What’s the Straight Dope about Witness Lee, Watchman Nee, the Recovery version of the Bible, and their Living Streams Ministry?
How mainstream are they? How accepted are they by Protestants, Evangelicals, and Ancient Christian Denominations (Catholic, Orthodox, and Oriental Christians)?
WRS
Witness Lee’s “Local Church” movement has been considered excessively sectarian & intrusive into members lives, according to various “cult-watching” groups & persons, tho the LC did successfully sue one such author in the late 1970s for calling it a cult. The LC movement has seemed to teach that if one of its congregations were established in a locale, then it was the only true church for that area. Also, IIRC, they’ve been accused of blurring the distinction between C’tian believers sharing in Christ’s perfect human nature & sharing in His Divine Nature, thus seemingly teaching that C’tians are on the way to becoming God.
(I know Eastern Orthodoxy teaches something similar but in a very nuanced & precise way that makes it clear we share in God’s Energies but not His Essence.)
Thank you, FriarTed.
How else are they cultish, besides their high amount of exclusivity?
Anecdote: In college, I was involved with the university’s interfaith group (which had official sponsorship). Many active members of the group saw InterVarsity (“IV”) Christian Fellowship’s small groups as cultish. IV members associated mainly with themselves, were very active in their small groups (almost to an obsessive or unhealthy degree), and had a very clear “us and them” paradigm with which they dealt with the rest of the world. They also were known to actively seek converts from non-Christians, to the point of emailing non-Christian members of their suite or dorm and tell them that the small group is praying for their conversion. In my freshman-year dorm, there was a high amount of negative feeling towards these small groups, even by very committed Christians who saw them as cultish Christians. These IV Christians were nice people, nonetheless, but very judgmental. I had seen a number of IV Christians in tears because some respected IV Christian disapproved of some element of their lifestyle (clothing, diet, or something like that).
WRS
Whew, your college’s branch of IVCF was a lot more intense than my Univ’s branch!
Actually, a look at IVCF’s publications show them to be a more intellectual & diverse than what one would expect from a college evangelical group- certainly moreso than Campus Crusade.
I gotta do a lot more reading on Lee, Nee & TLC before I can address the OP with any thoroughness. I can say that the doctrine that TLC is the only valid church when established in a city is certainly cultic enough for me.