I know that Witness Lee is a preacher and religious leader from the
mid-twentieth century.  Here is the offical website:
http://witnesslee.com/.  I know he's preached extensively and left
behind a wealth of sermons, intitiated a translation of the Bible
called the Recovery Version, and basically started a denomination
although it does not call itself a denomination.

Everything I have heard of Witness Lee so far has been from his
followers.  I have not yet found any information on Witness Lee and
his church from outsiders.

I would like to know how a variety of outsiders see Witness Lee, his
beliefs, and his followers.  I would also like a comparision of
Witness Lee's teaching with Biblical and orthodox (traditional
Christian) teaching.

This question is for Pinkfreud only.  Please let me know if this price
is not enough to cover the research entailed for a thorough analysis
of this question.

Many Christian cult-watching organizations view Witness Lee's 'Local
Church' (also known as 'Church of Recovery') as a cult. An online
search reveals that nearly all of Witness Lee's defenders are
followers of the Local Church movement. Those who have criticized
Lee's teachings include some of the most respected and widely
published of today's Christian evangelists, people such as John
Ankerberg and Dave Hunt.

I've gathered some material for you. For reasons of copyright, I've
posted just brief excerpts from each source here; if you'd like to
know more, you may want to click the link beneath each excerpt and
read these articles in their entirety.

"The 'Local Church' is it a cult of Christianity? The teachings of
Witness Lee, is it heretic?... We cannot also consider them 'orthodox'
because of their aberrant teachings following that of Witness Lee. We
need to have a constant watch on this group and therefore pray for
them that they may see the truth in the light of the Holy Scriptures.
By our definition of the cult of Christianity I?d say they are
inclined to be one."

The Bereans Apologetics Research Ministry: The Teachings of Witness
Lee of the "Local Church" (Church of Recovery)
http://thebereans.net/arm-wlee.shtml

"Lee, Witness
(1905 - 1997)
Founder of the Local Church (Lord's Recovery) Movement. Discipled by
and a co-worker of Watchman Nee. Lee claimed God was present only in
the Local Church Movement, and taught that Christian victory was
gained by speaking, singing or shouting 'O Lord, Amen, Hallelujah'
rather than by studying doctrine, praying, or any other way."

Apologetics Index - L
http://www.apologeticsindex.org/l00.html

"Witness Lee's association with Southern Baptists and Plymouth
Brethren (1904 to late 1920s) is used to identify him as a mainline
Protestant Christian. But he is not consistent about this identity at
all. On the one hand, he speaks with great reverence for his mother
and recalls that she taught Bible stories every night. She was a third
generation Christian, and was educated in a Southern Baptist mission
school.

But Lee speaks of her in an exegesis of Matthew in quite a different
way. Not only his mother, but millions of Christians are not real
believers. They are tares among the wheat. They are 'for Christianity,
but they are not Christians.' And, he claims that they are so numerous
that it is difficult to find the wheat."

Dialog Center, Denmark: Neil Duddy and The Peculiar Teachings of The Local Church
http://www.dci.dk/da/php/artikel_visning.php?artikel=606

"Founded by Witness Lee (1905-1997), the Local Church is known to
insiders as 'The Lord's Recovery.' Its churches are usually called by
the name of their cities (e.g. the Church in Los Angeles).

Theologically, the Local Church is considered by most Christian
apologists and countercult professionals to be a cult of Christianity.
That is, in their opinion this movement's beliefs and practices
seriously deviate from those of orthodox Christianity.

Witness Lee's writings teach modalism instead of trinitarianism,
support pray-reading as spiritually superior to normal prayer, critize
and castigate Christian churches which do not share his doctrinal
views on 'local ground', and teach that the Local Church movement is a
necessary precondition for the return of Jesus Christ."

Apologetics Index: The Local Church
http://www.apologeticsindex.org/l40.html

"Witness Lee, their leader and founder, believes that the true church
has been lost since the first century and they are now the
manifestations of the true and proper church for today... He totally
disagrees with all previous established Christian ministries and
churches. Everyone else is for division and Babylon. His group is the
only rightful church...

The Local Church group also believes that they are the only ones who
are right with God and everyone else is wrong. Witness Lee States: 'We
need to have our eyes opened for if we have not seen the local church,
we are in darkness, and under a blindfold... The only way to follow
the Lord absolutely is to go the way of the local church.'... Witness
Lee has the audacity to say that The Church, his Church is Jesus."

Calvary Chapel: A Quick Reference Guide to Witness Lee and the Local Church
http://calvarychapel.com/rathdrum/Witness_Lee.htm

Much of the criticism of Witness Lee's teachings concerns his view of
the persons of the Trinity. Here you'll find quite a bit of discussion
regarding Witness Lee's teachings in comparison to traditional
understandings of the Bible:

"Mr. Lee and the 'Local Church' or the 'Church of Recovery' maintain
that they uphold the doctrine of the Trinity:

'We believe that God is the only one Triune God-the Father, the Son,
and the Spirit-co-existing equally from eternity to eternity.'

Let us not be deceived by their pretensions as Mr. Lee and the Local
Church also maintain:

'He is all in all. He is God, the Creator, the Father, the Son, the
Spirit, and also the proper man. He is the reality of all divine
attributes and of all human virtues. The hinge of all the aspects of
this all-inclusive Christ is the living Spirit. We have no choice
except to tell our fellow Christians that our Savior, Jesus Christ, is
the living Spirit. Undoubtedly, He is the Lamb of God and the
Redeemer, but these are simply two aspects of this all-inclusive One.
Christ, the all-inclusive One, is everything. The Bible even describes
Him with the term 'all in all' (Col. 3:11). Christ is the reality of
every positive thing. He is light, life, righteousness, holiness,
redemption, salvation, and everything. In our experience, He is the
life-giving Spirit indwelling our human spirit. Because we proclaim
this, we are accused of being heretical. Our critics say that we teach
heresy in telling people that Christ, the Son, is the Father as well
as the Spirit. Today, many Christians do not believe that Christ is
not only the Son, but also the Father and the Spirit.'

This view is called Modalism an error that surfaced in the 3rd century
Christian Church. This is the same error held by the Oneness
Pentecostals. This Modalism, however, has taken a different form in
the 'Local Church' as they refer to it as 'Trinity'- How further from
the truth!"

The Bereans Apologetics Research Ministry: The Teachings of Witness
Lee of the "Local Church" (Church of Recovery)
http://thebereans.net/arm-wlee.shtml

More from the same website:

The Bereans Apologetics Research Ministry: An Open Letter to All
Zealous Witness Lee-Teaching Followers Regarding the "Triune God"
Doctrine
http://thebereans.net/olet-cor.shtml

The Bereans Apologetics Research Ministry: Watchman Nee and Witness
Lee Believe Jesus is the "Holy Spirit"
http://thebereans.net/arm-wnee.shtml

This well-written article contains point-by-point criticism of Witness
Lee's theology in comparison with scripture:

The Boston Christian Bible Study Resources: Witness Lee's Local Church
(The Recovery Movement)
http://www.bcbsr.com/topics/lc.html

Here you'll find a fascinating article detailing some of the
multimillion-dollar lawsuits mounted by the Local Church against
ministries and publishers who have depicted the church as a cult:

Christianity Today: Witness Lee group sues for $136 million over
Harvest House cults article
http://www.christianitytoday.com/ct/2003/002/13.24.html

If you are interested in reading the Local Church's responses to
allegations of heresy and other criticisms of Witness Lee, there's a
large collection here:

Contending for the Faith: Index to Responses to Accusations against
the Local Churches
http://www.contendingforthefaith.com/responses/index.html

My Google search strategy:

Google Web Search: "witness lee" + "doctrine"
://www.google.com/search?hl=en&ie=UTF-8&oe=UTF-8&q=%22witness+lee%22+doctrine

Google Web Search: "witness lee" + "cult"
://www.google.com/search?hl=en&ie=UTF-8&oe=UTF-8&q=%22witness+lee%22+cult

Google Web Search: "witness lee" + "modalism"
://www.google.com/search?hl=en&ie=UTF-8&oe=UTF-8&q=%22witness+lee%22+modalism

Thanks for a question that was quite interesting to research. If
anything is unclear or incomplete, or if a link does not function,
please let me know, and I'll do my best to assist you.

Best regards,
pinkfreud

---

Request for Answer Clarification by isaiah4319-ga on 02 May 2004 23:30 PDT

Thank you for an excellent response!  Other than the trinitarian
concern, did you notice any other ways their teaching differ from
Biblical Christianity - in their understanding of salvation, for
example?  Is there anything that makes thier doctrine unusual, other
than the "local church" stuff?

---

Clarification of Answer by pinkfreud-ga on 03 May 2004 08:40 PDT

Witness Lee's teachings diverge from traditional Protesant Christian
doctrine in several ways. In addition to Lee's unusual view of the
Trinity, his teachings on purgatory have caused controversy.

Lee taught that the Local Church movement was the only genuine
Christianity; ascribing true salvation only to members of one's own
denomination is usually considered to be one of the hallmarks of a
cult.

Lee promoted chanting and "pray-reading" (the repetitious reciting of
scripture) as substitutes for petitionary prayer.

One of the best discussions of Lee's divergences from the mainstream
is this article, excerpted in my answer. It's well worth reading in
its entirety:

The Boston Christian Bible Study Resources: Witness Lee's Local Church
(The Recovery Movement)
http://www.bcbsr.com/topics/lc.html

Everything I need to start delving into this topic.  Thanks!

Was Lee right or wrong in his thinking. The Bible plainly says that
Jesus was UNABLE to do anything of his own initiative. If He were an
equal part of a triune, it would make His statement false. Jesus was
separate from his Father, God, himself, But his aims in teaching
people to live good lives was EXACTLY the same as Gods`. Having the
same desires as his Father does not make him equal to Him. And I
haven`t even put in a scripture, because everyone out there knows
them.

Nice one Ms. Freud!

djbaker-ga

A friend who read my answer has suggested that I should mention that
mainstream Christianity's disagreements with Witness Lee's theology do
not necessarily extend to the teachings of Lee's mentor, Watchman Nee,
who began the "Local Church" movement.