Article Summary:

Hank Hanegraaff, President of Christian Research Institute, and Elliot Miller, Editor-in-Chief of the Christian Research Journal discuss practices they observed in the local churches that would benefit the entire Body of Christ, including the practice of all prophesying for mutual building up according to 1 Corinthians 14 and the practice of pray-reading the Word of God to nourish and equip the believers.

Local Church Practices

Excerpts from Bible Answer Man Radio Broadcasts Concerning the Teaching and Practice of Witness Lee and the Local Churches

During their reassessment of the teaching and practice of Witness Lee and the local churches, Hank Hanegraaff, the President of the Christian Research Institute (CRI) and host of the Bible Answer Man radio broadcast, and Elliot Miller, Editor-in-Chief of the Christian Research Journal, realized that certain scriptural practices they had observed in the local churches are potentially of great benefit to the entire Body of Christ. In particular, they were struck by the practices of pray-reading, in which the Bible is used as the content of prayer (Eph. 6:18), and prophesying, in which all of the members of the church practice speaking for and speaking forth Christ from God’s Word (1 Cor. 14:1, 3-5, 26). They speak of their impressions in the following excerpts from the Bible Answer Man radio broadcasts:

On September 8, 2008, Hank Hanegraaff commented on his realization that the local churches have “something to offer Western Christianity.”

On September 3, 2010, Hank spoke about the practice of prophesying, in which every believer has the opportunity to speak for Christ. He described this practice as “not prophesying in the sense of foretelling the future but in the 1 Corinthians 14 sense of edification and strengthening other believers.”

On January 6, 2010, Hank and Elliot Miller discussed the relationship between pray-reading as a means of equipping the believers and the practice of prophesying according to 1 Corinthians 14 as a means of mutual edification. Elliot described pray-reading as “immersing yourself in the Word of God in a way I’ve never seen people do before” and as a kind of meditation “which means to chew on the cud” [Lev. 11:3; Deut. 14:6]. It means to really turn something over and go at it from every direction and get every little bit of nutrition out of that piece of food.”

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