From chapter five of The Ministers in the Lord’s Recovery – Genuine Ministers of the New Covenant
The Revelations Received by Brother Nee and Brother Lee
From The Ministers in the Lord’s Recovery – Genuine Ministers of the New Covenant
Brother Nee and Brother Lee received great and profound revelations concerning the Triune God and His eternal economy, and these 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 beginning of the Lord’s recovery among us, Brother Nee declared that we do not have any creed; we have only the Bible as our creed.15 Similarly, Brother Lee proclaimed that although we may seek help from spiritual books, we must not treat any of them as our highest authority, for the Bible is “our highest authority, our constitution,” and “our criterion.”16 Brother Nee and Brother Lee did not accept any standard or authority other than the Bible. If a certain teaching or practice was not according to the Bible, no matter how long or dearly cherished, the brothers rejected it. Conversely, they faithfully taught any truth clearly revealed in the Bible, no matter how severe the opposition to its proclamation might be. In 1925 Brother Nee stated,
The Bible is our only standard. We are not afraid to preach the pure Word of the Bible, even if men oppose; but if it is not the Word of the Bible, we could never agree even if everyone approved of it.17
In keeping with this thought, Brother Lee testified, “Using the Bible as our only standard, we accepted whatever was according to the Bible and rejected whatever was not according to the Bible”18; “in our fellowship with others, our attitude is that if we are wrong in any of our teachings or practices according to the Bible, we are willing to be adjusted.”19
Brother Nee and Brother Lee unwaveringly confessed the essential items of the Christian faith delivered once for all to the saints (Jude 3), which include: the Bible as the infallible and divinely inspired Word of God (2 Pet. 1:21; 2 Tim. 3:16); the Triune God (Matt. 28:19; 2 Cor. 13:14; Eph. 3:14-17); the incarnation of Christ as God becoming man (John 1:14; 1 Tim. 2:5; 3:16), His substitutionary, redemptive death on the cross (Rom. 5:8; 1 Pet. 1:18-19; 2:21, 24; 3:18), His bodily and spiritual resurrection (1 Cor. 15:44-46; Luke 24:39), His ascension to the heavens to be enthroned as the Lord of all (Acts 1:9-11; 2:36; 10:36), His dwelling in the believers as their life (Col. 1:27; 3:4; Rom. 8:10; 2 Cor. 13:5; Gal. 2:20), and His second coming (Rev. 19:7; Rev. 22:20); and the believers’ dwelling with God in eternity (Rev. 21:2-3; 22:3-5). On the other hand, they also categorically rejected all heretical doctrines and repudiated the groups that hold such doctrines, including the Mormons, the Jehovah’s Witnesses, and various modernists. Many theologians who have studied the ministry publications have publicly testified that what Brother Nee and Brother Lee ministered is fully according to the common faith. Moreover, the seeking saints in the churches—who, like the noble Bereans in Acts 17:10-12, have carefully compared the teachings of Brother Nee and Brother Lee to the Scriptures to see whether these things are so—can attest that their ministry matches the Word in content, substance, and flavor (v. 11).
An outstanding feature of both Brother Nee and Brother Lee was an avid love for the Bible. They read the Bible diligently and voraciously, and by so doing gained a comprehensive knowledge of the Word of God (2 Cor. 6:4, 6). As a young man, Brother Nee loved the Bible so much that he read through the New Testament once a week for an entire year, carrying his Bible with him and reading it wherever he went. Within the first four years of his Christian life, Brother Nee had read through the entire Bible at least fifty times, and by the age of forty six he had read through the New Testament more than two hundred times.20
15 Elders’ Training, vol. 8, pp. 7-8
16 CWWL, 1965, vol. 4, p. 193; CWWL, 1966, vol. 3, p. 53; CWWL, 1986, vol. 3, p. 63; CWWL, 1994-1997, vol. 2, p. 252
17 CWWN, vol. 7, p. 1231
18 CWWL, 1977, vol. 1, p. 157
19 CWWL, 1977, vol. 1, p. 166
20 Samuel Chang’s testimony given in a meeting; CWWN, vol. 57, p. 220
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