Witness Lee

{{bronze}}[[File:Witness-lee-bw-small.jpg|thumb|right|165px|"Witness Mee!"]]{{christianity}}

{{cquote|The Lord is not building His church in Christendom, which is composed of the apostate [[Roman Catholic Church| Roman Catholic Church]] and the [[Protestant]] denominations. This...is being fulfilled through the [[Local Church|Lord's recovery]], in which the building of the genuine church is being accomplished...Roman Catholicism and Protestantism, as well as [[Judaism|Judaism]], all [have] become an organization of [[Satan]].|||Witness Lee, spewing [[Other|sectarian]] [[Demonization|rhetoric]]}}

'''Witness Lee''', born '''Li Changshou''', {{lived|1905|1997}} was a 
delusional fraud
 [[Christian]] [[evangelist]] from Shandong Province, [[China]], who claimed to have revealed all of Christianity's hidden/forgotten [[Bullshit|"high peak truths"]].<ref>http://www.ministrybooks.org/high-peak.cfm</ref> Purportedly directed by [[God]], he co-founded and led the [[Local Church]] movement from 1949 until his death in 1997,<ref>http://www.witnesslee.org/</ref> with the expressed purpose of establishing it as the "recovered church", i.e. the One True Church™ ([[Mormonism |does]] [[Jehovah's Witnesses |this]] [[Unification Church |sound]] [[Seventh-day Adventism |familiar]]?).<ref>http://www.lordsrecovery.org/history/iv.html</ref> Influenced by fringe 19<sup>th</sup>/20<sup>th</sup> century [[Restorationism| Restorationists]] (such as Watchman Nee (1903-1972),<ref>{{wpa | Watchman Nee}}</ref> John Darby (1800-1882),<ref>{{wpa | John Nelson Darby}}</ref> and G.H. Pember (1837-1910)<ref>{{wpa | G. H. Pember}}</ref>) and aided by outdated word-studies,<ref>
http://localchurchdiscussions.com/vBulletin/showthread.php?t=365
</ref>
he gradually concocted his own peculiar [[theology]] and foisted it on credulous [[true believer]]s in [[Taiwan]] and in the [[United States]].

==Background, interpretive methods, and beliefs==
Lee never attended a seminary or university; he taught himself Greek, knew next-to nothing about [[Hebrew]], and was [[Willful ignorance|willfully ignorant]] of 20<sup>th</sup> century discoveries by biblical scholars.<ref>http://localchurchdiscussions.com/vBulletin/showthread.php?t=5183</ref> Despite his lack of training, Lee was a prolific writer and produced over 400 books and commentaries about the [[Bible]] and the Christian faith.<ref>https://www.livingstream.com/en/33-collected-works-of-witness-lee?__utma=1.686414455.1459871099.1459871099.1459871270.2&__utmb=1.2.10.1459871270&__utmc=1&__utmx=-&__utmz=1.1459871270.2.2.utmcsr=google|utmccn=(organic)|utmcmd=organic|utmctr=(not%20provided)&__utmv=-&__utmk=51259177</ref> Most of these publications were simply the polished transcriptions of his spoken messages given at conferences.

Consult any of his works, and you’ll find a peculiar mix of allegorical [[sophistry]] and rigid [[biblical literalism]], interspersed with a bizarre mishmash of [[Equivocation|ill-defined terms]], [[Circular reasoning|question-begging]] statements, [[Cherry picking|cherry-picked]]/[[Quote mining|quote-mined]] Bible verses, unsubstantiated [[Argument by assertion|assertions]], and [[Non sequitur|''huge'' jumps in logic]]. Instead of using sound historical-critical methodologies for biblical interpretation, Lee mainly applied dubious {{wpl|Allegory|allegorical}}, {{wpl|Typology (theology)|typological}}, and [[Numerology|numerological]] methods in order to mine the Bible for alleged deep/hidden meanings...meanings that most likely would have been foreign to the original biblical authors.

Amusingly, his naïve proselytes have mistaken his religious 
psychobabble
 expositions for something that’s profoundly [[Deepity|deep]] and [[Spirituality|spiritual]], and claim that it all came [[Revelation|directly from God]]. They’ve even gone so far as to declare him the "minister of the age", right up there with the likes of [[Augustine of Hippo]], [[Thomas Aquinas]], and [[Martin Luther]].<ref>http://www.afaithfulword.org/articles/VisionMinistryMinister.html#Minister</ref> In [[Reality|reality]], Lee was an obscure [[charlatan]] who subscribed to things like the [[Gap_Creationism|gap theory]], [[Millennialism|millennialism]], [[dispensationalism]], [[Trinity|modalism]], and "mingling"; the idea that Christians will become infused with God and transform into "god-men" hybrids like [[Jesus]].<ref>https://contrast2.wordpress.com/2010/09/25/the-false-gospel-of-witness-lee-and-the-living-stream-ministries/</ref><ref>http://www.theopedia.com/the-local-church</ref>

==A small sampling of Witness Lee's insanity==
Anyone familiar with {{wpl|biblical criticism}} (or science, logic, reason, etc.) will be able to spot the absurdities in the following examples:  
<br />
<br />
Excerpt from Lee's mystical commentary on the story of Jesus feeding the crowd of 5,000 with the [[fish]] and 5 loaves ({{bible|Matthew|14|14}}-21) –
{{quotebox|…these five loaves were barley loaves. Barley is a type of the resurrected Christ ({{bible|Leviticus|23|10}}). Thus, the barley loaves signify [[Christ]] in resurrection as food to us. Loaves are of the vegetable life, signifying the generating aspect of Christ's life, whereas fish are of the animal life, signifying the redeeming aspect of Christ's life. (The Recovery Version: Footnotes of Matthew)}}

Here's a nugget of wisdom from his "Life Study" of the Book of Colossians –
{{quotebox|When Christ was incarnated and born in the manger in Bethlehem, He put humanity on Himself. This humanity included us and all of creation as well. Hence, even before we were born, Christ put us on Himself. As Christ passed through human living, we passed through it with Him. Furthermore, when He went to the cross and was [[Crucifiction|crucified]], we were crucified with Him. Then we were buried with Him in the tomb. In fact, ''all of creation was buried there''. Thus, Christ’s tomb was an ''all-inclusive tomb''. (Life Study of Colossians)}}

Concerning the significance of [[water]] –
{{quotebox|In the Bible, water symbolizes either life or death. The water here ({{bible|Genesis|1|2}}) signifies death as a result of God's judgment on the pre-Adamic universe. (The Recovery Version: Footnotes of Genesis)}}

Revealing the true nature of the [[sun]], [[moon]], and other celestial bodies ({{bible|Genesis|1|16}}) –
{{quotebox|The sun signifies Christ...the moon can be considered a figure of the church, the wife of Christ...the [[Star|stars]] first signify Christ…although Christ is the real sun, He does not appear as the sun during the present age of night. Rather, He shines as the bright [[Venus|Morning Star]]. (The Recovery Version: Footnotes of Genesis)}}

Apparently, not only does [[Yahweh]] want to grant Christians [[Salvation|salvation]], he wants to transform them into demigods too – 
{{quotebox|My (Lee's) burden is to show you clearly that God’s economy and plan is to make Himself man and to make us, His created beings, God...Christ is of two natures, the human and the divine, and we are the same: we are of the human nature, but covered with the divine. He is the God-man, and we are the God-men. He is the ark made of wood covered with gold, and we are the boards made of wood covered with gold. In number we are different, but in nature we are exactly the same...God can say to His believers, ‘I am divine and human,’ and His believers can reply, ‘Praise You, Lord. You are divine and human, and we are human and divine’. (A Deeper Study of the Divine Dispensing, The All-Inclusive Christ, The Triune God to Be Life to the Tripartite Man)}}

This [[Word_salad|word salad]] has it all: numerology, typology, and allegory (in reference to {{bible|Revelation|2}} – {{bible|Revelation|3|22}}) –
{{quotebox|The number seven in the Bible is composed either of six plus one, e.g., six days plus one day equals one week; or of three plus four, as in these two chapters, in which the seven churches are divided into one group of three and another group of four. At the end of each of the first three epistles, the ear for hearing is mentioned first, and then the call for overcoming. At the end of each of the last four epistles, the order is reversed. This proves that the first three epistles form one group, and the last four another. Six plus one is seen in God’s creation, whereas three plus four is seen in God’s new creation, the church. Since all things were created in six days, the number six signifies the creation, especially man, who was created on the sixth day; and since the seventh day, as the conclusion of the six days, was the one day of God’s rest, the number one signifies the unique Creator. Hence, six plus one signifies that all things were created unto God for the accomplishing of His purpose. The unique Creator, God, is triune, signified by the number three. Since the creation is represented before God by four living creatures ({{bible|Revelation|4|6}}-9), the number four signifies creatures, especially man. Hence, three plus four means that God is added to the created man, and thus His purpose is being accomplished. The church is not only the creature, but the creature with the Creator as the Triune God dispensed into her. She is the real number seven: the real three, the Triune God, added to the real four, created man. Therefore the number seven denotes completion in God’s move, first in the old creation and then in the new creation, the church. (The Recovery Version: Footnotes of Revelation)}}

Last but not least –
{{quotebox|Now, even while we are participating in the church life, we are sitting with Him (Jesus) in the heavenlies. On the one hand, we are in the church on earth; on the other hand, we are in Christ in the heavenlies. There is a great deal of traffic between the heavens and the church, ''traffic that moves faster than the [[Speed_of_Light|speed of light]]''. (Life Study of Colossians)}}

Based on everything above, Witness Lee probably scored an 8.5/10 on the [[Crank|wacky-lunatic]] scale.

==Selected publications==
*''The Economy of God'' (1968)
*''The All-Inclusive Christ'' (1969)
*''The Knowledge of Life'' (1973)
*''A Deeper Study of the Divine Dispensing (1990)
*''The Triune God to Be Life to the Tripartite Man (1990)
*''The Life-Study of the Bible'' (1974-1994)
*''The Spirit within Our Spirit'' (1994)
*''[[Bible translation#Fringe, crank, and joke translations|The Recovery Version of the Bible]]'' (1991, 1999, 2003)

==References==
{{reflist|2}}

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Categories: Authors, China, Christian clergy, Ministers, Cult leaders, Religious leaders