Witness Lee

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Christianity in China Portal

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 was born again 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 Watchman 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"[citation needed].

Witness Lee's ministry emphasized the experience of "Christ as life"and the practical oneness of the believers as the Body of Christ.[2] Stressing the importance of attending to both these matters, he led churches to be founded and grow under this guidance. He was unbending in his teachings that God's goal is not narrow sectarianism but the Body of Christ. In time, believers began to respond to this conviction, establishing Christian churches that were inclusive in nature and associated with local communities. These "local churches" were soon established throughout all the Western hemisphere and South-East Asia. In recent years a number of new churches have been founded in Russia and in many eastern European countries. The movement is now slowly spreading in the Arabic speaking world, Africa, India, and South Asia.[citation needed]

Contents

[edit] Biography

[edit] Early Years (1922 -1948) (In China)

Born in 1905 in northern China, he was raised in a Christian family. At age 17 he was converted to Christianity and immediately consecrated himself to preach the gospel for the rest of his life[citation needed].

Early in his service, Witness Lee met Watchman Nee, an influential preacher, teacher, and writer. Witness Lee labored together with Watchman Nee under his direction. In 1934 Watchman Nee entrusted Witness Lee with the responsibility for his publication operation, called the Shanghai Gospel Bookroom.

In the year 1934 Witness Lee traveled almost throughout China, preaching the gospel, ministering the Word to believers, and establishing local churches. In Chekiang province of the China, many local churches were established as a result of his labour and ministering there. From the end of 1935 until the summer of 1937, Witness Lee labored to establish churches in Beijing and Tientsin. He also traveled to the far northwestern provinces of Suiyuan, Shanghai, and Shensi to preach the gospel and establish the believers. At the end of 1942 a great revival occurred in Witness Lee’s hometown of Chefoo. Beginning on January 1, 1943, the church met continuously for one hundred days[citation needed]. As a result, over 800 believers consecrated their all to the Lord, some even offering to migrate to remote northwestern China for the gospel. Toward the end of that time, in May 1943, Witness Lee was arrested by the Japanese army and was imprisoned for one month.[citation needed]

[edit] In Taiwan (1949 -1962)

In 1949, Witness Lee was sent by Watchman Nee and his other co-workers to Taiwan. Watchman Nee instructed Witness Lee to continue the former's publishing operation abroad as the Taiwan Gospel Bookroom, which had been publicly recognized as the publisher of Watchman Nee's works outside China. From about 350 believers, newly fled from the mainland, the churches in Taiwan grew to 20,000 in five years[citation needed].

[edit] In USA (1962 -1997)

In 1962 Witness Lee felt led of the Lord to come to the United States, settling in California. During his 35 years of service in the U.S., he ministered in weekly meetings and weekend conferences, delivering several thousand spoken messages. Much of his speaking has since been published as over 400 titles. Many of these have been translated into over 14 languages. He gave his last public conference in February 1997 at the age of 91.

Witness Lee died in June 1997 in Southern California.

[edit] Witness Lee's Ministry and Teachings

Witness Lee himself offered a one sentence summary of his teachings with this quote.[1]

"If we are asked to explain what the recovery is today, we should be able to answer in one simple sentence: The Lord’s recovery is God becoming the flesh, the flesh becoming the life-giving Spirit, and the life-giving Spirit becoming the sevenfold intensified Spirit to build up the church that becomes the Body of Christ and that consummates the New Jerusalem."

Witness Lee believed and taught the two aspects of the Lord's church (local and universal) and testified regarding them. He believed that the local churches are but the expression of the Body of Christ in a locality. According to Lee, the universal aspect of the church was presented when it was revealed by the Lord Jesus in Matthew 16 and by the apostles in the Acts and the Epistles (1 Cor. 12:13). The local aspect of the church was presented when it was revealed by the Lord Jesus in Matthew 18 and by the apostles in Acts (8:1; 13:1; 14:23) , the Epistles (Romans 16:1; 1 Cor. 1:2; Galatians 1:2), and Revelation (1:4; 11).[2]

Witness Lee preached that the apostle Paul addressed Titus as his "genuine child according to the common faith" (1:4). Lee identified this as "the faith that is common to all believers" (Recovery Version, footnote). Jude exhorted the believers to earnestly contend for the faith: "Beloved, while using all diligence to write to you concerning our common salvation, I found it necessary to write to you and exhort you to earnestly contend for the faith once for all delivered to the saints" (Jude 3). Witness Lee stated that this is "not subjective faith as our believing but objective faith as our belief, referring to the things we believe in, the contents of the New Testament as our faith (Acts 6:7; 1 Tim. 1:19, 3:9, 4:1, 5:8, 6:10, 21; 2 Tim. 3:8, 4:7; Titus 1:13), in which we believe for our common salvation. This faith, not any doctrine, has been delivered once for all to the saints".[3]

Witness Lee's most notable publication is the Life-Study of The Bible, a book-by-book expositional commentary that includes a discussion of every book of the Bible. This commentary originated as a series of spoken messages given by Lee over a number of years during an extended series of trainings offered to believers who meet in local churches. After the Life-Study of the Bible was completed, Lee prepared to undertake a Crystallization-Study of the Bible, using messages designed to take a more highly distilled look at the high points, or "crystals", of each book of the Bible. While Lee died before completion of the Crystallization-Study, he entrusted a selection of coworkers to coordinate together in completing the Crystallization-Studies of the Bible, and insuring the continuation of seven annual conferences to expand the "Lord's move and recovery".

[edit] The Lord's Recovery

Among themselves, the Christians in local churches around the globe refer to their movement as "the Lord's recovery."[4] Witness Lee believed that one of the primary items in which God used both Watchman Nee and himself to recover was the need of all believers in Christ to be in oneness. Lee taught that the practical expression of this oneness is realised in the practice of all believers in their city to meet as the church in that city (for e.g. epistles of the apostles addressed to "the church in Ephesus", "the church in Corinth", "the church in Thessalonica", etc.)

The term "Lord's recovery" among these believers refers to a belief in God's moving to recover many vital truths, which include but are not limited to the enjoyment and love of Christ, the function of all members in the church, exercising the human spirit, and the building up of the Body of Christ.[5] Witness Lee believed that the recovery could be traced back as early as to the second century and the early Church reformers, and continued through others such as Montanists (A.D. 156-200), Priscillianists (A.D. 340-385), Paulicians (A.D. 625-800), Bogomils (A.D. 950-1463), Albigenses (A.D. 1150-1300), Waldenses (A.D. 1160-present), John Wycliff (A.D. 1324-1384), John Huss (A.D. 1370-1415), Peter Cheltschizki (A.D. 1390-1452), Martin Luther (1483-1546), Kasper von Schwenckfeld (A.D. 1489-1561), Jean de Labadie (A. D. 1610-1674), George Fox (A.D. 1624-1691), Madame Guyon (A.D. 1648-1717), William Law (A.D. 1686-1761), Count Zinzendorf and the Moravian mission (A.D. 1700-1760), John Wesley (A.D. 1703-1791); Charles Wesley (A.D. 1707-1788), John Nelson Darby and the British Brethren (A.D. 1800-1882), Robert Govett (A.D. 1813-1901), G.H. Pember (A.D. 1837-1910), D.M. Panton (A.D. 1870-1955), Andrew Murray (A.D. 1828-1917), Jessie Penn-Lewis (A.D. 1861-1927), The 1904–1905 Welsh Revival, as well as themselves.[6]

In many instances during spoken messages, Witness Lee taught that the Lord's recovery began as the move of the Holy Spirit beginning with the degradation of the churches in the first and second century in order to keep the testimony of the one Body of Christ and the testimony of the fact of the resurrection (cf. 1 and 2 Timothy, John 17:21). Lee taught that the very incarnation, human living, crucifixion, resurrection, ascension, dispensation, and propagation of Christ is the Lord's recovery of fallen man back to God the Father's purpose in creating man.

[edit] One in Christ

Although both Watchman Nee and Witness 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) (Titus 1:5, Acts 14:23) 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.[3]

[edit] Works

[edit] Published Works

In English there are approximately 200 books by Lee available, published by Living Stream Ministry [4]. During his 35 years of service in the U.S., he ministered in weekly meetings and weekend conferences, delivering several thousand spoken messages. Much of his speaking has since been published as over 400 titles in as many as 14 different languages, such as Chinese, Korean, Spanish, etc. His major work, Life-Study of the Bible, comprises over 25,000 pages of commentary on every book of the Bible from the perspective of the believer's enjoyment and experience of God's divine life in Christ through the Holy Spirit. Witness Lee was the chief editor of a new translation of the New Testament into the Chinese called the Recovery Version (Chinese) and directed the translation of the same into English.

In 1965 Witness Lee founded Living Stream Ministry, a non-profit corporation, located in Anaheim, California, which officially presents his and Watchman Nee's ministry.

Some of his best known works/ books (published by Living Stream Ministry) are:

[edit] Radio Broadcasts

A radio broadcast of his messages can be heard on Christian radio station in the United States. [5]

[edit] References

  1. ^ (Divine and Mystical Realm, Living Stream Ministry, 1993.)
  2. ^ Lee, Witness: Christ as Life, pg. 117
  3. ^ Recovery Version, Jude, footnote 3
  4. ^ The History of Lord's Recovery [1]
  5. ^ Nee, Watchman: What Are We
  6. ^ The History of Lord's Recovery

[edit] External links

Languages