Testimonies Against the Unholy Trinity of Witness Lee, The Local Church and Living Stream Ministry

Jim Moran's website submissions and the Leeist Letters

Jim Moran Responds...

     Look here - I see that you are capitalizing "Local Church" - Witness Lee said in the Local Church publication, The Beliefs and Practices of the Local Churches:

Anonymous Wrote on 5/23/01
Good for you Mr. Moran.

Someone needs to expose the insidious evil in the local church. I was in it for 12 years and experienced what I can best describe as the nearly total rape of my soul.

Keep fighting the good fight.
 

Anonymous Wrote on 5/28/01
Dear Jim,

Please advise me as to where I can go or whom I can contact to get information to help someone who is a practicing local church member. I almost got engaged to someone who I met at "my church", a ... church, however I found out that his church is the "local church". Apparently there is no "local church" in my "locality" therefore he attended my church only as a last resort. We recently traveled to ... to shop ... and "his church" happened to be having a conference that weekend. I was actually looking forward to attending the conference and learning what it was that cause this man to "love and miss" his church the way that he did. I was not at all prepared for what I would encounter and my life has been changed since. Our relationship has hit a brick wall because he makes clear that if he lives in a city where there is a "local church" he will attend it without question. I on the other hand have vowed NEVER to attend it again because I believe that it is not of God. During the service that I attended I felt as though the Holy Spirit was very clear in telling me that I should get up and leave immediately. I actually felt physically ill sitting in their meeting hall. I began to cry and to shake and I had no idea why!!! I truly am in love with this man and I know that he is a Christian however I feel the need to help him understand why the local church is missing the mark. I don't know what to do or how to do it, that is why I need your help. Any assistance or advice that you could offer me I would greatly appreciate. At very least, please pray for me, for him, and for this situation. Thank you so much for taking the time to maintain this website. You are truly helping people. May God bless you!...

In Christ,
Name Withheld

Anonymous Wrote on 9/6/00
(Name Withheld)
Dear Jim,

Can the local churches or more accurately the LSM churches really expect to be taken seriously by other Christians? Consider the title of a book published by them: "The Fermentation of the Present Rebellion". Do you know what it is about? It is Lee & cohorts discrediting their fellow workers who had merely expressed some disagreement with Lee and notably his son Philip who runs LSM. What kind of respectable publishing house would publishing a book like that? The net result of this was these "rebellious" workers were quarantined by Lee & co. In effect, excommunicated. Not for immorality. Not for heresy. But for disagreeing with his "most holy (rather, unholy - Troy) eminence" Witness Lee. This should be enough evidence that they are a sectarian exclusive group who adore Lee and the LSM monolithic that his sons now control. First, they sue their fellow publishing houses, then they write a book about their fellow workers and now they actually expect to sneak their way into the evangelical mainstream using all kinds of advertising gimmicks and antics like giving away free bibles in a country like America that has book shelves filled with trustworthy translations that come to us from teams of serious legitimate scholars not a few salaried employees of LSM huddled in a back office some where.

I also find your posting of September 3, 2000 quite interesting as it displays something that perpetuates groups like the lc i.e. mistaking zealousness with truth and real spiritual growth. Perhaps it did not occur to the author of the letter that how much or how fast one rows is irrelevant if they are rowing in the wrong direction. Furthermore, in the LSM churches the entire focus is on Lee not Christ. Finally, talking a lot "about Christ" and actually being under His Lordship in real life are two entirely separate matters. The various and sundry antics of Lee and his avid followers prove this point beyond question. They sue their fellow Christians (make note most Leeists are not Christians, that is why they sue or belong to this lying system of sons of Lee - Troy), excommunicate those who question them and all the while talk a lot about God (hypocrisy, Matt. 7.21 - Troy). Those who are fooled by this should heed the warning of Paul to Titus, "They claim to know God but by their actions they deny Him." In fact, anyone reading this I encourage to go once again to the Pastoral Epistles and read them carefully asking the Holy Spirit to illuminate you. This will provide a much needed safeguard in this day and age when all manner of false teachings, myths and fables are proliferating inside and outside the Christian community.

Name Withheld

Anonymous Wrote on 5/28/99
(Name Withheld) - A child with a fresh spirit writes,

Your page was really informative giving a lot of information on the Living Stream Ministry. In the past few years I've had a couple of run ins with this group of believers (LSM, aka Recovery). My parents were and probably are still split on this issue of this church right now and I'll refer them to this page.

A couple of summers back my mother decided to send my sister and me to a "summer school of truth" with the Local Church in a city in Southern California. Well, my sister and I are Bible believing Christians that have been attending church weekly since we were old enough to remember. It was pretty funny how awkward we felt when we first joined their Bible study group. It was the middle of the summer and my sister and I were the only people not dressed up... (tie, good shirt if you were a guy or a long dress if you were a girl).

Right after the first meeting people started to swarm us trying to tell us of how Israel crossed the Red Sea out of Egypt to the promise land and how that symbolizes leaving the world.... I tried to tell them that I was a fellow believer but they didn't seem to understand or really care. They asked if I had been baptized yet... I answered "yes".... They ask "you want to be baptized again?" I was thinking... "Whats up with this? Is my current baptism not authentic to these people?" Pretty soon I caught on to how the Local Church considers itself to be the only true church.

The next thing that got bashed was my Bible. I carried a standard NIV Bible... They told me that it was a nasty translation (I know that it isn't the greatest translation... NASB might be a little bit more accurate... but hey the overall message of the gospel isn't different...) They told me to go buy a Recovery Version of the Bible. I asked, "Is the King James ok? No? How about NASB? No? um... how about Darby?" (they told me Darby is tolerable).

Their praise is quite interesting there at the Local Church... they sing lots of remixed Christian songs that have new lyrics mostly written by Witness Lee (he was alive at the time). I found the chanting "Oh Lord Jesus" action really strange... all the people there were all into it but I wasn't feeling anything. Oh yeah, they made us sing to other people... and we had to read... what was it called... yeah pray read things to other brothers. That was a different experience.

The only point where I almost lost it was when they started to bash the Southern Baptist denomination...you see, the church that I currently attend was a Baptist church. They said that "The Baptists are fallen church because they say that "You have to be baptized in our water or else you are not saved."" I knew for fact that Baptists do not say that or believe it... Baptism is a symbol for your commitment to Christ... it is following an example of Christ, and it is a public testimony of your Faith.... ironic how they said I should be re-baptized with them.

After each lesson we would have a "prophecy" session... funny that it is called prophecy... its more like a dramatic reading session as you just read or "preach" about the concepts of what you have learned... the only thing I remember from those sessions were that people would accentuate the wrong words in sentences to attempt to talk like Witness Lee... oh yeah... they are really fond of the phrase "We are for the Lord's economy!" ($$$$$$$$$$$ - Troy)

The Local Church did its best to tear us away from our home church.... my sister and I felt really ostracized there at times... but fortunately we knew our Bible well enough to hold our own. Yeah after that summer I never went back to the Local Church. They Local Church is like an exclusive club of some sort. (upper room pride - Troy).. I remember how my sister tried to invite some of the people from the Local Church in our school to the Christian club... they wouldn't come... I guess they feel that they are too high above us or something to fellowship and praise God with us. Well I don't mean to bash the Local Church too much in this email... I know that many of them are genuine Christians (don't bet on it - Troy)... its just that I don't agree with many of their beliefs (Praise the Lord!!! - Troy)

Sorry I kept writing and writing Jim, just wanted to share I guess. May God bless you as you continue to serve Him. I hope that many people will be better informed about this group through your web page...

Your brother in Christ.

Anonymous Wrote on 6/22/99
(Name Withheld)
Local Church buy out Local Christian Radio Station

Christians hereabout don't yet know that the Local Church group has bought out KCCF "Classics of the Christian Faith" Radio station in the north of Washington state (which also broadcasts into Canada's southern British Columbia)... nor do they know to beware of them when they hear about it.

KCCF was still invited to the local "Mission Fest" held in Vancouver BC where I personally verified that the ownership and the board of control of KCCF are all associated with the Witness Lee group. The board member further confirmed that the group made the move after their bible program featuring Witness Lee was rejected by 'other' christian radio stations in the area.

"Test every spirit" and every prophet to see if they are from God!

Anonymous Wrote on 6/10/98
Dear Jim Moran,

Thanks for your website. I was in the LC from the age of ten to 21, 1975-86, I think. Oddly, I can't remember coming out. After all this time, I think I need help. I was the only one I know that went to all the meetings every week, four to six as you (they) say, while a little kid. Obviously, I didn't have what would ordinarily be called a childhood. I went to all the trainings when I was twelve, too. I still have trouble evaluating people and situations as I see others, even kids, do, and find myself in abusive power situations. I never knew employers could behave abusively just as cults do, and I wish I had more skills to smell them out before being hired.

Recently, my mother has rejoined the cult after so much time! This has really broken my heart. She isn't very active, though. I think that once you reach a certain age, they really don't see you as much more than a body in a seat, so they may not pressure you as much as they do the young.

For me, the main problem with the cult is the way it ruins people. The doctrinal matters are harder to pin on them, because Lee has said just about everything and its opposite. I even remember him bragging in trainings about being able to contradict himself and get away with it. The example I recall is him advocating tritheism in one long message, and in the next, modalism. He said both were biblical. He seemed to revel in the nonsense of it all. I think the point of the cult's teachings is that they are all nonsense. In fact, looking at the current publications my mom has -- which haven't changed from what was witten so long ago -- I see they are all gobbledygook. As if the more complex and impenetrable the mental gymnastics are, the more clearly they are inspired by the Holy Spirit (NOT!!!! - Troy). And despite the obtuseness, everything is written (of course, Lee didn't write, he spoke in his own sort of pidgin English which was recorded and later edited by some poor souls) in the same moronic language of simpletons. (There is no way in God's Heaven Witness Lee was saved, God would never stand for it, nor would the body of Christ to have this man with them for eternity in the new city - Troy)

Another thought: I think the ability of the intelligent to buy the empty semantic verbiage is that the smarter you are, the better you can come up with arguments wherewith to lie to yourself (that is what the unsaved do, par for the course - Troy).

Well, if someone is doing research, I am available to answer any questions. It would be hard for me to draw up a testimony, for I seem to have some sort of block, but I can be helpful if specific questions were asked. I wish you the best on the web page. The suffering of those in a cult is indescribable to those who have not "experienced" (boy, I hate that word) it. By the way, the cult never offered any "experience of Christ" -- never attempted it. The term is just a promise to promote more hoopla to get you to come back for more.

Name Withheld
"Anonymous" Wrote on 10/1/96
Mr. Moran,
I'm one of those former Local Church members with a bad experience. I can't help but remark on the flair with which Mr. Cole dismisses the pain and suffering of those of us who trusted Witness Lee, however foolishly, with our spiritual well-being. Mr. Lee is a great proponent of the unity of the Body of Christ (be careful, it is a unity of a body of something - Troy), but apparently neither he nor Mr. Cole have grasped the concept that when one member suffers, the whole body suffers.

Mr. Cole has perhaps never had cause or occasion to be led by the Lord to take a direction other than the one being currently promoted by the elders at Witness Lee's command. Indeed, it would never be acknowledged that the Lord would lead someone to take a direction other than the current "way." (there is the a way, and then there is THE way - Troy)

I was led by the Lord to follow a path that I could not follow and be "absolute" to the elders' "way." At that point I became a "commodity" and was no longer useful to the elders. The painful situation I was facing was as ho-hum to the elders in my "locality" as Tim Cole's assessment in his discourse. On top of the painful personal situation was added the rejection of my Christian family.

Brent Barber called it: dehumanizing. A "dissenter" becomes a "thing" to be placed in a closet and disposed of quietly while the "recovery" goes on . . . [false recovery - Troy].

Now I thank the Lord that He used that experience to wake me up. God isn't like Witness Lee or his elders. God loves unconditionally.

I'm reminded of the story of the prodigal son in Luke. It was the Father who was watching for his son and ran to meet him when he was far away. The Father didn't care about anything, except that his son was home. What would have happened if on the way home, the prodigal son had first met the older brother instead of the loving Father? I'm afraid that the older brother would have misrepresented the Father's love in a tragic way. (powerful statement by anonymous...Watchman Nee said he was more afraid of how in his writings, such as Spiritual Authority, would be misused and mishandled, as Witness Lee's cult did, than he was by those who would directly attack his work. How prophetic that statement turned out to be. Who knew Witness Lee would be the great cultist pushing for his own self-supported authority in the name of profit? - Troy).

I believe the elders have truly become the "older brothers" in the local churches. They misrepresent the Father's love for His children in a tragic way. Especially if there is a prodigal in the family.

I have never regretted my decision to be true to my commitment Christ and the church. The Local Church has/had a song: "In the church of Jesus, there's a place for you." Following this thought to its logical conclusion, if there isn't a place for you there, this must not be the church of Jesus. (yup! - Troy)

I left the Local Church, and I found Jesus. You have my permission to use these comments as you see fit. (for some salvation will come to those who leave LSM-LC; God will recognize that faith in that act of affirmative act of believing by leaving as truly accepting the Jesus Christ as Lord and Savior! - Troy).

In Him,
name withheld
10/1/96

Anonymous Wrote on 10/1/99
(Name Withheld)

Unless witness lee is infallible some of his teachings will quite naturally be questionable and some will be in error. this is why i find it so surprising that members of the Local Church have such a problem with your web site which is designed to analysis Lee's teachings and comment on your findings. This is a perfectly legitimate exercise for you or anyone else to conduct. if within the Local Church they were doing this themselves your site might not be so necessary.

however, clearly the reason those in the Local Church are upset by such analysis is because in actuality they DO believe that Lee's teaching is infallible. This is a papal concept borrowed by them from Roman Catholicism. Not a single thesis from WITHIN the Local Church has ever been produced to challenge Lee on any point of his teaching that has not resulted in a full scale character attack on its authors. Instead of addressing the issues raised, Lee and his underlings used the ad hominem method of argumentation i.e. attack the person while avoiding the issues. In the mind of an audience unfamilair with these type of tactics, the discrediting of the person produces the desired result of indirectly discrediting the issues they have raised. The person is thus branded a leper, poisoned, heretical, worldly, divisive, ambitious for position or any other label that inflames the imagination among the ill informed. Now whatever that "negative" person wrote or said is automatically suspect. All this for what? To protect the myth that Lee's teaching is infallible. If this is not truth I challenge anyone in the Local Church to publically announce in writing ten things that they disagree with in Lee's teaching. If it is fallible there must be at least ten!

Now there is another illogical connection that some make which I have noticed from Local Church member letters on your site. They erroneously conclude that since people like them follow Lee that this somehow confirms that everything Lee teaches is truth.  It is painfully clear that those not willing to parrot Lee's words are not too welcome in the Local Church!

Name Withheld

John Tal Wrote on 3/10/97
john.tal@juno.com

Jim Moran Responds...

Concerning John's comment about Witness Lee, "Many people oppose Brother Lee because of misunderstanding or perhaps even racism," I wonder why John would make such a comment. I have yet to find one person who has opposed Witness Lee or his teachings because he is a Chinese person. Sounds like a smokescreen to me. John would be very hard-pressed to find one such person. In fact, the thought had not even entered my mind until John had suggested the matter!

My primary objective for maintaining this Website is to offer my evaluation expressed in my own words, of the beliefs and practices of as taught by Witness Lee and embraced by the Local Church movement. Contrary to John's view of doctrine, sound doctrinal instruction is important to most Christians outside of the Local Church. Ultimately, sound doctrine will permanently separate those who hold fast to the truth from those who embrace serious error.

As I have stated at this Website, some doctrines are worth fighting for and others are not. Those outside of the Local Church will recognize where I'm coming from. For example, apart from the Oneness Pentecostals, very few people outside of the Local Church would teach and embrace the belief that God the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit are one in the same person (called modalism - Troy). Lee's teaching that Satan dwells (and is mingled) within us as our sinful nature questions the origin of sin, which is not a light matter either. The view that water baptism is necessary for one to be saved places into question what actually saves a person, the redemptive work of Christ alone or cooperation on our part, in effect, which is a denial of exactly what grace is in the first place (this is one of the reasons why there is such aggressive violent screaming in the LC, because they are trying to force grace upon themselves from God, and God is not biting - Troy). Furthermore, Lee's teaching that we are divine and human just as Jesus is, based upon his own interpretation of 2 Peter 1:4 and other biblical references, exalts sinful mankind to a higher level than what God had planned for us. We are seriously flawed and imperfect people. Lee confuses the distinctions between God and man beyond acceptable limits. God the Holy Spirit dwells and operates within us but does not become an organic, intrinsic part of us as Lee would have us believe! (....so that we become God, it is just not going to happen - Troy).

Anonymous Wrote on 9/21/00
(Name Withheld)

We were in the local church from 1969 to 1992. We reared our three children in it. My heart aches when I consider the way we taught our children, disciplined ourselves, and suffered.   (this is considered a false suffering, unecessary - Troy). No, I'm not bitter. But oh we are better now! No longer do we despise ourselves and others. We have found out how completely different things really are than how we were taught in the local church. Escaping was the hardest thing we ever have had to do. I pray for those still brainwashed. Of course they do not believe they are. It is such a long process to know the truth and be set free. I thank the Lord we are moving right along in the process. Hope your site spares others the L.C. detour.

Name Withheld

Anonymous Wrote on 11/25/00
(Name Withheld)

Hi jim, it is not without a certain amount of amusement that i read many of the e-mails on your site of those who have some affinity or even active participation in the LSM movement. my amusement comes from the obvious lack of training that emerges in their supposed refutations. it exposes a lack of Biblical training, a lack of historical training and a sad lack of training in the discipline of logical argumentation. thus their retorts are fraught with incoherence, formal and informal logical fallacies and inherent contradictions. they seem to think that the louder they "shout" the more truth their positions must contain. thankfully name calling and personal attacks are not the criteria for truth or the LSM/Lee advocates would take first place.

allow me to use a few examples from the above mentioned e-mails. the writer of the 11/13 piece calls you a 3rd grader and suggests that your "minute mind" should not be used to "define the undefinable". he then proceeds to suggest that you hate witness lee and just can't see the deeper things he is teaching about the Triune God. [of course he doesn't connect the dots of how these things relate to each other but that is another point.] so the argument is as follows: attack the intellectual capacity of your opponent, subscribe an negative emotion to them [hatred], and tell them they're spiritually blind. this is one of the most amateurish, intellectually sloppy, ad hominem arguments i have ever encountered and i have encountered plenty of them!

let me briefly respond to it: if jim moran's mind is minute and unable to define the undefinable who than is able to do so? if something is undefinable than it is undefinable. why then should we accept lee's definition? just because the writer says so! is that the argument? just because lee says so? is that it? just because the LSM says so? that's the whole argument? we are expected to accept that as being credible? follow the "logic" here...if we don't accept it what does this mean to our illustrious writer? we hate lee and are quite obviously blind! the whole point-of-reference in the argument is lee. he is the writer's starting point and criterion so not surprisingly he will arrive at the sorry conclusion that he does. the conclusion is the same old story. lee has the light and you are blind. lee has depth and you have nothing. what the writer has not established is why anybody should listen to lee at all? without establishing that he has no case. if you are using lee as your "authority" on the trinity you have to tell us why that should be the case? who said he's an authority? you? who said his mind can define the undefinable. you? so the writer's premise is completely subjective (actually it is with an unregenerated spirit in most cases maintaining an unrenewed mind - Troy) and thus his argument is without merit so he must resort to belittling the opponent in the debate while embracing his beloved witness lee as the definer (killer actually - Troy) of the Triune God.

he then attempts to disqualify jim by suggesting since he was not actively in the LSM movement he cannot possibly offer any critique. i would suggest that this is the very reason jim can offer OBJECTIVE critique. the LSM movement has no self critiquing going on at all. when will the leadership stand up and say that lee's teachings are fallible and list what they disagree with? (pride does beget the constant falling at LSM-LC - Troy) instead all we get out of the LSM movement is the endless promotion of lee, lee, lee. the grand defense of lee. now all the leadership can do since lee is gone is repeat lee messages. how long can that go on before it dawns on people how pathetic the whole affair really is?

jim, this brings me to the almost unbelievably disgraceful 11/23 e-mail which i do not classify as an argument but mere drivel. this is an overt attack on the person while avoiding any substantial issues at all. why waste time with substance when we can just call names? then with a certain childish glee the writer "threatens" you, no doubt alluding to upcoming attempts by the LSM spin doctors to discredit you by attacking your person and avoiding the issues. these tactics are legendary so don't feel too bad about it. even those who worked closely with lee for years once they disagreed with him on anything were mercilessly, maliciously and publicly maligned. if they really do have all the light and riches why are they so worried about your little website? may i suggest that the rumor is true: the emperor really doesn't have any clothes and your website is bringing that to people's attention. thus the proverbial messenger must be "shot" so the charade, and more importantly book sales of the same old material packaged differently each time, can go on unhindered.

Name Withheld

Anonymous Wrote on 11/30/00
(Name Withheld)
Hi there Jim,

I was on campus today at ...

Anonymous

Jim Moran Responds...
Keep in mind that the members of the Local Church are taught that Jesus is God the Father and the Holy Spirit, and that "all three" died on the cross and rose from the dead! While they embrace the basic gospel message of 1 Cor. 15, they add a lot to it (they step where they do not belong - Troy). People are not only saved from their sins - they supposedly receive God's divine nature and become "God-Men" - just like Jesus. These concepts are foreign to Scripture. The Local Church should be avoided to stay clear of such heresy.

Anonymous Wrote on 12/27/00
(Name Withheld)
Dear Jim,

I appreciate your website and check back frequently to see what updates you have added. This has been a great source of information for me and my family as we have family members involved in this "group" (I refuse to call them a church.)

After speaking with our family members who are involved in this group about our concerns, we began to see a different side to these people. They resorted to name calling (one name we were called was "wicked pharisee!", refusal to come to our home, and a refusal to even discuss our concerns with them. Basically a big iron door was shut in our face. There has been no contact from them now for over a year.

We had a good relationship with them for 10 years prior to talking with them about their beliefs. They were nice people who seemed to be genuine Christians....but there was always something strange about them that we couldn't quite put our finger on. We are a Christian family, my husband is even a Pastor (which we have discovered that the LC do not care much for) and we have served our Savior practically all our lives...and yet when we talked with our LC family we always felt like they were trying to "evangelize" us as if we were not Christian at all.

I was just so thankful to find your website. I have read all the articles and finally can understand what is going on in the minds of our LC family. I pray that you will not let the negative messages which accuse you of wrong doing influence you to discontinue this ministry. For those of us who know people in the LC and know they are involved in a cult are so grateful to you and the help you have provided.

May God bless you and give you strength and courage to continue the work He has given you to do.

Name Withheld

Brent Barber Wrote on 3/29/97

I grew up in the cult of Witness Lee and spent approximately 8 years convincing my mom to leave after I did. She was finally liberated about 5 years ago and has never been more happy and free in her life. But the ideological fanaticism is intensely tunnel-visioned and it sometimes requires a significantly destabilizing event to dislodge a LC cult member. They have lost the ability to think independently as it is directly articulated in their theological world view that all individuality must be totally renounced.

It was really kinda scary growing up as I watched people lose their uniqueness as they underwent a personality transfer and slid into a homogenized interchangeable generic cult identity. The parameters, specific characteristics, and desired traits of the ideal cult member was articulated and operated as an impossibly pure ideal (even so, the ideal was a false one based on misreadings of Scripture - Troy). Since everyone strove to achieve that level of perfection, dedication and "absoluteness," a common purpose and goal was shared by all.

The dynamics of group identity transfer will probably be never fully known, but some features can be identified. A closed system is established, not unlike a ecological or mathematical closed set. A clear division is drawn between those inside the group and those outside the group which takes on a significance of unreasonable proportions.

The us/them world view, in fact, becomes the primary driving force of membership. Life inside the LC is perpetually contrasted with the relatively (imagined) horrors of life outside the LC. This indoctrination device is never relaxed because it is believed that the clear boundaries drawn between those on the inside of the group and those on the outside determines one's eternal status before God.

Thus the normal impulse to find community, friendship and social support is effectively utilized to seduce an imaginary exalted elite who alone know the purposes of God and who alone will be ultimately saved and given kingdoms to rule over. It is believed that the rest of humanity will suffer perdition and eternal judgment from God.

Fear keeps the member entrapped. Once they have come to believe in the dogmatic proposals of theological elitism and exclusion, their belief system is chained to a mindless, unflinching imperative to fulfill its dictates. Thus, long after group membership has lost its appeal and initial euphoria in whatever attracts a convert, the philosophical constructs established by the group leader become synonymous with truth (Leeviticalism - Troy).

There is much fear talk warning of members who have left the group and met with horrible fates. I remember growing up hearing dramatic tales of the inevitable judgment of anyone who was foolish enough to leave God's eternal purpose. They had all met violent, brutal deaths. No detail of their suffering was spared (outright manipulation - Troy) as these stories were circulated to further cement and enforce permanent group membership.

An extremely exaggerated form of Catholic purgatory is also used with frightening effect. The group leader insists that those who do not follow him and live obsessively fixated to his ministry and movement will suffer a thousand years of "outer darkness" of anguish, suffering and horror. This was the punishment for Christians! All Christians not in Lee's group were destined, under his teachings, to suffer this fate. Unbelievers would suffer eternal torment. (to understand this in the non-legalized non-Lee fashion Watchman Nee warned against, read here for the truth - Troy).

It was possible, if you were fanatically dedicated enough to the cause of the movement, to avoid this judgment. But one could never be sure as the status of group membership was kept impossibly demanding. New waves of activity and personal surrender and sacrifice are enacted on a regular basis to test group loyalty. Remember, group membership status is believed to be the designating and determining factor in how one is to spend the millennium. (an example of how the unholy attempts to use what is spiritual - Troy).

Of course to examine these theological positions under the light of scripture reveals the man Witness Lee to be a false teacher; a wolf in sheep's clothing killing and destroying the flock. I know. Most everyone I knew growing up with had their lives completely destroyed by their experience in his "Local Church." There is complete turnover - and this is one of the ways the group keeps alive; by finding fresh converts who know nothing of the madness and destruction that went on before. They never hear about it because those people have all left!

It is really an isolated vacuum of personal power, a cult personality whereby the identity and self hood of the member melts and fuses into that of the leader. Imagine a bicycle wheel with a hub and concentric spokes. This is the social organization and orientation of the group. All energies are directed at the leader who has replaced God in the mind of the follower.

One would think that a group which made such distinctly delineated boundaries of inclusion and exclusion would possess at least some solidarity, brotherhood and support. But I can assure you the place is as cold and loveless as Tieneman square. It is a militant rigid cult that preaches fear, idolatry and the complete loss of self.

After a point, many members lose the ability to free themselves even though their lives are a miserable hell. I watched my mom suffer this involuntary self-surrender for 8 years after I left. It takes a lot of patient examination of the scripture and a common sense evaluation of the "fruit of the tree" to dissuade a current member. It is not an easy task since a basic reconstruction of their entire psychology, social support mechanisms, and purpose in life must transpire. Ultimately, however, the member must take that vital step on their own to decide to trust in themselves again. It becomes extremely difficult to sever oneself from the group after a period because one's whole identity has become fully entwined with the purposes (albeit, a false purpose -  Troy) of the organization.

This is an extremely serious matter since I am sure you have heard of the recent mass suicides. Lee's cult is within shooting distance of reaching that level of surrender. It was a boast among many during my childhood that if Witness Lee told them to go jump off a pier into the ocean, they would run to the edge and leap off with all their might. It has to do with a confusion of the man with God. They think that shows their obedience and commitment to the Lord. How sadly mistaken they are.

Brent Barber
3/29/97

James Highfill Wrote on 6/4/97
Dear Jim,

I included these comments because they state very clearly some of the criteria of a cult, how a cult differs from a mainstream religious group, and because much of what the commentators say applies to the experience people have had in the Local Church. In the Local Church we were under the authority of a hierarchical structure, with Witness Lee at the top, and with authority being passed down through the elders, then through heads of committees and heads of communal houses. To question Witness Lee or the elders was absolutely forbidden.

Criticism of the Witness Lee or the leadership was not allowed. To disagree with Witness Lee on even a small matter brought the severest condemnation on a member. We were not allowed to "take on the leader", as Prof. Marty states. The group was completely self-enclosed, and we took all our signals from Witness Lee and his handpicked underlings.

Fear was used to keep members in the group and under the authority of Witness Lee and the leadership. Stories circulated about former members who had left the Church and met with death and catastrophe. (one wonders, is murder a possibility? Certainly the door has been placed open for this as a motivation. Sad to see Jim Moran go so quickly - Troy) There was no opportunity to leave. In Prof. Marty's words, there was no "free will", no "chance to escape", no "chance to be out of it", at least not without suffering tremendous fear and guilt, and not without paying what we believed would be a severe price.

In the Local Church, our personal lives were rigidly controlled. What to say, how to dress, how to act, even our thinking, were kept under strict control. And what makes it even worse is we were told that we had full freedom in these matters. We were told that our personal living was between ourselves and the Lord, and any change in our lives should only be the result of the movement of the Holy Spirit within. But nothing could have been further from the truth. In fact, there was immense pressure to conform, some of it subtle and some of it not so subtle. Members were often humiliated for stepping out of line on the most trivial matters. The hypocrisy was appalling.

I am convinced more than ever of the need for education to inform people of the practices and techniques of the various cults. Small as the Heaven's Gate cult was, if someone had taken the responsibility of maintaining a web site on the cult, if someone had attempted to disseminate information on the cult, some of these people might still be alive. I say this because of the criticism that has been leveled at Mr. Moran (including a recent Mail item by James Weber) for singling out the Local Church for criticism, ignoring much larger groups, etc. I don't care if the group has a membership of five-million, five-thousand or five -- any authoritarian cult has the potential to wreck the lives of people, and should be investigated and exposed.

Of course, no one is suggesting that Local Church members don't have the right the respond or tell the truth as they see it. If Jim Moran is wrong, if Jim Highfill is wrong, if all of these ex-members are wrong, then Local Church members should say so. They should take their case to the court of public opinion, instead of using courts of the law to harass those who criticize. They should have nothing to fear from the truth.

I am also more convinced than ever of the value of free and open debate on these matters. I have said this before; if all sides are permitted to speak in an open forum, the truth will become apparent. The truth always wins out in the end. That Local Church members refuse to engage in open debate is telling. They insist that they are just a simple group of Christians who seek to serve the Lord in a simple absolute manner. They insist that they do not engage in unethical practices or authoritarian control of members. If they really believe that, they should have nothing to fear from debate with those who disagree.

I welcome comment on anything I have said. I can be reached at instatrans@earthlink.net

Anonymous Wrote on 5/28/01
Dear Jim,

Please advise me as to where I can go or whom I can contact to get information to help someone who is a practicing local church member. I almost got engaged to someone who I met at "my church", a ... church, however I found out that his church is the "local church". Apparently there is no "local church" in my "locality" therefore he attended my church only as a last resort. We recently traveled to ... to shop ... and "his church" happened to be having a conference that weekend. I was actually looking forward to attending the conference and learning what it was that cause this man to "love and miss" his church the way that he did. I was not at all prepared for what I would encounter and my life has been changed since. Our relationship has hit a brick wall because he makes clear that if he lives in a city where there is a "local church" he will attend it without question. I on the other hand have vowed NEVER to attend it again because I believe that it is not of God. During the service that I attended I felt as though the Holy Spirit was very clear in telling me that I should get up and leave immediately. I actually felt physically ill sitting in their meeting hall. I began to cry and to shake and I had no idea why!!! I truly am in love with this man and I know that he is a Christian however I feel the need to help him understand why the local church is missing the mark. I don't know what to do or how to do it, that is why I need your help. Any assistance or advice that you could offer me I would greatly appreciate. At very least, please pray for me, for him, and for this situation. Thank you so much for taking the time to maintain this website. You are truly helping people. May God bless you!...

In Christ,
Name Withheld

Anonymous Responds to "E. B. Will"
Posted 10/27/00
Dear Jim,

i am the anon who responded previously to will's piece...

actually it can be said that the LC/LSM does indeed teach heresy. this can be found in their teaching on man becoming God which is not based on Scriptures but on the thesis by Athanasius titled "De Incartione". Kerry Robichaux, a salaried employee of LSM, admitted that the apostles did NOT teach this in his article titled: "That We Might Be Made God". Even his title for his article was lifted out of context from Athanasius' piece. but to me this seems to be one of many issues within the larger issue. the larger issue being that those in the LSM movement hold lee's teaching as being infallible and incorruptible. once a group believes this to be true anything can be said from this 'oracle' which for all intent and purposes has been elevated to an equal or higher status than that of Scripture. this of course is adopted from the Roman Catholic concept that whatever the pope speaks [not the pope himself] is infallible. once this delusion is dismissed for the drivel that it is an object analysis can commence. in the case of the LSM movement all such analysis is completely discouraged and those who engage in it are discredited and many have been "excommunicated". (quarantined, preferred team by Leeites - Troy) this is reminiscent of Roman Catholic antics in medieval Europe. that the LSM has borrowed a few pages out of the Roman Catholic play book is clearly evident to any one who has studied how they think and subsequently operate.

in fact, how they have treated jim moran and his attempt at studying their movement is an obvious case in point. either they believe that lee's teaching is infallible or, that it is fallible. if they believe it is infallible let them openly and clearly admit it. if, on the other hand, they believe it is fallible let them admit this and let their current leadership publicly announce some things that they disagree with in lee's teaching. this is a completely reasonable request. either admittance would display a level of intellectual and spiritual credibility that heretofore has been notably absent and i would suggest is the root of much confusion and controversy surrounding this group.

if they believe it is infallible then we can readily determine that they have missed the whole point of the Reformation and are simply trying to bring people into a kind of neo Roman Catholicism with lee's teachings serving as a paper pope. if they believe it is fallible we can then ask the question: what is their problem with people engaging in objective analysis of lee's teachings and the practices that have ensued from them? surely if it is indeed fallible they cannot expect anyone to blindly adopt in a wholesale manner whatever lee happened to teach and advocate. surely if it is fallible they can fully expect others to openly critique it without feeling threatened by such critique. let them come forward and make this matter clear instead of trying to squelch fellow Christians by using lawsuits and the like to keep them quiet. (This will never happen because LSM-LC adherents are mostly not saved already, and they never had the Holy Spirit to realize what they were doing wrong, so they do not have the same set of standards as normal Christians, at least not until they come to Christ by leaving LSM. God will see such as an act that flows from faith as a belief in Him - Troy).

Anonymous Responds to Steve Clark
Posted 5/28/01

When confronted with Lee's extremely flawed teaching on deification over six years ago, I expressed grave concerns to elders and co-workers. However, there was no avenue or way to deal with this issue. Any attempt to do so was questioned as divisive and leprous. Rather than appealing to scripture, I was told to "trust" the ministry and maintain the oneness.

Unfortunately, this is all due to a view on church government and a hierarchy which exposes members to discipline but immunizes elders and LSM officials from accountability. This lack of accountability, is pervasive throughout the organization, has led to terrible problems in the past, and will inevitably lead to problems in the future.

Many of the teachings in the LC are like the Emperor's clothes. Many know they are faulty or erroneous, but no one wants to be ridiculed for exposing them.

I. M. Free

"Anonymous" - Former Member
Posted 11/2/96

I recently received a copy of "The Stream", Volume 16, Number 1, June, 1996, a small magazine published by Witness Lee's Living Stream Ministry. The following paragraph appeared on page 4.

"In the New Testament God came to regenerate man with Himself as life. John 1:12 says, 'But as many as received Him, to them He gave the authority to become children of God, to those who believe into His name.' When we become children of God, we have God's life and nature. Since goats beget goats and cows beget cows, surely God begets gods. If cows begot cows and goats begot goats yet God begot human beings, this would indeed be something strange. That which is begotten must be the same as its begetter. There is no such thing as a cow giving birth to a donkey or a goat giving birth to a dog. God's heart's intent is to make us the same as He is that we may be exactly like Him not only in the inward image and the outward likeness but also in His life and nature. We the regenerated people of God have the life of God and also the nature of God. This is really precious."

To my observation, this is at best an unfortunate interpretation of scripture. At worst, it's heracy. Yet, it's another example of the aberrant nature of some of Witness Lee's teachings.

The birth of cows and goats can hardly be compared to the mystery of spiritual rebirth. As I recall from Genesis 1, man's body was formed of the dust of the ground, not physically born of God. The only way I can see for Witness Lee's analogy to hold up would be for the man Jesus to marry a human female and procreate, thus producing "children of God." Ridiculous!

What does "only begotten Son" mean, anyway? Doesn't that mean He begat ONLY ONE? We became His children by being born of the Holy Spirit.

In the last year, I asked a local church member to show me a verse in the Bible that says "man becomes god". Of course, he told me, there is no verse with that wording. My question was then, and is now, "How can you say 'man becomes god' if the Bible doesn't say it? Where do you get the authority to teach those words as scripture?" To take it one step further, if indeed "man becomes god" or "God begets gods" why doesn't the Bible say it? Why aren't the words there?

"By grace are ye saved through faith" is THERE. It's a profound spiritual truth set forth in black and white. The Bible says it, so we can say it. Better yet, we can QUOTE it! If it wasn't there, we couldn't say it. The Bible is complete in itself. We don't need to reach for words. We teach the words which are already written down.

The words Triune and Trinity aren't in the Bible. However, the Father, Son and Spirit are there. That's how we know God is three yet one or triune. Do we rely on the words "triune" or "trinity"? Only for convenience. Can we get rid of the words "triune" and/or "trinity". I think so. The truth of the existence of the Father, Son and Spirit would not be hindered in any way.

Is truth clarified or hindered by Witness Lee saying "God begets gods?" He's saying that "to them He gave the authority to become children of God" means the same thing as "God begets gods." "Authority to become" doesn't mean "beget". It's an aberrant teaching, if not heretical. (no, it is heretical, you were right the first time, listen to your spirit's intuition and conscience - Troy).

The words in the Bible have survived for 2000 years of attempts by God's enemy to hide, destroy, bury, burn and otherwise suppress the truth contained therein. I think that these words are good enough to sustain me and my walk with the Lord.

Indeed, why do I need to be a god? Didn't God do enough for his children? Someone Whose nature is Love went the distance for me; to the extent of the death of His ONLY BEGOTTEN SON, even death on a cross, that I might live a life with Him as His beloved, chosen and precious child. Why do I need to be a god? What do gods do that children don't do? What do gods have that children don't have?

If I'm wrong, my stand is still the Word of God. If Witness Lee's teaching is wrong, on what does he stand? His own words. If he's wrong, he's in heracy. This teaching isn't worth the risk.

I was in the local church for 15 years and have spent a lot of time in the last 5 years measuring local church teachings. I needed to be sure of the ones that are worth the risk, because they're scriptural, and the ones that are not worth the risk, because they aren't in the Bible. This teaching doesn't measure up.

10/21/96
Name Withheld

Brent Barber - Former Member
Posted 11/16/96

First I would like to offer a paradigm of social dynamics as they operate in the LC. The psychology of the member is shaped by the political structure. That is to say, the political defines the personal - an inversion of today's "identity politics." As in other fascist political regimes, a collective group-based identity is imposed and adopted through a clever maze of ideological self-dispossession. In order to achieve this, the independent individuality of the member must be deconstructed. This is done in many ways on many levels.

The most fundamental strategy is to undermine familial and social loyalties. This goes to the heart of your question about marriage and relationships. In the LC, one was persuaded that to be "absolute" and fully consecrated to Jesus, it was necessary to offer up as a sacrifice your most cherished and valuable heart treasures. Thus, it was desirable to publicly denounce friendships and even a spouse as mere "refuse" which must be counted loss in order to gain the Lord. Hereby, the essential bond between family and friends is severed in a cultic dedication, presumably to God.

In this state of isolation, the member is attached dogmatically and religiously to the supreme cult leader. He has replaced the social support mechanisms and essentially determines your own personality, attitudes and beliefs. A good historical example of this phenomena is Mao's China during the 50's : A highly conformative, deeply regimented, militant society dedicated to its dictatorship. It was this form of collaborative self-sabotage that enables fascism to thrive.

On a personal level, I would have to conclude that the most succinct thing that could be said about relationships within the LC was that they were cold. The deep and tragic irony was that everything had been sacrificed in order to attain a mystic "oneness" (read : homogony), yet this very social structure isolated and alienated each member from one another in its centrifugal and centripetal power scheme. Simply, everyone becomes other-directed in a mass form of mental surrender to a central leader. Therefore all other relationships were subjugated, tertiary and relegated to the periphery of social consciousness. If another member or spouse threatened that bond of total commitment, they could, and were, jettisoned like so much flotsam.

Thus it was not possible to form a close relationship with anyone since the turnover rate required that no emotional attachments be made. Since we were instructed to consider all former and non-members as defiled corpses which must be avoided (a perverse take on the vow of the Nazarite), one had to develop a stoic cauterized interpersonal style, not unlike what some describe growing up in multiple army bases. Indeed, perhaps a clue to the movement is its military organization. Similar to pledges sworn by those in the service, duty is demanded before all else. Thus, a cold prescriptive military determinism shackles and imprisons all other aspirations, dreams, loves and interests. A perfect marriage or friendship was one "given" over to the LC. That translated into no marriage or friendship, or merely the artificial form of one, whose core devotion had been supplanted by an ideological slavery.

I did witness a few individuals who were able to juggle a life outside the LC along with membership. These were never accepted into the inner circle of fellowship and were considered "lukewarm, worldly" and peripheral. Once again, it is a highly conformative fascist cult. You may feel I am being hyperbolic in these statements, but they are quite accurate. I spent my childhood and young adult life fully deceived by this man and his movement. I know of which I speak. There is an imperative in the LC cult literature that the "church life" BECOME your "daily life." That is, there must, finally, be no personal life apart from the "church" life. The political becomes the personal and all distinctions are obliterated.

This is the key to understanding the LC. An artificial ideological fantasy of "the church" has replaced reality, and the member mentality imposes the doctrinal assumptions of exclusivity and corporate divinity over any disturbing human indicators which scream otherwise. This plastic world-view is inserted into the FAITH of the member, until loyalty to Lee and his group BECOME the member's faith. As Lee supplants Jesus and the member's ability to have an unmediated relationship with Him, he imposes dogmatic prescriptions as a form of old testament law, placing the member in fresh bondage and attempting to crucify the Lord anew.

Any address of these doctrinal positions with anything less than obsequious praise is, of course, considered an attack upon their "faith." Indeed, the very notion of faith has been subverted until Rom. 14:22 [You may have the faith to believe that there is nothing wrong with what you are doing, but keep it between yourself and God. Blessed are those who do not condemn themselves by doing something they know is all right.] becomes an alien concept. ("The faith which thou hast, have to thyself before God.") To challenge the LC world view (esp. their unquestioned master, Lee) is an assault upon their "faith." The mutation and redefinition of faith is one of the most peculiar, unexplored dimensions of LC "thought." This is not a faith built upon a rock. The shifting sands of Lee's doctrinal playground require daily readjustment. This is primarily executed as a subtle, and not-so-subtle form of a loyalty test. Lee's doctrines are highly fluid and in constant flux to keep the confused member in a disoriented airborne state, kept aloft with windy doctrines. The centrality of the leader and the movement itself within their faith renders that "faith" quite unscriptural as PART of their "Christian" faith is to assert the primacy of Lee and themselves, as embodied in the CORPORATE identity of the group - which they believe to be part of Christ, effectively deifying themselves.

That is: it is part of membership to regard Lee himself as THE oracle of God and sole possessor of God's authority on earth. Secondly, the members have bought into a clever, perhaps unwitting, form of self-worship by proclaiming their movement to be the only legitimate Christian group and claiming to LITERALLY be the body of Christ (exclusively). Although their doctrinal beliefs are crafted on a weekly basis depending upon the whims and moods of their supreme leader, they will never retreat from the position of ultimate spiritual conceit where they, and THEY ALONE, possess all Truth, capital T. The writings of Lee, where he rambles endlessly, and heretically, about fanciful speculative analogies using the long debunked analytical method of typology, are titled : "Truth messages." Read George Orwells "1984" for a glimpse of this world. Or perhaps a few archived issues of "Pravda" in the hey day of the cold war.

The definition of LC dedication, absolute consecration is spiritually criminal in the way it robs members of their humanity and instructs them to treat their family members as political units of the larger cult. My dad was a major player in the LC and helped found it in this country in the early 60's. Despite what some current members have asserted on this site [Jim Moran's old site, now passed away], my descriptions are quite accurate. I only hope that my words can in some small way compensate for the cultic slavery my dad helped unleash.

Another critical question I would pose to any current member is where he locates the cult leader, Lee, within his faith. Does he occupy a Pope-like position? (answer : yes). This too is critical to understanding the group. Lee has fully replaced, usurped and subverted the position of God in the faith of the members. He has effectively become their god. Believe me when I say it is a man-worship cult.

It is also useful to consider the cultural element in this mix. In fact, the group IS a Chinese group. Indeed, they comprise the majority of membership since the "white flight" that occurred in the late 80's (ask me about this if you are interested). Lee's entire philosophy/theology is firmly based in his Chinese world view. I would not characterize it euphemistically as "oriental." That implies precisely the beautifully balanced mystery of yin/yang [This is not so beautiful as you might think. The idea of balance in all things can be misleading because sometimes God will call for being out of balance so that we see that it is not balance as a guiding principle but the Holy Spirit's leading of God's Will in our spirit that so moves us. God will often call for extreme measures because the natural man has taken over so greatly leaving the spirit of man virtually nullified in communing with God. Ying yang is just another one of man's theories attempting to worship God with their own strength. To understand this interaction in the spirit of wisdom and revelation in the Bible, consider reading Watchman Nee's chapter on "Communion" in The Spiritual Man, CFP- Troy] and other synthesizing and appealing aspects of Eastern thought. Chinese tradition, however, is pathologically patriarchal and constrictive. Just look at "modern" China today. Indeed, Lee has woven communist and Chinese thought all through his "theology" - not in the theoretically attractive sense of the universal good, but in the sense of totalitarian authoritarianism and wholesale conformity. He has also incorporated a highly misogynistic perception of women.

You may feel that Lee's writings allow for other interpretations. However, he is typically all over the map on many issues in the abstract doctrinal sense. He does perform a sort of brilliant "doublespeak" (Orwell again) where he often pre-empts every imaginable form of criticism by deliberately saying the exact opposite of what is actually practiced. I stated elsewhere that a good example of this is the LC position of "clergy-latiy." Early on Lee rhetorically opposed clergy-laity with a vengeance. Yet no one seemed to notice, or were willing to admit, that the LC practices the most rigid hierarchical clergy-laity power structure on the planet. Yet Lee had diffused the charge by RHETORICALLY rejecting the concept over years. In this sense he exploits the dualism of eastern thought with a western genius. He comes out against something and then enforces its practice. Americans do not expect this kind of dissembling and simply pay more attention to stated doctrine than reality. Quite clever.

Finally, Lee has essentially inserted the Chinese culture into the Christian faith. Of course this is not done transparently. This is what makes a full comprehension of the LC exceedingly difficult. Everything is done through a glass darkly, yet deliberately and deceptively. What I mean when I say that Lee has made his version of the faith Chinese is that the defacto default spiritual qualities and cultural affinities that he promotes as from the Holy Spirit are actually from Bejiing! I could go on for pages about the countless examples where he demonstrates bottomless contempt for the American culture and quietly replaces the Western notions of Individualisim, free thought, liberty and self-determinism with his entrenched Chinese notions of collectivism, homogony of identity, wholesale conformity, unity of thought (read : no thought), group chanting, prescriptive fashion, attitude, regard for authority, etc.. And he promotes these cultural straightjackets on the human spirit and mind as Christian!

I wonder if he has fully researched the individualism and self-initiative that is seen in the Bible and Jewish history. Check out Abraham, Jacob, Moses, David, Sampson and indeed ALL the prophets. In the New Testament Paul demonstrates such a maverick individualism (Gal. 1-2) that it boggles the imagination. Paul also said to emulate and imitate him.

Although my experience in Lee's cult left me with a distaste for all things religious, I am still a Christian and fervently believe all things work together for good for those who love God and are called according to his purpose. I know there was a purpose to my tenure in the LC and my experience served to provide a useful perspective on false teachers, fanaticism gone amuck, cultural genocide, and especially the manipulatibility of Christians who do not ferocioulsy guard their faith from appropriation.

God bless and may he liberate all lost Christians from the grip of Lee's man-worship cult and free their faith from his tyranny.

Brent Barber
11/15/96
E-Mail: brentb@theglobe.com

Brent Barber - Former Member
Posted 3/28/97

For the wrath of God is revealed from heaven against all ungodliness and unrighteousness of men, who hinder the truth in unrighteousness; because that, knowing God, they glorified him not as God, neither gave thanks; but became vain in their reasonings, and their senseless heart was darkened. Professing themselves to be wise, they became fools, and changed the glory of the incorruptible God for that of corruptible man (Rom 1: 18-21).

I am the Way the Truth and the Life. Jesus Christ

Ye shall know the truth and the truth shall set you free.

All illegitimate spiritual power is achieved through the dislocation of the residence of "truth." (As Rom 2 instructs "obedience to truth and faith.") In all "Christian" cults, the concept of truth, the church, and all things related to the kingdom of God are isolated, contained and solely represented by a man and his movement. Once this spiritual identity is firmly established, the power of the Word of God is misused to terrifying effect. Now every warning mentioned in the Bible against the rebellious and the disobedient is directly applied specifically to membership status. This philosophical appropriation errantly locates the authority of God in the exclusive dominion of of the sect.

The false transposition of God's misplaced authority grants the movement the entire weight of scripture in the mind of the member. Every mention of judgment is, ironically, applied extraneously so as to assume the cloak of the legitimate church standing firm against the fire storm of opposition. Members read their revised new testament wearing these conceptual spectacles, perceiving themselves situated inside the center of holiness; interpreting all dispensation of authority and blessing as exclusively and rightfully theirs alone.

It is relatively easy to frighten a typically scripturally illiterate Christian with fear verses if he is not sufficiently grounded in the faith. A form of Catholic purgatory is utilized to chilling effect - where all dissent and mental opposition is viewed as grounds for exclusion from the millennial wedding feast [this is misusing what partial rapture is; partial rapture is not purgatory, nor is it a weapon, but God's working in end-times. It should not be used as a hammer to hit someone over the head with - Troy Brooks]. All energies are directed at securing a seat in this private kingdom. Grace is completely lost; casually discarded under this theology [it is interesting to note that someone can have the right theology but misuse it in false locality not the way God desires - Troy]. Since devotion to the cause of the movement has been entirely equated with all scriptural injunctions and commandments, the slightest deviation from fanatical commitment is seen as a deviation from faith itself. This simple object transfer has converted and isolated all of God and his purposes into the particulars of a man's following. "Trainings" and other indoctrination sessions will ceaselessly attempt to implant this basic ideological shift.

The identification of the movement as the object and culmination of "Gods eternal purpose" permanently alters the conceptual landscape of the member. Every Biblical reference is now invoked with full authority and dissent is located with the "murmurings of Miriam" - along with the requisite punishment of spiritual leprosy. As this fundamental theological larceny appropriates the authority and imprimatur of God, the confused member is left without the slightest recourse. His/her life is virtually ruled by fear - as failure to comply with the most fanatical elements of group hazing is now identified with disobedience to God.

No ministry or group can mortar the earth beneath you! It will shift and slide toward Gomorrah unless it has been secured against the flood with a ROCK. Man's ministries are mere huts of grass and straw, easily flattened with the first good gust! Blow Lord blow! He shall consume the wood hay and stubble ministries with the breath of his mouth. As it is written : NO MAN can lay a foundation other than that which is laid; Jesus Christ.

The elevation of a man's ministry to the status and power of the word of God fulfills the warning in Rev. 22 of adding to the scripture. The men who teach that their utterances somehow constitute a revelation of the Holy Spirit are in danger of having their names blotted from the book of life, if indeed they were originally there. Once elevated to this status by direct suggestion, the insecure member fully equates the errant ramblings of blind leaders with the authority of God himself.

They fear to question the "ministry" of these men due to the misplacement of their faith. Having left Jesus, they follow the dictates of their chosen leader. In their minds, the words of their earthly master constitute the speaking of the Lord. To reject or resist the speaking of these men amounts to a rejection of God himself. It is this primary substitution which accounts for the keeping fear of Lee's cult.

As the Lord said to Job : "Gird up thy loins like a man; I will demand of thee; and inform thou me!" We will all stand before the Judgment seat alone - no group or ministry will help us then. Our faith is directed at God. No man should ever get "in the loop" of faith. There is only one mediator between man and God, the man Jesus Christ. If you allow someone to perform as a conceptual mediator, you have given the preeminence of scripture away. Like Esau despised his birthright, those who follow after other men toss away God's most precious gift to them.

Organizing Principle: Teachings of Lee

The definition of the LC by its members is, of course, provided by the "ministry," a proxy for Lee himself. They claim to be the practical expression of the Church and the Body of Christ in any given city because they observe the semantic designation of that city as their name. This silly device is insisted to grant the exclusive authority of the Church of Jesus upon those who "take the ground" of oneness. Naturally no scriptural evidence can be given to support these claims [modern day cities are larger than true biblical locality - Troy Brooks]. The geographical nomenclature assigned to "churches" (assemblies) in the New Testament is never suggested as a theological position by Paul. It is absurd to construct a spiritual castle on such a straw foundation. Yet using this linguistic device, one is taught to believe that all power upon heaven and earth is delivered into the hands of those clever enough to employ it.

The self-justification of LC legitimacy is explained as "the ground of oneness." This refers to the fact that the group has assumed the form of a homogeneous herd. Of course it is plain to any objective observer that the "ground of oneness" is a euphemism for conformity. Forced unity does not oneness make. This ruse of form over substance and every other device employed in the defense of LC credibility are all derivations of the teachings of the man, Lee. No proof of scripture is required [indeed a proof is provided, but it is a misusing of the Scriptures, rendering it a false so-called proof - Troy Brooks].

These positions of alleged non-denominationalism and "oneness" are simple philosophical constructs and bear little relation to reality [in fact, false locality is a denomination based on false locality, among other doctrinal problems - Troy Brooks]. Indeed the whole LC endeavor consists of affirming the fictional theological postulates of their leader in a vacuum. The truth of the scripture becomes irrelevant as the mind tethered to Lee is rendered incapable of its own judgment or insight.

Thus regardless what excuse is given for the LC, it remains, and always will be, the simple extension of one man, his mind, his teachings, his will, and indeed himself. The church of Lee indeed.

"Ye have an anointing from the Holy One and need not that ANY MAN TEACH YOU." If a Christian has a problem fully comprehending and applying the truth of this verse, his faith has been damaged and compromised to include the respect of persons - of which God says he has NONE.

In the LC, the Word of God has been reduced to God's breath. The intelligence of Gods mind expressed through the deep wisdom of his Word is converted to a non-sentient objectified commodity which must be acquired. This reduces the relationship of the believer with the Word and God himself to a mechanical process. Under these doctrinal assumptions, both the believer and God have lost intelligence. The entire scope of the Christian existence is described as a series of ingestion and inhalation rites, stripping the meaning and purpose to that existence. Man's heart and mind are rendered irrelevant in this consumption-based Christianity. Dialogue and conversation with God which require understanding and mutuality of mind is replaced with a primitive materialism where both God and man have been reduced to matter without mind. Ultimately this philosophical construct instructs the metaphysical supremacy of matter over mind [annihilation and inhalation rites in false locality can do that to a person; it is a denominational problem as well as a legalism - Troy]

The Spirit of Man

Man is a whole entity - just like God. He cannot be dissected into disparate dissected parts, each understood in isolation. [this is true, you are not just spirit, nor are you just soulical - Troy Brooks] Obviously the components of man; his heart, mind, spirit, will, emotion, conscience and body all function together synergistically as a whole. It is preposterous and absurd, not to mention unscriptural, to imagine the voluntary deliberate location of one's entire person in the singular misdefined feature of man, his spirit [we are not just spirit, for angels are spirits. We also have a soul and a body, each of our parts well defined, spirit as our inner man, soul and body as our outer man - Troy]. It is like imagining the relocation of an entire watermelon into one of its seeds - patently ridiculous [I could imagine the Leeists legalizing man's tripartite nature as they do other things - Troy]

The doctrine of the "human" spirit is discredited with common sense. Nowhere in the Bible can any concept of "turning" the spirit be found. Nowhere is mentioned the soul-destroying imperative to squeeze the consciousness and awareness into a fantasy location "out of" the mind, emotion and will. [Watchman Nee made a wonderful statement in The Spiritual Man, CFP, where he mentioned that we can be too much in our spirit for it is merely the organ for God's dwelling. I would have to agree - Troy - note to self: get that quote] The verse most used to justify this bizarre belief reads : "exercise thy SELF unto Godliness." Yet Lee's teachings errantly insist upon an "exercise of the spirit," a concept alien to scripture.

By rejecting the soul, one rejects oneself. Through the philosophical deconstruction of mental capacity and emotional and volitional reliability, one is left stripped of person hood and naked in the hands of the doctrine-maker who defined you thus.

The doctrine of the "human" spirit is the fundamental doctrinal dislocation device. It is here that all is lost. Under this teaching, the mind, the heart, and the soul are rendered corrupt and unable to contact God. Absurdly, the sphere of fellowship with God is located exclusively in this spirit (again contrary to sound doctrine) [I will have to say that Terry Fisher happens to be wrong in this matter since God does not dwell in the soul of man but in the spirit of the man as God is spirit. He never dwells in the man's soul, that area though Satan does work upon - Troy]. Obviously man is a whole entity who operates synergistically with his every internal component. The doctrine of tripartite man repudiates this truth with a dissected reductionism, eliminating the active function and God-required use of the mind and heart [no, not at all, since the soul is in full use but now no longer does it live after itself but is led through the spirit of the man as His guiding person wherein the man communes with God through the Spirit's movements therein. Then the spirit communicates to the soul what the spirit has learned. The mind of the soul understands and remembers what the spirit has known. Recommended reading - The Spiritual Man by Watchman Nee to get this matter right in your heart. Treat your soul as your steward, your spirit as the mistress and your body like a servant. Let us not make the mistake of the fallen bipartite man - Troy].

Consciousness and awareness is animated by the spirit. It is error to reverse this order and suggest a turn inward to the spirit. [this is true, God never asked us to be so introspective in our soul so we do not turn inward, yet we do seek guidance from our inner man and not live solely in our outer man. Consciousness and awareness occur on three plains: God-consciousness in our spirit, self-consciousness of our soul and world-consciousness through our body - Troy]. The list of man's components described by Jesus to love God (heart, mind, soul, and strength) are limited to these. (Why didn't He list the spirit?) [God did not list the spirit because the spirit does not have a will, but our strength is derived from our spirit. Our spirit has the functions of intuition, communion and conscience wherein we may directly have communication with God - Troy] To grant a preeminence to the spirit of man is to lose control of the spirit (explicitly warned against in Proverbs). [No verse cited so we may disregard any suggestion here about Proverbs. We are not mind readers. To grant preeminence to the spirit of man as our guiding principle is to walk after the spirit, not to live outwardly in a rampage of the soul, but live in a quickened spirit, to not live by the selfish wants and needs of the soul, but by what God communicates and His leading therein our spirit to do His will in the world. This is life - Troy]. This results in a mindless spirit slavery, contrary to the good teachings of the scripture. [No. It is blasphemy to not allow God build up your spirit and strengthen you at your center. Remember what was said above about mistress, steward and servant. What Brent Barber is really saying here is that he wants to communicate with God in his flesh (the outer man, even self of the soul and sin of the body) and not his spirit. This is the thought of the fallen bipartite man for he has no means of distinguishing between was is of his spirit and what is of his soul since he makes no distinction, thus causing him to be confused and a slave to that confusion, contrary to the good teaching of the Scriptures (Heb. 4.12, 1 Thess. 5.23) - Troy].

The theological schematic works like this; the Spirit of God has been, under Lee's philosophy, modalistically converted (in time, despite the Word revealing the Lamb of God "slain before the foundation of the earth") into the "all-inclusive" Spirit of Christ which has been mutated and "processed" (like cheese food product) through the human life, death, and resurrection of Jesus. Now all the ingredients of God are in this spirit soup. One must never have love or faith on your own. It is necessary, under this scheme, to locate oneself inside one's spirit [I don't know what Witness Lee teaches about this, but the self is of the soul, as mentioned above, is not in the spirit, for the spirit functions more directly and convincingly; it will just know and is not a place of self-awareness but God-awareness - Troy] where he will find the spirit soup of the "all-inclusive" Christ which provides all the subsidiary aspects, attributes and ingredients of the Lord [the teaching of the all-inclusive Christ is indeed false, because it is modalistically derived and processed and with such all inclusion it will necessarily confuse the Father with the Son or the Spirit with the Father - Troy].

This internal loop is the hangup which keeps Christians imprisoned in Lee's cult. They have learned to accept the tripartite definition of themselves and thus eschew any confidence or trust in their own thought process or feelings [rather, surmise the deceptions that occur are in placing too much confidence in the soul in not being so humble. We are capable of making mistakes. Even our spirit can err. We can have an erring spirit. For example, we can have a spirit of dissension. Not realizing this exalts the soul above the spirit remaining in dissension, and smothers the spirit, blocking its communication from God in the intuitive sensing therein by desensitizing it with the soulish rationalizations. Indeed our soul's apportioned functions should be used legitimately, but not to the point where you can't even break open the shell that gets created but shutting off your spirit life. Maintain that open line of communication letting your soul aid your spirit, and your spirit express God's desires towards your renewed reasoning, desires and choices. We are not merely rationalizing, emotionally, self-willed, we also have a spirit - Troy] Those internal registrations, and indeed the conviction of the Lord, are dismissed in a frenetic, frenzied "turn" to the spirit, accomplished through charismatic chanting and other forms of mental disengagement. [This mistake can be made if you misread your inner man's directions (this is why you need to let God strengthen your spirit and renew your conscience), and no doubt the Leeist club does make this mistake as we can see in their outward fruit inappropriate behavior and some bad theology. This error also especially in the man of a bipartite view is problematic in that he has no working ability to know what is of his soul or his spirit mixing them together in confusion. He may have a thought that is not right, but he considers it coming from his spirit when it was derived from the functions of his soul. A tripartite man, who has the ability to know this mistake will recognize it more readily that he has made a rationalization, and knows that his spirit has been suppressed. What is he to do? He immediately prays with the Lord and consults the Word that is able to quicken his spirit so that a change of mind can occur. The bipartite man knows not of this distinction where the problem occurs in his being. In other words, he continues to work with more rationalizations to solve the problem, rather than allowing his spirit to be reached by focusing on his spirit, exercising his spirit and seeing that his conscience and intuition are what are lacking unable to commune with God to receive deliverance. Man loves his mind so much even the Christian mind, that it just because a bunch of principles and no life when claiming to be communing with God. The worse thing we can do is worship God with our minds and not our spirit. That is a great tragedy - Troy]

Whereas Jesus explicitly prayed to the "Father who art in heaven," lifting his eyes toward the sky, the lie of the "human" spirit doctrine locates the entire trinity inside man's own spirit, where He exists in exclusive spirit form. [Brent Barber is right we should pray to the Father in heaven, not to the spirit, but he has erred in combining the all-inclusive Christ principle which is Lee's alone with that of tripartite man having a spirit, soul and a body. In other words, the human spirit does not locate the entire Trinity inside man's own spirit, just the Holy Spirit, where God does indeed exist there in spirit form. That is why He is the Holy Spirit. The Spirit is spirit. The spirit does not locate Himself in the flesh, but in spirit. To repeat, the all-inclusive Christ is too modalistic for my tastes since it is derived from the idea that God is a "three-fold Person" (Witness Lee's own words) and Christ is just a fold of the Person Godhead. This degrades God down to a person, and it also makes Christ without distinction from the Father and the Spirit as just a modalized fold. The reason Christ now lives in me is not because the 2nd Person is in me, but the life of Christ is in me by His Spirit. Jesus is with the Father at His right hand in Heaven.] This belief fails the test of the spirits which requires a profession that Jesus Christ is come in the FLESH. Neither can a Christian have an honest dialogue with his God under this philosophy. He is rendered mute, able only to practice a methodological repetitive ritual process of pray-chanting, vain calling, turning inward away from reason, and voluntary subjugation to the spiritual dominion of false teachers. [Modalism will mess you up, but the reason why these problems mentioned here in Leeism do occur is not because of our being tripartite. The fact that we have a spirit, soul and body is not the problem. It has to do with the false teaching of the all-inclusive Christ modalism and man-worship both false concepts, yet for some reason man needs to cling to men or what they consider special truths, but God never said they were. It is because his spirit has not been quickened that he holds to the all-inclusive modalistic Christ or bipartite man having no consideration he has both an outer man, which functions differently, from his inner man's knowing].

Don't take my word for it - look up every instance of heart, mind and spirit in the Bible and see for yourself. It is easy to construct a philosophy of pneuma-centrism in the thin air of theological speculation. It is impossible to support these doctrines with biblical proof. [Pneuma is defined as "The soul or vital spirit". Pneuma and Pneuma-centrism is confusing the soul and the spirit and focusing on the self and the confusing of the spirit and the soul, the very thing Brent Barber has done here, and veiled it with the false teaching of the modalistic all-inclusive Christ. As sneaky as the Leeists are I find this action by Barber to be even sneakier. But he knows not what he does. Man is so conniving in his reasoning. There is no speculation that you have a spirit, soul and a body. God clearly divides the spirit, soul and body. 1 Thess. 5.23, Heb. 4.12. An exhaustive study on this very intricate working of God in our spirit and communicating what our spirit receives from God to our soul is fully proven (read at least the first three chapters for the proof). Let us not throw the baby out with the bath water by accurately identifying the error in the all-inclusive Christ. Our baby is God's desire to strengthen your spiritual life.]
 

Pneuma-Centrism [(soul and spirit confusion, self-centeredness]

Lee instructs the Christian to submit to his own spirit, a form of spirit slavery. [No, it is not slavery. It is essential in Christian life to seeking that guiding of the Holy Spirit in your spirit for you are not merely reason, emotion and will alone.] "The spirit of man is the Lamp of Jehovah." This describes its function as an illuminator of man's mind and heart [No. This is not an illuminator of mind and heart since mind and heart are the problem and in order to illuminate the mind the spirit must first be the working place from which Jehovah can bring in light. We sin in our mind and our hearts and even err in spirit, but in order for the outer man to be reached there has to be a real change in our spirit. God works from inner to outer, not outer to inner. Satan works from outer to inner. What God is saying here in this verse is that spirit of man is the Lamp of Jehovah. It is not the holy place, but the holy of holies, whereas the body is liken to the outer court]. It is in the mind and heart that man contacts God, quite contrary to what Lee insists. [No. We do not make contact in our outer man, this is a fallen teaching and needs to die on the cross. God always communicates his life to the spirit first, never to our soul]. The light of God shines upon our mind and heart as we give him place in our minds and hearts! [through the Spirit in our spirit first] We do not act upon our spirit. [Yes we do] I challenge anyone to show one verse where it is articulated that man locates himself exclusively in his spirit, "exercises" or "turns" to his spirit. [I can't find a verse such as this since man is not exclusively in his spirit; remember, man is spirit, soul and body, not just spirit (Heb. 4.12, 1 Thess. 5.23)]. Lee's philosophical schematic classifies the parts of man, save his spirit, as fallen and corrupt. [If Lee believes this, then Lee is in error since the spirit is fallen also, in fact it is where the evil spirit resided when man was unregenerated. This is why the spirit needs to be quickened and we are given a new spirit]. While the scripture indeed says that man's heart is incurably wicked, it also clearly teaches that the HEART turns to the Lord. The first commandment is also to love the Lord thy God with ALL thy heart and mind and soul and strength. The spirit is not mentioned. [The strength of a man is in his spirit, so the soul turns to God by the strenght of man's spirit. The real strength of man is in his spirit, not his soul. Gifts of the soul pass away but the spirit's strength remains. Man can undergo many testing things and have his soul diminished in its abilities, but the spirit can endure and remain strengthened in Christ. Fallen man loves his mind so much, he is always attempting to exalt the soul life even after he is saved. That is why their is carnal and spiritual Christians.] How can you love the Lord your God with your whole person in this manner when you have allowed yourself to be carved up? [There is no carving knowing what is of your spirit and what is of your soul. Carving is done in the flesh, a worldly understanding of our inner and outer man. It is the lack of faith in God's ability to dividing your spirit, soul and body, cutting even to joints and marrow holding the bipartite view that gets a person into real trouble mistaking what is of his spirit for his soul. A good example of this is being so convinced in something, lacking the humility to realize that it came from self of the soul and not from the spirit's leading and God's will therein. One who realizes no distinction from spirit life and soul life and how each functions is to continue to put on a veil over his understanding letting the glory of God not shine within. Too much emphasis is too often placed on man's abilities when those very abilities are not being used to glorify God.]

The spirit of man is his servant. [No. The body is the servant. The spirit is the mistress. This more accurately portrays the human condition] Lee has made it his master. [Actually no, Lee has made his emotion of his soul his master, and since Witness Lee was unregenerated the reason his emotion became the master is because his spirit still had the indwelling of the evil spirit.] The Bible instructs us to control our spirit (Proverbs) and Paul states that the spirit of a prophet is subject to the prophet. [this is why the soul is the steward, for a soul knows what is in his inner man and should keep in check his spirit so that it it is always flowing. I can not know fully what is going on in another man's spirit since spirit of a prophet is subject to the prophet.] Yet Lee imposes a role reversal in which man turns to his own spirit in order to leave behind his corrupt fallen soul with all of its nastiness.[You should not leave your soul behind, yet you should seek the spirit for it is the spirit that is empowered with God's life to then give the man proper reasoning]. He has created a false, illusionary "inner life" where God can only be found in a pure realm uncontaminated by humanity and its foibles.[God affects the entire man but the key is to realize that God resides not in our soul, but in our spirit. He first affects change in our inner man and that change permeates, breaking the shell of the outer man, even to our bodies. This is malarkey. [No. What is malarky is thinking you have no differences in your inner man and your outer man as if they were all the same with no discernment. How Satan loves this lack of discerning to keep you entrenched in your mind's reasoning, oscillating emotions, and volition. God runs much deeper than these rough actions of man.] Man is fallen yes. But it is the whole of man that is also redeemed! [We retain much of our old ways and God needs to have these things die one by one, so this is how God redeems the whole man, from inner to outer. This is proper cause and effect. God never works from the outer to inner. The reason why the man is still making unsound decisions, and he does not know why, is because the spirit has not yet been reached. His heart is still deceiving him and his consciousness does not yet understand what he is doing wrong because his spirit is still insensitive to God. There needs to be a change there first. I see this all too often in myself and others.] Does it not say in the VERY verse which Lee uses to establish his tripartite dissected Christianity, that God would "PRESERVE WHOLE our spirit, soul and body blameless before the coming of our Lord Jesus?" [Yes. But not from outer to inner. Real change comes from the inner man and the outer man will think more clearly, have softer emotion, and easily make better decisions because his intuitive conscience has been touched by God's life in that still small voice therein though patient inquiry].

Yet under this plan, the member sabotages his own ability to think critically as he becomes severed from his own discernment and powers of perception which have now all been classified as "natural, soulish, and fleshly." [this is what happens when the soul tries to exalt itself, just like Barber is attempting to do here so he can remain in the world] Members live in such terror and unmitigated dread, they are much more effective at policing themselves than the most tyrannical fascist authoritarian government ever could be. As the Chinese communists understood, and Lee picked up when he attended their indoctrination sessions back in the 50's, the most effective way to control someone is not through physical force, but psychological manipulation. [and that is the sense we get from the Leeist. That is why I wrote this whole page because I can see what is at stake in not throwing the baby out with the bathwater. When the spiritual is reached, it is a great shame when someone comes along to misuse it. Just because of the psychological manipulations, does not mean we should deny we have an inner man and an outer man, even though someone may manipulate these parts of man for his cult. The parts are still there, but they have been confused. Witness Lee convinced many of his followers certain things that are of the soul as being of the spirit. If you can convince a man of this, then you have gone to great lengths at deceiving. This is a disgrace to God's teaching of Heb. 4.12, 1 Thess. 5.23. There would be great loss in God's kingdom if this occurs. Barber sounds like he was damaged severely, so it is understandable he may throw the baby out with the bath water on some issues.]

"If any man is in Christ, he is a new creation." The redemption of Jesus Christ did not leave behind the soul, mind, will and heart of man. [Tripartite man does not say that the mind, will and emotions of the soul are left behind, nor the heart of man, which is the mind of the soul plus the conscience of the spirit. Tripartite man says in order for to renew the mind God must first renew the spirit since it is vanity that one tries to renew the soul without renewing the spirit]. Man has become new, born again. The absurd teaching of pneuma-salvation is simply a false doctrine; distorting and disannulling reason, perception and the mind of the Lord. [Since pneuma means soul and spirit it by definition confuses the soul and spirit. We should not misuse this term. This term applies to the confusion Barber places on the soul and the spirit to remain soulish, that is, forsaking spirit life. I am not sure why he is against salvation of the soul and the spirit if he is a Christian, not just in name.] The mind and heart of man has been theologically interred under this scheme and rendered extraneous to Godliness [No. Just the opposite is true. Since now the believer knows what are the laws of the spirit, he can now abide in those functions and strengthens the inner man. If the believer or non-believer, more likely is the case, seeks no distinction sometimes he may be in his soul or in his spirit, not allowing the line of communication to flow from his spirit to his soul, nor allow his mind to aid his spirit knowing God's will]. Lee thus invalidates the soul of man and has him turn inward to his own spirit! This is never described in scripture. It also belies common sense. [Actually, what Witness Lee is really doing is having people not turn inward to their spirit, but outward to their emotion confused as being the spirit. What invalidates the soul of man is also making the same mistake Lee is making, by confusing the spirit and the soul. The person may think He is abiding in God but he is not, He may think his conscience is in a good reason or uplifting emotion or some good choice, but it is not. This is merely the "good self" exalting itself. The unique function of the spirit is to have it within the man to know, as the conscience convicts. The soul's role is to allow the spirit to communicate God's life. Both Barber and Lee invalidate the soul of man in their own way, Lee by misusing tripartite man, and Barber remaining in a fallen state with the bipartite man view. Lee turns to emotion as the spirit and turns really not inward but outward to his soul as confused as being inward. God never asked us to be so introspective, not to pray to the Holy Spirit in our spirit, but pray to the Father on High. This is just common sense.]

Lee's disciples fail to recognize how these teachings cripple the believer in a paralyzing grip of introspection, self-loathing and the foolish attempt to earn access to God through efforts at self-righteousness. (Faith, Grace?) The fruit of these false teachings is self-opposition; what Lee describes as the "breaking of the outer man" for the release of the spirit (analogies of wheat seed dying and alabaster box self-sacrifice). [No. These things are true, but rather, Lee's application of them are false] The "breaking of the outer man" is a demonic doctrine which INDEED breaks the individual. [No. The outer man indeed needs to be broken for it is selfish and self-centered. What Barber unwittingly is really contending for here is so that he can remain in the world, selfish, and living after his soul forsaking his spirit. He may have man words but he is revealing to me he is not any closer to God not knowing where God's life resides within.] God would have us whole, not broken! [Thou who loses his soul shall gain it. He shall gain his whole life and the lives of others]  Do not imagine that God wishes us to sacrifice our dearest heart treasures to "waste" ourselves on Him! [Our dearest heart treasures are the problem for the heart is deceitful. Obviously Barber has something he is holding onto in his life that his conscience in his inner man is showing him that he must let go of, but his soul says no, and prefers to remain in the flesh. No doubt it is some sin as well as some self-matter. Perhaps it is money he is hoarding in his heart, or any number of things that he knows he should not do. The spirit is willing, but the flesh is weak]. This is not a sweet savor, but an abomination. [Hoarding is an abomination, the spirit life is sweet]. Go and consider what this means : "I desire mercy and not sacrifice." God restores our soul to be used, not dashed to ground in a fit of martyr fantasy. [Herein lies the essence of the stony heart of Barber reacting emotionally to his experiences in Leeism, not sacrificing for Christ through not just mercy but in all things. Helping someone, not hoarding, but abiding in the will of God by sensing His inner registrations as you read the Bible and conduct yourself in the world. Can you give up a little of your time to find out what God wants? I don't want to hear about not sacrificing for we should be Christ-like and if we can make this world a better place with a little mercy and a little sacrificing, then praise the Lord. This is not to say we should throw ourselves to the ground in emotional ecstasy. It means abiding your spirit. Men love mental gymnastics and doing a bunch of things at once, but at what cost? Man does not know how to patiently wait on the Lord so that their spirit may be reached and know that what is received is God's mind and will. It is easier for a camel to go through the eye of a needle than for a rich man to get into heaven. If I am not mistaken I am hearing the desire for worldly things from Brent Barber.]

Direction of Prayer

Where do we direct our prayer - inward or God ward!? [Godward. This is not mutually exclusive of tripartite man. But not having the dividing of your spirit and soul, you unwittingly are turning inward into your soul so you are trying to reach God with your soul's strength and not with might in your spirit. This is the conflict between lust and reason.] To turn inward is to turn away from God. Also, it is a form of self-worship.

3 Steps.

1. Modalism - The conversion of Jesus Christ exclusively into the Spirit. [indeed, modalism is wrong]
2. Doctrine of the Human Spirit. [man has a spirit, there is nothing wrong with this. To say Human Spirit is wrong, since Spirit is God's life, while Human need not be capitalized]
3. Location of the Christ Spirit in this spirit. [Christ's life the Holy Spirit is in our spirit we whom are regenerated for that is the indwelling of the Holy Spirit.]

After these 3 beliefs have been fully adopted by the believer, all contact with God is reduced to an imaginary conversation with yourself. [No. This is not true, since there is no conversation in the spirit, since it is merely that place God communicates His life to us. In order for Him to enter our spirit He first needs a new spirit to enter into so He quickens our spirit. Our communication is with God, not some imaginary conversation. An imaginary conversation thought does occur in the bipartite man since he ends up worshiping God with his emotion, reasoning and self-will instead of with spirit with Spirit.]  The direction of prayer is inward, toward this joint residence of Jesus and the "human" spirit. [Actually no. When I pray to the Father, through the Son (His Word), I do so by the Spirit in my spirit. I am not looking inward but Godward. The danger in drawing no distinction from our spirit and your soul is to worship God with the self instead of with the spirit, that is with your inward man. We should never fellowship with God with our own strength. That is one of the worst things we can do as typified by bipartite man. The reason God gives us His life is so we can fellowship with Him. When we pray we are really praying God's will, not our own self-serving desires. This is something Barber has not learned yet, still stuck in the soulical.] This interior directed conceptualization of God's presence disembodies God and amounts to a form of channeling and spirit possession. [The reason why God was raised was to give us the Holy Spirit, each one of us. This does not disembody God, but is the very life of God given to each of us to be in Christ, for Christ, and with Christ. Indeed, the Spirit of God now is in possession of the believer. Channeling is talking to dead people. God is not dead. He is alive in us. It is no longer I that live, but Christ in me. God's presence is in the believer. I am now starting to thing that Barber is not a Christian at all since he has no faith that God can enter the believer's spirit. He only talks about soul power. I am shocked to find this out about Barber since much of his words above were so good. It just goes to show you, just like Witness Lee, you can feed a person a lot of truth only to thrown them their deception at the end. Barber is very deceitful. I believe he also rejects partial rapture which would likely mean his is a premillennial onlyists, and there are negative consequences to this in that a pretrib onlyist will not recognize when he is in the Tribulation to take the mark of the beast and the posttrib onlyists hardens his heart looking for the Antichrist first which necessarily preceed Christ's stepping down on the mount of olives.] This is a huge misperception of Jesus. Under this belief system, He is disembodied and confused with your own identity. The exclusive location of Jesus as a Spirit in the isolated "human" spirit effectively removes God from the consciousness. [Barber has no faith to believe that God's Holy Spirit can indwell the believer's spirit. Wow! There is no confusion with God's Spirit. I have my spirit, God has His Spirit, and He indwells my spirit, gives me a new quickened spirit and a renewed mind. Why does God indwell the believer's spirit? Because that is the only way to communicate His life to us through our inner man. Spirit dwells spirit. I am sure some who are artificially communing with God could mingle falsely their spirit and the Spirit so as to draw no distinction. But so too can bipartite man confuse, especially, since he now doesn't even think that the Holy Spirit can enter the believer in addition to thinking his reasoning and his emotion are coming from his inner man rather than his outer man. God is not some being that is disembodiedable. He is God. He is omnipotent and omniscient and transcendent, transcending all. Since God is spirit He can enter man. Just like demons indwell since they are disembodied spirits, why would God not be able to? Is God so impotent not to be able to? Leeists lose their identity because they never had a real dividing of their spirit, soul and body, they are really just acting as if they are under bipartism. They may speak of the tripartite man but they are really no different from Barber, just making the same mistake, erring in their soul not worshipping God in spirit confusing what is of soul and what is of spirit. Jesus is not the Spirit in that Jesus is not the 3rd Person of the Trinity. 2 Cor. 3.17 does say "Now the Lord (Jesus) is that Spirit" which means now that Jesus is raised He affords us all His life. If anyone reads this ask yourself if you sense the same evil in Barber's words in saying that not only does God not reside in the believers spirit by the Holy Spirit but also the believer does not have God-consciousness in believing the Holy Ghost is not indwelling the spirit. Wow! That is the most evil thing I have ever heard. Talk about trying to destroy your faith. No worries. The Holy Spirit is indwelling my spirit and all believers should be assured of this, and my faith is ever stronger in the Lord for discerning the deceptions of Brent Barber].

Eating Jesus

Another destructive heresy is the reductionism of God to food in a permanent sense in the conceptualization of the believer. The use of analogy and metaphor in John 6 in no way recommends this blasphemous reductionism in our imagination of God. [I agree this is reductionistic] This renders Him without intelligence - without mind. The God of the universe has been reduced to matter! What heresy! A popular hymn sung in the LC converts the lyrics of "How great thou art" to "How small thou art." One can imagine the gleeful chuckles of the enemy as he witnesses Christians regarding God in this offensive manner. Through this clever deconstruction of the mind of God, the believer has lost the most basic and fundamental element of faith - dialogue. Unless one imagines God as another intelligence which can respond to your own, all communication is severed. [when you eat it does not get regurgitated back, it is a one way activity]. Think of how perfect is this stratagem of the devil! One is led to believe that the Lord must always be "eaten" through ritualistic chanting. Both man and God are taken out the loop! What total abrogation of God's heart!

Pray Chanting

The LC also practices a a form of Bible reading which it calls "pray-reading." This is actually more accurately termed "pray-chanting" as the object of the ritual is to segment whole conceptual sentences of the Word into unintelligible fragments. This method is effectively employed to further reduce the members capacity to comprehend meaning.

I grew up around this practice, and believe you me, there are very few absurdities on this planet which begin to approach this level of comedy. To pray-read a passage, the member would begin to chant EACH word singularly, mandatorily interspersed with rotely mechanical "amens," various guttural barks, yelps and spontaneous outbursts.

The session would begin. A typical groaning utterance would proceed as follows; "And. Amen. And. Amen. Oh And. Amen. And God! Amen. And God. Amen. Oh And GOD!. Amen. And God created. Amen. Created. Amen. God created. Amen. And God created. Amen. etc." To get through a single paragraph could take up to an hour. It does not take much insight to recognize how debilitating and destructive this ludicrous ritual could be upon a rational comprehension of the scripture. It is precisely for this reason the ritual is prescribed. It is yet another mode of spiritual and mental infantilization - as the tranquilized chanter is left in a highly suggestible state, available for indoctrination and fear-based coercion.

The Tree of Life

Finally, the translation of LOVE to LIFE [too bad we couldn't test the spirits and check out where the verse was altered, but it was not given, but if Lee did this, which I would not be surprised, as he altered the Spiritual Man brutally. I had personally found that Witness Lee was a reductionist in his translations. What I mean by this is if there were 5 emotions talked about he would make them 3 emotions. Or if the text translated at CFP was 100 pages, Lee would add 30 more pages, added in his own thoughts in the translation to come to this teaching of reductionism. eg. changing the word desire, one of the 3 main functions of the emotion of the soul to literally "hate". This was so out of context and such a perverted alteration I am speechless.] is the greatest fallacy of Lee's philosophy. He coldly insists that the Bible is not a book of love, but life. This switch is profound upon the believer. "Life" is an abstract quality/quantity which is acquired/obtained/earned from God through the performance of mechanistic ritual processes such as chanting or singing. [good point - we don't contact God through the outer man's activities, but the inner man] If someone has "life' or is "full of life" in this context, it refers to someone hysterically and frenetically trying to create the appearance of joy and happiness. [sounds like showmanship] This is the pretense imperative. There must be smiles and happy faces at all times. [fake life, oh much they must really be suffering these Leeists always putting on a false face. How they need to shed a tear for the Lord and break down the walls blocking their spirit].

But the crux of this semantic shift is to basically strip and annul the Love of God from the experience of the Christian. [I can see that for it is the lack of love in Lee that would do this. He manipulates so much. Nothing Lee says should ever be taken at face value.] The emphasis on life over love creates a cold heartless theology based in the artificial realm of pretense. This mental juggle reduces the Christian experience to a heartless and mindless infancy without affection. Under this clever ploy, there is no internal check on mounting theological absurdities which defy reason and nature. Dissent or even casual inquiry is castigated as not "in life" and so forth. The "tree of life" is contrasted to the "tree of knowledge" as a diametric opposite. [good point] This false dichotomy is defined and enforced as a mindless anti-intellectualism that identifies knowledge (even of the truth) as an adversary to "life". This is a prescription for blindness. There is no escape from this conceptual and spiritual bondage unless these doctrines are dismantled and unshackled from the faith of the believer.

Thankfully God delivered me from that idolatry and Eastern occultism and led me to faith in His son Jesus Christ! I pray He grants all who read this the same blessing. [I question Barber's faith on the account that he does not believe the Holy Spirit dwells in his spirit. And he also doesn't get partial rapture, because he says the Holy Spirit is not in his spirit to show him, at least that is the message he is conveying to me. He would therefore, necessarily not see first rapture as unto readiness and the 7th trumpet resurrection unto completion.]

Brent Barber
3/28/97
E-Mail: brentb@theglobe.com

Terry Fisher - Former Member

Posted - 8/27/04

Dear Troy,

Thank you for your website. I am one who grew up in the local churches since the age of 4 and stopped meeting several years ago at the age of 33. There were several reasons why I stopped. The practical being my wife’s work schedule and me caring for an infant while she was at work. The second reason was a bit more personal. An attitude had seeped in the church that just bothered me. An attitude had existed towards non-LC Christians and one had developed where Witness Lee was the focus. Not Jesus Christ! To perform in the meetings was another attitude. If a person chooses not to speak in the meetings, there will be peer pressure speak. The words Brent Barber shared hit the mark. [except as it pertains to partial rapture and tripartite man - Troy Brooks] I am one interested in testimonies of those who have left and why they left.

Terry Fisher