Did Witness Lee believe his teaching on "One city one church"?

[Ohio]

Originally Posted by ZNPaaneah

Since you have to "shoe-horn" your teaching into the verses doesn't that suggest that WN and WL did this knowingly?

When Nee developed his city-church model, the context was early 20th century British colonialism orchestrated by denominational boards ten thousand miles away. Nee's independent idealism, in an effort to return to the glory of the apostolic church, latched on to the appealing notions of localism. In his defense, Nee's book TNCCL enumerates many caveats to the model, making the one city - one church model (OCOC) almost workable. In the late 50's / early 60's, an almost similar situation existed in America, and that's what sparked the interest in this book.

I believe Lee tried to operate according to Nee's ecclesiastical principles when he started afresh in the US. The genuine move of the Spirit, called the Jesus Movement, helped to fuel Lee's early ministry here, and since he promoted an appealing alternative to the existing denominationalism, he attracted many gifted followers. Eventually Lee departed from all of Nee's guiding principles and safeguards laid out in TNCCL. Whether Nee's OCOC model is even valid is another question, but under the leadership of Lee, local church autonomy gave way to headquarter abuses and domination.

It is eye-opening for any member of the Recovery to one day realize that every so-called storm and rebellion was never a "rebellion" at all, but rather men of God crying out for the liberties they once enjoyed. Insiders call it being "poisoned," but it really is just the liberating truth once again reaching them and setting them free.