All Posts in Category "1970s Responses"

An index to the articles written in response to Walter Martin’s public criticisms of the teaching of Witness Lee and the local churches.

A brief examination of some key verses concerning the Triune God (including Isaiah 9:6; 2 Corinthians 3:17; 1 Corinthians 15:45; and Matthew 28:19) and an appeal to accept the biblical revelation of the mystery of the Divine Trinity.

A 1978 booklet by Ron Kangas refuting the charge that Witness Lee taught that a person can be saved by calling on the name of the Lord apart from believing in Christ. In this booklet Ron Kangas shows that Witness Lee properly taught that:

• believing in Christ and His redemptive work are crucial for salvation,
• salvation is uniquely by faith,
• calling on the name of the Lord is a scriptural way to receive God’s salvation by faith.

A 1978 booklet by Ron Kangas refuting the charge that the local churches are exclusive. It discusses:

• our attitude toward fellow believers,
• our practice of receiving all genuine Christians,
• our fellowship with other Christians, and
• our testimony concerning our practice of standing apart from division and receiving all believers in fellowship.

A small booklet published in 1977 rebutting various false accusations by the Spiritual Counterfeits Project.

An historical overview of the controversy surrounding Walter Martin’s criticisms of the teaching of Witness Lee and the local churches.

The oneness of the Triune God can be seen in three categories of Scriptures, which this article calls interpenetration, identification, and interchangeable Scriptures.

This article points out key faults in arguments concerning the Triune God presented in the pamphlet The Teachings of Witness Lee and The Local Church. It contrasts:

• The booklet’s traditional, doctrinal statements concerning the Divine Trinity with biblical terminology and the language of experience;
• The booklet’s false accusation of modalism with the historical revelation of the Triune God in His economy; and
• The booklet’s false charge of “static modalism” with the oneness of the Triune God manifested through interpenetration and identification.

This article gives brief rebuttals to accusations in the pamphlet The Teachings of Witness Lee and The Local Church concerning:

• division,
• the Triune God,
• the Spirit in John 7:37-39,
• the Body of Christ,
• the practical oneness of the church,
• the Bible,
• the flesh of man, and
• the church as the manifestation of God.

God is moving today to recover what was lost by the historic Christian church. This article presents:

• the definition of recovery,
• the principle of recovery,
• how recovery relates to God’s purpose,
• the role of the church in God’s recovery,
• a picture of God’s recovery in the Old Testament,
• a brief history of God’s recovery since the Reformation,
• an overview of what God is seeking to recover today.

Those who desire to return to the “historic Christian church” should consider the epistles to the seven churches in [Revelation chapters 2 and 3]. The prophecies there trace the historic development of the church and its degradation from the New Testament standard.

Calls to return to “historic Christianity” as represented by the great ecumenical councils are misguided. This article gives many examples of deviations from the Bible brought in through some of those councils.

Those who call for a return to “historic Christianity” should consider the Lord’s speaking in Matthew 13, in which He prophesied concerning the deviation of the church from His original desire and intention.

A rebuttal of Walter Martin’s claim that the Roman Catholic Church does not teach or practice idolatry.

A critique showing that Walter Martin’s explanation that the Three of the Divine Trinity are separate persons sharing an ill-defined common nature is tantamount to having three separate Gods.

A critique of Walter Martin’s insistence that Christ is not actually present but is only represented in the believers by the Holy Spirit.

An affirmation of the biblical truth that the believers partake of the divine nature in contrast with Walter Martin’s preference that “nature” in 2 Peter 1:4 be translated as “attribute” instead.

An examination of Walter Martin’s claimed educational credentials.

The writer of this article called on Walter Martin to correct errors spoken in public concerning Witness Lee, the local churches, and vital biblical truths.

Some Christians believe that man has two only parts—body and soul. However, the biblical view that man has three parts—body, soul, and spirit—is vital to our experience of Christ.

Witness Lee used the expression “four-in-one” to express the marvelous reality that the Triune God and the believers in Christ mutually indwell one another (John 14:20; 17:21, 23). However, some have misrepresented this “four-in-one” mutual indwelling to falsely claim that Witness Lee makes the church part of the Godhead.

Walter Martin brandished a single sentence from a footnote in the Recovery Version of the New Testament as “proof” that Witness Lee was anti-Christian. His out-of-context quotation of this sentence obscured Witness Lee’s biblical critique of the deviation of “isms” from the revelation in God’s Word.

In response to Walter Martin’s counseling of a radio listener to remain as a believer in Roman Catholicism, this article presents a biblical evaluation of the Roman Catholic Church who degradations caused the Lord Himself to cry, “Come out of her, my people” (Rev. 18:2).

A consideration of mingling as the most accurate term to describe the union of God and man based on 2 Corinthians 3:17, 2 Timothy 4:22, and 1 Corinthians 6:17.

A brief exposition of the proper place of the subjective experience of Christ in the believers’ life as witnessed by the Holy Scriptures.

To those who hold that Christ is only at the right hand of God and does not actually dwell in the believers, this article offers a strong biblical corrective.

A clear biblical corrective to those who attempt to negate 2 Peter 1:4, which says the believers have the divine nature.

A testimony that as believers in Christ we can enjoy Him as the one who dwells as the Spirit in our human spirit and who supplies Himself to us as the bread and water of life through His Word and our calling upon His name.

A 1977 response to a speaker at Melodyland Christian Center who belittled members of the local churches as theologically untrained.

A 1977 answer to Walter Martin’s claim that a footnote in the Recovery Version of the New Testament altered the meaning of a word in the Bible.

A brief examination of some key verses in the New Testament on which Walter Martin erred and of his condoning of idolatry in the Roman Catholic Church.

An overview of the scriptural meaning of the Triune God, including the basic facts, the value of being limited to biblical terminology, the principle of the twofoldness of divine truth applied to the oneness and threeness of God, an understanding of how the Bible reveals the Triune God, the relationship among the Three in the Godhead, and the meaning of the Triune God in the believers’ experience.

An answer to Walter Martin’s accusations that Witness Lee and the local churches practice “dividing the Body of Christ,” “proselytizing among other Christian groups,” and “sheep stealing.”

In this statement Witness Lee responds to criticism of his teachings by explaining three reasons for different understandings of the Scriptures:

• The profundity of the divine revelation in the Bible;
• The two aspects of the truths in the Bible—objective and subjective; and
• The Lord’s progressive move to recover the truths in the Bible.

Witness Lee closes with an appeal for conduct becoming of Christians in disagreements of understandings of Scriptures.

An Introduction and Conclusion that frame the controversy surrounding a speaking at Melodyland Christian Center in Anaheim in 1977.

Two articles that point out flaws in criticisms of Witness Lee’s teaching concerning the Divine Trinity.

A short article showing the basis for the teaching of the mingling of God and man in both the Old and New Testaments and how mingling is the most appropriate word to describe the relationship of the divine and human natures in Christ.

A brief survey of the truth concerning the oneness of the church, both spiritually and practically, and of the truth that the church is God manifested in the flesh (1 Tim. 3:15-16).

A return to “historic Christianity” and a creed-based faith would bind the church to the church councils that brought in many deviations from New Testament Christianity. The second and third parts of this post address the truth concerning Babylon and denominations.

A short article on man in creation and in the fall with particular attention to the nature of indwelling sin and the needing to forgo the lust of the flesh.

A brief survey of the biblical revelation of God’s desire to enter into man.

A brief look at the release of the spirit and its relationship to the practice of calling on the name of the Lord and at taking the Word of God through means of prayer, or pray-reading.

This article decries the association of the local churches with cultic groups by a speaker at Melodyland Christian Center in Anaheim and his endorsement of The Mindbenders.

A defense of Witness Lee by one of his co-workers against a personal attack launched by a speaker at Melodyland Christian Center in 1977.

A 1977 response to a speaker at Melodyland Christian Center concerning the study of the Bible in the local churches, the Recovery Version of the Bible, and biblical interpretations related to the Divine Trinity.

A 1976 booklet by Ron Kangas refuting criticisms that those in the local churches are modalists. The booklet:

• shows that Christians’ understanding of the Triune God should begin from the Bible and not from man’s theological and philosophical constructs,
• gives a balanced biblical understanding of the Triune God being both one and three,
• demonstrates that the local churches’ stress on the believers’ subjective experience of the Triune God matches the revelation in the New Testament, and
• invites all believers to hold to the full truth of the Word of God and to care for the experience of God Himself.