Witness Lee on Elders Needing to be Ezras

[OBW]

Originally Posted by Ohio

I take another view. Why did WL continually rebuke all his fellow workers? He knew that he was fueling both sides. Didn't he think his own actions were to blame. On the one hand he knew TC was much more gifted and spiritual than the BB's, but on the other hand he was obsessed with the continuation of his own ministry. He wanted it both ways. Instead he created a monster, a ticking time bomb. Since WL could not get along with any outsiders, including WN's own co-workers, is it not understandable that his students could not get along either?

This is a most interesting way to consider Lee's relationship with so many of his followers. But most important is the observation that all of them — TC, JI, BM, the GLA, SoCal, even those Texas boys that stayed at his side to the end — were only followers. He had no peers. If any would stand up to him in any way, even just in being a sounding board, they were subject to dismissal. He couldn't get along with the only peers he ever sort of had — the other followers of Nee. And once he dismissed them, everyone else was either a follower or a rival in his book.

He may have believed the things that he was teaching about the special position of the "church on the proper ground" and the other things, but he was determined to be THE ONE AND ONLY LEADER from the day he left mainland China — probably even before that.

Originally Posted by Ohio

By rebuking both sides, he gives the impression that he alone is according to God's heart, and that all the problems were due to the failures in his followers.

Yes, and each one's observation of the rebukes of the others while ignoring the rebukes they received elevated them in their own eyes. Unlike Paul, who showed a more excellent way, Lee only rebuked for being the wrong way. His was a message of rebuke. And there was no easy fix. You had to wait around for more dispensing to eventually get it right.