[aron]

Originally Posted by OBW

.. many of Nee's books were regularly available at Christian books stores. .. We used Sit Walk Stand as part of an adult Sunday school study some 15 years ago in a Bible church. It was while I was involved in that study that I began to see the same kinds of errors I had previously attributed only to Lee.

To see the lingering and pernicious effect of Nee, read the quote below:

Originally Posted by LeftLR

One of leading brother told one of my family member, "If You leave local church / Lord's Recovery or attend non-LC's communion, your salvation will be lost and God will not recognize your faith. You will not see your family after this earthly life." -- Where in the Bible teaches this???.

The threats quoted above rest on Nee's legacy. Without this borrowed legitimacy their threats would mean little of what they currently do. Yes, there's lingering WN effect outside the Kaung/Lee/Chu/Dong offshoots - on Amazon there's 1000 5-star reviews Spiritual Man, many saying it changed their lives. It's this presumed external credibility that LC leverages to threaten, control, and intimidate members. They're following a "spiritual giant."

The most notable WN/Little Flock effect is that it laid the groundwork for the organised systems that followed. Nee's bred Lee's, just as surely as Lee's efforts bred the PRC "shouters/screamers" and the "s/s" gave rise to Eastern Lightning. Each one trafficked in the other, used it as the inspiration, foundation, and launching point: avaricious, self-oriented, obscurantist, paranoid, mercantilist pseudo-Christianity.

Nee copied Jessie Penn-Lewis, it became a best seller and he was effectively set for life as a Bible preacher. When he was called on it, his publisher ran a few paragraphs at the start of the second edition, said it was 'honoring' to J P-L to copy her, and life went on. Nee emerged unscathed. Witness Lee learned that one can make a nice living on ideas, even if they aren't yours. You don't have to go through school, don't have to be trained. Just be a little more clever than your audience.

(And if you think Lee didn't make a nice living, he got a Private Mausoleum with its reflecting pool. How many plumbers and bus drivers get those? How many humble bondslave Bible teachers get their own private cemetery?)

Nee was exposed 3 times for licentiousness and he survived, with carefully-managed spin and damage control. First occurance was his future mother-in-law, second was his own hand-picked elders in Shanghai (!!), third was when he was accused and apparently confessed to same by the communist government. And if you blanch at the word "communist", note that recent accounts surfaced of confessions by Nee & consorts apparently heard privately by church members. Yet Nee's reputation survived, and this set the stage for Philip Lee. Lee learned well.

Watchman Nee hit up the churches for funds - they called it "handing over". He ran business(es) with family members, perhaps with church funds. At one point he was pushed out of work for business practices. I doubt it was incidental - he was the rain-maker, he brought in the bodies to fill pews. He was speaking before 5,000 to 7,000 every Sunday morning - so why step down over business practices? Simply because he had a business? Where did his brother get the money to start a factory?

All of this lines up with what we know of WL, who hit the churches for a lot of money in 1972(?) for Daystar. I think one 'locality' ponied up $200k. How much in total was raised? Some of it was peoples' life-savings. And, how much came back? And how much of what came back was from 'training fees' charged to sit and listen to Witness Lee talk? And how much "investment" got re-labeled to be "donations", as "investors" gave up? And, who benefited? Oh - Lee's son Timothy was Daystar President, well whaddaya know. Lee learned well from Nee. Family first, church second.

And 20 years before Daystar, Nee is said to have been holder of large properties. He ran multiple 'church' businesses on the side when the communists took over. (see excerpt, below) We have no way of knowing the money trail, or how much was skimmed. I daresay it wasn't inconsiderable. And Lee (and Dong et al) learned well.

Ohio tells the story, that one day Titus Chu's phone rang, it was WL: "You just bought 1,000 chairs." Evidently, WL's children needed some money. TC picked up the phone, called each of his regional 'elders': "You just bought 100 chairs."

Originally Posted by aron

But before 1956, the LF had a lot of secular power in China. It's a different reality than what we were fed.

Watchman Nee and the Little Flock Movement in Maoist China, by Joseph Tse-Hei Lee. Church History; 2005;74(1)

"The land reform and agricultural collectivization provoked anger and indignation in the Little Flock circle. The government had introduced in June 1950 the Agrarian Reform Law, which abolished the landownership system of feudal exploitation and confiscated landowners' holdings for redistribution to landless peasants in order to destroy the gentry. Some Little Flock leaders, notably Watchman Nee, owned large land properties in Fujian province. He immediately advised Wang Peizhen, who supervised the Home of Deacons in Guling, to redistribute land and farm implements among sixty-three Little Flock members during the land reform. He also mobilized the Little Flock members across China to petition to Mao Zedong and the People's Government of Fujian not to confiscate the Little Flock's landholdings in Guling, a tactic similar to the Communist policy of mass mobilization."