The Lord's Recovery is a term coined by the Christian preacher Watchman Nee and promoted by Witness Lee that refers to a cumulative recovery of truths lost during what they refer to as the degradation of the church beginning from the second century. Although Nee and Lee recognized that there were recoveries before the time of the Reformation, their opinion was that the Lord's recovery began with Martin Luther in the Reformation because it was from then that significant recoveries were made. [1]
Witness Lee taught that God was always moving to first establish something, and when it was damaged by Satan, God would move a second time to recover what was lost. According to Lee, this recovery happened first in creation. According to Lee, the record of God creating the universe is in Genesis 1:1, "In the beginning God created the heavens and the earth." The next verse continues with, "And the earth became waste and empty," indicating something was lost in the original creation.[ citation needed ] Then the heavens and the earth were "recovered" in six days beginning with "God moved upon the face of the waters."[ citation needed ] Similarly the Jewish temple was built by Solomon and then destroyed and subsequently recovered when the Jewish remnant returned from Babylon to Jerusalem as recorded in Ezra and Nehemiah. Witness Lee wrote that "the goal of the Lord's recovery is to recover the reality, life, livingness, strength, power, and impact of the matters revealed in the Scriptures." [2]
Although recoveries occurred before the Reformation, Nee taught that God's greatest recoveries occurred from the sixteenth century onwards, beginning with justification by faith through Martin Luther. The recovery then went on with the Anabaptists who baptized those justified by faith. The following individuals are considered to have contributed to the recovery as well: John Calvin who established the Scottish Presbyterian Church; Philipp Jakob Spener who led his followers into the practice of 1 Corinthians 14; Christian David, Count Zinzendorf. and the Moravian Brethren who were among the first to evangelize worldwide; Miguel de Molinos who wrote "Spiritual Guide"; Madame Guyon who contributed to the matters of the union with God's will and the denial of the self; Father François Fénelon worked with Madame Guyon to release many spiritual messages; the church in "Philadelphia"; Gottfried Arnold taught on outward practices of the meeting of the church; John Wesley, Charles Wesley, and George Whitefield recovered the matters of salvation, eradication of sin, sanctification, and open-air preaching; Bible expositors among the Brethren such as John Nelson Darby, Edward Cronin and Anthony Norris Groves, William Kelly, Charles Henry Mackintosh, Benjamin Wills Newton, and John Gifford Bellett; Charles Stanley; George Cutting who wrote "Safety, Certainty, and Enjoyment;" Robert Govett who taught on the matter of Christian reward; Bibles expositors such as George Hawkins Pember, David Morrieson Panton, Hudson Taylor; George Müller who taught on prayer and faith in God's word; some among the Christian and Missionary Alliance such as Albert Benjamin Simpson and A. J Gordon who taught practiced living by faith and divine healing; Robert Pearsall Smith who taught that sanctification came through consecration and faith; Mrs. Hannah Whitall Smith who wrote "The Christian's Secret of a Happy Life"; others such as Stocknell, Evan Hopkins, and Andrew Murray, who wrote "The Spirit of Christ", continued what Guyon's denial of the self and began conferences that led to the Keswick Convention; H. C. Trumbull who spoke on the overcoming life at the Keswick Convention; Mrs. Jessie Penn-Lewis who wrote "War on the Saints" and taught about the cross of Christ with help of the writings of Guyon; and Brother Holden who experienced and taught lessons on the cross with help from Penn-Lewis' teachings. Watchman Nee and Witness Lee considered themselves as beneficiaries of this "recovery" and believed that they were part of its continuation. [3] [4] [5] [6]
Other people considered to be part of the Lord's recovery include Johann Arndt, Theodore Austin-Sparks, Margaret E. Barber, Bernard of Clairvaux, Jacob Boehme, Peter Böhler, John Bunyan, Brother Lawrence (Nicholas Herman), Jan Hus, George Henry Lang, William Law, Dwight Lyman Moody, Charles Haddon Spurgeon, William Tyndale, John Wycliffe, and Aiden Wilson Tozer. [7]
Justificatio sola fide, meaning justification by faith alone, is a soteriological doctrine in Christian theology commonly held to distinguish the Lutheran and Reformed traditions of Protestantism, among others, from the Catholic, Eastern Orthodox, Oriental Orthodox and Assyrian churches. The doctrine asserts that it is on the basis of faith that believers are made right of their transgressions of the law of God rather than on the basis of what Paul calls "works of the law", sometimes called good works. This forgiveness is known as "justification". In classical Lutheran and Reformed theologies, works are seen to be evidence of faith, but the works themselves do not determine salvation. In contrast, Methodist doctrine affirms a belief in justification by faith that offers God's forgiveness, but holds that holy living with the goal of Christian perfection (sanctification) is essential for salvation.
The local churches are a Christian group which was started in China in the 1920s and have spread globally. The basic organizing principle of the local churches is that there should be only one Christian church in each city, a principle that was first articulated by Watchman Nee in a 1926 exposition of the seven churches in Asia in Revelation 1:11. The local churches do not take a name, but some outsiders referred to the group as the "Little Flock" as they sang from a hymnal entitled Hymns for the Little Flock.
Witness Lee was a Chinese Christian preacher and hymnist belonging to the Christian group known as the local churches in Taiwan and the United States. He was also the founder of Living Stream Ministry. Lee was born in 1905 in the city of Yantai, Shandong, China, to a Southern Baptist family. He became a Christian in 1925 after hearing the preaching of an evangelist named Peace Wang and later joined the Christian work started by Watchman Nee. Like Nee, Lee emphasized what he considered the believers' subjective experience and enjoyment of Christ as life for the building up of the church, not as an organization, but as the Body of Christ.
The Holiness movement is a Christian movement that emerged chiefly within 19th-century Methodism, and to a lesser extent other traditions such as Quakerism, Anabaptism, and Restorationism. The movement is historically distinguished by its emphasis on the doctrine of a second work of grace, generally called entire sanctification or Christian perfection and by the belief that the Christian life should be free of sin. For the Holiness movement, "the term 'perfection' signifies completeness of Christian character; its freedom from all sin, and possession of all the graces of the Spirit, complete in kind." A number of evangelical Christian denominations, parachurch organizations, and movements emphasize those beliefs as central doctrine.
Watchman Nee, Ni Tuosheng, or Nee T'o-sheng, was a Chinese church leader and Christian teacher who worked in China during the 20th century. His evangelism was influenced by the Plymouth Brethren.
Living Stream Ministry (LSM), originally named Stream Publishers when founded in 1965 by Witness Lee, is a non-profit corporation currently based in Anaheim, California. LSM publishes the works of Watchman Nee and Witness Lee, including the Recovery Version of the Bible. LSM has been a member of the Evangelical Christian Publishers Association since 2002 and of the Christian Booksellers Association since 1981.
Sanctification literally means "to set apart for special use or purpose", that is, to make holy or sacred. Therefore, sanctification refers to the state or process of being set apart, i.e. "made holy", as a vessel, full of the Holy Spirit of God. The concept of sanctification is widespread among religions, including Judaism and especially Christianity. The term can be used to refer to objects which are set apart for special purposes, but the most common use within Christian theology is in reference to the change brought about by God in a believer, begun at the point of salvation and continuing throughout the life of the believer. Many forms of Christianity believe that this process will only be completed in Heaven, but some believe that complete holiness is possible in this life.
Theodore Austin-Sparks (1888–1971), often known as "Mr. Sparks" or "TAS", was a British Christian evangelist and author.
The Recovery Version is a modern English translation of the Bible from the original languages, published by Living Stream Ministry, ministry of Witness Lee and Watchman Nee. It is the commonly used translation of Local Churches (affiliation).
The Alliance World Fellowship is the international governing body of the Christian and Missionary Alliance. The Alliance is an evangelical Protestant denomination within the Higher Life movement of Christianity, teaching a modified form of Keswickian theology. The headquarters is in Reynoldsburg, Ohio United States.
Christian perfection is the name given to theological concepts within some sects of Christianity that purport to describe a process of achieving spiritual maturity or perfection. The ultimate goal of this process is union with God characterized by pure love of God and other people as well as personal holiness or sanctification. Various terms have been used to describe the concept, such as entire sanctification, perfect love, the baptism with the Holy Spirit, the indwelling of the Holy Spirit, baptism by fire, the second blessing, and the second work of grace.
As a general term in theological use, assurance refers to a believer's confidence in God, God's response to prayer, and the hope of eternal salvation. In Protestant Christian doctrine, the term "assurance", also known as the Witness of the Spirit, affirms that the inner witness of the Holy Spirit allows the Christian disciple to know that he or she is justified. Based on the writings of St. Augustine of Hippo, assurance was historically a very important doctrine in Lutheranism and Calvinism, and remains a distinguishing doctrine of Methodism and Quakerism, although there are differences among these Christian traditions. Hymns that celebrate the witness of the Holy Spirit, such as "Blessed Assurance" are sung in Christian liturgies to celebrate the belief in assurance.
The Higher Life movement, also known as the Keswick movement or Keswickianism, is a Protestant theological tradition within evangelical Christianity that espouses a distinct teaching on the doctrine of entire sanctification.
Bibles for America (BfA) is a non-profit, religious organization dedicated to distributing free copies of the New Testament Recovery Version study Bible and Christian books by Witness Lee and Watchman Nee in the United States and Puerto Rico.
In Christian theology, the tripartite view (trichotomy) holds that humankind is a composite of three distinct components: body, spirit, and soul. It is in contrast to the bipartite view (dichotomy), where soul and spirit are taken as different terms for the same entity.
The local churches and the ministry of Watchman Nee and Witness Lee have been the subject of controversy in two major areas over the past fifty years. To a large extent these controversies stem from the rapid increase and spread of the local churches in the United States in the 1960s and early 1970s. In the 1970s they became a target of opposition of fledgling countercult ministries. Unsupported criticisms of anti-social behaviors led to three libel litigations. In addition, some criticized the teaching of Witness Lee on the nature of God, God's full salvation, and the church.
Margaret Emma Barber or M. E. Barber, was a British missionary in China. She was born in 1866 in Peasenhall, Suffolk, England, the daughter of Louis and Martha Barber. The family moved to 59 St Martins Lane Norwich around 1876 and established a Carriage Manufacturing business. The family home in Norwich was opposite St Martins Parish church which was intensely evangelical in the 1880 - 90s and must have had an influence on the Barber family. During the course of her life, she lived in China twice to preach the Christian gospel. She left her home and travelled in a lonely way thousands of miles. Barber, who initially went to China as an Anglican, became an independent missionary with informal ties to the Plymouth Brethren. She is best known for her influence on Watchman Nee.
The Shouters, or more properly the Shouters sect (呼喊派), is a label attached by the People's Republic of China (PRC) to an amorphous group within China that was targeted by the government first as counterrevolutionaries and subsequently as a criminal cult after incidents in Dongyang and Yiwu counties in Zhejiang province in February 1982. "The Shouters sect" became the object of waves of arrests in 1983 and again in 1995. Several 1983 publications with ties to the Three-Self Patriotic Movement (TSPM) accused the late expatriate Chinese Christian teacher Witness Lee of being the leader of "the Shouters sect" and of instigating the disorders. In practice, however, the appellation "the Shouters sect" has been applied far more broadly to many groups that pray openly and audibly and/or do not register or otherwise cooperate with the TSPM. There is considerable reason to doubt the veracity of the reports which led to the condemnation of "the Shouters sect" and the association of them with Witness Lee or the local churches, and the local churches distance themselves from the Shouters.
According to some Christian traditions, a second work of grace is a transforming interaction with God which may occur in the life of an individual Christian. The defining characteristics of the second work of grace are that it is separate from and subsequent to the New Birth, and that it brings about significant changes in the life of the believer.
While both rhema and logos are translated into the English word, in the original Greek there was a substantial distinction. The use of the term rhema has special significance in some Christian groups, especially those advocating the Five-Fold Ministry that God gave of five gifts or callings to some people. Christians denominations that advocate the Five-Fold Ministry include Charismatic Christianity, the Pentecostal Movement, the Apostolic-Prophetic Movement and the Word of Faith Movement.
