Generalizations Of The Characteristics Of The Local Church

[aron]

Originally Posted by OBW

Let me say that this could be very true. .. but an example or metaphor does not make it true.... there is some proof required for me to even go along...

How about this: what if we could show that Nee copied Penn-Lewis, who was heavily influenced by Freemasonry?

The first part is easy enough, that LSM acknowledges it. WN’s “Spiritual Man” was cribbed wholesale from J P-L writings. Thus, WN’s “four planes of spiritual existence” is literally copied, word-for-word, from her. Where did she get it? From the NT? Or from the Freemasons?

The Spiritual Man Published in three volumes in the fall of 1928. This book was not only the central one but also the greatest one among Brother Nee's writings. It covers the following main points: 1) the three parts of man—spirit, soul, and body; 2) the distinction between soul and spirit; 3) the fleshly Christian; 4) the soulish believer; 5) the subjective aspect of the cross and the work of the Holy Spirit; 6) the spiritual man; and 7) the spiritual warfare.

After publishing two editions of The Spiritual Man, Watchman Nee realized that many of his readers became introspective. He also felt that the book was too perfectly written and too detailed.[!!!] For these reasons he decided not to publish further editions. ... He told me that his view of spiritual warfare in The Spiritual Man was based mainly upon the writings and experience of Evan Roberts and Jessie Penn-Lewis..

This book was published when Nee was 24. On reading his works, Lee was amazed at how it seemed written by an older, experienced person. But Nee was young, and unable to both resist the siren song of forbidden fruit (ME Barber had told him not to read it) and unable to sort the wheat from the chaff. So he swallowed it wholesale, and poured it forth from his eager pen, and he became famous, then notorious. When it was found out he was passing off J P-L writings as his own, he effectively shrugged. “I borrowed freely, without attribution”. Hardly a sage.

But where did J P-L’s ideas come from?

https://www.watchmannee.org/publications.html