The Lord's recovery
The recovery of the Lord ( Chinese 主 的 恢復 / 主 的 恢复 , Pinyin zhǔ de huīfù , English The Lord's Recovery ) is a theological term that goes back to Watchman Nee and Witness Lee . It denotes both a current in the Chinese house church movement and fundamental theological statements of this current, which is important for Chinese Protestantism. “Recovery” describes the claim to have regained early Christian truths in local churches , among other things , which have been lost since the 1st century due to the decline of the (early Christian) community. Nee and Lee have further “recoveries” associated with the Reformation since Martin Luther . The associated ideas were important for the development of an independent Chinese Protestantism and its nationwide cohesion.
background
Chinese Protestants did not begin to achieve major missionary successes until the beginning of the 20th century, particularly in Henan and Hunan . In order to counter the persecution by nationalists and representatives of a rationalist worldview, they tried to sinize Christianity. Watchman Nee's evangelical church planting, which spread throughout China in the 1920s, was marked by a thoroughly xenophobic attitude. The theology of recovery is regarded as an expression of a specifically Chinese Protestantism and a tradition of secret Christian practice that is separate from the official three-self church system. In Whenzhou , she has close ties with Christian entrepreneurs who support and promote the local house churches .
Recovery theology emphasizes the unity of “the community” across provincial and regional boundaries. Formal and theologically there are parallels to the Brethren movement , the charismatic movement - which is why their followers as a shouter ( "screamer" are referred to) - and to a lesser extent, to the Pentecostal movement . However, it is more heterodox and was banned as a sect by the regime in 1995; the traditional parishes also view them suspiciously. Recovery theology has worked beyond China.
The corresponding Bible translation, the recovery version , is banned in China. In 2002, shortly before George W. Bush was on a state visit to China, a Hong Kong businessman , Li Guangqiang, was arrested for trying to smuggle several thousand Bibles into China. It was not the Bible texts as such that were controversial, but Lee's extensive commentaries, which sometimes massively attack other denominations.
The principle of recovery
Witness Lee taught that God constantly "goes forward" to build something. If it is damaged by Satan, God will go first a second time to "regain" what has been lost. This happened first in creation. After God created heaven and earth in the beginning ( Gen 1,1 ELB ), the earth became "desolate and empty" ( Gen 1,2 ELB ), which indicates that something of the original creation has been lost. In six days heaven and earth were then "regained" by "God moving over the surface of the waters". Likewise, the Jewish temple of Solomon was built, then destroyed and then "recovered" when the Jewish remnant returned from Babylon to Jerusalem (cf. the books of Ezra and Nehemiah ).
historical overview
According to Lee, although there were “recoveries” even before the Reformation, the “recovery of the Lord” begins mainly with Martin Luther's doctrine of justification by faith alone . It continues with the Anabaptists who baptized those who were justified by faith, with John Calvin , to whom the Presbyterian Church goes back, Philipp Jakob Spener , who introduced his followers into the practice of 1 Cor 14 ELB , Christian David , Nicholas Ludwig von Zinzendorf and the Moravian Brothers, who were the first to begin evangelizing worldwide, and other forerunners. Nee and Lee saw themselves as beneficiaries of these "recoveries" and believed they were part of their sequel.
Others who are considered part of the "regaining of the Lord" are Johann Arndt , Theodore Austin-Sparks , Bernhard von Clairvaux , Jakob Böhme , Peter Böhler , Brother Lawrence (Nicholas Herman), George Henry Lang , Dwight Lyman Moody , Charles Haddon Spurgeon , William Tyndale , John Wyclif , Aiden Wilson Tozer, and many others.
Web links
Individual evidence
- ↑ a b Michael Dillon: Contemporary China , Routledge, Abingdon 2008, p. 111.
- ↑ Watchman Nee: What Are We? Living Stream Ministry, Anaheim 1991, p. 5.
- ↑ a b c d Sabine Dabringhaus : History of China in the 20th Century , CH Beck, Munich 2009, p. 60f.
- ↑ Alexander Chow: Theosis, Sino-Christian Theology and the Second Chinese Enlightenment: Heaven and Humanity in Unity , Palgrave Macmillan 2013.
- ↑ Nathan Faries: The "Inscrutably Chinese" Church: How Narratives and Nationalism Continue to Divide Christianity , Lexington Books 2010, p. 35
- ^ Robert Murray Thomas: Religion in Schools: Controversies Around the World , Greenwood Publishing Group 2006, pp. 99-104.
- ^ Diana Roberts: Understanding Watchman Nee: The Newest Book on Watchman Nee , 1981.
- ↑ Jesus Is Back, and She's Chinese. A bizarre religious sect is preying on China's rural Christian congregations , TIME Asia , November 5, 2001.
- ↑ The Lord's Recovery - Reformation History ( Memento of the original from June 3, 2002 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice.
- ↑ The Lord's Recovery - Post-Reformation History and Recovery ( Memento of the original from December 9, 2002 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was automatically inserted and not yet checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice.
- ↑ Watchman Nee: What Are We? Living Stream Ministry, Anaheim 1991, pp. 5-19.
- ↑ James Reetzke: Biographical Sketches: A Brief History of the Lord's Recovery , Chicago Bibles and Books, Chicago 2003.
- ↑ James Reetzke: Biographical Sketches: A Brief History of the Lord's Recovery, Chicago Bibles and Books, Chicago 2003, pp. 3f.
