The Public Square Filipino Bereans

Examining the beliefs and censoring of the owner and writers of the Bereans Apologetics Research Ministry (BARM) and The Public Square Ministry

Justyn Martyr (seems like a made-up name) says of himself, "Not presenting your name to protect your privacy especially with people whom you really do not know is not dishonesty." This is intellectual dishonesty since the real Justyn Martyr of in church history did not believe in calvinism, modalism or pretrib onlyism.

1. We are not pre-selected, pre-made, or pre-determined for heaven or hell. Rather, we were given the volition to choose in the image of God which was not predetermined to choose one way or the other. BARM Bereans and Leeists believe they were pridefully premade to choose above others who were premade to choose hell. Justyn Abugain says "Why I am no longer an Arminian?" which is denying God predestinating by foreknowledge (Rom. 8.29), but instead premaking the person to choose like a robot which is unrighteous and could never glorify God. Synergism does not deny monergism, since the Holy Spirit is always independent; but, the Holy Spirit desires man's cooperation, that which monergism lacks. What the leeists and TPS are lacking is understanding God's desire to walk with non-robots. You're in your head, not your spirit under such man-made systems.

2. We do not need to be to so stiff with God's 3 Persons that we project a tritheism mentality which warps OT references of God by always forcing Him into one of His 3 Persons. If we do so, we will confuse the 3 Persons of the Godhead, mistaking the 2nd Person for the 3rd Person, or the 3rd Person for the 1st Person. BARM Bereans have done this through unspiritual mental gymnastics. I have caught them in the act of this error in their headiness. It has the effect of making them modalists since modalism confuses God's 3 Persons.

3. We do not need to be so carnally modalistic with Scripture by saying God is a "threefold Person," or that the "Father is the Son," or that Jesus is the 1st, 2nd, and 3rd Person of the Godhead - Leeists are modalists.

4. Justyn Abugain (aG&Y-moderator handle) says of himself, "Me --> Premillennial Preteribulational View." In other words, he rejects the condition in Rev. 3.10, Luke 21.36 given to Christians which is a condition for first rapture.

By way of calvinism, tri-theism and marrying Nee to Lee, the filipino bereans (www.thebereans.net) are unable to help a Leeist as they try to do on their website because they don’t realize they suffer from the same prideful calvinistic preselectionism, stacking of the deck that a Leeist does. It just manifests itself differently into a different form of modalism. This is the opposite of two extremes, but both suffering from calvinism commonality. The purpose of this article is to show God’s way instead, and we will soon see how each of these groups make their own set of errors in their respective faiths. I am of the view that on mass neither of these two groups are Christians and that is why they legalize the Scriptures at polar extremes.

Here we see a condition given-Rev. 3.10, Luke 21.36. To be accounted worthy for keeping keeping the Word of His patience, remaining watchful, prayerful, keeping the conduct of Matt. 5-7 and abiding in those works God has set for us! Only then may we escape these things which are to come upon the whole earth. Death is no blessing or promise. If a Christians lies a on a bed of fornication and prefers to be like a balloon tied down the world, then he shall not be received to the throne (Rev. 7.9) at the first rapture and must pass through the Tribulation like Noah passed through the flood after Enoch was raptured. aG&Y also rejects the time of recompense of accountability and rewards of the millennium in so much as he believes no matter how much he falls away into sin and self, he will still enter into the millennial kingdom reign with Christ. He doesn't think he can lose this reward, but God says 3 times specifically "outer darkness" is a loss of rewards for believers. The belief held by AbuGain JustYn is called antinomianism. It's a way of someone calling themselves a Christian and going back right into sin without consequences, so they think. He will be in for a surpise.

The negative consequence of this false teaching is that when Abugain enters the Tribulation, he will never realize it, because for him, if it was the Tribulation of 7 years, he would have been raptured already, so he thinks. Would he take the mark of the beast in the Tribulation? If he doesn't realize it is the Tribulation, then how will he know to refuse the mark of the beast? There is a pride in self in overassuming first rapture not according to readiness.

"For unto us a child is born, unto us a son is given: and the government shall be upon his shoulder: and his name shall be called Wonderful, Counsellor, The mighty God, The everlasting Father, The Prince of Peace."

From these two links, http://thebereans.net/fb-isa96.shtml and http://www3.telus.net/trbrooks/finetuningFSS.htm, I only want to show one thing in particular. A rationalization used by Abugain goes as follows: the term "Father of Eternity" is a "child's essence in connection with His deity being a Mighty God for there is only one Father of our Lord Jesus Christ", yet the relationship spoken of is people to their Everlasting Father whom is Jesus Christ. Is. 9.6 is not talking about the relationship of people to God the Father, but to God the Son.

Yes, there is only one Father of our Lord Jesus, but merely saying for seems not to proven what proceeded. Do you see what I am getting at? The preceding part mentions a fact about our being children of God the Son who created us, but the second part then relates Jesus to the Father which is not shown in Is. 9.6. The statement "there is only one Father of our Lord Jesus Christ" does not prove a "child's essence in connection with His deity being a Mighty God". The former does not prove the latter about Jesus being the Father of eternity. Ergo, we see a problem in deduction. Jesus is the Father of eternity, but not God the Father. Instead, let's properly say it this way about "Everlasting Father" - "Father" is "ab" which means "ruler or chief" or "forefather", and "Everlasting" is "ad" which means "continuous existence".

We may then conclude Jesus has existed from the eternity of the past, and He is the ruler and chief as our forefather, and we are His children, for He is deity being Mighty God the Son.

“As regards to the Godhead, the Son and the Father are co-equal; but His being the Lord is rewarded Him by God. The Lord Jesus Christ was made Lord only after He emptied Himself. His deity derives from who He is, for His being God is His inherent nature. His being Lord, though, issues out of what He has done. He was exalted and rewarded by God to be the Lord only after He forsook His glory and maintained the perfect role of obedience. As regards Himself, He is God; as regards reward, He is Lord. His Lordship did not exist originally in the Godhead.

The passage in Philippians 2 is most difficult to explain, for it is most controversial besides being most holy. Let remove our shoes and stand on holy ground as we review the Scripture. It seems as though at the beginning a council was held within the Godhead. God conceived a plan to create the universe. In that plan the Godhead agreed to have authority represented by the Father. But authority cannot exist alone. God must therefore find obedience in the universe. Two living beings were to be created: angels (spirits) and men (living souls). According to His foreknowledge God foresaw the rebellion of the angels and the fall of men; hence He was unable to establish His authority in angels or in the Adamic race. Consequently, within the Godhead perfect accord was reached that authority would be reached by the obedience of the Son. From this come the distinctive operations of God the Father and God the Son. One day God the Son emptied himself, and being born in the likeness of men He became the symbol of obedience. Inasmuch as rebellion came from the created beings, so obedience must now be established in the created being. Man sinned and rebelled; therefore the authority of God must be erected on man’s obedience. This explains why the Lord came to the world and was made as one of the created men”.

Let's cater to the flesh of the Abugain (Justyn) that the two quotes said to be of Watchman Nee are Nee’s writings, even though we know they were produced from Witness Lee’s organization instead, of the Hong Kong Church book room and sold at LSM, yet the COMPLETE WORKS of Watchman Nee from CFP (Kaung) and CLC (Kinnear) do not have such quotes. Let’s see if we can discern the truth anyway.

Why? What did Watchman Nee do wrong? Why automatically associate Watchman Nee to an organization that he has nothing to do with? That is a sin of bearing false witness.

Is Christ in the flesh still around or ascended? Christ is inside us by how? By His Holy Spirit! Is Jesus not the Lord in us by His Holy Spirit? Is not Jesus the life-giving Spirit? (2 Cor. 3.17) Obviously, therefore, Justyn reads into this with his strange spirit something that is not there because he sins the sin of bearing false witness, try to force the marrying of Watchman Nee to Witness Lee's modalism. Later, we will see his underlying motivation why he does this.

Does not Christ do the creating? Doesn't the Father do the speaking? Who creates but the Creator? Doesn't Jesus give us His life, the Holy Spirit? It is no longer I that live, but Christ in me.

Did not Jesus give us the life-giving Spirit? (1 Cor. 15.45) The Scriptures tell us, “The first man, Adam, became a living person. But the last Adam—that is, Christ—is a life-giving Spirit. (Footnote: Gen 2:7)" Were the 90 scholars in 1996 that produced the New Living Translation wrong? When Jesus was resurrected, He gave His life, the Holy Spirit. He is now ready to come into you as Christ sits at the right hand of the Father, transforming His life into your spirit.

As mentioned previously, here we see the immediate attempt to slyly marry Watchman Nee to Witness Lee. Watchman Nee does not believe Jesus is the Holy Spirit. Clearly, Witness Lee is in error by saying “Christ and the Spirit are not two separate persons" though.

Do we find Watchman Nee talking like this? No. In the Spiritual Man, Nee said once that Jesus is the Spirit - even the life-giving Spirit (1 Cor. 15.45) in the context of Christ being raised to the Father and giving forth His life by the Holy Spirit. Could this be where Witness Lee fervently defends himself misreading what Watchman Nee said? Justyn's attempt to marry Nee to Lee, therefore, must be his petty self in operation for he certainly did not make his case. Men are petty with language and read into what they want to see only, the consequence of dwelling in the soul and not the spirit.

Watchman Nee once said, “if these things were true of me, I too would condemn me also.” Let's take a look at some more bad reasoning by BARM's Justyn. It is true Witness Lee is wrong for saying Jesus is the Father or the Son is the Spirit. Justyn writes,

All of 2 Cor. 3 is talking about Jesus as the Lord. Not once does this chapter mention the Father as the Lord. Therefore, it still remains true, that when Jesus was raised to the right hand of the Father, His Spirit was given to indwell the believers. See Watchman Nee's commentary above on THE WAY OF THE LORD to see why Jesus is the Lord.

It is modalistic to say God the Father is now God the Spirit. The word “NOW” indicates something has happened: the meaning is that Jesus of the flesh is past, now the Holy Spirit lives in believers. It is not God the Father in view here, it is the Son. What happened for this change to occur that NOW the Lord is that Spirit? Jesus of the flesh passed away, that is how. Jesus is in view here. Now, you begin to see how BARM's Justyn thinks. He goes overboard, even himself becoming modalistic confusing God's 3 Persons. In other words, he is contradicting himself and applying a double standard, that is unethical.

That's correct, Jesus is not the Holy Spirit. Nor is the Father, the Holy Spirit.

The veil represents the diminishing glory of God. And its application to the Holy Spirit does not alter the fact that the Lord in 2 Cor. 3 is referring to Jesus.

2Cr 3:17 Now the Lord is that Spirit: and where the Spirit of the Lord [is], there [is] liberty.

BARM's Justyn presupposes that God the Father or the Triune God is now the Spirit (Yawheh) when clearly in verse 16 it says, “But whenever anyone turns to the Lord, then the veil is taken away” talking of Jesus, coming to Christ for Jesus is the Lord. There is no place in verse 16 or 17 to bring in God the Father here or the Godhead. Abugain (Justyn) has confused the Trinity for according to him, we ought to turn to the Father and not to Christ, but we all know we come to the Father “through Christ”.

Since LORD is not mentioned here, but Lord, it is further shown by Strong’s definition, “this title is given to: God, the Messiah” referring to Jesus Christ when the word KURIOS is used. NOW, with Jesus at the right hand of the Father, His Life is given to us by the Spirit. What a very special word NOW is. By bypassing the Lord Jesus in 2 Cor. 3, the owners of BARM are not validating the Son of God in their hearts.

When I told BARM's Justyn (Abugain) that the "Holy Spirit is the life of Christ, God's life", Abugain responded by asking me, "where did you get that teaching from?" To which I replied, "well, who’s life is it then?"

Does it make an sense for BARM's Justyn to quote just from Witness Lee's cult whom Watchman Nee disagrees with (only the collected and fabricated works); and not from Christian Fellowship Publishers (The Complete Works of Nee), the authority of Watchman Nee's writings? If in court you ask the criminal what he stole from the householder, and he tells you it is only a $100 painting, not a million dollar painting, who are you going to believe? The householder's accountant and lawyer, or the criminal.

BARM's Abugain claims regarding 2 Cor. 3:17, "the Lord (Yahweh, the name) is the Holy Spirit not Jesus”. Therefore, this verse, reads according to him as, “Now the Lord (Yahweh, the name, Holy Spirit) is that Spirit: and where the Spirit of the Lord (Jesus) [is], there [is] liberty”. This is getting even more confusing in his teaching. The Holy Spirit (Lord) is now that Holy Spirit whence before The Lord (the Father) was the Holy Spirit? Abugain or Justyn can't make up their mind which is what. This is the problem with modalism confusion, because it is mentally generated, not according to the Spirit in the believer's spirit.

The correct rendering should be, "Now, the Lord (Jesus) is the Spirit, and wherever the Spirit of the Lord is, he gives freedom” (v.17), since "whenever anyone turns to the Lord (Jesus), then the veil is taken away," (v.16) and "this veil can be removed only by believing in Christ (Lord Jesus),” (v.14) under the new covenant. The old covenant has been set aside as evidenced that “Israel could not bear to look at Moses’ face..brightness was fading away” (v.7).

BARM's Abugain asks, "how do you parse from Ex 34.34 greek Kurio to 2 Cor. 3.17 Kurios?" You do not need to parse for Yahweh means "existing one" in v.34 in Hebrew. Greek is another language in v.17. What matters most then as the guiding principle is not the languages, but the context surrounding what is being said.

Calvinists Are A Big Problem (Updated Feb., 2005)

Since the posting of this statement below, BARM's Justyn (Abugain), owner of thebereans.net, has stopped calling "Watchman Nee" by another name, "Watchman Lee" on their various web pages since his conscience has been convicted, but he still continues his modalism and calvinism that he shares with his lsm/lc brothers.

I am not sure if this is another person or Justyn, and I am not sure if Justyn Martyr is this person's real name or just a made up name. To reveal to you the condition of Justyn Martyr (?) or Abugain from BARM, here is a quote of his introduction to his forum: "Discussions about the problems in the works of Watchman Lee, Witness Lee and the Local Churches or the movement spawned by the teachings of these men." This is a subconscious attempt to Marry Nee to Lee. Also, you will see BARM's Justyn embrace a new term regularly called "WLC". Perhaps they do this on purpose. This is another attempt to confuse Nee with Lee since Watchman starts with a W, and Witness starts with a W; so they try to imprint on peoples' minds a Watchman Lee Church or Watchman Local Church or a Witness Lee Church. Watchman Nee did not believe in the organization called the Local Church which was created after Watchman Nee was imprisoned for life. Nee believed in "church locality" with no central hub. That is why the Little Flock in China have nothing to do with Witness Lee's Local Church. BARM's Justyn is a trickster, a charlatan. "The prophet is a watchman for my God over Israel, yet traps are laid in front of him wherever he goes. He faces hostility even in the house of God" (Hosea 9.8). These unethical stratagems are caused by the dead spirit of calvinism pride. That is what it all comes down to. I am sure Abugain is embarrassed to share the same faith as Leeists in calvinism, having the pride of believing they were pre-made for salvation, not for hell.

Watchman Nee wrote in "The Spiritual Man" (CFP) in the chapter, "INTUITION":

Man’s way cannot envisage acceptance of the Lord Jesus as Savior and a quickening of his spirit’s intuition, but insists on substituting his mind for intuition. He thinks and cogitates until he creates many philosophies, ethics, or religions. But what is God’s pronouncement? “As the heavens are higher than the earth, so are my ways higher than your ways and my thoughts than your thoughts” (Is. 55.9). However intensively man may contemplate, his thoughts are earthly and not heavenly. After regeneration, God enables our intuition to know His thought and to apprehend His way so that we may follow Him. Yet how forgetful believers are! We forget what we learned at regeneration. Countless are those saints who daily walk by their head and heart. In service we still attempt to move people’s mind, emotion and will by our intellect, zeal and effort. God desires to teach us the fact that in service the soul, ours and everyone else’s, is void of any spiritual value or worth. He actually allows us to be defeated in spiritual work and to become despondent, cold and fruitless in order that He may destroy our natural life with its wisdom, fervor, and ability. Such a lesson as this cannot be learned in one or two days. God must instruct us throughout our lifetime in order to make us realize that apart from following the spirit’s intuition everything else is vain.

Now comes the crisis. Which will we follow when intuition and soul clash in their opinions? This will determine who is to rule over our life and which way we shall go. Our outer man and our inner man—the man of the flesh and the man of the spirit—are struggling for supremacy. In the early days of our Christian walk our spirit fought with the lusts of our flesh; today it is a battle between our spirit and our soul. Formerly the engagement was over the issue of sin; presently it is not a matter of good and evil but of natural good versus God’s goodness. We contended for the quality of things before, but now we are concerned with the source of things. It is a conflict of the inward against the outward man, a war between God’s will and man’s good intention. To learn how to walk after the spirit is a lifetime’s occupation for the new man. If one wholly follows the spirit, he shall overcome the man of the flesh completely. Through the strengthening by the Holy Spirit of the spirit in the new man, the believer shall be able to destroy totally his minding of the flesh so as to mind the things of the spirit. This is life and peace.

Stephen Kaung, who has the most sermons on the internet of anyone, translated Watchman Nee's writings at Christian Fellowship Publishers, and is quoted as saying, "Witness Lee went too far". Witness Lee has altered Watchman Nee's writings as noted:

http://www3.telus.net/trbrooks/Spiritual_Man.htm http://www3.telus.net/trbrooks/proper_locality.htm http://www3.telus.net/trbrooks/Misreading.htm

My advice for those who read Nee, read in this order for it is most profitable, http://www3.telus.net/trbrooks/Watchman_Nee.htm

What is an ANTI-NEE FANATIC? Just go over to to BARM's site to see how they try to marry Nee to Lee. Admittedly, they quieted down their stance since I have written this piece. Perhaps they are embarrassed. Even so, Abugain has a special memento or idol in honor of my name entitled, "Troy's Trojan Horse," left coyly unexplained. It is Satan's aim to be the false accuser and inspire others to be like him. The true Trojan Horse, therefore, then is bipartite fallen man + calvinism + modalism + pretrib onlyism + sin of bearing false witness = spiritless mental gymnastics of Jystyn Abugain.

Who is Watchman Nee? http://www3.telus.net/trbrooks/WNwho.htm

Once, I heard a Leeist say that Nee's writings are old and we need to up-level from them so that is why they change his writings around, even adding new writings that are not his. Obviously this is a wrong for them to do this. I have heard Justyn (Abugain) say that Nee was not scholarly to degrade OSAS Arminianism, and promote Prideful Calvinism.

Conclusion: These two cults do not appreciate Watchman Nee's genius, how deeply wrought the cross worked in his life, and how close to death he truly was.