| Endnotes. |
2"There may be as many as 30 million Christians in China today. . . " Jim Falkenberg, "A Word on the Word", in The Quiet Miracle, Vol. 63, No. 2 (Mar. 1985) p. 2. Compare G. Thompson Brown, Christianity in the People's Republic of China, (Atlanta: John Knox Press, 1983) p. 178. Also, "The respected Chinese Church Research Center in Hong Kong claims that house-church members. . . total to 30 million an more. Privately, some Chinese officials say the figure is closer to 20 million. "A Church in Crisis Weeps and Prays", Time Magazine, Vol. 124 No. 12 (Sept.17,1984) p. 74.
3". . . now even conservative estimates range between 30 and 50 million." C. Peter Wagner, On The Crest of the Wave: Becoming a World Christian, (Ventura, CA: Regal Books A Division of GL Publications, 1983) p.30. Winter says, "In China the staggering truth is clearer every day: despite intense opposition. . .Christians have grown from one or two million to easily 50 million." Ralph D. Winter, "About You," (Pasadena, CA: U.S. Center for World Mission, 1983) p. 2. One has to suspect that this figure is exaggerated. However, the fact that scholars are making these statements certainly point to breath-taking growth.
4Bohr says that there were 750,000 Protestant Chinese Christians. This figure is apparently based on formal church membership, which may overlook some converts involved in informal types of fellowship. He also says that there were over 3 million Catholics, although much of this is to be discounted because of the Catholic practice of counting as Catholics all those who have been baptized Catholic. Since no adult decision is implied, the number claimed by the Catholic church is often unrelated to the number actually attending mass with some regularity. Richard Bohr, "State Religion in China Today: Christianity's Future in a Marxist Setting," Missiology: An International Review, Vol. XI, No. 3 (July 1983) p. 321,323 WCE allows 1,200,000 Protestants in the year 1900! These figures are impossible to reconcile. World Christian Encyclopedia, David B. Barrett Editor, p. 231. Winter allows 1-2 million true believers in 1949. See note #3 above. Wagner holds for "fewer than 1 million" authentic believers in 1949. C. Peter Wagner, On The Crest of the Wave, p. 30.
5This figure is even more difficult to ascertain with certainty. We will probably never know how many Christians were killed in this modern holocaust. According to Judith Banister, Chief of the Chinese Branch of the U.S. Bureau of the Census, "More people died in China during the period of the Great Leap forward than in all the battles of First World War, or the holocaust of Europe's Jews, or the Soviet Collectivization and Stalin's terror." Ansley of The National Academy of Sciences and Princeton University says that "about 27 million" died. Both quoted in Carl Lawrence, The Church in China: How It Survives and Prospers Under Communism, (Minneapolis: Bethany House Publishers, 1985) pp. 31ff. It is not known how many of these were Christians, but it is clear that a significant percentage of them were.
6Lin Huo-ping (Peace Lin) of Foochow, born in 1880, died in 1950. Angus I. Kinnear, Against the Tide: The Story of Watchman Nee, p. x.
7According to Cheung, she was, ". . . always harsh and severe," and administered many beatings to Nee for his frequent mischievous pranks. James Mo-Oi Cheung, The Ecclesiology of the "Little Flock" of China Founded by Watchman Nee, (Deerfield Ill: Unpublished Thesis for Trinity Evangelical Divinity School, 1970) p. 1,2.
8Angus I. Kinnear, Against the Tide: The Story of Watchman Nee, pp. 33,36.
9Lee Ming Ng, "Christianity and Nationalism in China," East Asia Journal of Theology, Vol. 1 No. 1, (Spring, 1983) p. 71.
10Angus I. Kinnear, Against the Tide: The Story of Watchman Nee, p. 18.
11Lee Ming Ng, "Christianity and Nationalism in China," East Asia Journal of Theology, Vol. 1 No. 1 (Spring, 1983): p. 72.
12David H. Adeney, China: The Church's Long March, (Ventura, CA.: Regal Books, 1985) p. 38. Compare Angus I. Kinnear, Against the Tide: The Story of Watchman Nee, p.
13P. Richard Bohr, "State Religion in China Today: Christianity's Future in a Marxist Setting," Missiology: An International Review, Vol. XI, No. 3 (July 1983) pp. 323, 324.
14Angus I. Kinnear, Against the Tide: The Story of Watchman Nee, pp.
15P. Richard Bohr, "State Religion in China Today: Christianity's Future in a Marxist Setting," Missiology: An International Review, Vol. XI, No. 3 (July 1983) p. 321.
16Angus I. Kinnear, Against the Tide: The Story of Watchman Nee, p. 26.
17"While it failed to usher in a strong and unified country, the 1911 Revolution. . . created the objective conditions in which nationalism could thrive." Lee Ming Ng, "Christianity and Nationalism in China," East Asia Journal of Theology, Vol. 1 No. 1 (Spring, 1983): p. 72.
18Lee Ming Ng, "Christianity and Nationalism in China," East Asia Journal of Theology, Vol. 1 No. 1 (Spring, 1983): p. 74.
19Lee Ming Ng, "Christianity and Nationalism in China," East Asia Journal of Theology, Vol. 1 No. 1 (Spring, 1983): p.76. We will see that Nee possessed some of these same characteristics, and brought them into Christian theology.
20"While suspicious of religion generally, the emperors were particularly wary of Christianity, which they viewed as potentially subversive because of its ties to the foreigners." P. Richard Bohr, "State Religion in China Today: Christianity's Future in a Marxist Setting," Missiology: An International Review, Vol. XI, No. 3 (July 1983) p.322.
21As Wang Ching Wei, one of the leading opponents of Christianity put it, ". . . it (Christianity) is the wedge of foreign influence driven into our country by foreign money and organization, controlled by foreign personnel and backed by foreign governments." Lee Ming Ng, "Christianity and Nationalism in China," East Asia Journal of Theology, Vol. 1 No. 1 (Spring, 1983): p. 80,81.
22During the early 20's, ". . . he had no set theory, only an indignation against foreign exploitation, the heritage of his generation." Han Suyin (pseud.), The Morning Deluge: Mao Tsetung and the Chinese Revolution, 1893-1954, (Boston, Little, Brown, 1973) p. 33.
23During the early 20's, ". . . he had no set theory, only an indignation against foreign exploitation, the heritage of his generation." Han Suyin,(pseud.) The Morning Deluge, p. 33.
24It is interesting to note that there is very little biographical material available that deals directly with Nee. The definitive biography (and the only complete biography that I have found) is Angus Kinnear's excellent work, Against the Tide. A much shorter summary appears in Norman H. Cliff, "Watchman Nee-- Church Planter and Preacher of Holiness," Evangelical Review of Theology, Vol.8 No. 2 (Oct. 1984). Otherwise, there has been much more interest in Nee's doctrine than in his ministry.
25James Mo-Oi Cheung, The Ecclesiology of the "Little Flock" p. 2.
26Angus I. Kinnear, Against the Tide: The Story of Watchman Nee, p.37-41
27Angus I. Kinnear, Against the Tide: The Story of Watchman Nee, pp. 2-84. Norman H. Cliff, "Watchman Nee-- Church Planter and Preacher of Holiness," Evangelical Review of Theology, Vol. 8 No. 2 (Oct. 1984): pp. 290-291. A stirring example of one of his experiences during this period can be found in his own words in Watchman Nee, Sit Walk Stand, (Fort Washington, PA: Christian Literature Crusade, 1957) pp. 57-64.
28Cheung comments on the contrast between the vigor and wealth of the Little Flock churches compared to the weakness and dependence of the other mission churches. "The secret in Nee's success lay in his emphasis in the deepening of the believers' spiritual life and the intensive training in the Word of God." James Mo-Oi Cheung, The Ecclesiology of the "Little Flock" p. 5.
29James Mo-Oi Cheung, The Ecclesiology of the "Little Flock" p. 4.
30Angus I. Kinnear, Against the Tide: The Story of Watchman Nee, pp. 85-160
31II Thess. 3:8 Kinnear thinks that Nee was also stimulated by the business world, and that this played a part in his decision. Angus I. Kinnear, Against the Tide: The Story of Watchman Nee, pp. Cliff sees this period as a clear breech on Nee's part of his own teaching on church finance. However, he does not explain his reasoning, and I am more inclined to agree with Kinnear that it was in harmony with his teaching in Concerning our Missions. See Norman H. Cliff, "Watchman Nee-- Church Planter and Preacher of Holiness," Evangelical Review of Theology, Vol.8 No. 2 (Oct. 1984):p. 294
32According to Chua Wee Hian, in one of the early episodes of migration evangelism, seventy families went into northwest China and thirty went into northeast China in 1930. He says that these families had planted over 40 local churches by 1944. Chua Wee Hian, "Evangelization of Whole Families," in Perspectives on the World Christian Movement: A Reader, Ralph D. Winter, Editor
33Cliff says that several strong communities were established in unreached areas of the northern provinces through this tactic. Norman H. Cliff, "Watchman Nee-- Church Planter and Preacher of Holiness," Evangelical Review of Theology, Vol.8 No. 2 (Oct. 1984) p. 294.
34Kinnear provides a copy of his last letter, along with a translation. Angus I. Kinnear, Against the Tide: The Story of Watchman Nee, pp.160ff and 237-238.
35Of the four libraries checked by this author, (including the microfilm card files of the entire Columbus, Ohio Municipal Library) only one contained any biographical works on Watchman Nee.
36Nee apparently had tuberculosis during most of his ministry. Norman H. Cliff, "Watchman Nee-- Church Planter and Preacher of Holiness," Evangelical Review of Theology, Vol. 8 No. 2 (Oct. 1984): p. 291.
37Norman H. Cliff, "Watchman Nee-- Church Planter and Preacher of Holiness," Evangelical Review of Theology, Vol.8 No. 2 (Oct. 1984): p. 290.
38Watchman Nee, The Normal Christian Church Life, (Washington: International Students Press,1969) p. 72.
39Watchman Nee, The Normal Christian Church Life, pp.97-111 This work was originally published under the title "On the State of Our Missions" in Chinese. Nee wrote a preface to the book expressing his reluctance to issue an English translation. He said that he would prefer having a book published which "better represents my ministry". He added that he dreaded "those who agree and would use it as a manual for service" far more than "those who oppose and would use it as a chart for attack," p. 6. Ironically, just as he feared, this book has been used by Witness Lee to substantiate his doctrine of "Locality". Although the book contains much that is useful, the reader must remember that Nee was struggling with how to set up the church in China (which often had no existing churches in a given locality), not with how to reorganize American Christianity. See the critique of Nee's doctrine below.
40Very early in Nee's career while still with a student group in Shanghai, he had shown his unwillingness to compromise on these issues, "Nee and Leland Wang clashed, the former strongly opposing the need for ordination or for Christian workers to receive fixed salaries. Nee was asked to discontinue fellowshipping with these Christians." Norman H. Cliff, "Watchman Nee-- Church Planter and Preacher of Holiness," Evangelical Review of Theology, Vol.8 No. 2 (Oct. 1984): p. 290.
41James Mo-Oi Cheung, The Ecclesiology of the "Little Flock" p. 6.
42Norman H. Cliff, "Watchman Nee-- Church Planter and Preacher of Holiness," Evangelical Review of Theology, Vol.8 No. 2 (Oct. 1984): p. 291.
43Angus I. Kinnear, Against the Tide: The Story of Watchman Nee, pp. 151,152.
44"It is a shameful thing to profess to trust in God and yet play pauper, disclosing one's needs and provoking others to pity." Watchman Nee, The Normal Christian Church Life, p. 105.
45The example above (note # 31) illustrates this well. Nee actually advocates lying for the sake of integrity! note p.104. In another incident, Nee refused to explain his own actions during the war (because he believed it was vainglorious to defend one's self when under attack), and as a result, was thrown out of the church! Angus I. Kinnear, Against the Tide: The Story of Watchman Nee, pp. 165-166.
46For example Watchman Nee, The Normal Christian Life, (Wheaton, ILL: Tyndale House Publishers, Inc, 1957) p. 66 on "reckon" and numerous other vocabulary and textual notes in the same work.
47Angus I. Kinnear, Against the Tide: The Story of Watchman Nee, p. 153.
48Angus I. Kinnear, Against the Tide: The Story of Watchman Nee, p. 110. He also noted that he heard Nee say that he got through the New Testament once a month.
49Angus I. Kinnear, Against the Tide: The Story of Watchman Nee, p. 111.
50Leslie T. Lyall, Flame For God: John Sung and Revival in the Far East, (London: Overseas Missionary Fellowship,1954) p. 164.
51Cited in James Mo-Oi Cheung, The Ecclesiology of the "Little Flock" p. 6. The statement was changed after 1931, and dropped the anti-rational portion. However, see his comment in 1948 that, "We cannot dissect divine facts and outline and systematize them. It is only the immature Christian who demands always to have intellectually satisfying conclusions." Watchman Nee, What Shall This Man Do? (Fort Washington, Pennsylvania: Christian Literature Crusade, 1967), p. 8.
52"Spiritual inertia was never in fact a feature of the `little Flock' work. If some groups. . . made Bible study their first exercise, most were very vigorous indeed in their evangelistic witness and outreach. They supported it too with imaginative follow-up of converts." Angus I. Kinnear, Against the Tide: The Story of Watchman Nee, p. 156.
53Cliff's attempt to divide Nee's teaching career up into three stages is not successful in my mind. The influences that Cliff says were present later, such as Keswick, were also present earlier. One wonders whether Cliff is not confusing different periods in Nee's ministry with different translators and publishers of his sermons. These tend to coincidentally follow a rough chronological correspondence-- the Little Flock group in New York publishing the later sermons. Norman H. Cliff, "Watchman Nee-- Church Planter and Preacher of Holiness," Evangelical Review of Theology, Vol.8 No. 2 (Oct. 1984).
54Angus I. Kinnear, Against the Tide: The Story of Watchman Nee, p.81.
55 See a ringing denunciation by Ranald McCauley and Jerram Barrs in Being Human: The Nature of Spiritual Experience, (Downers Grove, ILL: Inter-Varsity Press, 1978) pp. 44ff. with notes. What they call neo-platonism is actually neo-Chinese-ism. They also exaggerate and unfairly quote Nee, taking several of the statements cited out of context. They fail to adequately explain why, if an inner man- outer man dichotomy is so bad, does Paul use the same language. It is clear that Nee's objectionable language is not coming from Plato at all, but from Romans 7, and IICorinthians 4. It is also quite clear that in several cases Nee's Chinese word for "self-willed," or "stubborn," is translated "reason". While I cannot speak to the translation issue involved, a study of the context in Release of the Spirit, and Normal Christian Worker, will confirm that there is a translation difficulty, because the word "reason" is non-sensical in context.
56He said that Spiritual Man was too dogmatic and systematized, and that Concerning Our Missions was liable to distortion. See note # 27 above and Watchman Nee, The Normal Christian Life, (Wheaton, ILL: Tyndale House Publishers, Inc, 1957)p. .
57 Not a single audio tape or movie of Nee has surfaced.
58Cliff and Kinnear both noticed this trend. Norman H. Cliff, "Watchman Nee-- Church Planter and Preacher of Holiness," Evangelical Review of Theology, Vol.8 No. 2 (Oct. 1984)pp.293,294 and Angus I. Kinnear, Against the Tide: The Story of Watchman Nee, pp. 180,181.
59 Witness Lee has founded the `Local Church' movement, which according to Cliff, is
"exclusive and traveling a different doctrinal path to that of Nee." Norman H.
Cliff, "Watchman Nee-- Church Planter and Preacher of Holiness," Evangelical
Review of Theology, Vol.8 No. 2 (Oct. 1984), p. 295. However, Cheung fails to see this
distinction. He even thinks that Witness Lee can be studied in order to discover Nee's
views on ecclesiology. But this overlooks important differences, particularly in the area
of ecclesiology. Lee took the mild tendency of Nee to allegorize Scripture to such radical
extremes that little if anything of Nee can be learned from studying Lee. Even Cheung
admits that Lee's teaching on the kingdom is heretical. James Mo-Oi Cheung, The
Ecclesiology of the "Little Flock" p. 15.
Other off-shoots are not as radical. "A group of assemblies formed by his colleague
Stephen Kaung on the east coast of the USA has been cooperative with all evangelical
causes, retaining the best elements in Nee's teaching." Norman H. Cliff,
"Watchman Nee-- Church Planter and Preacher of Holiness," Evangelical Review
of Theology, Vol.8 No. 2 (Oct. 1984), p. 295. This author met Stephen Kaung in 1972.
He was a stirring speaker, deeply committed to the cause of Jesus Christ, but also seemed
somewhat legalistic and authoritarian. Again, these tendencies are not striking at all in
a Confucian society.
In India, Bok Sing continues to lead a vigorous revival, but with some of the same
shortcomings mentioned above.
60Norman H. Cliff, "Watchman Nee-- Church Planter and Preacher of Holiness," Evangelical Review of Theology, Vol.8 No. 2 (Oct. 1984): p. 291. He does not explain how these figures were arrived at.
61 Ecumenical Press Service, Geneva, 22 November 1957).quoted in Angus I. Kinnear, Against the Tide: The Story of Watchman Nee, p. 254.
62James Mo-Oi Cheung, The Ecclesiology of the "Little Flock" p. 5, 14.
63David H. Adeney, China: The Church's Long March, (Ventura, CA.: Regal Books, 1985) pp. 146-148 These words would have pleased Nee.
64Norman H. Cliff, "Watchman Nee-- Church Planter and Preacher of Holiness," Evangelical Review of Theology, Vol.8 No. 2 (Oct. 1984):p.296. Compare Liao, "Nee led an indigenous Brethren Church movement which seemed at first an avowed rival to the established mission-related churches, but Nee's strong emphasis on evangelical doctrines and returning to biblical Christianity proved to be beneficial to all Chinese Christians. World Christianity: Eastern Asia Vol. 2 David C. E. Liao editor, (Monrovia, CA: Missions Advanced Research and Communication Center, 1979) p. 42.
65Cliff also points out that Nee's influence has been considerable outside of China, especially in the Catholic Charismatic Movement, and the so-called "shepherding movement" associated with Mumford and others. His books are also, according to Cliff, being studied regularly in mainline Churches in the USA, including Methodist, Lutheran, and Baptist churches. According to Enroth, Ericson, and Peters, the so-called "Jesus Movement", read Nee as on of their few extra-Biblical sources. Norman H. Cliff, "Watchman Nee-- Church Planter and Preacher of Holiness," Evangelical Review of Theology, Vol. 8 No. 2 (Oct. 1984): pp. 294,295.
66Norman H. Cliff, "Watchman Nee-- Church Planter and Preacher of Holiness," Evangelical Review of Theology, Vol. 8 No. 2 (Oct. 1984): p. 295.
67Angus I. Kinnear, Against the Tide: The Story of Watchman Nee, p. There is no evidence that either Chou or Mao ever met or knew Nee.
68Wendell Flory, "A History of the Brethren Involvement in China," Brethren Life and Thought, Vol. 11 No.4 (Autumn 1966): pp. 33-48. Flory's tone is wistful and melancholic. He openly wonders how much good the Brethren did in China.
69 See section # 2 above.
70David H. Adeney, China: The Church's Long March, p. 228.
71Angelo S. Lazzarotto, "The Chinese Communist party and Religion," Missiology: An International Review, Vol. XI, No. 3 (July 1983) p.
72"Material for Oral Propagation Concerning Endorsement of the Municipal People's Government Religious Affairs Bureau's Curb on Lin Xiangao's Illegal Activities", quoted in David H. Adeney, China: The Church's Long March, pp. 228-229 (emphasis mine). The goal of church unity, (understood not as the unity of the Spirit, but as organizational unity), is also cited as justification for doctrinal compromise and repression of freedoms in many of these statements.
73 Interestingly, this posture is not new with Mao, but is in harmony with Chinese tradition: "Since the beginning of imperial times, over 2,000 years ago, religion was to be subordinate to the state. . . The government remained watchful because, aside from Taoism, China's major religions had all been imported,. . . These include Buddhism, Islam and Judaism (which) became largely Sinicized. Christianity, unfortunately, remained the most foreign of China's religions." P. Richard Bohr, "State Religion in China Today: Christianity's Future in a Marxist Setting," Missiology: An International Review, Vol. XI, No. 3 (July 1983) p. 322.
74Angus I. Kinnear, Against the Tide: The Story of Watchman Nee, p. 191.
75Angus I. Kinnear, Against the Tide: The Story of Watchman Nee, p. 188.
76See Wendell Flory, "A History of the Brethren Involvement in China," Brethren Life and Thought, Vol. 11 No. 4 (Autumn 1966): p. 46. He felt that the Brethren churches were definitely correct to join the TSPM. Some of Nee's former co-workers have also joined, and a few are quite high up in the organization. See Norman H. Cliff, "Watchman Nee-- Church Planter and Preacher of Holiness," Evangelical Review of Theology, Vol. 8 No. 2 (Oct. 1984): p. 296.
77Angus I. Kinnear, Against the Tide: The Story of Watchman Nee, p. 182-183.
78This is the argument in The Quiet Miracle, Vol.63, No.2 (Mar. 1985). The TSPM church itself is basically the product of appeasement and compromise with the government.
79David Rausch, Legacy Of Hatred, Why Christians Should Not Forget The Holocaust, (Chicago: The Moody Bible Institute of Chicago, 1984), pp. 163-169 Rausch demonstrates that the church in Germany was later deeply embarrassed by its willingness to look away from the exploitation of an un- godly government.
80Watchman Nee, The Normal Christian Church Life, p. 70.
81"Decisions Regarding the Safeguarding of Normal Religious Activity" Adopted on March 29, 1982 by Yunnan Province TSPM/China Christian Council, quoted in David H. Adeney, China: The Church's Long March, p. 230 (emphasis mine).
82P. Richard Bohr, "State Religion in China Today: Christianity's Future in a Marxist Setting," Missiology: An International Review, Vol. XI, No. 3 (July 1983) p. 338-339.