Cephas Ministries, The Berean Call, CRI, and BARM Calvinists

What do they all have in common? Find out!

An article at The Berean Call (April, 1998) comments on Watchman Nee. In response, I would love to provide the truth of it's mistaken assumptions. I have only so much time to help people that misread others, having the time to focus on the misreaders of Watchman, since Watchman Nee was one of the uttermost spiritual Christians that ever lived. Surely someone can handle this task. That person happens to be me. I have been called to expose those who bear false witness against Watchman Nee like those at The Bereans Call, Cephas Ministries, Filipino Bereans (BARM), CRI, and some others. I have never met Watchman Nee. I have only read his writings at Christian Fellowship Publishers which are holy and true, pure and clear. And the real kicker for lots of people is that I can prove it, because I am reading with a renewed mind and a quickened spirit well pleasing to the Lord. Watchman Nee is difficult to read because He was so spiritual, and his conscience is so clear in the Lord, not to mention having such an extreme IQ. His accuracy was so precise it calls for a true Christian to read him, to understand him instead of one who finds fault only, though Nee has made no mistake in his writings to speak of. So the light in Nee by the Holy Spirit exposes those who falsely read him as you will soon find out.

For the sake of this writing since I don't know who the anonymous critiquer of Watchman Nee is by Berean Call owners, I will treat from time to time Berean Call as a person for ease of reference.

What I have discovered from this study is that there is false apologetics rampant in the world today. Someone does a commentary which is totally wrong and then it is dispersed on the internet, and so-call apologetics ministries dispense with no thought of discernment or consideration; and call themselves in Christ doing the Lord's work. We shall know them by their fruit. I have found that these so-called ministries are tackling so much at once they can't tell whether they are coming are going. Literally they are out of control. We can gain very little from what they have to offer, especially those promoting their calvinism pride preselectionism.

In the first paragraph of this article, whomever wrote it, they said Watchman Nee was into mysticism and dangerous errors. I suspect the writer of this opinion is one of those at www.thebereans.net or very similar in vanity, who are staunch calvinists who believe they were premade for salvation pridefully, so they are totally in their minds with this prideful thought, not having yet received a quickening of their spirit by the Spirit. I can't be certain of such a relationship, but notice a potential similarity. Watchman Nee was OSAS arminian exactly God's way. There is another matter people within themselves fight when they find out that Watchman Nee believed we had a spirit, soul and body. They want to remain in a fallen state of just soul and body with no distinction between their spirit and the soul. This may be an indication of carnal Christianity or literally unregeneration still. Underlying motivations such as these are found at the so-called Christian Research Institute (CRI) hostile to man being tripartite despite the clarity of Heb. 4.12 and 1 Thess. 5.23. See chapter 1 of The Spiritual Man.

Watchman Nee was against mysticism for if you have read his book, The Spiritual Man, that is the exact impression you come away with, that he was against mysticism for he writes whole chapters on dealing with the problems of emotionalism. Since this writer does not speak further about this, I won't either. I have read The Spiritual Man several times, and I can testify it is a perfect work, flawless, the best work ever done on the redemptive design. Just go read Watchman Nee's, The Spiritual Man, and there you will see Nee as he truly is instead of these third party erroneous thoughts with no backing, and Cephas' poor ministry of not confirming what they post on their site. Let us see what claims are made that are said to be dangerous, apart from the instructions given here, http://www3.telus.net/trbrooks/Watchman_Nee.htm of those who have altered Watchman Nee's writings.

We know that a cult broke off by a very sinful man Witness Lee that Nee's Little Flock rejected, and when we compare his writing claims on Watchman Nee to those by the humble Stephen Kaung at Christian Fellowship Publishers (CFP) we come to realize that Witness Lee was manipulating things to control people altering Watchman Nee's writings for his organization based on false locality and many other errors. This is exact history. Obviously anyone with a little discernment can see Witness Lee is a manipulator which refers to those uncertain materials (unconfirmed by the authority of CFP) for even today after the year 2000, Witness Lee's cult, Living Stream Ministry, is still in filthy lucre producing new writings of Watchman Nee that are not of  Watchman Nee at all, but efforts to get people to think Watchman Nee agreed with Witness Lee. W. Lee was a fraud in christendom in his business church. You may know Stephen Kaung. Kaung has the most sermons available on the internet freely. Stephen Kaung said of Witness Lee, "he went too far". Now that we got that intrusion out of the way, let us deal with the matter at hand.

This writer jumps on Watchman Nee for saying that Adam was a superman. Watchman Nee never said Adam was a superman. In fact, Watchman Nee said the superman will be the Antichrist on page 84, "Satan will actually be the ‘god of this age’, ruling through a superman." I find it interesting this unnamed critiquer of Nee would use this term so manipulatively. I also sense a calvinist issue at stake here trying to kill the image of God in man created in God's image. Can you sense this too? What is even more interesting is Watchman Nee was quoting the words of Jessie-Penn Lewis, which are perfectly accurate.

Now that we have discerned that nowhere does Watchman Nee call Adam a superman, what does Watchman Nee really say on page 15 about Adam in the page being discussed? On page 14, Nee says, there is a great responsibility given to Adam "dominion over the fish and the sea, and over the birds of the heavens, and over every living thing that moveth on the earth" (Gen. 1.28). Watchman Nee says "friends, have you ever thought how immense the earth is?....A hard master may demand his servant to do a little more than his duty requires, but never will he demand his servant to undertake anything beyond ability. Would God, then, ask Adam to do what he was incapable of doing? We can therefore conclude that if Adam was capable of managing the earth, his prowess was most certainly superior to ours today. He received all of these abilities freshly from the Creator." (pp. 14-15 in book form, The Latent Power of the Soul, CFP).

There is a need for Bereans Call to compare Watchman Nee to Benny Hinn, but of course, there is no similarity, only in the mind of the bereans. Let us not be confused that the bereans in the Bible are not those bereans today that falsely use the name bereans. Their premise is that since they say Benny Hinn believes Adam is a superman and since they think Watchman Nee believes that, that they are similar, but as we have seen, Watchman Nee never believed that, but gave, instead, such a name to the Antichrist. More evidence proves the point.

It is because if there is no appreciation for sin, men will not be able to see the great responsibility given to Adam, when Watchman Nee said his responsibility as being "a million times over ours". Nee is saying that such responsibility was so great, though it is not a billion or trillion times greater, responsibility given to Adam is very very vast to say the least. Who can deny this in the first man? For Adam would not have been able to perform the duty commanded him of God. Why the Bereans Call deny this is troubling to say the least by this anonymous critiquer of Nee whomever he is.  The Berean Call admits it is their "opinion" of Nee, albeit it an opinion of mistaken assumptions. What is most intriguing is what is the Berean Call really holding onto? Every time I have personally come across such contentions and misreadings of Watchman Nee it has the sense of manipulation to promote something that Watchman Nee does not believe in. Watchman Nee is not a calvinists; that much is very clear. The Berean Call and BARM are calvinists, killers of God's free-will promoting zombiism so this is why they attack the image of God in man in some obtuse fashion for as you know calvinist reformists are famous for 1001 articles as they try to battle the matter head strong from all such angles they can muster. Yet it is all vanity because they are trying to justify their initial salvation when God never pre-makes them that way and does not save this way, but, instead, requires choice. The Leeists are zombie calvinists too. This is ironic I know.

Watchman Nee further substantiates a comparison of us today to Adam, "if we were required to merely sweep a lane three times daily, we would not be able afterwards to straighten our back. How then could we possibly rule the earth? Yet Adam not only ruled the earth but he also had dominion over the fish of the sea, the birds of the heavens, and every living thing on earth. To rule is not just to sit and do nothing. It requires management and work. From this we should see the superior power which Adam in fact possessed. It far exceeds our present situation." Now who can deny this? We all know how long men lived in those ancient days, though there is believe that their ages were not quite so long, given by the work of Colin J. Humphreys, so, the point is clear, that in such a sinless state initially the first man was able to do quite a lot more than you or I could do today. But then we all know what happened next.

Nee says then "do you think that this insight is something new? Actually this is the teaching of the Bible. Before his fall Adam had such strength that he never felt tired after work. It was only after his fall that God told him, 'In the sweat of thy face though eat bread.'" Obviously Nee was quickly aware to see many will fight this tooth and nail such as the owners of Berean Call and Cephas owners.

If you would like to read Watchman Nee's comments on Adam, you can read pages 15-24 of the Latent Power of the Soul.

Berean Call says next that it is wrong what Watchman Nee said, "He (Adam) was already like him (God) in outward appearance" (p. 18) because bereans say, "to become like God was Satan's ambition". Watchman Nee never said Adam's ambition before the fall was to become like God. Nee said "Adam was already like God in outward appearance"; then going on further to explain and distinguish by saying in the next sentence, "but he was ordained by God to become like Him morally (I use this word 'morally' to indicate that which is above the material, not what merely points to man's good behavior). Thus we are shown how much loss mankind has suffered through the fall. The magnitude of the damage is probably beyond our imagination."

What can we learn from this? That indeed Adam was made in the image of God as Nee states in the previous paragraph, "God's original intention was that Adam should be transformed to be like Him" and 'God said, Let us make man in our image, after our likeness' (Gen. 1.26)." Nee further states for clarification, that "image" does "not point to physical likeness, rather it denotes moral or spiritual similarity. Someone has put it as: 'changed into likeness'; that is, ' to be conformed to a likeness'." The Bible is very clear about what God wants. From these two paragraphs, this one, and the one just above how sneaky the evil spirit is in the mind of Berean Call owners.

Satan does not just want to be like God, but God actually. Now then, let us look at the next statement by Berean Call, "nor was it in outward appearance that Adam was made in the image of God, but morally and spiritually". Yet Watchman Nee already said on page 18, that "image...denotes moral or spiritual similarity," and "not point to physical likeness". Why contend with what Watchman Nee already said to accuse him, bearing such false witness? It makes no sense. A darkened mind accuses. That is the only explanation. Since Adam was created "to be conformed to a likeness" and "changed to a likeness" as Nee so wonderfully observes, it is clear Adam is not fully there yet because he had not yet eaten of the Tree of Life. "Outwardly", Adam had not eaten of the tree of life, "but he was ordained by God to become like Him morally." We all know this. It is very true we have the blood of Christ because many men will falsely accuse because of their unrenewed minds, but thank God on High the blood of Christ preserves the truth of Christ's work on the cross so that such accusations do not take offense in us in seeing believers so attacked mindlessly. Amen.

I really want to help Bereans Call, and the words are these to help: man has not yet eaten the tree of life, so that man has not yet reached what God ultimately seeks in the man unto fullness to "change into likeness" and "to be conformed to a likeness". Who can say that all men are like this? Who can say what is to be fully achieved is now achieved and there is no more? Adam has a spirit, soul and body, and outwardly God's appearance and free-will in His image, but not yet has the fullness of the body of Christ come in to receive His life as typified by the tree of life. Appearance is only what was initially had for the choice was not yet made, nor had the fullness of morality and spiritual completion been reached. Again, we all know this. This is a very wonderful truth Watchman Nee is conveying on page 18. Let us humble ourselves in reading others for we are so quick to misread and misjudge as a Pat Knapp or a Dennis McCallum or a Richard Fisher.

Berean Call says Nee believes along with New Agers and parapsychologists that the human potential is infinite. It is not revealed where Watchman Nee said this, no quote was provided by the Bereans Call to substantiate this claim on Nee, so we need not address it further for it is merely a selfish proclamation and empty misrepresentation. Obviously only God is infinite. Watchman Nee said clearly, "man's soul power is Satan's working instrument" finding a stronghold there to operate upon which denounces Berean Call's claim that the cause is "human potential". Nee said obviously, what is operating is Satan or by demons as the initial cause and instrument upon the Latent Power of the Soul. And this "soul power" is used by men to allow "demons which possess" them (Mark 5.2-20). So let us review proper cause and effect again. The demon works in the man and stirs forth what is resident in the man to be used for evil purposes not called for by God.

Berean Call have it all backwards. They say "human potential which empowered the demoniac to snap the iron chains", but that is not what Watchman Nee said. Watchman Nee clearly said, the evil spirits are instigating and originating the cause of stimulating such "soul power" resident in the man for the evil spirit resides in the unregenerated man's spirit and what Adam had is being used evilly by the demonic forces, and the man allows it, giving in to such attacks, stirring up that great responsibility for untold purposes. The vital key to understand this is that the evil spirit is operating and using what should be good for not good. Adam had being created in God's image and using it for evil purposes as the man gives into it. Isn't this a wonderful distinction to see to discern the spirits with? That is what is called "soul power", a power as Nee says that is not infinite as the Bereans Call accuse, but was "in actuality what he had was not at all special or supernatural, however much it may appear that way to us today." (p. 20).  Nee correctly observes "that many do not understand this strategy, being deceived into accepting it as of God", that "power dormant in the man's soul in order to gain control over the man". Satan no doubt is trying to break open this fleshly shell of man's soul to gain man's powerful soul, and so many men will be deceived, a large many of those in christendom too as we are not in short supply of errors there too as false fruit.

Berean Call said Jesus Christ would "not have had legitimately every power of the first Adam". Bereans Call says Nee does not believe this, and they don't even cite a Scripture; nevertheless who can say Jesus Christ has less power than man? Berean Call should not say things like this for it makes them seem as though they put man above God. Berean Call contradict themselves next saying Jesus Christ was "God manifest in the flesh". Who can say why Bereans Call contradicts themselves this way? It is but there own confusion so let us pass these errors all back to Berean Call and Cephas Ministries where they belong.

This is as much for their benefit as others who are deceived by their false and unspiritual apologetics. Isn't it amazing how people misread because they are holding onto something? Let us be very observant that the Latent Power of the Soul is a book that should be read immediately following The Spiritual Man so that what Berean Call is really fighting is that man has a spirit, soul and body and its necessary dividing so as to walk after the spirit in spiritual life. Is your spirit able to see this with the Holy Spirit therein?

Nee states Adam's "power was immobilized. He had not lost this power ALTOGETHER, only it was now buried within him...yet such power is in every man's soul just as it was in Adam's soul at the beginning. Since today's soul is under siege by the flesh, this power is likewise confined to the flesh. The work of the devil nowadays is to stir up man's soul and to release this latent power within it as a deception for spiritual power...in order to gain control over man...I do not know how people are informed of the marvelous energy dormant in man's soul [as one of several ways through and by destroying the obstruction of the body], the release of which, presently bound in the flesh, will result in the display of miraculous power even to the attaining of the status of a 'fairy' or 'buddha'....The difference between us (the Christians) and them lies in the fact that all our miracles are performed by God through the Holy Spirit. Satan makes use of man's soul force to manifest his strength. Man's soul power is Satan's working instrument, through which he works out his evil end." (pp.20-22,32, 33)

Praise the Lord! For this discernment by the Holy Spirit. Amen! Let all those who hath an ear, hear what is said.

Troy Brooks