The Local Churches

The churches that grew from the work of Watchman Nee and Witness Lee: one church to a city, no name but the Lord's, no clergy, and a teaching that God mingles Himself with the believer.

The Local Churches, FAQ

The Local Churches, Our Beliefs

The Local Churches, Our Standing

The Local Churches, Our Hope

The Local Churches, Concerning the Recovery

The Local Churches, Concerning Salvation

The Local Churches, Concerning the Christian Life

The Local Churches, Concerning the Church Life

The Beliefs and Practices of the Local Churches (1978 booklet, Living Stream Ministry), Contending for the Faith

Hank Hanegraaff, "We Were Wrong!" Christian Research Journal 32.6 (2009), reprinted by the Local Churches

Living Stream Ministry, Statement of Faith

Living Stream Ministry, eBooklets (publisher's descriptions)

Holy Bible, Recovery Version, Introduction (1991 and 2003)

About Witness Lee: A Brief Biography (Living Stream Ministry's publisher site)

Contending for the Faith, The Faith

Contending for the Faith, An Introduction to Watchman Nee and Witness Lee

Contending for the Faith, Concerning the Church

Contending for the Faith, Summary comments from 1977

Contending for the Faith, The God-Men (defense against libel)

Contending for the Faith, The Mindbenders (defense against libel)

Contending for the Faith, Encyclopedia of Cults and New Religions (defense against libel)

Contending for the Faith, A Brief History of the Relationship with Hank Hanegraaff and CRI

Contending for the Faith, "We Were Wrong"

Contending for the Faith, Conclusions from Six-year Primary Research Project by CRI and AIA (3)

Contending for the Faith, CRI dialogue on practices of the local churches (prophesying and pray-reading)

Contending for the Faith, The Error of Insisting on Three "Persons" as a Litmus Test of Orthodoxy

"In Life and Nature but Not in the Godhead": Witness Lee's Contribution to a Biblical Understanding of Theosis (ETS 2015), An Open Letter from the Local Churches and Living Stream Ministry

LCTestimony.org, An Open Letter to Us from Evangelical Scholars and Ministers (with the response of the Local Churches and Living Stream Ministry)

LCTestimony.org, A Longer Response to "An Open Letter to the Leadership of Living Stream Ministry and the 'Local Churches'"

Yading Li, "Everything for the Lord: Watchman Nee," Christian History Institute

G. Wright Doyle, "Nee, Watchman," Biographical Dictionary of Chinese Christianity (2014)

Living Stream Ministry, Watchman Nee's Life and Ministry

The Local Churches began in southern China in the 1920s, in the work of Watchman Nee, who held that there should be one church in each city and that it should take no name but the city's. Witness Lee, his co-worker, carried the work to Taiwan and then to the United States, where Living Stream Ministry in Anaheim, California, became its publisher. Since the 1970s the movement has been in public dispute with Christian critics over its teaching about God and man. In 2009 one of its leading critics, the Christian Research Institute, withdrew its charges. Other critics held to theirs.

Nee forms an assembly at Fuzhou

Watchman Nee "formed an independent Christian assembly in Fuzhou in 1922. It practiced believer's baptism and a weekly Lord's Supper, and was governed by elders rather than by a single pastor." He held from his reading of Acts "that such an assembly should be the only church in a particular locality."

Shanghai, and the nickname "Little Flock"

In 1928 Nee "moved his base from Fuzhou to Shanghai," where, Christian History says, outsiders nicknamed his group the Little Flock Church. His followers formed new evangelistic groups, "launching a nationwide movement."

Lee takes charge of the Bookroom

"In 1934 Watchman Nee entrusted Witness Lee with the responsibility for his publication operation, called the Shanghai Gospel Bookroom." Lee had been born in northern China in 1905.

Lee goes to Taiwan

Before the Communist takeover, Lee "was sent by Watchman Nee and his other co-workers to Taiwan." The movement's own pages give the number of churches in China at that time as "more than six hundred" in one place and "several hundred" in another (see the fold below).

Nee arrested and sentenced

Nee was arrested in 1952: in March, by Living Stream Ministry's account, and in April, by the Biographical Dictionary of Chinese Christianity's. In 1956 he was tried in public and, in Christian History's words, "sentenced to 15 years in prison."

Lee moves to the United States

"In 1962 Witness Lee felt led of the Lord to come to the United States, and he began to minister in Los Angeles." Three years later, in 1965, he "established The Stream Publishers which was subsequently subsumed into Living Stream Ministry."

Nee dies

Watchman Nee "died in May 1972 at a labor camp in the Anhui province." He had been held from his arrest in 1952, twenty years. The Biographical Dictionary of Chinese Christianity says his fifteen-year sentence ended in 1967 but he was kept because he would not renounce his faith; Living Stream Ministry says "he remained in prison until his death in 1972."

Walter Martin's Melodyland lecture

On 2 October 1977 Walter Martin of the Christian Research Institute "criticized Witness Lee and the local churches in a lecture at Melodyland Christian Center in Anaheim, California." The churches answered in advertisements in the Santa Ana Register.

The God-Men lawsuit

Lee and others sued the authors of The God-Men (the Spiritual Counterfeits Project) for libel. The body's account of the outcome is that the judge ruled the book "in all major respects false, defamatory and unprivileged, and, therefore, libelous." The God-Men is the critics' title for Lee's teaching, not the body's.

The Recovery Version of the New Testament

After a new translation made for the Life-study of the New Testament, the Recovery Version of the New Testament, with Lee's footnotes, outlines and cross references, was published in 1991. The Old Testament followed in 2003, with footnotes compiled from Lee's ministry.

The open letter and the reply

On 9 January 2007, in the body's words, "a number of evangelical Christian scholars and ministry leaders published" an open letter to the leadership of Living Stream Ministry and the "Local Churches" online. The Local Churches and Living Stream Ministry replied in February with a defense of the seventeen quotations from Lee on which the letter rested.

Christian Research Institute: "We Were Wrong"

In December 2009 CRI published an issue of its journal dedicated to its reassessment, the reassessment "caused CRI to withdraw its earlier criticisms and endorse the local churches as “genuine New Testament Christianity.”" Hank Hanegraaff wrote: "We now express those same words regarding our stance on Watchman Nee, Witness Lee, and the local churches."

Watchman Nee

The founder in China. His pages say that "Nee had no intention of starting a new church movement or denomination" and that he considered himself "just a brother" (CRI's words, reprinted by the body). He was imprisoned in the 1950s and died in a labor camp in 1972.

Witness Lee

Nee's closest co-worker. He took the work to Taiwan and then to the United States, wrote the footnotes of the Recovery Version, and is the author of the major works that Living Stream Ministry publishes. His last public conference was in February 1997, at the age of ninety-one.

Walter Martin

Not a leader of the body but its first major critic. As head of the Christian Research Institute he criticized Lee and the churches at Melodyland in 1977. The body's account is that CRI later reversed its position, under Hank Hanegraaff, in 2009.

Hank Hanegraaff

Not a leader of the body but the critic whose reversal is best known. He wrote in 2009 that CRI's earlier evaluation of the churches had been "a fountainhead of misinformation," and that on essential doctrine "we stand shoulder-to-shoulder."

How many churches in China. The body's introduction says "the more than six hundred local churches raised up in China through the ministry of Watchman Nee before the Communist revolution" (Contending for the Faith). Its open-letter site says that by 1949 "several hundred local churches, often called the “Little Flock” by outsiders, had been raised up throughout the country" (An Open Letter). Living Stream Ministry's life of Nee gives "approximately four hundred local churches" by his arrest in 1952 (Watchman Nee). The scholars count higher: Christian History says "by 1950, the Little Flock had 70,000 members in 700 assemblies," and the Biographical Dictionary of Chinese Christianity gives "over 700 local churches with a combined membership of 70,000" by 1949.

A charge against Nee, and the answer. The Biographical Dictionary of Chinese Christianity's entry on Nee, by its general editor G. Wright Doyle (posted December 2014), says that Nee was arrested in 1952 "on charges of tax evasion and corrupt business practices," found guilty "on political grounds" in 1956, and that "his followers were devastated by revelations of his dishonesty both in business and in church dealings, and even more by his sexual transgressions, which started in the 1920s and continued into the 1950s." It names the evidence as "photographs, Ni's signed confession, and admission of guilt by at least one female co-worker," brought out while Nee was in Communist custody, and lists among its sources the memoir of Lily Hsu, a member of the Shanghai assembly, and Dana Roberts's Secrets of Watchman Nee (2005) (BDCC). Living Stream Ministry's answer is that Nee "was the frequent subject of false rumors," that he once said, "The Watchman Nee portrayed by them I would also condemn," and that he was arrested "for the sake of the gospel" and "falsely condemned, judged, and sentenced" (Watchman Nee's Life and Ministry). No page of the body read for this chart answers the charge in detail. This chart does not judge between the two, and the charge has no bearing on any verdict in Part 4.

The lawsuits. The body's account is that The Mindbenders was withdrawn in 1983, when "the defendants, including Jack Sparks and his associates, as well as Thomas Nelson, signed an agreement to withdraw the book and to pay an amount for damages" (Contending for the Faith), and that in the God-Men case the court "awarded $11,900,000 in damages to the plaintiffs" (Contending for the Faith). These accounts are the body's. Critics have their own.

Where the critics stood in 2007. The body's summary is that the open letter asked Living Stream Ministry and the churches to "disavow certain teachings of Witness Lee," and that "the bulk of their letter was a series of 17 individual quotations" (LCTestimony). The letter's own text was not read for this chart. Hanegraaff, looking back, counted "seventy Christian leaders who signed an open letter"; another report, not read, gives sixty.

The Bible is the complete and only written revelation. Its meaning for the churches is carried in the Recovery Version's footnotes, which are Witness Lee's.

The Local Churches say the Bible is "the complete divine revelation," given by inspiration and not to be added to. They say they stand "not according to any traditional interpretation, but according to the pure Word of God." They also say that no person is infallible: "we do not follow anyone blindly. On the contrary, we follow only those whose teaching and practice is in accordance with the truth of God's Word."

The Bible most of the churches read is the Recovery Version. It has a new translation and extensive footnotes. The New Testament footnotes were written by Witness Lee, and the Old Testament notes were compiled "from the ministry of Witness Lee." The editors say the translation and footnotes could be called the "crystallization" of "the understanding of the divine revelation which the saints everywhere have attained to in the past two thousand years." The body makes no claim that the footnotes are scripture, and it says teaching must be checked by the Word.

The local churches believe that the Holy Bible is the complete divine revelation verbally inspired by the Holy Spirit (2 Pet. 1:21, 2 Tim. 3:16).

The local churches stand on the Holy Scriptures, not according to any traditional interpretation, but according to the pure Word of God.

All teachings, inspirations, and guidance which claim the Holy Spirit as their source must be checked by God’s revelation in His Word.

The body's statement on the Bible adds: "The Bible is the Word of God, written under His inspiration word by word (2 Tim. 3:16), and is the complete and only written divine revelation of God to man" (The Faith). The same page adds that "genuine believers have historically held to many differing interpretations" of some matters.

Salvation is by grace through faith, and a person comes to it by believing and calling on the Lord. The saved are saved forever, and salvation goes on in the soul and the body.

The Local Churches say "eternal salvation is by grace through faith, not by our works." A person must have "a living faith in the Person and work of Jesus Christ" and "a living contact with Jesus Christ," and for this the churches "emphasize prayer and calling on the name of the Lord." Once saved, a person has assurance and security: "Once we are saved, we are saved forever."

They describe salvation as complete and in three parts. "In God's salvation, man's spirit is regenerated, his soul is being transformed, and his body will be transfigured." They teach a "much more" salvation (Romans 5:10) that carries the believer on from forgiveness into the life of God.

On baptism, the pages read are thin. Christian History reports that Nee's first assembly in 1922 "practiced believer's baptism." The body's own Triune-God article, quoting Lee's footnote on Matthew 28:19, says that "to baptize someone into the name of the Triune God is to immerse him into all that the Triune God is." No page read states what baptism is for or when it is done, so this chart does not say.

Eternal salvation is by grace through faith, not by our works.

In order to be saved, one must have a living contact with Jesus Christ. Therefore, in bringing unbelievers to salvation, we emphasize prayer and calling on the name of the Lord.

Once a person has been saved, he may have both the assurance of salvation and the security of salvation. Once we are saved, we are saved forever.

The body's account of what a person must believe to be saved: "we must believe that the Bible is the complete divine revelation wholly inspired by God; that there is a unique Triune God, the Father, the Son, and the Spirit; that Jesus Christ is the Son of God incarnated to be a man; that Christ died on the cross for our sins, shedding His blood for our redemption; that on the third day He was bodily raised from the dead; that He has been exalted to the right hand of God and made the Lord of all; and that He is coming again for His own and to set up His kingdom on earth" (1978 booklet). The Living Stream Ministry statement of faith: "Now possessing God's life and nature, the believers enjoy a daily salvation in His Body in this age and the eternal salvation in the coming age and in eternity."

The Lord's table every Sunday, with bread and wine, open to all believers, as a testimony of the oneness of the Body.

"Every Sunday we have the Lord's table at which all the Lord's children are welcome to partake with us of the bread and wine." The churches say they receive all believers: "All who have saving faith in the Lord Jesus are welcome to all our meetings, especially the Lord's table, where we testify of the oneness of the Body of Christ." They say they do not teach "that one must be in a local church in order to be a genuine Christian," and that in the Roman Catholic Church, the denominations and independent groups "there are many genuine blood-washed, Spirit-regenerated believers in Christ" whom they "receive them as our brothers and sisters in the Lord." No page read says what the bread and cup are, or who presides.

Every Sunday we have the Lord’s table at which all the Lord’s children are welcome to partake with us of the bread and wine.

All who have saving faith in the Lord Jesus are welcome to all our meetings, especially the Lord’s table, where we testify of the oneness of the Body of Christ.

Christian History says Nee's first assembly in 1922 held "a weekly Lord's Supper." The body's statement on the oneness of the church: "we receive all believers according to the common faith."

Christ is the only head. No clergy, no pastor, no hierarchy and no headquarters; each church governs itself, one in each city.

The Local Churches say that "among us there is no permanent, official, organized leadership. Furthermore, there is no hierarchy." They "recognize no subheads, no intermediaries between Christ and the members of His Body." They "absolutely repudiate the clergy-laity system": "we have no clergy and we have no laity... Furthermore, we have no pastor and no janitor." Every member may function. Each church "is autonomous in its administration," with "no central headquarters."

They also teach elders. Nee's first assembly was "governed by elders rather than by a single pastor," and the body's article on the church argues from Acts 14:23 and Titus 1:5 that "the elders of a city are the elders of a church." Those who take the lead, the body says, "do not lord it over the saints, but rather shepherd them in love." The one church in a city is the unit: "the city is the boundary, the jurisdiction, of a local church."

Among us there is no permanent, official, organized leadership. Furthermore, there is no hierarchy. Rather, all the members of the Body are encouraged to have direct fellowship with the Head and receive from Him all directions concerning their life and movements.

We absolutely repudiate the clergy-laity system as a strategy of Satan to frustrate the function of the members of the Body of Christ.

Each local church is autonomous in its administration. Therefore, there is no central headquarters.

The article on the church: "These verses prove that the elders of a city are the elders of a church. They also prove that the boundary of the church is just the boundary of the city." The same article argues from Revelation 1:11 that "the Lord, as always, spoke very precisely and meaningfully. He said seven churches, and then mentioned seven cities, indicating that the city is equivalent to the church" (Concerning the Church). On money, the 1978 booklet says "each local church is supported by voluntary gifts from its members," "there is no financial accountability to any other church body," and "no offerings are taken in the meetings." Living Stream Ministry, the publisher, is a separate organization, and the churches' public replies to critics, such as the 2007 open-letter response, are issued jointly in the names of the Local Churches and Living Stream Ministry.

Open meetings in which the members pray, sing, testify and speak; pray-reading the Word; calling on the Lord's name.

The churches say the meeting is the center of their life: "Because the church life is a meeting life, we usually have meetings several times a week." In the meeting, "we pray, praise, sing, give testimonies, and minister the Word," and "all believers are free to participate." Every member may speak, and the churches call this prophesying in the sense of 1 Corinthians 14. They also practice pray-reading, turning the words of the Bible into prayer, and calling on the name of the Lord. The pages read do not say whether instruments are used, and this chart does not say.

We pray, praise, sing, give testimonies, and minister the Word.

The church meetings are open, and all believers are free to participate.

Because the church life is a meeting life, we usually have meetings several times a week. To us, meetings are not a drudgery; they are an enjoyment.

The 1978 booklet adds: "In the church meetings the resurrected Christ truly is with us as we are gathered into His name."

The Spirit regenerates, indwells and transforms the believer now. Every member may prophesy in the meeting, in the sense of building up the others.

The Local Churches teach that the Spirit "is moving on this earth today to convict sinners, to regenerate God's chosen people, to dwell in the members of Christ for their growth in life, and to build up the Body of Christ for His full expression." The Christian life is "a life of walking according to the Spirit." They stress "the transformation of the soul" by "the inward working of the Spirit of life."

On gifts, the sources read speak of prophesying. Hank Hanegraaff of CRI described the churches' practice as "not prophesying in the sense of foretelling the future but in the 1 Corinthians 14 sense of edification and strengthening other believers." No page read claims healing, tongues or other sign gifts for the churches today, and none denies them. The teaching that Christ "has become the life-giving Spirit" (the churches' reading of 1 Corinthians 15:45) is part of their teaching on God and is taken up below.

The local churches believe that after His ascension Christ poured down the Spirit of God to baptize His chosen members into one Body and that the Spirit of God, who is also the Spirit of Christ, is moving on this earth today to convict sinners, to regenerate God’s chosen people, to dwell in the members of Christ for their growth in life, and to build up the Body of Christ for His full expression

The Christian life is a life of walking according to the Spirit.

not prophesying in the sense of foretelling the future but in the 1 Corinthians 14 sense of edification and strengthening other believers

The Living Stream Ministry statement of faith teaches that "all that the Father has and is, is expressed by the Son; and all that the Son has and is, is realized as the Spirit."

Christ will return, take up His members, judge, and set up His kingdom; the overcoming saints will reign with Him in the millennium; the believers' growth hastens His coming.

The Local Churches believe "that at the end of this age Christ will come back to take up His members, to judge the world, to take possession of the earth, and to establish His eternal kingdom." They believe "that the overcoming saints will reign with Christ in the millennium and that all the believers in Christ will participate in the divine blessings in the New Jerusalem in the new heaven and new earth for eternity." The Living Stream Ministry statement looks "to His imminent return with the kingdom of God, by which He will reign over the earth in the millennium and in eternity." The churches also hope "that the coming back of the Lord will be hastened by our growth and that we may participate in the blessed rapture and in His coming kingdom." No page read gives the order of the rapture, the tribulation and the millennium, and none teaches an everlasting punishment other than what the creed says.

The local churches believe that at the end of this age Christ will come back to take up His members, to judge the world, to take possession of the earth, and to establish His eternal kingdom (1 Thes. 2:19).

The local churches believe that the overcoming saints will reign with Christ in the millennium and that 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. 20:6, 21:2).

The local churches hope that the coming back of the Lord will be hastened by our growth and that we may participate in the blessed rapture and in His coming kingdom.

Hank Hanegraaff, of CRI, wrote of his own differences with the churches: "we have significant doctrinal differences with the local churches on nonessentials such as aspects of eschatology (my book, The Apocalypse Code, testifies to that reality)."

One church to a city, and no name

A church takes the name of its city and no other. To meet as Baptist, Presbyterian or any label is, they say, to divide the church.

This is the body's founding teaching. The church in each city is the whole church there, and any other basis of meeting is a division. "The local churches do not have a name." "In one district there may be many churches, but in one city there can only be one church." They argue from Revelation 1:11, where Christ names seven churches by seven cities, and from Acts 14:23 and Titus 1:5, which pair "elders in every church" with "elders in every city." To put a label such as Baptist, Presbyterian or Pentecostal before "the church," the article says, and to meet under it "is to divide the church and separate members one from another."

The churches say this is not a claim to be the only Christians. They do not teach that one must be in a local church to be a Christian, and they receive believers from every background to the Lord's table. Hank Hanegraaff, after CRI's research, wrote that the representatives he met testified that they were "only the church" as opposed to being "the only church." The body also says it stands "outside of and apart from historical, organized, institutionalized Christianity."

The local churches do not have a name. The only name we hold and honor is the name of the Lord Jesus Christ. To take any other name is to insult Him. The term “local church” is not a name; it is a description of the local nature and expression of the church, that is, the church in a locality.

the city is the boundary, the jurisdiction, of a local church

To prefix "the church" with adjectives, such as Baptist, Presbyterian, Pentecostal, etc., and to meet as such is to divide the church and separate members one from another.

saying, What thou seest, write in a book and send it to the seven churches: unto Ephesus, and unto Smyrna, and unto Pergamum, and unto Thyatira, and unto Sardis, and unto Philadelphia, and unto Laodicea.

and salute the church that is in their house. Salute Epænetus my beloved, who is the first-fruits of Asia unto Christ.

Salute the brethren that are in Laodicea, and Nymphas, and the church that is in their house.

Now I beseech you, brethren, through the name of our Lord Jesus Christ, that ye all speak the same thing, and that there be no divisions among you; but that ye be perfected together in the same mind and in the same judgment. For it hath been signified unto me concerning you, my brethren, by them that are of the household of Chloe, that there are contentions among you. Now this I mean, that each one of you saith, I am of Paul; and I of Apollos; and I of Cephas; and I of Christ. Is Christ divided? was Paul crucified for you? or were ye baptized into the name of Paul?

The body is right, and plainly so, about the name. The New Testament calls a congregation "the church of God which is at Corinth" (1 Corinthians 1:2) and never a Baptist or a Lutheran church, and a church that wears no human label stands nearer the apostles' pattern than most. It is also right that the believers of a city are one, and that a church built on a man's name is the sin of Corinth, where one said "I am of Paul" and another "I of Cephas" (1 Corinthians 1:12). Where the doctrine goes beyond the text is in making the city a fixed boundary and every other gathering in it a division. Paul greets "the church that is in their house" (Romans 16:5), and at Laodicea "the church that is in their house" of Nymphas (Colossians 4:15), and he does not rebuke them as a faction. A city could hold more than one gathering and be one church in Christ, as Jerusalem did. Unity in the New Testament is the unity of those who keep one faith and one baptism, and it is broken by false teaching and by party spirit, not by having two meeting places. A body that takes a city's name for its own meeting also risks becoming one more party, "I of Christ" (1 Corinthians 1:12), when others in the city who hold the same Lord are told they are the divided ones.

The ground of locality is not a command in any one verse. It is an argument from the pattern of naming and from "elders in every church" beside "elders in every city" (Acts 14:23; Titus 1:5), and those phrases tell where elders were appointed. They do not say that a city holds one church only. The body replies that its table receives every believer, and that reply is not answered by the name alone.

Calling on the name of the Lord

Calling on the name of the Lord, in coming to salvation and in the life of the church.

The churches practice calling on the Lord's name as a means of contact with Him, in coming to Christ and in the life of the church. The body's statement on salvation says: "in bringing unbelievers to salvation, we emphasize prayer and calling on the name of the Lord. According to Romans 10:9 and 10, if a man is to be saved, he must believe in his heart and confess with his mouth." The publisher of Living Stream Ministry's booklet on the subject writes: "Throughout the Old Testament as well as in the early days of the Christian age, the saints called on the Lord's name....We believe that today the Lord wants to recover calling on His name and to have us practice it so that we may enjoy the riches of His life."

Therefore, in bringing unbelievers to salvation, we emphasize prayer and calling on the name of the Lord.

Throughout the Old Testament as well as in the early days of the Christian age, the saints called on the Lord's name....We believe that today the Lord wants to recover calling on His name and to have us practice it so that we may enjoy the riches of His life.

And it shall be, that whosoever shall call on the name of the Lord shall be saved.

because if thou shalt confess with thy mouth Jesus as Lord, and shalt believe in thy heart that God raised him from the dead, thou shalt be saved: for with the heart man believeth unto righteousness; and with the mouth confession is made unto salvation.

And now why tarriest thou? arise, and be baptized, and wash away thy sins, calling on his name.

unto the church of God which is at Corinth, even them that are sanctified in Christ Jesus, called to be saints, with all that call upon the name of our Lord Jesus Christ in every place, their Lord and ours:

Here the Local Churches stand where the apostles stood, and the credit is full. "whosoever shall call on the name of the Lord shall be saved" (Acts 2:21), and the church at Corinth is described as "all that call upon the name of our Lord Jesus Christ" (1 Corinthians 1:2). A people who take that phrase at its word and practice it are nearer the New Testament than churches that never speak of it. The point to weigh is what the calling is joined to. Ananias tells Saul, "arise, and be baptized, and wash away thy sins, calling on his name" (Acts 22:16), so the calling is joined to baptism and to the obedience of faith, and it is not set apart from them. The body says its calling goes with belief and confession ("he must believe in his heart and confess with his mouth," Romans 10:9-10), and that is the right order. A call that is felt to be the whole of salvation, with baptism left out, would not be the pattern; the pages read give no account of baptism, so the body is not shown to have put the two together.

A 1978 booklet by Ron Kangas, a writer of the movement, is listed on the body's site as "refuting the charge that Witness Lee taught that a person can be saved by calling on the name of the Lord apart from believing in Christ." The charge was made by critics. The body's answer there is that "calling on the name of the Lord is a scriptural way to receive God's salvation by faith." The booklet itself was not read for this chart.

Pray-reading

Praying with the words of the Bible, repeating a verse and turning it into prayer.

Pray-reading is the churches' practice of taking a verse and praying it back to God. The 1978 booklet answers that pray-reading is "a compound word that describes our practice of praying with the words of the Bible." It continues: "We pray-read the Word in order to enjoy the life element contained in the Word; we thereby enjoy the Word as our spiritual food." It adds that this "does not mean that we neglect the ordinary reading of the Scriptures or the careful study of the Word of God." Living Stream Ministry's booklet asks, "Have you ever considered that the Bible is a prayer book?" and says of the practice: "We call this practice pray-reading."

The word “pray-reading” is a compound word that describes our practice of praying with the words of the Bible.

Have you ever considered that the Bible is a prayer book? In this booklet, Witness Lee presents the rich practice of turning the words of the Bible into our prayer.

Let the word of Christ dwell in you richly; in all wisdom teaching and admonishing one another with psalms and hymns and spiritual songs, singing with grace in your hearts unto God.

Now these were more noble than those in Thessalonica, in that they received the word with all readiness of the mind, examining the Scriptures daily, whether these things were so.

Nothing in the practice is against Scripture, and much of it is good. The psalms are prayers drawn from the word of God, and the Bereans who examined "the Scriptures daily" (Acts 17:11) are the model of a people who live in the text. "Let the word of Christ dwell in you richly" (Colossians 3:16) is what a pray-reading church is trying to obey, and even CRI's reviewers, who had been critics, counted it a practice that could "benefit the entire Body of Christ." The practice is a method, though, and not a command. No apostle prescribes saying a verse over in prayer as the way to take in the word, and the body itself does not say that the method replaces reading and study. It stands on the line when it is held as a help to the word, and it would stand off the line only if it were taught as a requirement or as a means of grace that belongs to this body alone.

The Recovery Version and its footnotes

A translation with footnotes and outlines by Witness Lee, called the crystallization of what the saints have understood in two thousand years.

The Local Churches read the Holy Bible Recovery Version, published by Living Stream Ministry. The translation was made for the Life-study of the Bible, and its New Testament carries "extensive footnotes" written by Witness Lee, with outlines and cross references. The Old Testament footnotes were "compiled ... from the ministry of Witness Lee." The editors say that this translation and its footnotes "could be called the “crystallization” of the understanding of the divine revelation which the saints everywhere have attained to in the past two thousand years," and that "the footnotes stress the revelation of the truth, the spiritual light, and the supply of life more than history, geography, and persons." The body calls its history "the recovery."

this translation and the accompanying footnotes could be called the “crystallization” of the understanding of the divine revelation which the saints everywhere have attained to in the past two thousand years

The footnotes stress the revelation of the truth, the spiritual light, and the supply of life more than history, geography, and persons.

Now it has reached its present stage with the establishment of genuine local churches as the expression of the Body of Christ.

Now these things, brethren, I have in a figure transferred to myself and Apollos for your sakes; that in us ye might learn not to go beyond the things which are written; that no one of you be puffed up for the one against the other.

I testify unto every man that heareth the words of the prophecy of this book, If any man shall add unto them, God shall add unto him the plagues which are written in this book: and if any man shall take away from the words of the book of this prophecy, God shall take away his part from the tree of life, and out of the holy city, which are written in this book.

A translation with notes is not a new scripture, and the body does not claim that it is. Many Bibles carry the notes of one scholar, and a believer may read a teacher's notes with profit. The weakness lies in what it does to the reader. A single man's reading of nearly every verse sits on the same page as the text, in the same type of book, and he is a man who, by the body's own account, is the source of most of what the churches read and publish. The believers are to be like the Bereans who tested a teaching against the text, "whether these things were so" (Acts 17:11), and to "learn not to go beyond the things which are written" (1 Corinthians 4:6). A note that carries the teaching on the page is hard to test against the page. Calling the footnotes the "crystallization" of what the saints have understood goes further than a commentary does, because it makes a claim for the notes as the summit of understanding. That claim is beyond what the apostles gave the churches.

The body's replies to critics, such as the 2007 response, are given jointly by the Local Churches and Living Stream Ministry. This chart draws no conclusion from that beyond what the 2007 pages themselves say: the body defended the quotations ("a defense of the seventeen quotations that were mishandled in the open letter") and did not disavow them.

God became man that man may become God in life and nature

The believer is mingled with the Triune God and partakes of His life and nature, "but not in the Godhead." This is the most disputed teaching of the movement.

This teaching comes from Witness Lee, and the critics' book title for it was The God-Men. It is the center of the dispute with Christian critics. The body states it this way: "God became a man so that man may become God in life and in nature (but not in the Godhead)." The ETS 2015 paper published on the body's site says that Lee "both clarified and enhanced Athanasius' memorable statement," and that to say "God in life and in nature" is to define "what theosis is" and "what it is not."

The churches give their own limits. "Because the unique Triune God alone is worthy of worship (Matt. 4:10), we will never be worshipped as God." They say they will never be the Creator. They deny the charge that man is "evolving into God." They write: "We have been “deified,” not in person but in life and in nature. We are one with God in His life and nature, but not in His person." The teaching rests on 2 Peter 1:4, "partakers of the divine nature." "Mingling" is their word for what happens: "Mingling is deeper than union. In the incarnation, God not only united Himself with man but also mingled Himself with man." Lee insisted that mingling does not produce a "third nature."

They also teach that the three of the Trinity are "distinct but not separate" and that they dwell in one another. The Living Stream Ministry statement says: "God is eternally one and also eternally the Father, the Son, and the Spirit, the three being distinct but not separate." The churches deny modalism: "Certainly not! Modalism is heretical." Lee also read 1 Corinthians 15:45, 2 Corinthians 3:17 and Isaiah 9:6 as showing that Christ is, in a sense, the Spirit and the Father: "It is not too much to say that He [Christ the Son] is the Father because the Father is included in Him," though "we absolutely confess that the Father is the Father, the Son is the Son, and the Spirit is the Spirit and that the three are distinct but not separate."

The CRI reassessment in December 2009 concluded that this teaching was "well within Christian orthodoxy." The critics' open letter of 9 January 2007 had asked the movement to disavow it. Both views are set out in the fold.

God became a man so that man may become God in life and in nature (but not in the Godhead)

The fact that, as sons of God, we partake of the life and nature of God does not mean that we become God Himself.

We have been “deified,” not in person but in life and in nature. We are one with God in His life and nature, but not in His person.

whereby he hath granted unto us his precious and exceeding great promises; that through these ye may become partakers of the divine nature, having escaped from the corruption that is in the world by lust.

Ye are my witnesses, saith Jehovah, and my servant whom I have chosen; that ye may know and believe me, and understand that I am he: before me there was no God formed, neither shall there be after me.

that they may all be one; even as thou, Father, art in me, and I in thee, that they also may be in us: that the world may believe that thou didst send me. And the glory which thou hast given me I have given unto them; that they may be one, even as we are one; I in them, and thou in me, that they may be perfected into one; that the world may know that thou didst send me, and lovedst them, even as thou lovedst me.

Howbeit at that time, not knowing God, ye were in bondage to them that by nature are no gods:

And I will pray the Father, and he shall give you another Comforter, that he may be with you for ever, even the Spirit of truth: whom the world cannot receive; for it beholdeth him not, neither knoweth him: ye know him; for he abideth with you, and shall be in you.

Their best case comes first. Believers "may become partakers of the divine nature" (2 Peter 1:4), Christ prays "that they also may be in us" and "I in them, and thou in me" (John 17:21-23), and "he that is joined unto the Lord is one spirit" (1 Corinthians 6:17). The churches set their own limits: no believer will be worshipped, none enters the Godhead, the deifying is "not in person," and the ETS paper rests it on the old distinction between God's communicable life and nature and His incommunicable Godhead. Taken with those limits, they are not saying that men join the Trinity, and CRI said so after six years of research. Still, the texts do not say what the sentence says. Peter's partaking means escaping "the corruption that is in the world" and adding virtue, knowledge, self-control and love (2 Peter 1:4-7), so that we are "partakers of his holiness" (Hebrews 12:10). Christ's "in us" is a oneness "even as we are one," a likeness of union and not a sameness of being. To be "one spirit" with the Lord is set beside being "one body" with a harlot (1 Corinthians 6:16-17), a union of persons that does not change what a creature is. And Paul uses "nature" for the very thing that makes a god: the idols are "them that by nature are no gods" (Galatians 4:8). To say that man becomes God "in nature" but not in the Godhead splits what Scripture joins. The one God says, "before me there was no God formed, neither shall there be after me" (Isaiah 43:10). No apostle calls a believer God in any respect, and the appeal to Athanasius cannot supply what the apostles did not say, since the church is to learn "not to go beyond the things which are written" (1 Corinthians 4:6). The teaching goes beyond Scripture at the point where it matters most, the line between the Creator and the creature, and it stands a long way from the line.

On the Son and the Father. Lee's sentence that the Son "is the Father" (quoted above) is also not apostolic speech. Scripture keeps Father, Son and Spirit apart where that sentence runs them together: the Son says, "I will pray the Father, and he shall give you another Comforter" (John 14:16). The churches mean the distinctions to stand, and in their own pages they confess that "the three are distinct but not separate." The verdict does not rest on a charge of modalism. It rests on words the apostles did not use.

The critics' side. Walter Martin charged in 1977 that Lee and the churches "have adopted an ancient church heresy known as Monarchianistic Modalism," and the body's reply (in its own summary of his speech) is "This is false and grossly misrepresents our own testimony." The open letter of 9 January 2007, according to the body's summary, set out seventeen quotations from Lee and asked the movement to disavow and stop publishing them. Norman Geisler, in a letter quoted on the body's own site, faulted a statement of faith for leaving out the word "person." The body answers that "person" is "not a biblical term" and that insisting on it as "a litmus test of orthodoxy" is an error.

The body's side. CRI's 2009 verdict is reprinted on the body's site: "Concluding that the teaching of Witness Lee and the local churches is “well within Christian orthodoxy.”" Hank Hanegraaff said that representatives of the churches "testified to their belief in one God, revealed in three persons who are eternally distinct; to the reality that human beings can never ontologically attain Godhood." The body's reply to the 2007 letter: "We commend the signers of the open letter for their concern for the truth of the gospel, and we invite them or any others to join us in genuine and substantive dialogue."

Spirit, soul and body: regeneration, transformation, transfiguration

Salvation reaches the whole person in three steps: the spirit is regenerated, the soul transformed, the body transfigured.

The churches teach that a human being has three parts and that salvation reaches each in turn. "In God's salvation, man's spirit is regenerated, his soul is being transformed, and his body will be transfigured." The Christian life "begins with regeneration, passes through transformation, and consummates with the transfiguration of the body." On transformation: "Many Christians know of the regeneration of the spirit and the transfiguration of the body, but they neglect the crucial matter of the transformation of the soul." They tie this to readiness for the Lord's coming: "Those who would dwell in His holy and glorious presence must not merely be positionally sanctified, but be dispositionally transformed."

In God’s salvation, man’s spirit is regenerated, his soul is being transformed, and his body will be transfigured.

Therefore, we recognize the need to be dispositionally transformed in our souls by the inward working of the Spirit of life.

And the God of peace himself sanctify you wholly; and may your spirit and soul and body be preserved entire, without blame at the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ.

And be not fashioned according to this world: but be ye transformed by the renewing of your mind, that ye may prove what is the good and acceptable and perfect will of God.

who shall fashion anew the body of our humiliation, that it may be conformed to the body of his glory, according to the working whereby he is able even to subject all things unto himself.

The three terms are in Scripture and are used well. Paul prays that "your spirit and soul and body be preserved entire" (1 Thessalonians 5:23), calls for a mind "transformed" (Romans 12:2), and promises that the Lord "shall fashion anew the body of our humiliation" (Philippians 3:21). A church that teaches growth in Christ after the new birth, and the hope of a changed body, is teaching what the apostles taught, and the stress on transformation of the believer's inner life is healthy. The care to take is with a scheme built on the words. Paul uses "spirit" and "soul" together to mean the whole inner person, and he does not make a rigid three-part map of the human being or tie a believer's readiness to a stage of "dispositional" change. The body's own claim that salvation has these three steps is a way of arranging the texts, not a statement any one of them makes. Held as a help to growth, it stands near the line.

The body also teaches a "much more" salvation drawn from Romans 5:10: "if we, being enemies, were reconciled to God through the death of His Son, much more we will be saved in His life, having been reconciled." In the Longer Response it distinguishes "judicial redemption" from "organic salvation," and says that "we treasure and extol Christ's efficacious redemptive work as the sole and sufficient basis for our justification." Critics read the second as a second stage above forgiveness. The body denies that. The text of Romans 5:10 is the forgiven believer being saved by Christ's life from judgment, and it is wider than the body's scheme.

The plumb line is the New Testament: what the apostles commanded, and what the churches practiced with their approval. Each position above is set against it, and the wall below shows how far each one stands from it. Choose a course to read the Scripture and the reason. The Local Churches began as a call to go back to the pattern of the first churches, with no clergy, a weekly table and no human name, and in several places they stand closer to it than most churches. Where they stand further, that is said too, and the teaching about God and man gets the plainest treatment because it is the most disputed.

Every scripture inspired of God is also profitable for teaching, for reproof, for correction, for instruction which is in righteousness: that the man of God may be complete, furnished completely unto every good work.

The Local Churches say what the New Testament says: the Bible is "the complete divine revelation," they stand on it and not on "any traditional interpretation," and they follow no one blindly. They have no creed beside Scripture and no added book, which puts them on the line in profession. They stand short in practice. The text they read is a Bible with footnotes written by one man, called the "crystallization" of the saints' understanding, and a teaching that no apostle used ("God became a man so that man may become God") is defended from the fathers and from that man's ministry. The apostolic rule is that the church should "learn not to go beyond the things which are written" (1 Corinthians 4:6). Where a reading, a vocabulary and a doctrine travel with the text, the Bereans' test of "whether these things were so" (Acts 17:11) is harder to apply.

The placement follows the lineage chart's criterion values for this body, which hold the rounded mean without moving it. The body states that the footnotes are commentary and not scripture, and its teaching forbids following any person blindly. This chart finds no added scripture in the pages read and no living officer who issues binding doctrine, which is why the body stands inside the line, and the shortfall is the weight put on one man's reading.

for by grace have ye been saved through faith; and that not of yourselves, it is the gift of God; not of works, that no man should glory.

And Peter said unto them, Repent ye, and be baptized every one of you in the name of Jesus Christ unto the remission of your sins; and ye shall receive the gift of the Holy Spirit.

Or are ye ignorant that all we who were baptized into Christ Jesus were baptized into his death? We were buried therefore with him through baptism into death: that like as Christ was raised from the dead through the glory of the Father, so we also might walk in newness of life.

For as touching those who were once enlightened and tasted of the heavenly gift, and were made partakers of the Holy Spirit, and tasted the good word of God, and the powers of the age to come, and then fell away, it is impossible to renew them again unto repentance; seeing they crucify to themselves the Son of God afresh, and put him to an open shame.

The Local Churches are plain that salvation is by grace through faith, and Paul's words are theirs: "by grace have ye been saved through faith" (Ephesians 2:8-9), that faith is a living trust in Christ, and that a believer calls on the Lord's name and confesses. That is the gospel the apostles preached. They also began with believer's baptism: Nee's first assembly "practiced believer's baptism." They stand short in two places. The first is that the pages read say nothing of what baptism is for. In the New Testament it is "unto the remission of your sins" (Acts 2:38) and the burial in which a believer is raised that he might "walk in newness of life" (Romans 6:3-4), and a church that is silent about that has left out half of the answer to the question of what a sinner must do. The second is the teaching that "once we are saved, we are saved forever." Scripture warns those who "fell away" (Hebrews 6:4-6) and tells the one who thinks he stands to "take heed lest he fall" (1 Corinthians 10:12). Assurance rests on Christ's promise to those who continue in Him, and it is not given to those who walk away.

The placement follows the lineage chart's values, which hold the rounded mean. The "much more" salvation (Romans 5:10) is treated under the three-part distinctive. Its stress on growth after the new birth is a strength: the apostles did call believers to be transformed, and the placement is not lowered for it.

And upon the first day of the week, when we were gathered together to break bread, Paul discoursed with them, intending to depart on the morrow; and prolonged his speech until midnight.

For I received of the Lord that which also I delivered unto you, that the Lord Jesus in the night in which he was betrayed took bread; and when he had given thanks, he brake it, and said, This is my body, which is for you: this do in remembrance of me. In like manner also the cup, after supper, saying, This cup is the new covenant in my blood: this do, as often as ye drink it, in remembrance of me. For as often as ye eat this bread, and drink the cup, ye proclaim the Lord’s death till he come.

This is where the Local Churches stand on the line. Every Sunday they have the Lord's table, as the church at Troas did "upon the first day of the week, when we were gathered together to break bread" (Acts 20:7), and the table is the center of the week's meeting. They keep it with bread and wine, they welcome every believer to it, and they say it is where "we testify of the oneness of the Body of Christ," which matches Paul's teaching that the table proclaims the Lord's death and is shared by one body. They have no priest at the table and no rite beyond the bread and the cup. The pages read do not say what the bread and cup are, so this chart makes no claim on that question. No believer is turned away for belonging to another church, and no restriction is placed on the table that the Scripture does not put there.

The placement follows the lineage chart's values: the table every first day (D1 0), bread and cup (D2 0), and the fellowship question (D3 1). The mean rounds to the line. No page read shows a believer refused the table.

And when they had appointed for them elders in every church, and had prayed with fasting, they commended them to the Lord, on whom they had believed.

Paul and Timothy, servants of Christ Jesus, to all the saints in Christ Jesus that are at Philippi, with the bishops and deacons:

The elders therefore among you I exhort, who am a fellow-elder, and a witness of the sufferings of Christ, who am also a partaker of the glory that shall be revealed: Tend the flock of God which is among you, exercising the oversight, not of constraint, but willingly, according to the will of God; nor yet for filthy lucre, but of a ready mind; neither as lording it over the charge allotted to you, but making yourselves ensamples to the flock.

But be not ye called Rabbi: for one is your teacher, and all ye are brethren. And call no man your father on the earth: for one is your Father, even he who is in heaven. Neither be ye called masters: for one is your master, even the Christ.

The Local Churches have no clergy, no pastor, no salaried class, no hierarchy and no headquarters, and each church governs itself. That is the apostolic pattern and it is held more fully here than in most churches. They teach elders, "elders in every church" (Acts 14:23), and say those who lead must not be "lording it over the charge allotted to you" (1 Peter 5:3). Two points hold the placement a step off the line. The first is that the body says it has "no permanent, official, organized leadership," while the New Testament appointed named elders and deacons in each church ("the bishops and deacons," Philippians 1:1). The body teaches elders, yet its own words deny that any leadership is "official," and the pages read do not say how elders are chosen or recognized; a flock must be able to know who its overseers are (1 Peter 5:2). The second is the real weight of one ministry. The churches read the same Bible with the same footnotes and publications, from one publisher, and they answer critics jointly with that publisher. On paper there is no hierarchy; in practice a ministry outside the congregation shapes what every congregation reads and says.

The placement follows the lineage chart: elders (B1 0), the hierarchy question at 2, and no clergy (B3 0). The hierarchy value is kept at 2 for practice: the body's pages say there is no hierarchy of any kind, and the 2007 response was issued jointly by the churches and the publisher. No source read shows a congregation that set the publisher's materials aside and remained in the fellowship, and none shows one that was forced out.

What is it then, brethren? When ye come together, each one hath a psalm, hath a teaching, hath a revelation, hath a tongue, hath an interpretation. Let all things be done unto edifying.

speaking one to another in psalms and hymns and spiritual songs, singing and making melody with your heart to the Lord;

The Local Churches have an open meeting in which every member may speak, "each one hath a psalm, hath a teaching" (1 Corinthians 14:26), and in which the members pray, sing and testify and build one another up. That is much nearer the first-century assembly than a service run by one man. They sing, they pray and they speak, and the whole meeting is for edifying. The calling on the Lord and the pray-reading are not against Scripture. The placement stays a step off the line because the lineage chart's value for worship holds there, and this chart's sources do not show why: the pages read do not say whether instruments are used, and no verdict is made on that question here. They also do not describe a meeting's order. The strength of the worship is the part every member plays, and that is the part the apostles taught.

The placement follows the lineage chart's criterion values for this body (E1 2, E2 0, E3 0) and is not moved. The pages read for this chart do not say whether instruments are used, and no verdict is made on that.

Follow after love; yet desire earnestly spiritual gifts, but rather that ye may prophesy.

Love never faileth: but whether there be prophecies, they shall be done away; whether there be tongues, they shall cease; whether there be knowledge, it shall be done away. For we know in part, and we prophesy in part; but when that which is perfect is come, that which is in part shall be done away.

how shall we escape, if we neglect so great a salvation? which having at the first been spoken through the Lord, was confirmed unto us by them that heard; God also bearing witness with them, both by signs and wonders, and by manifold powers, and by gifts of the Holy Spirit, according to his own will.

Now the Lord is the Spirit: and where the Spirit of the Lord is, there is liberty.

The Local Churches teach that the Spirit regenerates, indwells and transforms the believer now, and that is what the apostles taught. The pages read do not claim healing, tongues or other signs for the churches, and CRI describes their prophesying as edification and not as foretelling, which is nearer to the apostolic rule than the claims of many churches that look for miracles. The signs "confirmed" the word at the first (Hebrews 2:3-4), and they have done their work. Two things hold the placement off the line. The first is that the churches call the members' speaking "prophesying" and expect it in every meeting; in the New Testament prophecy was a gift from the Spirit that would be "done away" (1 Corinthians 13:8), and teaching and exhorting from the word is another thing. The second is the teaching on the Spirit's identity. The Bible does say "the Lord is the Spirit" (2 Corinthians 3:17), but the churches press that line into a claim that Christ and the Spirit are, in a sense, the same one, which blurs the Spirit whom the Father sends "another Comforter" (John 14:16). That belongs to the distinctive on God and is judged there.

This placement is authored, not taken from the lineage chart. The reasons for a middle score: no claim of the sign gifts in the pages read (nearer the line), a "prophesying" of every member as a regular practice and a mingling teaching that treats the Spirit with the Son (farther). Nothing in the sources read says the churches claim tongues or healing; the chart does not say they deny them.

Marvel not at this: for the hour cometh, in which all that are in the tombs shall hear his voice, and shall come forth; they that have done good, unto the resurrection of life; and they that have done evil, unto the resurrection of judgment.

For the Lord himself shall descend from heaven, with a shout, with the voice of the archangel, and with the trump of God: and the dead in Christ shall rise first; then we that are alive, that are left, shall together with them be caught up in the clouds, to meet the Lord in the air: and so shall we ever be with the Lord.

Seeing that these things are thus all to be dissolved, what manner of persons ought ye to be in all holy living and godliness, looking for and earnestly desiring the coming of the day of God, by reason of which the heavens being on fire shall be dissolved, and the elements shall melt with fervent heat?

But of that day and hour knoweth no one, not even the angels of heaven, neither the Son, but the Father only.

The Local Churches believe in the bodily return of Christ, the gathering of His people, the judgment of the world and the new heaven and earth, and those are the apostolic hope. Their word that the Lord's coming may be "hastened by our growth" has support in Peter, who tells believers to be "looking for and earnestly desiring the coming of the day of God" (2 Peter 3:12). They go beyond the text in the sorting of the saved into "the overcoming saints," who "will reign with Christ in the millennium," and "all the believers," who share in the New Jerusalem. The apostles do not divide the believers' share at the resurrection that way. Christ speaks of a single hour in which the dead come forth "unto the resurrection of life" or "of judgment" (John 5:28-29), and a thousand-year scheme drawn from one passage in Revelation is held with more detail than the apostles gave. The hope of His return and judgment is on the line. The millennial order is a human arrangement and stands short.

This placement is authored. The pages read give no order for the rapture, tribulation and millennium, and the chart claims none. Hank Hanegraaff, who found the churches orthodox on essential doctrine, noted that CRI had "significant doctrinal differences with the local churches on nonessentials such as aspects of eschatology."

The Local Churches hold much that Scripture also teaches, and it should be said plainly. They confess one God, Father, Son and Spirit, and Christ truly God and truly man, who died for sins and rose bodily and will return. They say the Bible is the complete and only written revelation, and they follow no creed beside it. They are saved by grace through faith. They refuse a human name, a clergy, a salaried pastor and a hierarchy. They keep the Lord's table every first day and welcome every believer to it. They let every member speak at the meeting. They call on the name of the Lord, as the church at Corinth did. And they have borne persecution: Watchman Nee died in custody in 1972 after twenty years held, kept past the end of his sentence, by the account of the Biographical Dictionary of Chinese Christianity, because he would not renounce his faith. Their love of the Word and of the Lord is plain to anyone who meets them.

Measured by the New Testament alone, the Local Churches stand nearer the pattern than most churches in what they refuse, and on the line in the weekly table and the open meeting. They stand short in four places: a footnoted Bible and a ministry that carry the teaching, the ground of locality as a fixed rule, the silence about what baptism is for together with a promise that the saved cannot fall, and above all the teaching that God mingles with man so that man becomes God in life and nature.

That last teaching is the chart's firmest verdict. It is stated with care by those who hold it, and CRI, after six years of study, withdrew the charge of heresy. Still, the apostles never said that man becomes God in any sense, and the one God says of Himself that none was formed before Him and none shall be after. The remedy the apostles give is the one the Local Churches began with: go back to the text, say what it says in the words it uses, and add nothing beside it.

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