Would I Have Stood With Watchman Nee?

The accounts we heard in Sunday’s message should have been very sobering to all of us. It’s so easy to read of all the troubles that Jesus said would come on this earth before He returns, and tend to think it will be somewhere, but not here… sometime, but not in my lifetime. So we don’t prepare, and we’re not on guard. We can even see it happening today, but somewhere else in the world, and think, “See there. See them. That’s God’s Word being fulfilled. Glad it’s there, and not here.” The warning cry is going out… “Yes, it WILL happen HERE!” We NEED to prepare… NOW!

I was especially sobered by the account of the persecution of Watchman Nee, the Chinese church leader, back in the 1950’s. Most of today’s younger generation had probably never heard of Watchman Nee before. I knew of some of the books he had written, but have never read any of them, and really didn’t know anything about his life, or his ministry, or his persecution. I wanted to know more, so I did a little research, and found this summary on Wikipedia: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Watchman_Nee

There is the account of his arrest on false charges in 1952; the 12 days of accusation meetings in 1956; his excommunication; his imprisonment and death; and probably most disturbing of all… the betrayal by many of his co-workers in the church, under threat from the government. His friends and co-workers faced a very grim choice. Either join Nee’s accusers… or face great loss, or beatings, or imprisonment, or even death.

Would I have stood with Watchman Nee?

I have read just enough about him to know that he was a very humble, dedicated servant of Christ… with a great understanding of what it means to be crucified and risen with Christ. His “Little Flock” movement is considered the beginning of the thousands of house churches now in China. But I’m pretty sure, that if I read all his writings, I could find some teachings that are contrary to what I’ve been taught. After all, John Nelson Darby, the founder of the denomination Nee came from, is credited with originating the pre-tribulation rapture theory back in the 1830’s; and taught that natural Israel would be grafted back in by God’s grace, apart from the Church. (Strange new doctrines at the time.)

Some might justify standing up against Watchman Nee at the accusation meetings, and saying, “Well, I’m not saying he’s guilty of bribery, or tax evasion, or theft; but he’s leading people astray with his heresy, so he needs to be stopped. I vote we excommunicate him. If he has to go to prison, too… oh, well.” Would I stand with, or against, a soldier of the gospel, a dear brother in Christ, if he preached something contrary to the revelation I had? (I know this is not an easy question, with an easy answer. It honestly makes me uncomfortable.) Would I see him as a member of my own body, even as we both are of Christ’s body?

It so happens that Watchman Nee’s vision of the Body of Christ had also gotten him excommunicated years earlier. The denomination he had been associated with, called the Exclusive Brethren, isolated themselves from other denominations, and had a ban on celebrating communion with other Christians, based in part on 2 Corinthians 6:14-18 (Be ye separate.) In 1935, when it was found out that Nee had worshipped with non-Brethren Christians when he had visited the U.K. and the United States, the Exclusive Brethren leaders excommunicated him.

Would I have stood with Watchman Nee?

For each of us… OUR day will come. There will be another Watchman Nee, and another chance to stand, or betray. We’ll each have to make a choice, and either way, it WILL cost us. The day of the Lord will surely come. Are we prepared to stand?

I can’t help but think of Jesus’ words to the scribes and Pharisees, “[Ye] say, If we had been in the days of our fathers, we would not have been partakers with them in the blood of the prophets.” (Matthew 23:30 KJV) It looks so easy, till that day actually comes, and you don’t recognize it.