in which they receive eternal life. Then comes the process of their soul being saved, saved from the self-centered man, wickedness of the heart, and "entering into the life of Christ, or sanctification of the old man into the new man, inner growth, etc. etc. They say you can be saved eternally through the spirit, but the soul is a different matter, and those who don't receive the "soul salvation" will go through a 1000 yrs of punishment, remolding, refining (not sure exactly what they call it). Once they go though this 1000 yrs, they have equal status in heaven with the ones who did receive the salvation of the soul.

Of course, I don't accept the "LC" or Mike's view on this matter, especially their "two class" system of saved people and view of eschatology regarding Pre-TRIB, Pre-Mill. etc. etc.

Is anyone here that is familiar with their views and can help me biblically refute his position? I don't recall anywhere in the bible that states that this is a distinction between soul and spirit in regards to salvation. Thank you.
"Was the prodigal son, after his penitential return and forgiveness, less obliged to conform to the laws of his Father’s house than before he left it? No indeed, but more so." A.W. Pink

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Paidion
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Re: The Local Church, Recovery Movement, Witness Lee

Post by Paidion » Thu Mar 05, 2015 1:04 am

For a few months, my wife and I fellowshipped with one of the "local churches." There are many positive aspects of these churches, including the ministry of the body. I must say we really enjoyed it for quite awhile, and we seemed to have been accepted as fellow Christians with full privileges. Then I noticed that there was a resistance to some of my teachings. One of the leaders remarked to me, "We don't accept that teaching." Then they brought in leaders from a "local church" under whose "covering" this local church resided and held a regular church meeting with them. Finally, a letter was sent to me, from four of the local leaders, together with the leaders of the afore-mentioned local church. This letter listed "the six items of the Christian faith" which were considered to be necessary to believe in order to be a "genuine believer." What follows is one of the sentences which was contained in the letter:

“We hold absolutely to the six items of the Christian faith below. Here the specific Christian faith of all genuine believers is clearly defined.”

So it seems that for "the local churches", more is necessary to be a "genuine believer" than simply to be a disciple of Christ and be yielded to Him. One must also subscribe to a particular set of "six items of the Christain faith," as understood by this group to be essential, or as a more formal church might put it, "A genuine believer is one who subscribes to the six items of our creed."
Paidion

Man judges a person by his past deeds, and administers penalties for his wrongdoing. God judges a person by his present character, and disciplines him that he may become righteous.

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backwoodsman
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Re: The Local Church, Recovery Movement, Witness Lee

Post by backwoodsman » Thu Mar 05, 2015 3:14 pm

Your approach may be very different depending on whether he's a dedicated follower of Witness Lee, or a true Christian who still has some respect for the Bible but has simply been taken in and sidetracked by Lee's teachings. In the latter case, you may be able to show him from Scripture where Lee's teachings are wrong, but that won't work nearly as well in the former case because Lee taught that his teachings supercede the Bible.

Either way, I'd suggest doing a bit of research in Lee's writings, all of which are freely available online. A good starting point would be, if you've noticed he frequently uses certain words or phrases when speaking of spiritual things, ("Triune God" or "soulish", for example), search Lee's writings for those terms and read enough to understand what they mean to him and his followers; then you'll be able to refute Lee's teaching from Scripture. In many cases, they use terms that are the same as or very close to those Christians use, but mean something very different to them than to us, in order to lead Christians to think they believe the same things, when in fact their beliefs on many points are very different from, and contrary to, Biblical Christianity.

Witness Lee and his customized Bible (called the Recovery Version) have been discussed here in the past. I'd suggest you find and read through those threads.

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