[ZNPaaneah]

It is not at all obvious to me that Witness Lee had faith in his teaching of “one city one church”. James teaches that “I will show you my faith by my works”. I am not looking at what Witness Lee said, I am looking at what Witness Lee did to see if it manifests faith in this teaching. On this thread I am only considering Witness Lee’s teaching on “one city one church”. This teaching includes one eldership, the use of the name “church in a city” and the taking of the ground.

I would hope that those who disagree would point to Witness Lee’s works as evidence, not his teachings. James taught us that “faith without works is dead”. Based on that I think it is fair to assume that either Witness Lee’s faith was dead or else he had “works of faith” that we can see and examine.

This has bothered me for months as this teaching has been discussed on this forum. For example, if I was preparing a message to teach this teaching I would be looking for verses that “prescribe” this teaching and not merely those that describe it. Watchman Nee even taught this principle in his book "The Ministry of the Word". How many times when “taking the table” in a city would WN or WL have to prepare to speak on this. Likewise if there burden was truly “the oneness of the Body” wouldn’t they have realized at some point of reflection that this teaching has not led to oneness but rather was the cornerstone of a division.

This is really a critical question. If they were wrong, but genuine, then it is merely an error that we can learn from and correct. Much like the teaching that “if in anything you are otherwise minded the Holy Spirit will show you”. It bothered me that WN and WL never were corrected by the Holy Spirit on this. On the other hand, if they knew they were wrong but needed this teaching to establish their denomination, then that is a very different matter.

Again, according to James “by works was faith made perfect”. Being corrected on this teaching would be an example of this. The lack of this correction, the lack of the perfecting of this faith, makes me wonder if they even had any faith at all. Again, if they knowingly taught something that was erroneous then they wouldn’t have faith in it and we would not expect to see any faith manifested.

To me the best test came when WN was excommunicated by the church and later tried by the Chinese. If WL had recounted this story accurately, despite the obvious harm that could come to the work he was doing I would call that a work of faith similar to Abraham offering up his son. It would demonstrate that his teaching was not for selfish motive but was based on revelation from the Lord. Lying about that event tells me he didn’t have faith. He didn’t have faith that WN was truly “the minister of the Age”, he didn’t have faith that this was “the ministry” and he didn’t have faith that his teaching “one city one church” was truly from the Lord.