All Posts in Category "Publications"

In practicing the church life, our attitude toward fellow believers is an important matter. To aid the saints in understanding this matter more thoroughly, we offer the fellowship in this small book, which is based on the ministry of Watchman Nee and Witness Lee.

April 2, 2022 Christianity, church ground, denominations, division, oneness of the believers

Our Faith, Testimony, and History introduces readers to the local churches and to the ministry of Watchman Nee and Witness Lee. As Christians, we affirm “the faith once for all delivered to the saints” (Jude 3). As this booklet explains, we endeavor to cooperate with the Lord to recover the experience of Christ as life, the functioning of every believer in serving the Lord, and the building up of the Body of Christ in a testimony of oneness.

March 31, 2022 affirmation, AIA, Answers in Action, Christian Research Institute, Congressional Record, CRI, Elliot Miller, Gretchen Passantino, Hank Hanegraaff, local churches, scholars, Voices of Confirmation, Watchman Nee, Witness Lee

Members of the local churches have written many responses to criticisms of the teaching of Witness Lee and of the local churches. These responses address vital issues of truth concerning God, Christ, His salvation, and the church, among many other subjects.

March 5, 2014 1 Corinthians 15:45, beliefs, Christ and the Spirit, church ground, Isaiah 9:6, mind, modalism, Person of Christ, response, salvation, the Son and the Father, Trinity, tritheism, Triune God

In 2007 an open letter appeared on the Internet calling on Living Stream Ministry and the local churches to “disavow and cease to publish” certain statements by Witness Lee. The two books in the series A Defense of the Gospel: Responses to an Open Letter from “Christian Scholars and Ministry Leaders” (1) and 2 answer the concerns raised in that 2007 open letter and show the defects in its handling of important biblical truths.

March 4, 2014 church ground, Defense of the Gospel, denominations, oneness of the believers, Open Letter, salvation, Triune God

Voices of Confirmation contains the testimonies of leading evangelicals who, through direct study and contact, have come to appreciate the local churches and the ministry of Watchman Nee and Witness Lee.

December 17, 2013 affirmation, AIA, Answers in Action, Christian Research Institute, Congressional Record, CRI, Elliot Miller, Gretchen Passantino, Hank Hanegraaff, local churches, scholars, Voices of Confirmation, Watchman Nee, Witness Lee

This 2011 book is one of a series of four addressing criticisms by Norman Geisler and Ron Rhodes. This book addresses three key issues:

  • the error of making creeds, not the Bible, the rule of faith;
  • the twofoldness of divine truth; and
  • the infinite God becoming a finite man through incarnation.
June 30, 2011 authority, Bible, Brothers Hear Our Defense, creeds, God becoming man, incarnation, mingling, Norman Geisler, Person of Christ, Ron Rhodes, two natures of Christ, Twofoldness of Divine Truth

This 2011 book is one of a series of four addressing criticisms by Norman Geisler and Ron Rhodes. This book addresses various points of truth concerning the Divine Trinity, including:

  • the use of the word persons to describe the Three of the Godhead;
  • the coinherence and co-working of the Father, the Son, and the Spirit;
  • whether Isaiah 9:6 prophesies that the “Son given to us” is the “Eternal Father”; and
  • whether the Apostle Paul said the Lord Jesus Christ is the Spirit in 2 Corinthians 3:17.
June 30, 2011 2 Corinthians 3:17, Brothers Hear Our Defense, Christ and the Spirit, co-working, coinherence, identification, Isaiah 9:6, Norman Geisler, Open Letter, persons, Ron Rhodes, the Son and the Father, Trinity, Triune God

This 2011 book is one of a series of four addressing criticisms by Norman Geisler and Ron Rhodes. This book addresses various aspects their mistreatment of Witness Lee’s critique of the deviations of organized Christianity from the biblical revelation, including:

  • Misrepresentation of Witness Lee’s critique of the system of Christianity as an attack on Christians;
  • Misrepresentation of Witness Lee’s critique of the Roman Catholic Church; and
  • Double standard regarding criticisms of the Roman Catholic Church.
June 30, 2011 Brothers Hear Our Defense, Catholicism, Christianity, hypocrisy, Norman Geisler, Ron Rhodes

This 2011 book is one of a series of four addressing criticisms by Norman Geisler and Ron Rhodes. This book addresses three areas in which they have borne false witness related to our appeals to the courts for relief from libel:

  • their accusation that the local churches are litigious;
  • their claim that the local churches drove Spiritual Counterfeits Project into bankruptcy; and
  • their misrepresentation of many aspects of the case over the Encyclopedia of Cults and New Religions.
June 30, 2011 Brothers Hear Our Defense, false witness, Harvest House, litigation, litigiousness, Norman Geisler, Ron Rhodes, SCP, Spiritual Counterfeits Project

Brothers, Hear Our Defense is a series of four books correcting many errors in an article by Norman Geisler and Ron Rhodes. The subjects that these books deal with—the authority of the Bible, the incarnation of Christ, the nature of God, the state of Christendom measured against the Bible—are important matters deserving consideration by all serious Christians.

June 30, 2011 authority, Catholicism, Christianity, false witness, incarnation, Norman Geisler, Ron Rhodes, Trinity, Triune God

This 2009 book contains a statement prepared by the LSM editorial section addressing key issues in dialogues with a panel of Fuller Theological Seminary professors regarding the Trinity, the Person of Christ, God’s full salvation, and the genuine ground of oneness. It also contains a copy of the Fuller panel’s conclusions from their study.

February 28, 2009 affirmation, church ground, Confirmation of the Gospel, Fuller Theological Seminary, identification, lawsuits, litigation, Living Stream Ministry, LSM, oneness of the believers, salvation, Trinity, Triune God, two natures of Christ

This 2008 book contains statements from Hank Hanegraaff, President of Christian Research Institute; Gretchen Passantino, director of Answers in Action; and Fuller Theological Seminary that attest to the orthodoxy of the teaching and practice of the local churches.

November 30, 2008 affirmation, AIA, Answers in Action, Christian Research Institute, CRI, Fuller Theological Seminary, Gretchen Passantino, Hank Hanegraaff, Howard Loewen, Richard Mouw, Veli-Matti Kärkkäinen

The Experts Speak contains the testimony of six expert witnesses who studied the local churches and the teaching of Witness Lee. Five of them testified in court in the Lee v. Duddy; the sixth was not asked to testify at the trial but wrote a statement titled “Libel and the First Amendment.”

November 30, 1994 index, The Experts Speak, The God-Men

An index to the testimony in The Experts Speak with links to relevant portions on specific topics.

November 30, 1994 Edwin S. Gaustad, Eugene Van Ness Goetchius, H. Newton Malony, index, J. Gordon Melton, John A. Saliba, Neil Duddy, Rodney Stark, SCP, Spiritual Counterfeits Project, The Experts Speak, The God-Men

This Preface to the printed volume of The Experts Speak describes the contents of the book and how it is structured.

November 30, 1994 Die Sonderlehre, Edwin S. Gaustad, Eugene Van Ness Goetchius, H. Newton Malony, J. Gordon Melton, John A. Saliba, Neil Duddy, Rodney Stark, SCP, Spiritual Counterfeits Project, The Experts Speak, The God-Men

The “Meet the Experts” section of The Experts Speak gives basic profiles of the six experts who studied the local churches and the teachings of Witness Lee for the Lee et al v. Duddy et al case concerning The God-Men.

November 30, 1994 Edwin S. Gaustad, Eugene Van Ness Goetchius, H. Newton Malony, J. Gordon Melton, John A. Saliba, Rodney Stark, scholars, The Experts Speak

The “Introduction” to The Experts Speak presents the historical background of Lee et al v. Duddy et al and describes the role of the expert witnesses in the case.

November 30, 1994 Die Sonderlehre, Edwin S. Gaustad, Eugene Van Ness Goetchius, H. Newton Malony, J. Gordon Melton, John A. Saliba, Neil Duddy, Rodney Stark, SCP, Spiritual Counterfeits Project, The Experts Speak, The God-Men

Dr. J. Gordon Melton, Director of the Institute for the Study of American Religion and author of the standard work Encyclopedia of American Religions, testified that SCP had completely misrepresented Witness Lee and the local churches and had made many false and damaging accusations in its book The God-Men. [Note: Dr. Melton is currently Distinguished Professor of American Religious History at the Institute for Studies of Religion, Baylor University.]

November 30, 1994 J. Gordon Melton, mingling, Neil Duddy, SCP, Spiritual Counterfeits Project, The Experts Speak, The God-Men

Dr. John A. Saliba, a Jesuit priest and Professor in the Department of Religious Studies at the University of Detroit-Mercy, testified that SCP adhered to a principle of attacking and destroying anyone with whom they did not agree and that the accusations of cultic behaviors made in The God-Men were false as regards the local churches and the teachings of Witness Lee.

November 30, 1994 John A. Saliba, Neil Duddy, SCP, Spiritual Counterfeits Project, The Experts Speak, The God-Men

Dr. Eugene Van Ness Goetchius, formerly Professor of Biblical Languages in both the Episcopal Theological School and Philadelphia Divinity School, testified that The God-Men intentionally misrepresented Witness Lee’s teachings on the authority of the Bible and morality and that the members of the local churches were “extremely family-oriented.”

November 30, 1994 Eugene Van Ness Goetchius, mingling, Neil Duddy, SCP, Spiritual Counterfeits Project, The Experts Speak, The God-Men

Dr. Rodney Stark, Professor of Sociology and Comparative Religion at the University of Washington and co-author of the model of conversion that Neil Duddy claimed to have used to perform a sociological evaluation of the local churches, testified that Duddy had missed the model’s entire point and had altered it maliciously. [Note: Dr. Stark is currently Co-director of the Institute for Studies of Religion and Distinguished Professor of the Social Sciences at Baylor University.]

November 30, 1994 Neil Duddy, Rodney Stark, SCP, Spiritual Counterfeits Project, The Experts Speak, The God-Men

Dr. H. Newton Malony, Senior Professor of Psychology at Fuller Theological Seminary, conducted a study of local church members to assess the claims of sociological deviance made in The God-Men. He found those claims to be without basis. [Note: Dr. Malony retired from Fuller in 2009.]

November 30, 1994 H. Newton Malony, Neil Duddy, SCP, Spiritual Counterfeits Project, The Experts Speak, The God-Men

Dr. Edwin S. Gaustad, formerly Emeritus Professor of History at University of California, Riverside, wrote a statement criticizing self-appointed vigilante groups such as SCP and the damage they cause to the reforming impetus inherent in Christianity.

November 30, 1994 Edwin S. Gaustad, First Amendment, Neil Duddy, SCP, Spiritual Counterfeits Project, The Experts Speak, The God-Men

After the end of The God-Men case (Lee v. Duddy) in 1985, Dr. J. Gordon Melton, one of the expert witnesses in the case, wrote and published An Open Letter Concerning the Local Church, Witness Lee and The God-Men Controversy. Dr. Melton demonstrated conclusively that The God-Men had misrepresented Witness Lee teaching and recommended that it, and any other writing based on it, be discarded.

November 30, 1985 authority, Brooks Alexander, index, inspiration of the Bible, J. Gordon Melton, local churches, mind, morality, Neil Duddy, Open Letter, propositional revelation, SCP, Spiritual Counterfeits Project, standards of scholarship, The God-Men