All Posts Tagged "modalism"

Members of the local churches have written many responses to criticisms of the teaching of Witness Lee and of the local churches. These responses address vital issues of truth concerning God, Christ, His salvation, and the church, among many other subjects.

A small booklet published in 1977 rebutting various false accusations by the Spiritual Counterfeits Project.

A booklet published by Living Stream Ministry in 1978 outlining:

• the faith, standing, mission, and hope of the local churches;
• the meaning of the expression “the Lord’s recovery”;and
• some basic truths regarding salvation, the Christian life, and the church life.

This booklet also answers some questions raised at that time about the beliefs and practices of the local churches.

The writer of this article called on Walter Martin to correct errors spoken in public concerning Witness Lee, the local churches, and vital biblical truths.

Two articles that point out flaws in criticisms of Witness Lee’s teaching concerning the Divine Trinity.

In this 1977 booklet, Witness Lee directly rebuts the accusation that his teaching is modalistic. He examines key verses such as Isaiah 9:6, 1 Corinthians 15:45, and 2 Corinthians 3:17, showing that some who twist these verses to avoid their obvious meaning end up in the heresy of tritheism. Witness Lee concludes by showing that the biblical revelation of the Triune God is not for doctrinal formulations but for His people to experience of the reality of God.

A booklet by Ron Kangas published in 1976 by Living Stream Ministry that:

• defines the heresies of modalism and tritheism and outlines their historical development,
• describes historical attempts to balance these heretical extremes;
• examines the principle of the twofoldness of divine truth as it applies to the Divine Trinity,
• presents the need to use the Bible as the standard for understanding the Trinity,
• gives a clear presentation of the basic truths concerning the Triune God from the Scriptures, and
• explains what the biblical revelation of the Triune God means to the believers’ Christian experience.

A 1976 booklet by Ron Kangas refuting criticisms that those in the local churches are modalists. The booklet:

• shows that Christians’ understanding of the Triune God should begin from the Bible and not from man’s theological and philosophical constructs,
• gives a balanced biblical understanding of the Triune God being both one and three,
• demonstrates that the local churches’ stress on the believers’ subjective experience of the Triune God matches the revelation in the New Testament, and
• invites all believers to hold to the full truth of the Word of God and to care for the experience of God Himself.