On Witness Lee

After Rev. Lin asked me for information on Witness Lee, I did a brief research and concluded as follow:

A good source of analysis, admitting that they were wrong about Witness Lee and trying to give honest accountability about it: http://www.equip.org/PDF/EnglishOpt.pdf

Witness Lee: "...The entire Godhead, the Triune God, became flesh." In his book "God's New Testament Economy" pg. 218, chapter 21 - The Seven Spirits (2). Commenting on John 1:1.

My assessment can be concluded in my response to Rev. Lin:

Dear pastor, I've come to some conclusion about Witness Lee, particularly after reading http://www.equip.org/PDF/EnglishOpt.pdf

It seems that what's wrong with Witness Lee's core believe isn't much on doctrinal issue. He appears to be building from firm foundation. However, the problem is with his play with words in different places: e.g. Lee affirmed both "Trinity is not about 3 persons" and "Trinity is about 3 persons". Either he lacks the language (doesn't matter which language) to explain his point or more likely he doesn't care. This results in many of his followers become extremists or even heretics.

The characteristic of Witness Lee is nothing new. It is also not unlike Alex Tseng. My guess is pride. They got their doctrine memorized from orthodox textbooks, but out of pride, they do not care how they teach it, they may even wish for others to misunderstand them, so that they could show how right they actually were.

This is no wonder Alex would appear to defend Witness Lee's main doctrine all the way to prove that he is not heretic. Or perhaps he has financial supporters from Lee's camp (My very hypothetical guess).

While Alex's problem is (at least in his later years) probably an avoidance to focus on evangelical work (maybe he has come to believe that seminary teaching is not the same as and can replace evangelical work), Witness Lee's problem more likely has to do with his love in mysticism/personal enlightenment. Either sources feed into one's pride.
I'd put all this in the same category as "idolization of the academia". So yes, they certainly have no problem citing you all the textbook doctrine you want to hear, but the problem you would most likely face is not with them but with their extremist followers while the originators of these chaos prefer to hide in books and their sponsors. Dealing with these originators is usually a waste of time, because they are not doing practical theology: Just like baseball fans who love to comment and criticize, but are never really capable of playing in the game themselves. I'd rather put my focus on those affected by them.

That's about all I have concluded in a short time. I've spent most attention on Western heretics, not much on Eastern heresy.
Hope I can enlighten something for you.

Sincerely,
Tim

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One Response to On Witness Lee

  1. timlyg says:

    Amazing, just hours after I've emailed Rev. Lin, I found this posted on Alex's FB:
    這是我第三次轉發這篇文章。
    從學術研究到社會影響,需要漫長時間的醞釀。同志研究從1980年代開始,積累了二十餘年的學術底蘊後轉化為社會運動的力量,這象牙塔的工夫不容忽視。
    有不少人呼籲華人神學家走出象牙塔,在公眾領域為基督教發聲。當然,有走出象牙塔的神學家是好的,但要求所有神學家都走進人群、輕視象牙塔的工夫,恕我不能苟同。

    Of course, my response would simply have been:
    没有人要求“輕視象牙塔的工夫”.

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