Witness Lee

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Witness Lee (李常受 Pinyin: Lǐ Chángshòu) (1905-June 9, 1997) was a Chinese Christian preacher and church leader associated with the Local churches movement and Living Stream Ministry. He was born in Chefoo, Shandong Province, China, in 1905, to a Southern Baptist family. He converted to Christianity in 1925 after hearing the preaching of Peace Wang, and almost immediately came under the influence of Watchman Nee. He became a full-time co-worker of Nee in 1933, and moved to Shanghai to be with Nee in 1934. In the late 1940s as the Communists were advancing in China, Witness Lee was sent by Nee to Taiwan in order to continue their ministry there. During the 1950s, Lee worked with T. Austin-Sparks who held conferences with him in Taiwan in 1955 and 1957. However, although they were united in their views on Christ as life to the believers, they differed sharply on their views of the church, with Witness Lee teaching and emphasizing one-city one-church, and Austin-Sparks emphasizing the independence of individual congregations.

Witness Lee died in June 1997 in Southern California.

Contents

[edit] Expansion of the Church

In 1948, Lee extended God's ministry from Taiwan to cities in Malaysia and Indonesia. His ministry reached Manila in 1950, Japan in 1957, the United States in 1958, Brazil in 1959, Canada in 1963, South Korea in 1965, New Zealand and Australia in 1970, Germany and Nigeria in 1971, and Ghana in 1972.

Witness Lee visited the U.S. in 1958 and 1960. During this time he met with a number of Christian fellowships in Los Angeles, San Francisco, and New York. In 1962, Lee returned to the U.S. and established his residence in Los Angeles, helping to raise up the local church in Los Angeles. He established the Stream Publishers in 1965 (which later became Living Stream Ministry in Anaheim, California) primarily as a publishing vehicle for his and Nee's spoken and recorded messages. He gave numerous conferences, mostly in the United States and Asia.

Lee's ministry is recorded in hundreds of tapes, videos, and books, which are mostly edited transcriptions of his spoken messages. His major work, The Life-Study of the Bible (complete online text, online audio), comprising 32 volumes, is also an edited transcription. Late in his life Lee began the "crystallization-study" of the Bible to review and expand on the major points ("crystals") of the Bible that he had taught throughout his lifetime, but was unable to finish it. Today this study is being carried on by a number of Lee's co-workers at Living Stream Ministry.

[edit] The Lord's recovery

Among themselves, Lee's followers in Christ call their movement "the Lord's recovery." Lee believed that one of the primary items that God used Nee and himself to recover was the oneness of all believers in Christ and the practical expression of this oneness in the practice of the Local churches. The term "Lord's recovery" refers to God's move in time which Lee believe produced his practice of the Local churches. Witness Lee believed it could be traced back at least to Martin Luther and the reformers, and continued through others such as Madame Guyon, Count Zinzendorf, the Moravian Brethren, John Nelson Darby, and the Plymouth Brethren, as well as themselves.

[edit] One in Christ

Although both Nee and Lee taught that, doctrinally, all Christians are one in Christ, they also strongly advocated the teaching that all Christians should also be practically one by having only one eldership in each city (with many elders) and accepting all believers in Christ as members of the church in each city regardless of racial, cultural, social, doctrinal or any other differences. Nee called this practice meeting on "the ground of oneness" (see Local churches), and Lee carried on in this after being sent by Nee out of China. Because of their unwillingness to compromise in this matter, other Christian organizations distanced themselves from Nee and Lee both in and outside of China. This, however, did not diminish the Local churches ministry, as they cared little for acceptance and validation by their contemporaries in mainstream Christianity.

[edit] Controversy

Some aspects of Nee's and Lee's ministry are considered to be controversial by many Christians. For example, Nee's teaching of the "ground of locality" was not accepted by mainstream Christianity. Congregations affiliated with the Local churches movement and Living Stream Ministry have been accused of being exclusive and divisive, even cultish. Also, Lee's distinctive view of the Trinity has been condemned by numerous observers as being modalistic, which accusations he and others have strongly denied and sought to refute.Moreover, the modalist concept is not found in Witness Lee's teachings, but only in the accusations of others. In a move without regard for contemporary acceptance, Lee declared that God became man in Jesus so that man could express God in Christ (in the life and nature of God, but not in His Godhead).

Followers of Witness Lee (i.e., members of Witness Lee's Local churches) generally respond to these charges by arguing that many passages in the Bible support their beliefs. For example, to demonstrate their belief that "man expresses God in Christ," they cite John 1:12-13 and 2 Peter 1:4, 1, as well as verses in Corinthians and Ephesians.

[edit] External links

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