Quote:
Originally Posted by Freedom
I guess that as a young man, Nee really felt like he wanted to find the answers to important issues, and he felt that he had the means to do so. I think what essentially happened is that his proposed solution (NCCL), when put into practice, didn't quite work out so well.
I've always understood that Nee never really had a solid opportunity to put his concept of the local churches into practice (Steve Isitt's recent writing on Nee provides insight on that), so the concept of local churches were left to Lee's imagination. Lee's version does not match what Nee conveyed in the NCCL, and I think Lee himself eventually realized that. He was quick to oust brothers when they pointed out the disparities between the current state of the local churches and what the NCCL describes. That's not even considering how "correct" Nee's view of the local church is.
|
A couple of my college professors used to say that,
We don't know whether Communism works or not because we've never had real Communism before. Of course, the way Stalin and other Communist leaders governed was far from the idealistic teachings in their literature. Which raises questions about whether the tyrannies of Stalin, Pol Pol, etc., should be considered as failures of "Communism," or as never having been "real Communists" in the first place.
Perhaps it's
six of one, half dozen of the other?
My point is, maybe Lee was genuinely trying to build what Nee proposed. Or, maybe he was using Nee as a springboard to build up his own little family empire.
Perhaps a little of both.
But we can at least acknowledge, whatever it is exactly, it didn't turn out so well.