Referring to a number of verses, including 1 Corinthians 8:4 and Isaiah 45:5, Witness Lee emphasizes that God is one. We believe that by properly evaluating Witness Lee’s teaching, scholars will find a clear counterwitness to old misrepresentations of his ministry and a rich contribution to Trinitarian studies that is both orthodox and practical.Ī particularly concise yet substantial statement of Witness Lee’s Trinitarian orthodoxy can be found in Lesson 2, “The Triune God,” in volume one of Truth Lessons, 6 a series he developed for teaching biblical truth to new believers. We will then assess the charges of heresy against him, consider more finely his particular perspective concerning the Divine Trinity as an incorporation, and offer some concluding thoughts on his assertion that the truth concerning the Divine Trinity is not for mere doctrinal understanding but for the believers’ experience of the God who is triune. In what follows we will explore the foregoing matters in more detail, beginning with a brief presentation of Witness Lee’s orthodox Trinitarianism. Incorporation, therefore, maintains a proper and balanced understanding of how the three persons in the Godhead exist in relation to each other and act in relation to each other. Thus, when one person acts manifestly (e.g., the Son in His human living), He incorporates the operations of the other two in His distinct action, so that the eternal distinctions yet inseparable operations of the three are preserved in all that they are and do. Denoting mutual existence, mutual indwelling, and mutual operation, incorporation indicates a reality in the Godhead by which oneness and distinction are preserved both in the immanent existence and in the economic activity of the three persons. In his later ministry Witness Lee enriched the notion of coinherence by employing the term incorporation to describe the mutual indwelling of the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit and their working together as one. By affirming the coinherent relationships of the three, and by holding to their eternal coexistence, Witness Lee affirmed the essential oneness of the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit and their identifications with one another without compromising their eternal distinctions in the Godhead. 5 Furthermore, Witness Lee taught that the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit coexist eternally, indicating distinction among them, just as coinherence indicates their inseparability. What his critics do not recognize, or what they are unwilling to admit, is that Witness Lee upheld the orthodox understanding of coinherence (perichoresis), which, as Allan Coppedge defines it, is “the mutual indwelling of each person with the other” so that “when one member of the Trinity acts, the whole Godhead is involved.” 4 Coinherence is evident in the New Testament, and theologically the concept, if not the term, goes back at least as far as Athanasius (296-373). Some of those critics have since rescinded their earlier charges, but others have not, and old misrepresentations continue to flourish on the Internet and among intractable detractors who refuse to fairly evaluate Witness Lee’s ministry. 15:45 ), some early critics of his ministry charged him with heresy, or at least heterodoxy, claiming that the identifications destroy the eternal distinctions in the Godhead. 9:6) and the Lord, the resurrected Christ, with the Spirit (2 Cor. Because he affirmed the scriptural identifications of the Son with the Father (Isa. These excellencies, beauties, and virtues are seen in the divine coordination in the Godhead.” 3Īlthough Witness Lee consistently condemned modalism as heresy, he was at times accused of propounding a modalistic view of the Trinity. “The divine revelation of the divine economy,” he wrote, “shows us the Divine Trinity in all His excellencies, beauties, and virtues. In his view the simultaneous co-working of the three was a matter of transcendent beauty, and he imparted to his audiences a deep appreciation for the work of the Triune God to accomplish the divine intention according to what He is in His Trinity. Affirming the orthodox understanding that there are “three persons in the Godhead,” 1 he taught that the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit are eternally “distinct but inseparable” 2 hypostases who operate indivisibly, yet still distinctly, to carry out the divine economy in time. In a ministry that spanned seven decades, Witness Lee (1905-1997) consistently taught that the God of Scripture is the Triune God. In the Teaching of Witness Lee Introduction
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