Can't Judge a Book by its Cover - Literally!!

So, I received this book in the mail today, A New Testment to be specific. It was entitled, "The New Testament: Recovery Version." What was this? I had never heard of it before. So, I read the card that came with it.

"Dear Pastor...
As noted in the preface, the Recovery Version 'embodies extensive research into the meaning of the original text and attempts to express this meaning with English that is to the point, easy to understand, and readable.' Complete with over 9,000 explanatory notes and over 13,000 cross-references, the Recovery Version crystallizes the understanding of the divine revelation possessed by God's people throughout the past centuries."

I thought, "Wow, this sounds pretty good. This must be some new version that really opens up the original languages to the English reader." So, I turned to a very familiar verse John 3:16 and read:
"For God so loved the world that He gave His only begotten Son, that everyone who believes into Him would not perish, but would have eternal life."
That sounds pretty good. Whoa... wait a minute. Let's reread that. "that everyone who believes into Him..." Now, what does that mean?

Ok, so now I'm officially suspicious. Where did this "new testament" come from? Who published it? It was distributed by "Bibles for America," but I have never heard of them before. But there is another reference... "Living Stream Ministry" But I've never heard of that before either. But then I got a real big clue. In the front of this "new testament" it is written, "outline, footnotes, charts, and references written by: Witness Lee"

For all of you who do not know, Witness Lee is associated with a cult called "The Local Church," which was founded by Watchman Nee. It sounds thoroughly Christian... even on the website, the statement of faith sounds orthodox and true. But that is because they use the same words but change the meanings. When you really dig into what they really believe, you discover that there are some major problems with their teachings.

For example: The Doctrine of God
Their view: They believe in Modalism (Modalism is the teaching that holds that God is not really 3 distinct persons, but only one person who appears to people in different "modes" at different times).
The Truth: Modalism is heresy. God is indeed One God, but is revealed in 3 distinct persons, and has been since all eternity.

Another example: Doctrine of Jesus
Their view: God as a man; after the resurrection He became the Holy Spirit or the "Lord Spirit"
The Truth: Jesus was the God-Man, but he was still distinct from both God the Father and God the Spirit. Jesus did not turn into the Holy Spirit; He sent the Holy Spirit to His disciples, while even now He Himself is at the right hand of the Father in glory.


G. Richard Fisher, nicely sums it up in his article, "Watching Out for Watchman Nee"
http://www.apologeticsindex.org/n01.html

A few of the problems in Nee's teachings:

Nee outlines no method of Bible study and interpretation and appears to deny evangelical hermeneutics. In his book Spiritual Authority, he sets himself and his elders up as the unquestionable authorities. By all appearances, Nee saw himself not as a servant but as a guru.

One gets the impression from Nee that the Bible was not nearly as important as Christians generally consider it. In his book The Ministry of God's Word, Nee says, "Words alone cannot be considered God's Word." In this book, Nee becomes very philosophical, mystical and incoherent. He says that only as we deliver the Word in terms of the "reality behind it," using what he calls "Holy Spirit memory" and "presenting the pictures as well as speaking the words" will the words be correct; otherwise they are not real.

Nee overemphasizes emotions. In The Ministry of God's Word, he claims that the effectiveness of a preacher's delivery is a product of his emotions. If a preacher does not feel emotionally charged in delivery, "the Spirit is stuck" and the "Spirit is inevitably arrested," Nee says. He continues, "The Spirit flows through the channel of emotion." Then he arrives at a strange conclusion: "Nose in the Scripture stands for feeling. Smelling is a most delicate act, man's feeling is most delicate." Therefore, Nee says, a preacher in speaking needs to "mix feelings with the words spoken, else his words are dead. If our feeling lags behind, our words are stripped of the spirit." To say as Nee does, on page 210, that the Holy Spirit only rides on feeling is dangerous.

Nee uses terms imprecisely. One example is his writing about a minister's receiving "revelations" in his "Holy Spirit memory" and those revelations being remembered in us by the Holy Spirit. This sort of metaphysical mumbo jumbo is impossible to understand, since there is no direct scriptural reference to a "Holy Spirit memory."

When a Christian begins to see Nee as a guide in determining the value of other Christian writers, or sees Nee's writings as a key to spirituality, that person is headed for trouble. Nee's presuppositions are suspect in light of the Word of God. His books provide grist for cult groups such as The Way, The Alamo Foundation, the Children of God and other groups. The astute believer should watch out for Watchman Nee.