Witness Lee

Witness Lee
Witness Lee
Born	1905 (1905) Yantai, Shantong Province, Republic of China
Died	June 09, 1997 (1997-06-10) Southern California, USA

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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 associated with the local churches movement and the founder of the Living Stream Ministry. He was born in Chefoo, Shandong Province, China, in 1905, to a Southern Baptist family. He became a born again Christian in 1925 after hearing the preaching of Peace Dang Wang. Later he was influenced by the late Chinese Christian worker Watchman Nee. Witness Lee worked with him in Shanghai and later moved to Taiwan in the late 1940s as the Communists were advancing in China. During the 1950s, Lee worked with T. Austin-Sparks, who held conferences with him in Taiwan in 1955 and 1957. In 1948, Lee extended his ministry from Taiwan to cities in Malaysia and Indonesia. In 1950 his ministry reached Manila, Japan in 1957, the United States in 1958, and extending to other countries in the Americas and Africa, including Ghana by 1972.

Witness Lee's ministry emphasized the experience of "Christ as life" and the believers as the Body of Christ.^[1] It was his conviction that God's goal can only be carried out as believers renounce all forms of sectarianism, adopt the proper standing as a church in their locality, and maintain the oneness of the Body of Christ. These "local churches" were soon established in the Western hemisphere and South-East Asia. In the last decade, a number of churches have been founded in Russia and in eastern European countries.^[2] The Local Church movement is now in the Middle East, Africa, and South Asia.^[3]

Biography

Early years

In China (1922 - 1948)

Witness Lee was born in 1905 in northern China into a Christian family. At age 17 he was (born-again) and immediately consecrated himself to preach the gospel for the rest of his life ^[4]. 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 Witness Lee was entrusted with Watchman Nee's publication ministry, 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 what he called the local churches. In the Chekiang province of the China, many of their Local Churches were established as a result of his labor there. From the end of 1935 until the summer of 1937, Witness Lee established churches in Beijing and Tientsin. He also traveled to the provinces of Suiyuan, Shanghai, and Shensi to preach the gospel, build up the believers and establish "the local churches".

Beginning on January 1, 1943, there was a revival in the church in Chefoo during which some believers consecrated their lives to the Lord Jesus and some traveled 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.^[5]"

In Taiwan (1949 - 1962)

In 1949, Witness Lee was sent by Watchman Nee and his other co-workers to Taiwan. Witness Lee continued Watchman Nee's publishing operation outside of China as the Taiwan Gospel Bookroom. The number of believers in the Local Churches in Taiwan, newly fled from the mainland, continued to grow over the next few years.^[6]

Later years

In United States (1962 - 1997)

In 1962 Witness Lee came to the United States. He lived for years in Los Angeles and settled in Anaheim, California, where he set up the non-profit corporation Living Stream Ministry to manage publications and training. During his 35 years of service in the U.S., Lee broadcast and delivered several thousand speeches. He gave his last public conference in February 1997 at the age of 91. Lee died in June 1997 in Southern California.^[7]

Ministry and teachings

The Lord's recovery

The term "the Lord's recovery" refers to Lee's belief that God is moving to recover many vital practices, which include but are not limited to taking the proper standing on the church ground. Believers should call on the name of the Lord repeatedly and continuously; "pray-read" the Recovery Version of the Bible, including its footnotes and headings; testify in church meetings both in small groups in the believers' homes and in larger meeting halls. According to Witness Lee, the Lord's recovery can be traced back to many including Martin Luther and the reformers, Madame Guyon, Count Zinzendorf, the Moravian Brethren, John Nelson Darby, the Plymouth Brethren, Watchman Nee, and himself.^[8] As a result, the Local Churches frequently refer to themselves as "the recovery" and appraise Nee and Lee with this summary, "Watchman Nee was indeed a seer of the divine revelation in the present age, and Witness Lee was just as certainly a wise master builder according to this same divine revelation in the present age."^[7]

Church ground

Witness Lee believed that one of the primary elements which God used both Watchman Nee and himself to recover, was the way for believers in Christ to remain in oneness. Witness Lee taught two aspects of the Lord's church (local and universal). He believed that churches should be the expression of the Body of Christ in a locality. According to Lee, the universal aspect of the church was presented by the Lord Jesus in Matthew 16 and by the apostles in the Acts and the Epistles (1 Cor. 12:3). The local aspect of each church was presented 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 (1:14).^[9]

Lee taught that the expression of this oneness begins with the practice of believers in their city meeting 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.)^[10] having only one eldership in each city (with many elders) (Titus 1:5, Acts 14:32) and accepting all believers in Christ as members of the church in each city regardless of racial, cultural, social, doctrinal or observational differences as long as they hold the common faith. Nee called this practice meeting on "the ground of oneness" (see Local churches). Lee continued to teach this after being sent by Nee out of China. The believers meeting in this way may declare that "we are the church", with the understanding that the "we" is inclusive not exclusive of some. He believed that belonging to a denomination such as Baptist, Methodist or Catholic, etc., was divisive and contrary to the oneness people have inherited in Christ.^[11] To be a "local church" an assembly must be affiliated with the Living Stream Ministry (see Local Church (affiliation)).

God's economy

'God’s economy' was a major theme of Witness Lee. The English word "economy" is the anglicized form of the Greek word "oikonomia", which occurs several places in the New Testament, but is usually translated as "dispensation".^[12] According to Lee, many Christians were unfamiliar with God's economy, but it is the subject of the Bible, the meaning of human life, and the desire of God’s heart.^[13] He defined it as God's household arrangement for dispensing Himself into His chosen and redeemed people as their life, life supply, and everything in order to gain a corporate expression of Himself through the building up of the church which will consummate in the New Jerusalem in eternity. Witness Lee taught that Babylon the Great represents the Roman Catholic Church, the "mother of harlots" and that her "daughters", the harlots, represent the Protestant denominations. He preached that the system of religious Christianity, which includes Roman Catholicism as well as sectarian Protestant denominationalism were contrary to God's household arrangement to dispense Himself and would culminate in Babylon the Great, but that all the overcomers throughout the church age who remain faithful to and hold fast the truth will obtain the reward during the millennial kingdom^[14], and that all true believers would eventually be built together, culminating in the New Jerusalem, which is the glorious Bride of Christ.^[15]

The New Way

In an attempt to spread and grow the Local Churches, Witness Lee spent from 1984 through the remainder of his life defining and establishing “the new way” due to the perceived degradation and oldness that had crept into the Local Churches.^[16] The new way consisted of 4 major pillars:

1. establishing meetings in homes according to the pattern set forth by the initial church (Acts 2:46) ^[17]
2. going forth to proclaim the Word, especially through door-knocking (2 Tim 4:2,5) ^[18]
3. growing in life through experiencing Christ in a daily way, to minister Christ as life (1 Pet 2:2 , 2 Cor 3:3) ^[19][20]
4. perfecting the saints to function properly in the church by having the practice of the church life in the homes (1 Cor 14:1,26,31 , Rom 12:6)^[21]

Keeping the oneness was paramount to their existence as "local churches" standing on the ground of oneness. This translated into keeping the fellowship and teaching of the apostles (Acts 2:42) ^[22], the same spiritual diet (1 Cor 10:4)^[23], and one ministry (2 Cor 4:1)^[24]. Although all believers are received according to God and not doctrine or practice (Rom 14:3) ^[25], ones who cause such division should be refused (Titus 3:10) ^[26]. In the mid 1980s four leaders who had been with Witness Lee for years believed the churches were no longer practicing the Biblical oneness and resigned as elders and coworkers. Lee responded by calling them “a fermenting rebellion” that needed to be “quarantined”. This was a term that was similar to but distinct from the Brethren’s term, excommunication, borrowed from Leviticus 13:4, and Numbers 12:14 ("shut up outside the camp" until clean)^[27]. In spite of these and other difficulties the work of Witness Lee regarding the new way continues to increase and spread Local Churches around the globe.

Witness Lee's View of Christianity

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 has been delivered once for all to the saints".^[28]

Although Lee saw the Local Churches as holding the same faith as the rest of Christianity and that Christians should be unified, Lee distanced himself and his movement from other Christian church groups and organizations,

"The Lord is not building His church in Christendom, which is composed of the apostate Roman Catholic Church and the Protestant denominations, "^[29]!"

Lee believed that any church not organized on the foundational principle of one church per city (what he called "the local ground of unity") was apostate. He thought that recognizing such churches by attending services in anything but a qualified stance was sinful. Lee states,

"The apostate church has deviated from the Lord's word and become heretical. The reformed church, though recovered to the Lord's word to some extent, has denied the Lord's name by denominating herself, taking many other names, such as Lutherans, Wesleyan, Anglican, Presbyterian, Baptist, etc. ... To deviate from the Lord's word is apostasy, and to denominate the church by taking any name other than the Lord's is spiritual fornication." ^[30].

So although Lee sought to be viewed as an integral part in the recovery of Christian truths and practices alongside a long line of Christian preachers, the result was to be separate from the same:

"I am afraid that a number of us are still under the negative influence of Christendom. We all have to realize that today the Lord is going on and on to fully recover us and bring us fully out of Christendom."^[31] and, "But the organization of the denominations in which they are is not of God. The denominational organizations have been utilized by Satan to set up his satanic system to destroy God's economy of the proper church life." ^[32]

These and similar statements Lee set up a dividing line between the Local Churches and other Christian institutions. Lee cared little for the acceptance of contemporaries outside his movement. He wrote,

"We do not care for Christianity, we do not care for Christendom, we do not care for the Roman Catholic church, and we do not care for all the denominations, because in the Bible it says that the great Babylon is fallen. This is a declaration. Christianity is fallen, Christendom is fallen, Catholicism is fallen, and all the denominations are fallen. Hallelujah!"^[33]

Believing that Christianity had become hopelessly corrupt, he followed his own unique theology, based on Nee's. It emphasized a deep, personal, ongoing encounter with God, and a practical, daily commitment to one's Local Church. Lee believed, as Nee did, that all Christian work was ultimately for the sake of edifying the church and that all other benefits were secondary. Since he thought the rest of Christianity was organized in a way that invalidated its stand as the proper church, there was nothing for him to do there.

Works

Published works

In English there are approximately 200 books by Lee available, published by Living Stream Ministry. Many of his speeches have been edited and published as over 400 titles in as many as 11 different languages, such as Chinese, Korean, Spanish, etc.^[34]

Witness Lee's major work, The Life-Study of The Bible, comprises over 24,000 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. They were originally messages spoken over a number of years by Lee during trainings to believers who met in local churches.

Lee began another major work, Crystallization-Study of the Bible, using messages designed to take a look at the high points, or "crystals", of each book of the Bible. Lee died before completing this work.

Witness Lee was the chief editor of a new translation of the New Testament into Chinese, which he called the Recovery Version (Chinese). He also directed its translation into English.

Witness Lee wrote, collected, and translated Christian hymns. From 1963 to 1964, Witness Lee wrote the lyrics to about 200 new hymns which he merged with hymns from other authors. He categorized them by topic for his current edition of Hymns, totaling 1348.^[35]

Living Stream Ministry

In 1965 Witness Lee founded Living Stream Ministry (LSM), a non-profit corporation, located in Anaheim, California, which publishes Witness Lee's and Watchman Nee's ministry.

Radio broadcasts

A radio broadcast of his messages can be heard on Christian radio stations in the United States.^[36]

See also

• Local churches (affiliation)
• Watchman Nee
• Living Stream Ministry

References

External links

• Detailed biography from Living Stream Ministry
• Two Turmoils Account of two turmoils involving Witness Lee