[UntoHim]

Originally Posted by DonRutledge

But what did happen was that the nature of the various ‘local churches’ changed from being local in administration and spontaneous in actions to being directed from a center with clear administrative leaders and directors.

Thanks to the Internet and some older, faithful brothers and sisters from mainland China and Taiwan, we now know that this particular "change" Don speaks of was NOT the first time Witness Lee was involved in a usurpation of the Local Churches of the Recovery movement. It was probably at least the third time this kind of takeover by "the Ministry" took place. We know for a fact that by the 50s in Taiwan Lee was already hiring and firing elders and co-workers at his personal whim. Local churches were accepted or rejected based upon their acceptance of the person and work of Lee. Whole churches and even families were brought into turmoil and division, NOT over the very Word of God or the Gospel, but over the teachings, practices and personal authority established by one man - Witness Lee.

As a matter of fact, by the time Witness Lee hit our fair shores here in America, he had many decades of experience in taking supposed "genuine local churches" and placing them under the thumb of his "Ministry" - we gullible Americans were just his latest conquest. I am afraid that much of the freedom and supposed blessing we experienced in the beginning years was not much more than part and parcel of Witness Lee's "bait and switch" game - a game he had played and won a number of times before.

All this does not in any way discount, much less nullify, the genuine experiences of Christ, the love and fellowship we had among all the saints, or even the legitimacy of our mission to practice the oneness shared by all believers in any particular city. What may very well be started as a genuine move of God can quickly become a movement of men. What may very well be started as a genuine and biblical mission can quickly become the personal mission of a man and his followers, which in turn can quickly devolve into something Lee and his followers decried the most - an organization based upon the person and work, not of Jesus Christ, but of a mere man...in short...religion...the kind of religion that Christ is versus.
-