From the Life-Study of 1 & 2 Chronicles - How Did Watchman Nee & Witness Lee Take a Stand For the Truth?

     It’s not easy to take a stand.  Especially when you’re being mowed down by people’s ridicule. In chapter seven of the Life-Study of 1 & 2 Chronicles, Ezra, and Nehemiah Witness Lee shares about a time when his coworker Watchman Nee took a stand for the truth concerning the assurance of salvation. 

Out on a trail with our grandkids

     He relates that when the missionaries first came to China, they did an excellent job translating the Bible, preaching the gospel, and teaching the Chinese people.  But they didn’t make the matter of the assurance of salvation very clear. 

     That might be surprising to you because about a hundred years have passed, and today this truth is very clear, largely in part because this truth was published in the booklet The Assurance, Security, & Joy of Salvation. 

     But I read that back in the early 1900s the missionaries laughed at Watchman Nee when he shared that believers can have the assurance of salvation.  They thought he was proud to say that people could have this certainty. Because of Watchman Nee’s speaking though, thousands of Chinese people believed this truth.  And today millions of Christians all over the world have been blessed by the stand he took. Witness Lee states that since that time several other truths have been recovered, like the truth concerning the New Jerusalem.  I learned on pages 46-47 of chapter 7 of the Life-Study of 1 & 2 Chronicles that Witness Lee's speaking on this matter was influenced by other men of God:

Very few Bible teachers have written anything about the spiritual significance of the New Jerusalem. Among these few are a German teacher from long ago named Tersteegen and our dear friend T. Austin-Sparks, whom I regard as the last of the inner-life teachers.  Like Tersteegen, T. Austin-Sparks saw that the New Jerusalem is not a physical city but a sign with a spiritual significance. Brother Sparks pointed out that the spiritual things concerning God, Christ, and the church are mysterious and that God uses signs to reveal the truth regarding such spiritual things. We took his word and still hold to it (Lee, Witness. Life-Study of 1& 2 Chronicles, Ezra, Nehemiah & Esther. Anaheim: Living Stream Ministry, 1995, Print).

     The first verse of Revelation even states that God made  things known to the Apostle John by signs.  And a lot of the meaning of the signs were even given to John by the Angel.  For instance, the seven lampstands refer to seven churches in Asia, and the Lamb signifies Christ as the Redeemer. Because of this, surely the last sign in this book which is the New Jerusalem  must also have spiritual significance. 

     So what does the New Jerusalem portray?  In chapter 13 he gives this awesome statement about the New Jerusalem: The consummation of the Bible is the New Jerusalem—divinity mingled with humanity. Divinity becomes the dwelling place of humanity and humanity becomes the home of divinity.  In this city the glory of God is manifested in man, brightly and splendidly (page 89).  In both the Life-Study of Revelation and  chapters 29-44 of God's New Testament Economy he speaks extensively on the spiritual meanings found in the New Jerusalem.  These writings have opened my husband's and my heart to understand a little bit more what the Apostle John was saying here. I'm really thankful that both of these men of God were faithful to stand for the truths that God made real to them! 

 You can listen to excerpts of Witness Lee's speaking the Life-Study of 1 & 2 Chronicles, Ezra, Nehemiah, & Esther on Life Study of the Bible with Witness Lee.   You can also read the online Life-Studies of these books and check out other resources available to enhance your study of the Bible on Living Stream Ministry's website.

Other Posts from the Life-Study of 1 & 2 Chronicles, Ezra, Nehemiah, & Esther:

From the Life-Study of 1 & 2 Chronicles - How did Watchman Nee & Witness Lee Take a Stand For the Truth?
From the Life-Study of 1 & 2 Chronicles - Why Did God Make Man in His Image?
From the Life-Study of Ezra - How God Used a Gentile King to Fulfill His Purpose
From the Life-Study of Ezra - Why Did Ezra Return to Jerusalem?
How Did God Use Nehemiah's Aggressiveness in Nehemiah 2:20?
Why Did Nehemiah Charge Ezra to Read the Bible to the People in Nehemiah 8:1-8?
What's Really Happening in the Story of Esther?

GF Old School Wackie Cake

This is a cake that was popular back in the day.  I remember this cake when I was in school.  For all I know we might have made the same cake that my daughter's home ec class made 20 years later!  Anyway I needed a quick cake today, and when I saw this recipe in my daughter's old home ec cookbook a few weeks ago, I decided to give it a try! 

My husband was my assistant, and I love it when we get to bake together because it doesn't happen that often.  He needs to have explicit step by step directions of what to do, so it takes a little more time, but definitely worth it.  

GF Wackie Cake - Serves 9

1.  Put the following ingredients into an 8 x 8 baking pan:
(1)  1 1/2 cups of gluten free flour
(2)  1 cup sugar (I used 3/4 cup)
(3)  1 teaspoon baking soda and 1/2 teaspoon of salt
(4)  3 tablespoons of cocoa

2.  Make four holes in the flour and then place in each hole: 
(1) Hole #1  6 tablespoons of olive oil (or the oil of your liking)
(2)  Hole #2  1 tablespoon of vinegar
(3)  Hole #3 1 teaspoon of vanilla
(4)  Hole #4 1 cup water

3.  Mix the dry ingredients thoroughly with the liquid ingredients by making figure 8's in the pan until everything is thoroughly mixed. 

4.  Bake in a 350 degree oven for 25-30 minutes.  Check with a toothpick to see if it is done.

5.  The recipe says you can frost it if you desire.  And that it's a good cake to make while camping and that you can cook it over the hot coals.  I might try that this summer.



Cakes:
Gluten Free German Apple Cake   (From my grandmother)
You Won't Believe It's Gluten Free Carrot Cake (From my daughter's husband's grandma--whew)
Judi's Super Moist Gluten Free Chocolate Cake    (From a church friend)
Judi's Gluten Free Orange Chiffon Cake    (From a church friend)
Marilyn's Spectacular Gluten Free Oatmeal Cake   (My mother-in-law's specialty!)
The Best Gluten Free Black Bottom Cupcakes   (From my Heritage School Cookbook)
Delicious Gluten Free Rhubarb Cake   (From my daughter-in-law's family reunion cookbook)
Grandma's Gluten Free Applesauce Cake   (From an Internet search--tastes like my grandma's!)
Old Fashioned Gluten Free Banana Cake   (From my grandmother)
Rosie's Gluten Free Pineapple Upside Down Cake   (From my daughter-in-law's family reunion cookbook)
Overwhelmed By Your Bumper Crop of Zucchini? Try Claudia's Gluten Free Chocolate Zucchini Cake!   (From my former neighbor Claudia of 12 years)
Scrumptious Gluten Free Blackberry Cake   (From a friend)
Decadent & Gluten Free German Chocolate Cake  (From my Come & Dine church cookbook)
Debbie's Delicious Hot Water GF Chocolate Cake   (From my Come & Dine cookbook)
Debbie's Less Oil Carrot Cake (Made Gluten Free!)   (From my Come & Dine cookbook)

Israel's Roller Coaster History in 1 & 2 Kings

   The history of the children of Israel is a lot like a roller coaster. Every time they plummeted, the Bible shows us it was because of their idolatry. I was thinking about this, and I wondered if it's because so many churches today are full of statues and pictures that this doesn't shock us so much anymore.  But it should because it's a big deal to God.  In fact, the first two commandments are concerned with idolatry:

     I am Jehovah your God, who brought you out of the land of Egypt, out of the slave house;
      You shall have no other gods before Me.
      You shall not make for yourself an idol, nor the form of anything that is in heaven above or on the earth beneath or in the water beneath the earth.
     You shall not bow down to them, and you shall not serve them; for I, Jehovah your God, am a jealous God,...     Exodus 20:2-5A

Family walk

     We know from the account in Exodus 32--which is the meanwhile back at the ranch account of what happened back in the camp when Moses was up on Mt. Sinai so long.  Aaron made a golden calf because  the children of Israel supposedly made him do it (See Exodus 32:23-24).  In one fell swoop the Israelites had broken God's law before they had even received it.  The footnote from my Recovery Version on verse   of this chapter is very enlightening. Aaron made this calf in the name of Jehovah, and he even offered offerings to it in the way God had ordained. 

    But I learned from my reading that this was a mixed up worship. We can see it in Exodus and then again in 1 Kings 12:25-33 when Jeroboam set up two calves in Bethel and Dan so the Israelites in the north wouldn't go back to Solomon's son King Rehoboam and worship in Jerusalem like God commanded.  He did all of this  because he didn't want to lose his kingdom.  And it says in verse 30 that those Israelites worshipped these calves. What were they thinking?!

     I learned from reading the Life-Study of Joshua, Judges & Ruth that the Israelites got ensnared by the nations that surrounded them in Canaan, and many of them fell into pagan idolatry. And it's not like God didn't warn them.  When Moses was speaking to the Israelites on the plains of Moab right before they entered Canaan, he told them:

     Beware that there is not among you any man or woman or family or tribe whose heart turns away, even today, from Jehovah our God, to go and serve the gods of those nations,...
     Indeed all the nations will say, 'Why has Jehovah done this to this land? Why the burning of this great  anger?
     And they will say, It is because they forsook the covenant of Jehovah, the God of their fathers, which He made with them, when He brought them out from the land of Egypt.
    ...And they went and served other gods and bowed down to them,...
     ...And Jehovah plucked them off their land in anger and in burning wrath and in great indignation, and sent them to another land, as they are this day.'   
                                             Deuteronomy 29: 18, 24-25A, 26A, 28

     So as I was reading the chapters in the Life-Study of 1 & 2 Kings It seemed like it was one roller coaster drop after another.  Some of those kings were so vile that God sent His enemies in to judge them.  And I learned that He also gave them prophets like Elijah, Elisha, Jeremiah, and Isaiah to warn them.  But just like us they didn't always listen to God.  And it seems even God had run out of ultimatums, and that's when God sent the Assyrians to capture the Northern Kingdom of Israel and later the Babylonians to take Southern Kingdom of Judah into captivity. 

    In chapter 23 of the Life-Study of 1 & 2 Kings Witness Lee says that of the 41 kings of Israel 30 were evil, and on page 157 Witness Lee points out that in the book of Jeremiah God tells His people that the root cause of their idolatry is that they forsook Him as the fountain of living waters (Jer. 2:13).  What I get from all of this is if I ever start to  feel dizzy by the world and other things claiming my heart's attention, it's time to get off! Because God doesn't want us to be on a roller coaster in our relationship with Him.

List of Other Posts on 1 & 2 Kings:

Taking a Look at Solomon's Prayer in 1 Kings 8:48
Elijah & the Showdown on Mt. Carmel in 1 Kings 17
How Does Elisha's Ministry Parallel the Lord's in the Gospels?