All Posts Tagged "Open Letter"

The teaching of Watchman Nee and Witness Lee concerning the proper standing of a local church.

April 27, 2018 affirmation, Bible Answer Man, Christian Research Institute, church ground, CRI, deification, Elliot Miller, Hank Hanegraaff, litigation, Neil Duddy, Open Letter, partakers of the divine nature, SCP, Spiritual Counterfeits Project, The God-Men, Trinity, Triune God, video

What the Apostle Peter and Athanasius say about deification.

April 27, 2018 affirmation, Bible Answer Man, Christian Research Institute, church ground, CRI, deification, Elliot Miller, Hank Hanegraaff, litigation, Neil Duddy, Open Letter, partakers of the divine nature, SCP, Spiritual Counterfeits Project, The God-Men, Trinity, Triune God, video

Witness Lee’s teaching of deification is actual a biblical view.

April 27, 2018 affirmation, Bible Answer Man, Christian Research Institute, church ground, CRI, deification, Elliot Miller, Hank Hanegraaff, litigation, Neil Duddy, Open Letter, partakers of the divine nature, SCP, Spiritual Counterfeits Project, The God-Men, Trinity, Triune God, video

Witness Lee and the local churches “are bringing a correction to a problem within Western evangelicalism” concerning the Trinity.

April 27, 2018 affirmation, Bible Answer Man, Christian Research Institute, church ground, CRI, deification, Elliot Miller, Hank Hanegraaff, litigation, Neil Duddy, Open Letter, partakers of the divine nature, SCP, Spiritual Counterfeits Project, The God-Men, Trinity, Triune God, video

How the “open letter” signers got it wrong.

April 27, 2018 affirmation, Bible Answer Man, Christian Research Institute, church ground, CRI, deification, Elliot Miller, Hank Hanegraaff, litigation, Neil Duddy, Open Letter, partakers of the divine nature, SCP, Spiritual Counterfeits Project, The God-Men, Trinity, Triune God, video

An index to responses written by members of the local churches to criticisms of the churches and of the ministry of Witness Lee.

June 13, 2014 church ground, deification, denominations, division, index, lawsuits, litigation, mingling, Norman Geisler, oneness of the believers, Open Letter, response, Ron Rhodes, scholars, Trinity, Triune God, Walter Martin

A series of articles addressing various deviations from biblical truth and false and hypocritical statements in an article posted on the Internet by Norman Geisler and Ron Rhodes. That article attacked the “We Were Wrong” issue of the Christian Research Journal and defended a 2007 open letter.

June 12, 2014 Christian Research Institute, Christian Research Journal, CRI, Elliot Miller, Hank Hanegraaff, index, Open Letter

The articles on this site responding to criticisms of the local churches and the ministry of Witness Lee are centered around three primary issues—the Trinity, God’s complete salvation, and the practical expression of the church. The first round of responses were published in the 1970s in response to the criticisms of inexperienced apologists who had a limited understanding of biblical truth and even less of the ministry of Witness Lee. After an interim in which many additional resources presenting Witness Lee’s teachings were published, beginning from 1999 Harvest House Publishers and others associated with that company raised the same issues again, essentially repeating those earlier accusations without regard to the responses or other writings already published. Those renewed criticisms called forth a second round of responses.

March 6, 2014 church ground, deification, denominations, division, History, lawsuits, litigation, mingling, Norman Geisler, oneness of the believers, Open Letter, response, Ron Rhodes, scholars, Trinity, Triune God, Walter Martin

The Christian Research Institute published videos to accompany excerpts from radio broadcasts of Hank Hanegraaff, the Bible Answer Man, discussing the findings of the Christian Research Institute’s six-year primary research projects into the local churches and the ministry of Witness Lee.

March 5, 2014 affirmation, Bible Answer Man, China, Christian Research Institute, CRI, deification, Elliot Miller, Gretchen Passantino, Hank Hanegraaff, Open Letter, pray-reading, prophesying, salvation, Trinity, Triune God

In December 2009, the Christian Research Institute (CRI) published an edition of its Christian Research Journal dedicated to CRI’s reassessment of the local churches and the ministry of Witness Lee. This reassessment caused CRI to withdraw its earlier criticisms and endorse the local churches as “genuine New Testament Christianity.”

March 5, 2014 affirmation, AIA, Answers in Action, Christian Research Institute, Christian Research Journal, CRI, Elliot Miller, Gretchen Passantino, Hank Hanegraaff, local churches, Open Letter, We Were Wrong

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

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

A list of excerpts from respected scholars who affirm that 2 Corinthians 3:17, 1 Corinthians 15:45, and other verses identify the Lord Jesus Christ with the Spirit.

January 1, 2010 1 Corinthians 15:45, 2 Corinthians 3:17, affirmation, Christ and the Spirit, Norman Geisler, Open Letter, Ron Rhodes, scholars

Elliot Miller, Editor-in-Chief of the Christian Research Journal, and Hank Hanegraaff, President of Christian Research Institute talk about deficiencies in the scholarship and biblical understanding of Christian leaders who signed a 2007 open letter criticizing the ministry of Witness Lee and the local churches.

November 30, 2009 affirmation, Bible Answer Man, Christian Research Institute, church ground, CRI, deification, Elliot Miller, Hank Hanegraaff, litigation, Neil Duddy, Open Letter, partakers of the divine nature, SCP, Spiritual Counterfeits Project, The God-Men, Trinity, Triune God, video

The full text of Dr. J. Gordon Melton’s booklet An Open Letter Concerning the Local Church, Witness Lee, and The God-Men Controversy, written and published by Dr. Melton after the conclusion of Lee v. Duddy. After giving a general background of the local churches based on Dr. Melton’s research as the leading authority on contemporary American religious groups, this booklet shows The God-Men‘s twisting of Witness Lee’s words in four key areas—propositional revelation, morality, rationality and use of the mind, and personal versus biblical authority. Based on SCP’s blatant misrepresentation of Witness Lee’s teaching, Dr. Melton recommends that The God-Men and any writing based on it be discarded.

November 30, 1985 authority, Brooks Alexander, inspiration of the Bible, J. Gordon Melton, mind, mingling, morality, Neil Duddy, Open Letter, propositional revelation, recovery, SCP, Spiritual Counterfeits Project, standards of scholarship, 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