( The Conclusion of the New Testament, Messages 221-239, 2447) Concerning the church, our vision should be governed not by the present situation nor by traditional practice but by God’s original intention and standard as revealed in the Scriptures. Because the church has become degraded through the many centuries of its history, it needs to be restored according to God’s original intention. In The Conclusion of the New Testament Witness Lee provides a helpful explanation of the concept of “recovery”: When we speak of the recovery of the church, we mean that something was there originally, that it became lost or damaged, and that now there is the need to bring that thing back to its original state. To this end He is working to recover the genuine experience of Christ as life, the function of all the members of His Body, and the practical oneness among the believers. We believe that the Lord is moving today to recover the proper testimony of the church in this age based upon the truths revealed in the New Testament. The Lord’s Recovery-The Life, Function, and Practical Oneness of the Believers Therefore we diligently practice to receive all those whom the Lord has received ( Rom. Although our teachings on other, secondary items are also grounded in Scripture, we acknowledge that genuine believers have historically held to many differing interpretations on these matters and continue to do so today. These seven items broadly represent what we hold as “the faith once for all delivered to the saints” ( Jude 3). All the believers in Christ will participate in the divine blessings in the New Jerusalem in the new heaven and new earth for eternity ( Rev.12:12) and, according to the New Testament revelation, is manifested in time and space in local churches, each of which includes all the believers in a given city, regardless of where they meet or how they may otherwise identify themselves ( 1 Cor. 1:22-23), is composed of all genuine believers in Christ ( Rom. The church as the unique Body of Christ, the issue of the work of Christ ( Eph.2:16) and in our being born of God to be His children ( John 1:12-13) 2:5, 8) and in His completed work, resulting in our justification before God ( Rom. Salvation is by grace alone, through faith alone, in Christ alone ( Eph.19:7), and as the King of kings to rule over the nations ( Rev. 8:34), has been exalted to the right hand of God as Lord of all ( Acts 5:31 10:36), and will return as the Bridegroom for His bride, the church ( John 3:29 Rev. Christ died for our sins and was raised bodily from the dead ( 1 Cor.2:5), the two natures being combined in one person and being preserved distinctly without confusion or change and without forming a third nature Christ, the only begotten Son of God ( John 1:18 3:16), even God Himself ( John 1:1), became a genuine man through incarnation ( John 1:14), having both the divine and human natures ( Rom.13:14) and coinhering ( John 14:10-11) in three persons, or hypostases, distinct but never separate, from eternity to eternity 45:5a), who is triune-the Father, the Son, and the Spirit ( Matt. 3:16), and is the complete and only written divine revelation of God to man ( Deut. The Bible is the Word of God, written under His inspiration word by word ( 2 Tim.The faith affirmed by the local churches is the faith common to all believers, namely that: The resilience of the churches produced through their ministry is exemplified by the believers in China, who have proven steadfast and have flourished in the face of decades of extreme persecution, as well as by hundreds of local churches in North America that have faithfully persevered and spread despite nearly forty years of intense opposition. The ministry of these two servants of God, which is published by Living Stream Ministry (LSM), stands upon the shoulders of the many great Christian teachers of the past to present both the broad span and the spiritual depths of the New Testament truths, particularly from the perspective of the believers knowing and experiencing Christ as their life for the building up of the church as the Body of Christ. Over the past nine decades the ministry of Watchman Nee and Witness Lee has edified believers in Christ and produced local churches on all six inhabited continents.
From the Local Churches and Living Stream Ministry concerning the Teachings of Witness Lee Introduction
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