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…on their own contentiousness. To be diseased with questionings and contentions of words is to be consumed by them. The Greek word translated “diseased” bears the implication of being sick of a diseased appetite. Wuest describes it as having “a morbid fondness for something” (“The Exegesis of 1 Timothy,” Word Studies in the Greek New Testament, 92). A person who…

…of all the local churches is not a federation but an organism, the one organic Body of Christ. No part of such an organism could ever by autonomous. 1988, vol. 4 (“The Perfecting of the Saints and the Building Up of the Body of Christ”) p. 95: The first wind of teaching says that after the apostles appoint the elders,…

…free evangelists among the denominations. What we need today are the first and the second kind of co-workers. (Witness Lee, Messages Given During the Resumption of Watchman Nee’s Ministry, 147) Strictly speaking, only the first two kinds of workers described by Brother Lee should be called co-workers because they labor together in fellowship and oneness under a common vision toward…

…work to progressively isolate the church from the fellowship of all the churches. In 2005 these elders cancelled the semiannual video training that had been a source of supply to the saints since the church’s inception. A group of saints asked the elders for and received permission to listen to audiotapes of the training in one of their own homes….

…person lives in submission to the ruling of the Spirit, growing in the divine life and faithfully serving the Lord, that person becomes a channel of spiritual authority. What is the basis of spiritual authority? There are two crucial factors that form the basis of spiritual authority—revelation and resurrection. Revelation, as used here, refers to one’s direct knowing of God…

…the eyes of the saved ones it is serious for me to go to a movie theater. If I did, I would be defiled. We must live a life of virginity, a life of chastity. The reason I neither smoke nor drink is that I do not want to be defiled. On occasion some brothers have offered me a drink…

…attended by more than three thousand saints. Surely this testifies to the triumph of the true new covenant ministry. As a genuine new covenant minister, Brother Lee was not only a savor of life unto life to seeking believers who received his ministry but also a savor of death unto death to those who felt threatened by the results of…

…the oneness (Psa. 133). The building up of the Body through the mutual supply in love in Ephesians 4:16 depends on keeping the oneness in verse 3. Week by week we should honor the Lord at His table by discerning the body, both in our remembrance of Him, the Head, and in caring for the church, His Body, comprised of…

…Ministry of the Church, 30; Church Affairs, 143). To argue based on The Normal Christian Church Life that any intervention by the apostles in the affairs of a local church constitutes organizational control or a centralization of authority over the churches is not faithful to the teaching of either Brother Nee or the New Testament. Brother Lee frequently referred to…

…space, it is composed of the various local churches, which form a corporate testimony of the one Body of Christ. To have two or more “churches” in a given locality brings confusion to the church’s testimony of oneness and transgresses the church’s own nature as the one Body of Christ. The New Testament is consistent in its use of church…

…the apostles, the entire content of the New Testament. Witness Lee explained: The apostles’ teaching comprises the twenty-seven books of the New Testament in four main parts. The first part of the New Testament was spoken by the Lord when He was in the flesh on the earth. The second part was spoken by the apostle Peter as a continuation…

…the churches but who refuse to bring their publications into the fellowship and collective oversight of the co-workers do not represent that common ministry. The full statement is available online at https://www.lsm.org/onepublication/. The scriptural basis of being restricted in one publication work is well documented in “Is ‘One Publication’ Scriptural?” which is posted at https://afaithfulword.org/articles/Scriptural/. In brief, this article shows…

…services and may be obtained in a relatively brief time. Ministry, however, is a constitution of Christ as eternal life within a believer and is produced by a lengthy period of the experiences of the unsearchable riches of the all-inclusive Christ, which experiences are gained not only through high revelations concerning the excellent person and work of Christ (Phil. 3:8)…

…we cannot be in the Lord’s recovery. Rather, we are part of the repetition of the history of Christianity. (The Spirit and the Body, 214) According to the truth, every kind of divisiveness is wrong. All causes of division have been terminated by Christ’s death on the cross. His resurrection issued in His enlargement, the Body of Christ, in which…

…schedule for the fulfillment of the solution” (The Normal Christian Faith, 175). This solution is carried out in two stages, which are based on the first and second comings of Christ. In the first stage, Christ came through incarnation to establish the model of living as a God-man, to accomplish redemption, and to become the life-giving Spirit in resurrection (Matt….

…fellow partakers with me of grace.” In verse 16 he said of himself, “I am set for the defense of the gospel.” Concerning the defense and confirmation of the gospel, Brother Lee said, “The defense of the gospel is related, on the negative side, to the perverting and distorting heresies… The confirmation of the gospel is related, on the positive…

…the Christian faith, including the inspiration and authority of the Bible, the Triune God, the person of Christ, the work of Christ, and salvation by believing in Christ and His redemptive work, as the following comparisons show1: The Inspiration of the Bible Witness Lee: “The Bible is the Word of God. We believe that the Bible, word by word, is…

…not simply the recovery of certain doctrines or practices; it is the recovery of the practice of the genuine oneness of the Body of Christ (Rom. 12:5; 1 Cor. 12:12-13; Eph. 4:4). This oneness is rooted in the very being of the Triune God. Just as the Father and the Son mutually indwell one another (John 14:10), we dwell in…

…The Vision of the Age, 79) Related to the fulfillment of this vision, three outstanding matters must be recovered among God’s people: the experience of Christ as life, the functioning of all the members of Christ’s Body, and the practical testimony of the oneness of the Body of Christ. Why is such a recovery necessary? Although these matters are clearly…

…by God to bring about the fulfillment of the Old Testament prophecy regarding the means of the Lord’s redemptive death. Moreover, the Roman Empire brought to its subject nations a common language, one ruling power, an unprecedented road system, and a relatively stable social order, all of which happened under God’s sovereignty to facilitate the early spread of the gospel…

…not explicitly interpreted in the New Testament. Some go so far as to say that the Old Testament has no applicability to New Testament believers but was written only for the nation of Israel. These thoughts are mere human opinions of an unlearned and unrenewed mind and lead to serious errors that rob believers of the riches of the divine…

…strife and ultimately division. Unchecked, such death and its byproducts will spread to other local churches as well. In the Lord’s earthly ministry, He never answered questions according to right and wrong; He always turned questions to the tree of life. May we learn of Him. Only life and the light of life can produce an inward change and preserve…

…The church is the kingdom of God on the earth today (compare Matt. 16:18 and 19; 1 Cor. 4:17 and 20; Rom. 14:17). Thus, the church must come fully under the ruling of God in Christ, which includes being governed by God’s ordination, not man’s opinion, as the standard of conduct. The church testifies of the proper order under God’s…

…change the method; the only way is to change the person” (26). Concerning the Person of One Who Represents the Lord’s Authority Any exercise of discipline towards saints demands much of the leading ones, both in purity and in the restraint of their own flesh (Gal. 6:1). Brother Lee likened any kind of rebuking or exposing to performing surgery. He…

From chapter one of The Ministers in the Lord’s Recovery – Genuine Ministers of the New Covenant The publications that have negatively impacted a number of saints in the local churches are characterized not only by false accusations of certain wrongdoings against the leading ones in the Lord’s recovery but also a gross mischaracterization of both the person and ministry…

…unchallengeable right irrespective of the fellowship of concern of other churches or of the responsibility of the leading co-workers to respond to pleas for help is to abuse the local church “boundary.” To buttress such claims by circulating excerpts from the Word or the ministry that present only one side of the truth compounds the error. Appealing to proximity as…

…is to closely follow the apostles’ teaching brought to us by the ministers of the New Testament (Eph. 4:11-12). This requires that we be people of vision, not idealists (Acts 26:19), see the same revelation that the apostles saw (Eph. 1:17-23), become imitators of the faith of the New Testament ministers (1 Cor. 4:16; 11:1; Phil. 3:17; 1 Thes. 1:6;…

…has later claimed as memories. Those “memories” originated from a Public Security Bureau exhibition of the evidence of the “criminal activities” of “the counter-revolutionary group of Watchman Nee” on February 8. The exhibition included a handwritten “confession” and Watchman Nee’s name written on illicit materials. These items shook the faith of some members of the churches. At Watchman Nee’s show…

…inner operating God to let the mind of Christ be in them so that they could live a crucified life according to His pattern and become luminaries holding forth the word of life (2:12-13, 5-8, 15-16). In chapter 3 he testified of counting all things loss on account of the excellency of the knowledge of Christ; of seeking to know…

…New Jerusalem (Rev. 21:2). According to the vision of the Lord’s recovery, the way to accomplish this is to recover the experience of Christ, the functioning of all the members of His Body, and the practical testimony of the oneness of the Body of Christ in local churches. This goal and way direct, govern, and restrict all of our work….

Based on the New Testament, Witness Lee taught that there is only one unique ministry. Some have twisted his teaching to slanderously claim that Witness Lee was referring to his own ministry. This is a gross mischaracterization. The One Ministry of the New Testament The word ministry means “service.” Properly speaking, the Bible contains only two ministries, each of which…

…the divine revelation received through the New Testament ministry, the teaching of the apostles, is the controlling factor: In the Lord’s recovery we reject the notion of one person controlling persons and matters. We do have some leadership, but not the leadership of one controlling person. Instead, we have the leadership of one controlling revelation in the one ministry through…

…the Word in the mid 1960s and late 1980s. For example, in 1965 he said the following concerning the two portions from 1 Corinthians: The elders, standing on the ground of the local church, are responsible for the administration of a church. Although this administration is independent of other localities, it is not independent of the apostles. At least two…

…a Christian from appealing to a secular authority to adjudicate any issue with another believer. These two important issues deserve careful examination of facts and of the Scriptures. Facts Concerning the Nature of the Lawsuits Not one of these lawsuits was filed over points of biblical truth, even though each of the books grossly misrepresented our teaching. Secular courts are…

…see Paul’s words fulfilled. Many Christian teachers avoid the warnings that occur throughout the New Testament, and many believers have ears only for words of comfort and affirmation. Those who seek such affirmation find it uncomfortable to hear the sober words of warning in the Bible. Discomfort aside, the many warnings in the New Testament embody healthy words that should…

…believers that is special and particular, not the inclusive, common fellowship of the apostles and of the Son of God, constitutes a division. Having no particular teaching. A particular teaching is a teaching that is insisted upon as a basis for fellowship among believers. Stressing a particular teaching, such as baptism by immersion, tongue-speaking, Sabbath-keeping, and the significance of the…

…16, 12). The ones who take the lead in the New Testament ministry are those who have the greatest measure of revelation and growth in life and who are able to open up the truth of God’s economy in the Bible (Matt. 16:16-18; Gal. 1:11-12; Eph. 3:3-5; 1 Tim. 2:7; 1:4). In the Old Testament the priests depended on the…

…ill health, he learned to greatly depend on the Lord and to minister not by his physical strength but by resurrection life. Brother Nee also suffered severe opposition from the denominations, primarily due to his teaching concerning the genuine ground of the church—having only one church in each city for the practical expression of the one Body of Christ in…

…and His ways. Actual biblical leadership is not vested in the persons themselves. Rather, leadership resides in the vision they have received from God and that they can impart to the people of God. This concept of leadership is absolutely contrary to the leadership prevalent in the world today as this line of articles makes clear. [BEGIN LINE] [[green-grad, leadership-in-the-lords-recovery-part-1-the-lords-concept-of-leadership-versus-mans-concept,leadership-in-the-lords-recovery-part-2-the-biblical-pattern-of-leadership,leadership-in-the-lords-recovery-part-3-applying-the-biblical-pattern-of-leadership,following-the-vision-or-following-a-man,concerning-hierarchy-and-organization]]…

…the speaking of others if they do not follow these principles. Some have misused fragments of the ministry of Brother Nee and Brother Lee to assert that their use of the word independent to describe the administration of a local church means that a church’s elders are free to discount the concerns of other local churches or the fellowship of…

…person and His work. There is one Bible, one God, one Christ, one Spirit, one eternal life, one salvation, one living, one testimony, one Body, and one New Jerusalem (see The Ten Great Critical “Ones” for the Building Up of the Body of Christ). These are crucial constituents of the one New Testament ministry. This ministry cooperates with Christ in…

…of power in the Lord’s name but are not able to enter into the kingdom of the heavens are not true believers. Rather, some of these the Lord approves of, and some of these He does not. According to the context of these verses, the crucial matter is whether or not those things were done according to the will of…

…Watchman Nee and Witness Lee. A few have miscast this fellowship as an attempt to hide the “truth” regarding the history of the recovery or to deprive others of the freedom to read whatever they like. However, this advice is not an exercise of control but the issue of a loving concern based on a discerning of the nature of…

…by the Lord Himself and His apostles. In our care for and raising up of the new ones among us for the building up of the Body of Christ we also need the proper practice of inoculation to preserve the faith of those under our care in the face of persecution and affliction and to foster their growth in the…

…not the age of the person identified as a victim at the time of disclosure but that person’s age at the time of the alleged incident. In other words, if a person was a minor at the time of an alleged incident of abuse, the adult who becomes aware of it may be required to report it to law enforcement…

…government of God. In eternity future the river of water of life will proceed from the throne of God and of the Lamb (Rev. 22:1). The throne, as the source of the flow of the river, represents the government of God as the administrative center of His kingdom. All these things point to the primacy of God’s system of government…

…of this age. His coming is the hope of the Jews spanning from the prophets to the present day, a further working out of the prophesied salvation of the remnant of Israel (Rom. 11:26; Rev. 7:4-8) and is of particular importance to all those who love the appearing of the God-man Jesus Christ (2 Tim. 4:8). Conclusion As previous articles…

…aspect of God’s salvation is based on Christ’s completed work of redemption and is largely objective. The organic aspect of God’s salvation is based on Christ’s operation within us as the indwelling Spirit and, while based on objective truths, is very experientially subjective. The fact that God’s organic salvation involves subjective experience troubles those Christians whose view of salvation is…

…crucial for us to see that the Lord’s commission to us is the building up of the church as the Body of Christ and the preparation of the church as His bride. It is this commission that should govern our hearts and minds and be the focus of our living. In light of the Lord’s coming, let us press on….

…balanced situation in which we take care not only of the Lord’s leading directly but also of the co-working ones’ realization. On the other hand, when we take care of the co-working ones’ realization, we should also seek the Lord’s leading directly. This way of balance is the safe way and the proper way to save us from being independent,…

…is, to put His person. While the church, being of God, is universal according to its nature, it is also practical, having a local expression—“the church of God which is in Corinth.” According to the pattern of the New Testament, the preservation of the oneness of God’s people today is practiced on the ground of locality (Acts 14:23; Titus 1:5;…

…descend upon Mount Zion to wage war against the nations (Jer. 30:7; Isa. 31:4-5). The completion of God’s chastisement of Israel (Jer. 30:11-20) and the execution of His judgment upon the nations will result in the restoration of Israel to Jehovah, her Maker and her Husband (Isa. 54:5). Jehovah will appear to Israel from afar, loving her with a bridal…

…of God’s economy. (The Vision of the Age, 79) What then is the ministry of the age? The ministry of the age is simply the work that is governed by and according to the vision of the age. Just as the ministry of the age at the time of Luther was the ministry of the truth of justification by faith,…

…means of serving man’s lusts and desires. Today’s carefree attitude toward separation and divorce is the issue of the worldly systematization of marriage. When their lusts and desires are no longer satisfied by their marriage, many feel free to divorce their spouse and pursue their desires elsewhere. Brother Lee observed that “toward the end of this age, this situation will…

…such person was John Weldon, who “earned” two master’s and two doctoral degrees, all in fields related to religion, in the span of a little over two years through one institution run by an Australian archaeologist with whom Weldon had written a sensationalistic book on UFOs. In the process Weldon wrote a sprawling manuscript, which he called an encyclopedia, that…

Some have accused Witness Lee of teaching that parts of the book of Psalms and the Epistle of James were not divinely inspired. This is a grievous accusation that, if true, constitutes a denial of one of the basic affirmations of Christian orthodoxy: that the Bible is the Word of God, complete and inerrant. Such ones hastily seize upon Brother…

…a way to enter into the genuine oneness of the Body. Engaging in ecumenical activities with the manmade unity of ecumenism compromises the testimony of the genuine oneness. We have seen this from our own history. On occasion here and there a few brothers have tried to practice the principles of ecumenism. This has consistently led to confusion and damage…

…113-277 “The Coming of the Lord,” Affirmation & Critique XXVIII:1 (Spring 2023) [1] For a clear presentation and explanation of Great Tribulation and subsequent periods of time as shown in the Bible, see the graph entitled “The Chart of the Seventy Weeks and the Coming of Christ, with the Rapture of the Saints” at the back of the Recovery Version.…

…continually living a crucified life in resurrection for the ministering of life to others and remaining obedient to God for the accomplishment of His will at any cost (Gal. 6:17). They were imitators of the apostle Paul, even as he was an imitator of Christ (1 Cor. 4:16; 11:1), and their ministry is a faithful reproduction of that of the…

…the house of Aaron was ordained by God to serve Him as priests (1 Chron. 6:33-38; Exo. 40:12-15). Samuel ministered to the Lord as a priest not by birth but by the Nazarite vow (Num. 6:1-2). To be a Nazarite is not a matter of status or position but of voluntary consecration to the Lord. From his youth Samuel lived…

…were arranged by God so that he would have a quiet environment in which to write his last eight Epistles for the completion of the divine revelation (Col. 1:25). These eight Epistles were included in the canon of the New Testament alongside the six Epistles written by Paul prior to his failure, showing that it did not invalidate his ministry…

…the New Testament we can see all the matters related to the person and work of Christ, the Body of Christ as the enlargement of Christ, and the New Jerusalem as the consummation of all of God’s work with all its details and applications for us today. Under the light of the ministry we are continually helped to focus on…

On a couple of occasions spurious and egregious allegations surfaced tarring Witness Lee by associating him with racist justifications of slavery based on his interpretation of Noah’s cursing of the descendants of Ham (Gen. 9:25). There are at least three problems with this criticism: Witness Lee’s interpretation of this prophecy is descriptive, not prescriptive, that is, it is an attempt…

…may thereby expose the fallen human concept. Not an officially designated person or group of people: Because Christ alone is the Leader (Acts 5:31), no person can rightfully claim any kind of official leadership among God’s people. All proper leadership is organic, that is, in life and according to the Spirit, not by way of an official, permanent position as…

…the proper degree by the responsible leading ones. Some advocate what amounts to an unbridled exposing of others’ alleged sins under the guise of bringing such matters “into the light.” Yet in doing so they betray both a vindictive spirit and a regrettable lack of concern for the preservation of the saints and building up of the church. All matters…

…divine arrangement in the church, oversight of the administration and services of the church has been placed in the hands of the responsible brothers who serve as overseers (Acts 20:28; 1 Tim. 3:2; Titus 1:6-7). However, Romans 16 stands out in the New Testament because of Paul’s lengthy commendation of the importance of the sisters’ service. Paul points out that…

…also is obsession. (259) He listed a number of manifestations of obsession. One that is particularly pertinent to the situation of some dissenting ones today relates to speculations: Some Christians are obsessed with speculations. Because of the lack of light, they often take speculation as fact. First they speculate that certain people would do certain things, go to certain places,…

…from the second edition of Freedom & Discipleship. Moody Press is on the updated list for its decision not to include the local churches in its 1991 book A Concise Dictionary of Cults & Religions by William Watson. This decision was made by Moody Press unilaterally. The local churches had no knowledge that Moody was considering the book for publication.…

…the situation at that time. When Barnabas and Paul stood up to speak, their aim was to stop the contention, not to generate it. Contention is stopped by means of God’s presence. In this kind of meeting, idle talk must be stopped. Idle talk is stopped not by our speaking but by bringing people before the Lord. If we are…

…should exercise caution in what we speak to others. Otherwise, we run the risk of transgressing the Bible’s injunctions against making false accusations and rumor mongering. Old Testament Warnings In the Old Testament there are many warnings against bearing false witness and spreading rumors. One is in Exodus 20:16 which plainly says, “You shall not testify with false witness against…

…The Ground of the Church and the Service of the Body The Testimony and the Ground of the Church The Administration of the Church and the Ministry of the Word The Supply of the Word, Shepherding, and the Administration Needed for the Building Up of the Church The Ground of the Church and the Ministry That Builds Up the Church…

As the Lord’s lovers who seek to practice the church life according the way revealed by God in the New Testament, we should be people of vision, not idealists. The apostle Paul was such a person, a person who was captured by the heavenly vision of the transcendent God-man, the Lord Jesus Christ, and of the church, the Body of…

…Christian teachers, many of whom fall into the category of those who tickle the ears of their audiences (2 Tim. 4:3). On the one hand, we treasure the recovery of justification by faith through Martin Luther and the Reformers, the recovery of the preaching of the gospel through men such as John Wesley and George Whitfield, the opening of the…

…efficacy of Christ’s terminating death is an element of the all-inclusive, compound, life-giving Spirit (Phil. 1:19; Gal. 5:16, 24-25), and we put to death by the Spirit the practices of the body, thereby allowing the Spirit to execute the death of Christ upon our flesh (Rom. 8:13). By receiving the word of the cross presented by the Lord’s ministry in…

…been appointed, the administration of that church resides in the hands of the elders before God. If an experienced worker later comes to that locality, he may function according to his gifts for the building up of the church, but the responsibility for the administration of the church is unchanged—it remains in the hands of the local elders. This remains…

…speak to and adjust the shortcomings and deviations of the churches. Some have argued that once a local church is established the apostles have no right to “interfere” with any matters in the church. These article debunk that claim and examine the New Testament pattern of apostles and elders, including their proper relationship to one another. [BEGIN LINE] [[green-grad, questions-and-answers-about-apostles-and-co-workers,the-ongoing-relationship-between-the-apostles-and-the-local-churches,selected-ministry-on-the-apostles-ongoing-role-in-established-churches,a-historical-sketch-of-the-ministrys-teaching-on-the-practice-of-the-church-and-its-administration,being-faithful-to-our-brothers-complete-ministry-concerning-the-practice-of-the-church-2,being-faithful-to-our-brothers-complete-ministry-concerning-the-practice-of-the-church-1,genuine-local-churches-part-2-following-the-teaching-and-leading-of-the-apostles]]…

…to illuminate “the knowledge of the glory of God” in the face of Jesus Christ. The illumination of the knowledge of the glory of God in the face of Jesus Christ in verse 6 corresponds to the illumination of the gospel of the glory of Christ as the image of God in verse 4, indicating that God shined in the…

…become preoccupied with who is right and who is wrong. That in itself is to succumb to Satan’s temptation to partake of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil. We must keep before us the fact that only the operation of the life of the Son of God within us can carry us forward to the goal of…

…rich supply and through the operation in the measure of each one part, causes the growth of the Body unto the building up of itself in love.” Grow and growth imply life, the Head implies authority, the operation in the measure of each one part refers to the function of every member, and the joints of the rich supply are…

…precious truths formed the content of their ministry to the saints. To be clear, the revelations received by these two brothers were always based uniquely on the Word. Indeed, one of the hallmarks of the ministry in the Lord’s recovery is that the teachings and practices presented by this ministry take the Holy Word as their sole basis. From the…

…the setting is changed and the place changed, the same things cannot be discussed. This is the consideration of place” (The Elders’ Management of the Church, 142). Moreover, of the decision made in Acts 15 Brother Lee observed, “Once they made a decision concerning the problem of circumcision, no further opinion was expressed” (CWWL, 1957, vol. 2, 250). This again…

…The world of politics is part of the satanic world system. As believers we have been transferred out of the kingdom of darkness into the kingdom of the Son of His love (Col. 1:13). According to history, the church was severely compromised when Constantine made Christianity the official religion of Rome, thus aligning the church with worldly political power. Witness…

…Brother Lee said, “[w]e follow someone because he has the revelation of God, the vision of God” (A Word of Love to the Co-workers, Elders, Lovers, and Seekers of the Lord, 64-65). Brother Lee’s testimony exemplifies a proper following— following the ministry, the speaking, that opens up the vision of the New Testament economy of God. To live and serve…

…of Christ within and a radiant expression of Christ without. The thousands of saints who have been saved and perfected under Brother Lee’s ministry are not only letters of Christ but also living letters of commendation for Brother Lee and his ministry. In particular, graduates of the full-time training, who dedicated two years of their life to being constituted with…

…of a fan. When the electricity is flowing, the blades turn. The tongue is full of death-bringing poison because the tongue passes on the thoughts like poison darts. (Practical Lessons on the Experience of Life, 153) Elsewhere he related the flaming darts specifically to doubts: The shield of faith quenches all the flaming darts of the evil one (v. 16)….

…the opportunity to participate in growth and maturing in the life of God’s Son and in the building up of the Body of Christ and preparation of the Bride for His return (Rom. 5:10; Eph. 4:15-16; Rev. 19:7). Therefore, we should announce the glad tidings of God’s complete salvation—both judicial redemption and organic salvation—to Jews and Gentiles alike as ambassadors…

…do not meet God in that exercise of “authority,” either that “authority” is man’s presumption or we ourselves have some kind of insulation toward God. Revelation 22:1 makes the relationship between authority and fellowship clear. Speaking of the New Jerusalem it says, “And he showed me a river of water of life, bright as crystal, proceeding out of the throne…

…these men do not have authority in themselves. Moreover, God’s authority can be usurped and its exercise tainted by fallen natural concepts. These articles explore both what authority is and what it is not, as well as how it should be properly exercised and how it can be abused. [BEGIN LINE] [[green-grad, some-questions-and-answers-regarding-deputy-authority, authority-and-fellowship, love-the-basis-and-power-of-authority, the-source-of-authority-the-lords-presence,a-balanced-view-of-the-elders-authority, authority-and-fellowship, properly-representing-the-lord-in-the-exercise-of-discipline, spiritual-authority-and-its-misuse, caring-for-both-the-headship-of-christ-and-the-fellowship-of-the-body]]…

…new covenant ministers. However, it is only with a spirit of wisdom and revelation and by having the eyes of our heart enlightened that we can see the riches of Christ constituted into them to be the intrinsic content of their ministry (Eph. 1:17-18; 3:8; 1 Cor. 1:30; 2:7-8). In Brother Nee’s words, “Sometimes…our eyes only see the earthen vessel….

…accommodate one’s preference in forming a “church” has opened the door to the proliferation of division and confusion among believers. The New Testament revelation concerning the church’s ground of locality is a God-ordained restriction and limitation to the believers. If we are willing to submit to this restriction, we will not be able to “escape” by joining another group of…

…Lee’s ministry was not only the fulfillment of the Lord’s promise to him in Joshua 1:5-7 but also the realization of an extraordinary God-given dream. One night, shortly before he was imprisoned and tortured by the Japanese military police in 1943, he dreamed of a gentleman who was taking a peaceful walk while carrying a cane. Suddenly, he came to…

…clear vision of the central line of the divine revelation, which includes the Bible, the Triune God, the economy of God, the all-inclusive Christ, the life-giving Spirit, the Body of Christ, and the New Jerusalem. One reason we call the ministry in the Lord’s recovery the ministry of the age is that it has brought to light this central line…

…the believers’ apprehension of God’s economy (1 Tim. 1:3-4). Brother Lee commented, “Once questionings come in, confusion and division will quickly follow” (Crucial Principles for the Proper Church Life, 69). Questionings beget contentions (2 Tim. 2:23), and out of questionings and contentions come evil suspicions (1 Tim. 6:4). Those who are consumed by such things become revilers of the truth…

…have on occasion availed ourselves of his expertise to help church members or their families arrange professional care. To publicly name Allen Bayes based on a distortion of facts is a serious matter. Corrective action on the part of the author of this account would be appropriate. On behalf of the church in Houston: View the original document here (PDF)….

…his heart; they reveal the things in his heart” (CWWN, vol. 50, 587). Our words can either build up or tear down others’ faith. Moreover, the words we receive can have the same effect on us. These articles pay particular attention to how we can be preserved from receiving or uttering words that mar God’s building. [BEGIN LINE] [[red-grad, our-basic-choice,let-your-speech-be-always-with-grace-seasoned-with-salt,questions-versus-questionings,quenching-the-flaming-darts-of-the-enemy,words-that-spread-death-and-how-to-stop-them]]…

…Word”? Do we rewind time to before the Reformation, so as not to be influenced by Martin Luther’s teaching of justification by faith? Recognizing that every translation of the Scriptures is influenced by the translators’ understanding and is hence an interpretation, do we read the Bible only in the original languages? Do we ignore the work already done to sift…

…free to do what is right in their own eyes (Judg. 17:6; 21:25) by rejecting the uniqueness of the standing of the local churches on the ground of locality. Such selective citation of Scripture to support an errant view of the biblical record exhibits no care for the testimony of the one true God or the affirmation of His Word….

…took to carry out God’s move on this earth to fulfill His New Testament economy was entirely by three main substances—prayer, the Spirit, and the Word. Not only in Acts but also throughout the entire New Testament, prayer, the Spirit, and the Word were used for the carrying out of God’s economy. (Elders’ Training, Book 7: One Accord for the…

…speak of the ground of locality—the ground of one city, one church, of one church in one city—as being necessary for the preservation of the oneness of the church. Some have gone further to claim that to speak of the ground of locality is to add an additional and unnecessary requirement to the testimony of oneness and therefore constitutes a…