All Posts Tagged "Triune God"

The teaching of Watchman Nee and Witness Lee concerning the proper standing of a local church.

What the Apostle Peter and Athanasius say about deification.

Witness Lee’s teaching of deification is actual a biblical view.

Witness Lee and the local churches “are bringing a correction to a problem within Western evangelicalism” concerning the Trinity.

How the “open letter” signers got it wrong.

An index to responses written by members of the local churches to criticisms of the churches and of the ministry of Witness Lee.

The articles on this site responding to criticisms of the local churches and the ministry of Witness Lee are centered around three primary issues—the Trinity, God’s complete salvation, and the practical expression of the church. The first round of responses were published in the 1970s in response to the criticisms of inexperienced apologists who had a limited understanding of biblical truth and even less of the ministry of Witness Lee. After an interim in which many additional resources presenting Witness Lee’s teachings were published, beginning from 1999 Harvest House Publishers and others associated with that company raised the same issues again, essentially repeating those earlier accusations without regard to the responses or other writings already published. Those renewed criticisms called forth a second round of responses.

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.

The Christian Research Institute published videos to accompany excerpts from radio broadcasts of Hank Hanegraaff, the Bible Answer Man, discussing the findings of the Christian Research Institute’s six-year primary research projects into the local churches and the ministry of Witness Lee.

In 2007 an open letter appeared on the Internet calling on Living Stream Ministry and the local churches to “disavow and cease to publish” certain statements by Witness Lee. The two books in the series A Defense of the Gospel: Responses to an Open Letter from “Christian Scholars and Ministry Leaders” (1) and 2 answer the concerns raised in that 2007 open letter and show the defects in its handling of important biblical truths.

A brief examination of some key verses concerning the Triune God (including Isaiah 9:6; 2 Corinthians 3:17; 1 Corinthians 15:45; and Matthew 28:19) and an appeal to accept the biblical revelation of the mystery of the Divine Trinity.

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

This 2011 book is one of a series of four addressing criticisms by Norman Geisler and Ron Rhodes. This book addresses various points of truth concerning the Divine Trinity, including:

• the use of the word persons to describe the Three of the Godhead;
• the coinherence and co-working of the Father, the Son, and the Spirit;
• whether Isaiah 9:6 prophesies that the “Son given to us” is the “Eternal Father”; and
• whether the Apostle Paul said the Lord Jesus Christ is the Spirit in 2 Corinthians 3:17.

Brothers, Hear Our Defense is a series of four books correcting many errors in an article by Norman Geisler and Ron Rhodes. The subjects that these books deal with—the authority of the Bible, the incarnation of Christ, the nature of God, the state of Christendom measured against the Bible—are important matters deserving consideration by all serious Christians.

While it is common (and not wrong) to refer to the Three of the Divine Trinity as three “persons,” the term persons is problematic because it can lead to misunderstanding. This article examines whether Norman Geisler was justified in criticizing a statement of faith in the journal Affirmation & Critique because it did not explicitly use the word persons in its definition of the Trinity.

This article refutes the false accusation of Norman Geisler and Ron Rhodes that the local churches teach patripassianism. It shows their error in asserting that affirming the involvement of the Father in the Son’s work is equivalent to of patripassianism and presents both the biblical record and a number of respected scholars that support the principle of the co-working of the Father and the Son (see also Scholars Who Affirm the Working Together of the Three of the Divine Trinity).

Excerpts from respected scholars who affirm that the Father, the Son, and the Spirit all work together and that the work of any of the Three involves the other Two.

Second Corinthians 3:17 says plainly, “And the Lord is the Spirit.” Many respected scholars recognize that “the Lord” in this verse refers to our Lord Jesus Christ. However, Norman Geisler and Ron Rhodes argue otherwise. This article shows their error. (See also Scholars and Bible Teachers Who Affirm That the Lord is the Spirit).

Elliot Miller, Editor-in-Chief of the Christian Research Journal, and Hank Hanegraaff, President of Christian Research Institute talk about deficiencies in the scholarship and biblical understanding of Christian leaders who signed a 2007 open letter criticizing the ministry of Witness Lee and the local churches.

This 2009 book contains a statement prepared by the LSM editorial section addressing key issues in dialogues with a panel of Fuller Theological Seminary professors regarding the Trinity, the Person of Christ, God’s full salvation, and the genuine ground of oneness. It also contains a copy of the Fuller panel’s conclusions from their study.

The oneness of the Triune God can be seen in three categories of Scriptures, which this article calls interpenetration, identification, and interchangeable Scriptures.

This article points out key faults in arguments concerning the Triune God presented in the pamphlet The Teachings of Witness Lee and The Local Church. It contrasts:

• The booklet’s traditional, doctrinal statements concerning the Divine Trinity with biblical terminology and the language of experience;
• The booklet’s false accusation of modalism with the historical revelation of the Triune God in His economy; and
• The booklet’s false charge of “static modalism” with the oneness of the Triune God manifested through interpenetration and identification.

This article gives brief rebuttals to accusations in the pamphlet The Teachings of Witness Lee and The Local Church concerning:

• division,
• the Triune God,
• the Spirit in John 7:37-39,
• the Body of Christ,
• the practical oneness of the church,
• the Bible,
• the flesh of man, and
• the church as the manifestation of God.

A critique showing that Walter Martin’s explanation that the Three of the Divine Trinity are separate persons sharing an ill-defined common nature is tantamount to having three separate Gods.

A critique of Walter Martin’s insistence that Christ is not actually present but is only represented in the believers by the Holy Spirit.

Witness Lee used the expression “four-in-one” to express the marvelous reality that the Triune God and the believers in Christ mutually indwell one another (John 14:20; 17:21, 23). However, some have misrepresented this “four-in-one” mutual indwelling to falsely claim that Witness Lee makes the church part of the Godhead.

A consideration of mingling as the most accurate term to describe the union of God and man based on 2 Corinthians 3:17, 2 Timothy 4:22, and 1 Corinthians 6:17.

An overview of the scriptural meaning of the Triune God, including the basic facts, the value of being limited to biblical terminology, the principle of the twofoldness of divine truth applied to the oneness and threeness of God, an understanding of how the Bible reveals the Triune God, the relationship among the Three in the Godhead, and the meaning of the Triune God in the believers’ experience.

In this statement Witness Lee responds to criticism of his teachings by explaining three reasons for different understandings of the Scriptures:

• The profundity of the divine revelation in the Bible;
• The two aspects of the truths in the Bible—objective and subjective; and
• The Lord’s progressive move to recover the truths in the Bible.

Witness Lee closes with an appeal for conduct becoming of Christians in disagreements of understandings of Scriptures.

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.

A booklet by Witness Lee published in 1976 presenting the basics of his biblical teaching concerning the Triune God:

• God is uniquely one;
• God is triune—the Father, the Son, and the Spirit, all Three:
  • being God,
  • being eternal,
  • co-existing simultaneously,
  • being one, and
  • being in the believers.

The booklet concludes with a section on the Triune God being a mystery beyond explanation and an appeal to accept the full biblical revelation of the Divine Trinity.