Quote:
Originally Posted by OBW
Nee created a group that looked no further than a supreme leader in China. And Lee exported it to the U.S. and other countries where the look for leadership would be to somewhere other than the U.S.
There is a big question whether either ever really believed in truly autonomous churches answering only to the Lord, but rather to a group of churches that answered to them rather than Rome, Springfield, MO, London, or wherever various denominations are headquartered.
They made a lot of noise about there being an earthly headquarters, but they really didn't believe what they were saying because the endgame was simply to move the earthly headquarters somewhere else.
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That last sentence is spot-on: "the endgame was simply to move the earthly headquarters somewhere else." Headquarters moved from London or New York or Dusseldorf to Shanghai, with a brief "localism" interregnum which was merely a convenient (and necessary) stepping-stone from Point A to Point B.
As per belief (in, say, "autonomous churches answering only to the Lord"), I doubt Nee, for all his intelligence, was able to visualize the endgame. Likewise, I don't think women were chosen for early "chief apostolic co-worker" status deliberately, to soon be discarded (again, deliberately) once Nee was supreme. But that's how it worked out. Similarly, I doubt "localism" was merely a cynical ploy.
But as the lure of power distorts vision and corrupts the heart, so does absolute power, which Nee and Lee both eventually insisted upon, corrupts worst of all. Therefore, although I don't see evidence that the endgame was consciously sought, from the distance of time it looks inevitable. And it probably was.