Thou Shalt Not Repeat Others ??

@divegeester said
Sonship in hair drier mode.

@sonship

"We do not care for Christianity, we do not care for Christendom, we do not care for the Roman Catholic Church, and we do not care for all the denominations, because in the Bible it says that the great Babylon is fallen. This is a declaration. Christianity is fallen, Christendom is fallen, Catholicism is fallen, and all the denominations are fallen. Hallelujah!"

Witness Lee - "The Seven Spirits for the Local Churches."

@ghost-of-a-duke said
@sonship

"We do not care for Christianity, we do not care for Christendom, we do not care for the Roman Catholic Church, and we do not care for all the denominations, because in the Bible it says that the great Babylon is fallen. This is a declaration. Christianity is fallen, Christendom is fallen, Catholicism is fallen, and all the denominations are fallen. Hallelujah!"

Witness Lee - "The Seven Spirits for the Local Churches."

@Ghost-of-a-Duke

@sonship

"We do not care for Christianity, we do not care for Christendom, we do not care for the Roman Catholic Church, and we do not care for all the denominations, because in the Bible it says that the great Babylon is fallen. This is a declaration. Christianity is fallen, Christendom is fallen, Catholicism is fallen, and all the denominations are fallen. Hallelujah!"

Witness Lee - "The Seven Spirits for the Local Churches."

@sonship said
@Ghost-of-a-Duke

[quote] @sonship

"We do not care for Christianity, we do not care for Christendom, we do not care for the Roman Catholic Church, and we do not care for all the denominations, because in the Bible it says that the great Babylon is fallen. This is a declaration. Christianity is fallen, Christendom is fallen, Catholicism is fallen, and all the denominatio ...[text shortened]... rank about the local churches in just as much a unflattering way.

But first some context below.

Other quotations from the book Seven Spirits for the Local Churches [ my bolding ]

Who opposed the Lord Jesus? It was those who had the Bible in their hands, those who had the dead knowledge of God in their minds. They were supposed to be so much for God, but eventually, they put the incarnated God, the Lord Jesus, to death.

It is the same with today’s situation in Christianity. What about your church? Is it dead or living? O brothers and sisters, the Lord be merciful to us that we do not remain the same as the Jews when Christ came. I am so burdened for the present situation of the Lord’s people because of today’s deadness: the dead teachings, the dead meetings, the dead “churches,” the dead knowledge, the dead messages, the dead books, and even the dead “Bible.”

Oh, the Lord be merciful to us. We are just dead! We have enough knowledge. We know everything. But the Bible in our hand is so dead. All the knowledge in our mind is so dead. What do we need? Do we need better expositions, better teachings, better doctrines, more books? No, we need the sevenfold intensified Spirit. It is not the knowledge but the sevenfold Spirit.

We all need a turn from the dead doctrines to the sevenfold Spirit. We need a turn from the dead teachings to the sevenfold Spirit. We need a turn from the dead knowledge to the sevenfold Spirit. We even need a turn from our Bible of dead letters to the sevenfold Spirit.

Today we need the intensified Spirit because of the degradation of the church. When the book of Revelation was written, the church had become degraded. The Lord became the intensified Spirit because of the degradation of the church. The history of the church tells us that even in the last part of the first century while the apostle John was still alive, the church had degraded from the Spirit to religion.

I do not want to teach you; I want to burn you. We must be set on fire to be burnt and burning. In such a cold age we do not need cold teachings and cold doctrines; we need the burning fire. The intensified Spirit is the burning fire to burn us.

Christianity is too silent and too cold. That is why we need to be burnt and burning all the time. The sevenfold Spirit is the seven burning lamps to set us on fire. This is what the degraded church, the dead church, the cold church, needs.

More quotes from the book Seven Spirits for the Local Churches by Witness Lee.

We need the Spirit to make the Bible a living book to us. Praise the Lord, we have the written word in our hands, and we have the living Spirit in our spirit. We must have both. We need the Bible, and we need the Spirit—and even more, the intensified Spirit.

We must take care of whether we are living or dead more than whether we are right or wrong. We must walk livingly according to the Spirit. It is not a matter of whether we are right, but of whether we are living.

Oh, how we need to turn today! We need to turn from doctrines to the sevenfold Spirit. We need to turn from teachings to the sevenfold Spirit. We need to turn from religion to the sevenfold Spirit. We need to turn from Christian traditions to the sevenfold Spirit. We need to turn from what we know to the sevenfold Spirit. It is only when we turn from our mind to the Spirit that we will see that the sevenfold intensified Spirit is for the local churches.

The Bible shows us clearly that the church has become the local churches in many localities. Does this mean that the heavenly church is made earthly by making it local? No; it means the heavenly church is made locally golden. It is local but not earthly. It is local and golden.

What is this great Babylon? It is the mixture of Christianity. The great Babylon is a harlot mother with many harlot daughters. The Roman Catholic Church is the mother, and the denominations are the daughters.

It is the same with today’s situation in Christianity. What about your church? Is it dead or living? O brothers and sisters, the Lord be merciful to us that we do not remain the same as the Jews when Christ came. I am so burdened for the present situation of the Lord’s people because of today’s deadness: the dead teachings, the dead meetings, the dead “churches,” the dead knowledge, the dead messages, the dead books, and even the dead “Bible.”

Ron Kangus writes about the charge of Exclusivism leveled by critics against Witness Lee and the local churches.

https://contendingforthefaith.org/en/the-truth-concerning-exclusivism/

Our Attitude Toward Other Believers
We believe that there are millions of genuinely saved ones outside the local churches. We believe that in all manner of Christian groups, in the various sects and denominations, there is a large number of genuine blood-washed, Spirit-regenerated believers in the Lord Jesus Christ. All these saved ones are our brothers and sisters in Christ, and we would receive them as the Lord has received us.

This belief is clearly stated in Witness Lee’s writings. We would like to ask the CRI researchers why they have not made the Christian public aware of this. If they are ignorant of these writings, such ignorance indicates that their research is deficient. If they are aware of our position as stated in these writings but have disregarded it or suppressed it, such an action may indicate that their research is biased and that they are more committed to discovering error, even where it does not exist, than to presenting the truth.

Copied without permission from

https://contendingforthefaith.org/en/the-truth-concerning-exclusivism/#cid4

Receiving All Genuine Christians
Several passages from Witness Lee’s writings testify of our attitude toward our brothers and sisters in Christ outside the local churches. Consider this statement from a message entitled, “Six Tests of a Genuine Local Church,” (Young People’s Training, p. 192):

In the church we receive all genuine Christians. We receive those who speak in tongues and those who do not speak in tongues; those who have been immersed and those who have been sprinkled; those who wear a head covering and those who do not wear a head covering; those who practice foot washing and those who do not practice foot washing. We receive all Christians, no matter what kind of Christians they are.

What could be more clear than this? No matter what kind of Christian you may be, as long as you are a true believer in the Lord Jesus, we would receive you and be open to have fellowship with you.

The following quotation comes from the message entitled, “The Flow and the Practicality of the Church” (Young People’s Training, p. 156). Speaking of those in the denominations, Witness Lee says:

In the past, some Christian leaders came to me with a good intention, saying, “How can you say that you are the church and that we are not the church? Are we not saved?” I replied, “You are definitely saved…. “

How could Witness Lee have said this if he believed that one must be in a local church in order to be saved?

In 1970 Witness Lee published a book entitled The Practical Expression of the Church. Since this book has been available for many years, the CRI researchers have had ample time to peruse its contents. If they had given this book a fair reading in its entirety before printing their unfounded accusations, they would have found some significant statements regarding our attitude toward other believers in the Lord Jesus. On pages 66 and 67 Witness Lee says:

God receives people according to His Son. As long as a person receives His Son, our Lord Jesus Christ, as his personal Savior, regardless of the concepts he holds regarding all other things, God receives him immediately. Since God receives people in this way, we too must receive people in the same way.
God’s receiving is based upon Christ’s receiving, and Christ’s receiving is in accordance with our faith in Him. Who-ever believes in Him, He will receive. Whoever receives Him, He will never reject. He said, “Him that cometh to me I will in no wise cast out” (John 6:37). Since coming to Him, believing in Him, receiving Him, is the only condition for Christ’s receiving, so we must receive people upon the same basis with nothing added. As long as anyone believes in Christ our Lord, as long as he receives Him as his personal Savior, we must receive him with nothing else required.

This is not only our belief; it is also our practice. Every Lord’s Day we have the Lord’s table. Because it is His table, not ours, all who have believed into Christ, all who have received Him as their Savior, all who are washed in His redeeming blood and regenerated by the Holy Spirit, are free to come. As far as belief is concerned, the only qualification for partaking of the Lord’s table in any genuine local church is that of having saving faith in the Lord Jesus Christ. Nothing further regarding doctrine is required. How many denominations and Christian groups can give the same testimony?

@sonship said
Ron Kangus writes about the charge of Exclusivism leveled by critics against Witness Lee and the local churches.

https://contendingforthefaith.org/en/the-truth-concerning-exclusivism/

5 long posts in succession, dozens of edits, posting through the night, hairdryer ranting.

Wheels coming off the wagon.

@divegeester

5 long posts in succession, dozens of edits, posting through the night, hairdryer ranting.

Wheels coming off the wagon.

@Ghost-of-a-Duke

Ghosts bomb quotation revisited. [my bolding this time]

"We do not care for Christianity, we do not care for Christendom, we do not care for the Roman Catholic Church, and we do not care for all the denominations, because in the Bible it says that the great Babylon is fallen. This is a declaration. Christianity is fallen, Christendom is fallen, Catholicism is fallen, and all the denominations are fallen. Hallelujah!"

Witness Lee - "The Seven Spirits for the Local Churches."

After these things I heard as it were a loud voice of a great multitude in heaven, saying, Hallelujah! The salvation and the glory and the power of our God:

For true and righteous are His judgments; for He has judged the great prostitute who corrupted the earth with her fornication, and He avenged the blood of His slaves at her hand.

And a second time they said, Hallelujah! And her smoke goes up forever and ever."

So you see how the sneaky opposers of Witness Lee selectively isolate some words to push their criticism of Lee. Ie.

"How could he be so happy that Christians are in a poor condition in Christianity?"

Lee is exalting that the as predicted, this evil conflugation of the things and people of God with spiritually dead and corrupted things will be judged in the end of the age.

Here he remarks on this.

Do we need to say that the church is so miserable and so muddy? Do we have to ask, beg, and wait on the Lord? No, we must rejoice and shout and praise Him. How many books do you have in your Bible? Do you have sixty-six books? Then have you read the last one? On the cross it was written, “It is finished,” but in Revelation it is also written, “They have come to pass.” Hallelujah! They have come to pass! For our salvation, it is finished, and for the fulfillment of God’s eternal purpose, it has come to pass! So we all must praise Him. This is why Revelation is a book of praise. It is a book of praise because it is a book of victory.

Finally, the Lord Jesus testifies in Revelation 22:20, Yes, I come quickly. Amen. Come, Lord Jesus!” The Lord says, “I come quickly.” What then should we say? “Amen. Come, Lord Jesus!” This is Revelation. Christ has accomplished everything; He has won the victory. The church is prepared, and all the negative things have been done away. The earth is judged, Babylon is fallen, Satan is cast into the lake of fire, and even death and Hades are also put into the lake of fire. They have come to pass! All that is left is the new heaven and the new earth with the New Jerusalem. Praise the Lord! Have you seen it?