Truth Matters, Life Matters More: The Unexpected Beauty of an Authentic Christian Life

By Hank Hanegraaff

America’s Bible Answer Man contributes a treatise on the importance of absolute truth in a time of turmoil, doubt, and ambiguity. But after his own life-altering bout with cancer, longtime popular theologian and radio personality Hank Hanegraaff also affirms that theological truth is not the goal but rather a roadmap on the path to the ultimate truth of union with God.

Is there more to the Christian life than what you’re currently experiencing? 

Leading Christian apologist Hank Hanegraaff has dedicated his life to defending truth, because truth matters. However, his life and ministry were radically transformed by this three-word phrase: life matters more. 

In essence, Truth Matters, Life Matters More is two books in one. Because truth matters, part 1 explicates the essentials of the Christian faith in a memorable way to equip readers to communicate Christian truth. In part 2, Hank explains why life matters more and how we can experience the height of human existence—union with God. Simply put, the map is not the territory. The menu is not the meal. We cheat ourselves of unadulterated union with Christ when we elevate the message above the Messenger. 

Truth Matters, Life Matters More is a modern classic and the magnum opus of one of the great theological minds of our time. Prepare to discover the unexpected beauty of an authentic Christian life.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Open Road Integrated Media
• Release date: Nov 12, 2019
• ISBN: 9780785216117

Hank Hanegraaff

Hank Hanegraaff es presidente y moderador de la junta del Instituto Cristiano de Investigación, con sede en Carolina del Norte. También es el anfitrión de un programa nacional de radio que se escucha a diario en todo Estados Unidos y Canadá, y en el mundo entero por el portal equip.org de la Internet. Hank ha escrito más de veinte libros.  Considerado altamente como uno de los principales autores y apologistas cristianos, Hank está profundamente dedicado a la preparación de los cristianos para que estén tan familiarizados con la verdad, que cuando se presenten las falsificaciones en el horizonte, las puedan reconocer de inmediato. A través de su programa de llamadas en vivo, responde las preguntas a partir de una cuidadosa investigación y un razonamiento sólido, además de entrevistar a los líderes y pensadores más importantes del momento. 

Book preview

ADVANCED PRAISE FOR TRUTH MATTERS, LIFE MATTERS MORE

"Hank Hanegraaff’s Truth Matters, Life Matters More is a remarkable tapestry of vast historical and scriptural knowledge, woven from personal experience, chronicles of faith journeys, and marvelous spiritual insights that mesh to create more than a compendium of theology. Indeed, he pulls the strands together with deftness and devotion, such that they form a map, a sacred topography of the life in Christ. And as a good cartographer would do, Hanegraaff makes sure that the reader has all the keys and legends to read his map. He knows how to point the reader in all the right directions, but he also knows that it is grace that ‘will lead us home.’"

—FR. ALEX KARLOUTSOS, VICAR GENERAL OF THE GREEK ORTHODOX ARCHDIOCESE OF AMERICA

"Quoting from a wide range of sources, Hank Hanegraaff makes an impassioned case for calling the church back to her earliest roots in this book that is sure to stir and provoke any reader. Participation, union, and even the controversial word deification have been making a quiet comeback in the wake of more and more calls to broaden our collective understanding of what salvation entails. In this book, Hanegraaff wages a battle on two fronts. On the one hand, he wants to maintain that biblical truth matters. On the other hand, he insists that this truth is neither abstract nor impersonal, but a living truth because it is anchored in the living Christ. As someone passionately interested in recovering the reality of our union with Christ, I hope readers will thoughtfully engage with Hanegraaff’s challenging conclusions."

—RANKIN WILBOURNE, PASTOR OF PACIFIC CROSSROADS CHURCH LOS ANGELES AND AUTHOR OF UNION WITH CHRIST AND THE CROSS BEFORE ME

"As Hank has masterfully pointed out, ‘there can be no life without truth, but above all, no truth without life, deification is God’s greatest gift. It is the high peak truth of redemptive revelation.’ Hank elucidates this life-changing lesson revealing that ‘while truth is necessary, it is hardly sufficient. That the map is not the territory. That the menu is not the meal. That we must never mistake the cradle for its occupant. And that we are destined even now to experience life that is life to the full.’ This book will further allow us to take His life as source of our living, in our church life, for His satisfaction, to bring to light the Kingdom of God on earth."

—SAMUEL NEE, A FELLOW LOVER AND PARTAKER OF CHRIST, NEPHEW OF WATCHMAN NEE

In this moving and compelling book, Hank Hanegraaff recapitulates the apologetic themes that he has spent decades honing and defending—from human origins, to the reality of the resurrection, to the reliability of Scripture. But, more than that, he shows how this vital defense of truth must be part of the larger cause of uniting our life with the life of God. This is a theme that for too long has been missed by millions of believing Christians. Hank shows, with characteristic precision, how the traditional Christian idea of ‘deification’ is not some doubtful sidelight, but represents the culmination of the Christian life, and the source of Christian unity. Whether you’ve read all of Hank’s books, or none of them, I urge you to read this one.

—JAY RICHARDS, PH.D., O.P., ASSISTANT RESEARCH PROFESSOR AT THE CATHOLIC UNIVERSITY OF AMERICA, SENIOR FELLOW AT THE DISCOVERY INSTITUTE, EXECUTIVE EDITOR OF THE STREAM, AND A NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLING AUTHOR—HIS MANY BOOKS INCLUDE THE FORTHCOMING EAT, FAST, FEAST

"Truth Matters, Life Matters More is a cornucopia of good, nourishing things, the fruit of Hank’s many decades of reading, reflection, and prayer. His gift for taking in complex ideas, digesting them, and then presenting them to readers clearly and briefly make his latest book a wise companion and enjoyable friend."

—FREDERICA MATHEWES-GREEN, AUTHOR OF WELCOME TO THE ORTHODOX CHURCH: AN INTRODUCTION TO EASTERN CHRISTIANITY

This book portrays what the flower of a beautiful life looks like when it blossoms from the rich soil of Christian truth. The author is widely read and theologically astute in his articulation of selected doctrines of classical Christian faith. The book instructs, inspires, and bears witness to a godly life that blooms from our union with the Incarnate God.

—BRADLEY NASSIF, PH.D., PROFESSOR OF BIBLICAL AND THEOLOGICAL STUDIES, NORTH PARK UNIVERSITY, AND CO-EDITOR OF THE PHILOKALIA: A CLASSICAL TEXT OF ORTHODOX SPIRITUALITY

"Truth Matters, Life Matters More is an extraordinarily wise and thoughtful book, magnificent in its scope and inspiring in its presentation. From the way to detect counterfeit religions (and the importance of doing so) to the true meaning of the all-important but poorly understood Orthodox Christian concept of deification, Hank Hanegraaff brilliantly elucidates the pure joy of living a life in fidelity to truth, and to Truth Himself, the Author of all life. I thank God for my fellow Orthodox believer and for his unparalleled guide to the wonderful happiness of living as a Christian."

—ROBERT SPENCER, BESTSELLING AUTHOR OF THE POLITICALLY INCORRECT GUIDE TO ISLAM (AND THE CRUSADES) AND THE HISTORY OF JIHAD

"Hank Hanegraaff’s Truth Matters, Life Matters More is a wonderfully written reminder that we are made for more than merely knowing the truth about God—we are made to be Christ’s brothers and sisters, and the Father’s sons and daughters, through deification. This is a forgotten, deeply biblical truth that the early Christians well understood, and one that all Christians must recover."

—BENJAMIN WIKER, PH.D., AUTHOR OF MANY BOOKS INCLUDING A MEANINGFUL WORLD AND PROFESSOR OF POLITICAL SCIENCE AND DIRECTOR OF HUMAN LIFE STUDIES AT FRANCISCAN UNIVERSITY

Hanegraaff’s masterpiece guides us toward ultimate Truth in the context of Christ’s promise that He has come to give us life—deified life that is life to the full.

—NORRIS J. CHUMLEY, PH.D., AUTHOR AND EMMY AWARD-WINNING EXECUTIVE PRODUCER AND DIRECTOR, MYSTERIES OF THE JESUS PRAYER

"Truth Matters, Life Matters More details Hank Hanegraaff’s life journey from his childhood to the present day, a voyage guided by Providence. Hanegraaff rightly recognizes salvation as a step towards a higher state—deification—which is not a reality to be expressed conceptually but lived out through the transformation of our life in Christ, through the Holy Spirit, by means of the grace communicated in the Church by the sacraments and the personal practice of spiritual disciplines.

What makes Hanegraaff’s approach interesting is that it is not a theoretical presentation but a testimony of his personal journey. Though Hank’s reflections are rooted in personal experience, there is a clear desire for others to experience similar spiritual growth, exhibiting a youthful enthusiasm for evangelism. In traversing the stages of the long way that led him to True Life, he does not forget to pay homage to those who, often without knowing it, illumined his path.

—JEAN-CLAUDE LARCHET, PH.D., PH.D., PROFESSOR OF PHILOSOPHY IN A FRENCH LYCÉE IN STRASBOURG AND AUTHOR OF MANY BOOKS INCLUDING THE THEOLOGY OF ILLNESS

"My wife, Marsha, and I have known Hank and his family for over twenty-five years. We have traveled together, played golf, and experienced much time sharing our lives and the love of Christ. Years ago, Hank shared with me the revelation he received from Elijah Widjaja that ‘truth matters, but life matters more’ and the impact that statement has had on his life. Truth Matters, Life Matters More is a testament to the transformation of Hank’s life since that revelation. I learned from this book that my relationship with Jesus Christ means everything to me and the more I allow Him to fill my life with His presence, the more I become complete in Him. May you be blessed by the reading of this profound book."

—JACK COUNTRYMAN, VICE PRESIDENT AND PUBLISHER EMERITUS, THOMAS NELSON, HARPERCOLLINS CHRISTIAN PUBLISHING

The truth here is that salvation is so much greater than most people allow themselves to believe. We have been saved not only FROM sin, but FOR divine life. God has shared his inner life with us and made us partakers of his divine nature. This book tells how the Bible Answer Man arrived at the Bible’s most important answer.

—SCOTT HAHN, PH.D., CHAIR OF BIBLICAL THEOLOGY AND THE NEW EVANGELIZATION AT FRANCISCAN UNIVERSITY OF STEUBENVILLE

"Having appreciated Hank Hanegraaff’s writings for decades, I find Truth Matters, Life Matters More to be his most personal and engaging work to date. It features the disciplined attention to detail we expect from Hank, but also gives us reflections from a man who’s assessing the state of the modern church with a prophetic voice and a scholarly eye. Well worth reading."

—JOE DALLAS, AUTHOR OF SPEAKING OF HOMOSEXUALITY

"Long convinced that we are truly human becomings more than human beings, I welcome the arrival of Truth Matters, Life Matters More. Having known Hank for nearly forty years and having worked closely with him for a good number of those years, I can testify to the journey of deep personal transformation that this book chronicles—a journey that beckons all those who wish to truly follow Christ. Unwilling to surrender to the pscyhosclerosis (‘hardening of the categories’) that characterizes far too many Christians, Hank’s openness to the Spirit and his unquenchable thirst for truth have thankfully made him ‘paradigm pliable.’ Perhaps suggesting that truth is more a vital verb than a noetic noun, more a rushing river than a placid pond, this book provides fascinating insights into the enlarged and consequently enriched theological and existential perspectives possible when West meets East. This book will thrill many. It is also guaranteed to annoy and disturb others too settled and accustomed to seeing truth through the narrow chinks of their culturally conditioned intellectual and perspectival caverns. As with much of life, our reactions will reveal more about us, the readers, than the author. For those who have applauded and supported the work of this relentless defender and champion of biblical truth for decades, Truth Matters, Life Matters More is more than a spiritual milestone. It’s a cairn marking the path toward higher ground."

—LARRY F. JOHNSTON, PH.D., PRESIDENT, MCCONKEY/JOHNSTON INTERNATIONAL

Other Books by Hank Hanegraaff

Has God Spoken?

Memorable Proofs of the Bible’s Divine Inspiration

Resurrection

The FACE That Demonstrates the Farce of Evolution

The Creation Answer Book

Christianity in Crisis: 21st Century

Counterfeit Revival

The Prayer of Jesus: Secrets to Real Intimacy with God

The Covering: God’s Plan to Protect You from Evil

The Heart of Christmas

The Complete Bible Answer Book, Collector’s Edition

The Apocalypse Code: Find Out What the Bible Really Says About the End Times . . . and Why It Matters Today

MUSLIM: What You Need to Know About the World’s Fastest-Growing Religion

© 2019 Hank Hanegraaff

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Unless otherwise noted, Scripture quotations are taken from the Holy Bible, New International Version®, NIV®. Copyright © 1973, 1978, 1984, 2011 by Biblica, Inc.® Used by permission of Zondervan. All rights reserved worldwide. www.Zondervan.com. The NIV and New International Version are trademarks registered in the United States Patent and Trademark Office by Biblica, Inc.®

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ISBN 978-0-7852-1611-7 (eBook)

Library of Congress Control Number: 2019946305

ISBN 978-0-7852-1606-3

Epub Edition September 2019 9780785216117

Printed in the United States of America

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Please note that the endnotes in this ebook may contain hyperlinks to external websites as part of bibliographic citations. These hyperlinks have not been activated by the publisher, who cannot verify the accuracy of these links beyond the date of publication

It is with great affection that I dedicate this book to my dear friend Elijah Widjaja, without whom it would not—could not—have been written. Gold there is, and rubies in abundance, but lips that speak knowledge are a rare jewel.

CONTENTS

FOREWORD BY LAUREN GREEN, CHIEF RELIGION CORRESPONDENT, FOX NEWS

BEFORE YOU BEGIN: STANDING FOR TRUTH—MY PORTAL INTO LIFE

PART 1: TRUTH MATTERS

1: ANSWERS: APOLOGETICS IN THE MODERN AGE OF SKEPTICISM

2: BIBLICAL INTERPRETATION: REMOVING THE VEIL

3: COUNTERING COUNTERFEIT RELIGIONS: CONTRAST IS THE CONDUIT TO CLARITY

PART 2: LIFE MATTERS MORE

4: DEIFICATION: BECOMING GODS BY GRACE

5: ECCLESIA: THE CHURCH AS THE SOURCE OF LIFE

6: FUSION: THE SECRET TO GLOBAL TRANSFORMATION

EPILOGUE: DISCOVERING THE AUTHENTIC CHRISTIAN LIFE

ACKNOWLEDGMENTS

NOTES

ABOUT THE AUTHOR

FOREWORD

by Lauren Green

Chief Religion Correspondent, Fox News

I had known of Hank Hanegraaff for many years. One cannot be the chief religion correspondent for a major news organization and not have heard of the Bible Answer Man. However, I only first met Hank face-to-face in 2017. It was a happenstance meeting, even though we’d planned to find time to talk at the Religious Freedom Conference in Washington, DC, sponsored by the Archons of the Greek Orthodox Church. Hank had just recently joined St. Nektarios Greek Orthodox Church in Charlotte, North Carolina, and that fascinated me because my husband is Greek Orthodox, and I am not.

So that’s why it never occurred to me that becoming a member of an Orthodox church would be controversial for someone like Hank, but apparently it was. The controversy gained the attention of the Greeks, who welcomed him with open arms. His presence at the conference was part of that welcome wagon.

I arrived at the hotel eager to get to my room, change, and get on the shuttle bus to the next conference event, when this pleasant-enough gentleman passing in the hallway said, Hello, Lauren.

I said hello back in that nice sort of greeting given to fans. Then I heard the words that turned the whole weekend around: I’m Hank Hanegraaff.

My surprise—or even shock—was apparent. Although I had interviewed Hank via satellite a few times, I’d never seen him in person. From that point on, he and I, and his wife, Kathy, and daughter, Christina, were buds for the whole of the conference.

A few months later Hank was the featured speaker for the Lenten retreat at a famed Greek Orthodox church in Southampton, New York. My husband and I rented a house for the week and invited the Hanegraaffs to be our guests. A closeness developed between his family and mine. My husband had an Orthodox scholar to talk with, and Hank had a Protestant Christian firmly in his corner.

I give this preamble to explain why I, of all people, would be asked to write the foreword to this book. I consider it an incredible honor. Of all the great religious minds Hank could have asked, it humbles me to be trusted with such an important task.

Truth matters, it matters a lot. Each of us is obligated to seek truth without compromise. But as I read the pages of the book, I learned how much more life matters.

There’s an axiom in logic called the law of non-contradiction, which says if a statement is true, its negation cannot also be true. Or, colloquially: whatever is true, its opposite must be false. To say four plus four equals eight is true; to say that it is not eight is false. Even nine is false. And it’s not a little bit false; it’s 100 percent false. No matter if it is one number shy of the eight, it is still completely false.

It’s easy to see the verity of the axiom in numbers because the heart is not involved. It’s much harder to face it when it comes to something as personal as religion. I know, because it’s my job to cover subjects concerning faith and belief systems, and there’s hardly anything that’s more divisive than our faith foundations.

But facing the Truth of faith is an ordeal encountered for centuries. Let me give you a most epic example. When Roman prefect Pilate interrogated Jesus after his arrest, Jesus told him, Everyone on the side of truth listens to me (John 18:37). Then in verse 38 Pilate made that infamous retort, What is truth? Pilate was asking a rhetorical question, not one for which he believed a clear answer exists. He was brushing off the answer with the implication that no one can know the truth. Of course, an astute apologist would quip back, Is that true?

Pilate was not asking for information. He was speaking from a typical secular, pagan mindset that truth is what I say it is. Truth is what Caesar says it is. Truth is relative. Regardless of Pilate’s brush with philosophy, he showed his hand. He didn’t want to know the truth because that complicated his life. Pilate may have thought his purpose in life was climbing the Roman Empire’s corporate ladder. Being prefect of the Roman province of Judea was a mere stepping-stone to earthly glory. But God had other plans, using Pilate’s pagan mindset for an encounter with Christ, setting the stage for an existential showdown concerning the nature of truth.

After a brief moment with Jesus in which he sentenced Jesus to death for treason, Pilate seems to have disappeared from history’s stage. His later years and death remain shrouded in mystery.¹ There are reports he committed suicide or was forced to. There are even reports that he became a follower of Jesus.

Regardless of what we don’t know about Pilate, what we do know is what happened to Jesus. He was crucified on a cross. He died and was buried in a tomb. Three days later, the New Testament documents tell us, he rose from the dead. His followers grew from a handful to millions and billions. And more followers are coming into the fold every day, believing that Jesus is the Truth and the Life. That is either true or it is not. But if it is true—if Jesus is who he said he is—it changes everything.

Jesus makes us all uncomfortable. Like Pilate, many ask that same question in much the same manner: What is truth? For more than two thousand years Jesus has given the same answer, I am the way and the truth and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me (John 14:6).

As many theologians have pointed out, no other founder of a religion ever dared say what Jesus claimed. Buddha didn’t. Muhammad didn’t. All of them said, Do this or that and you will achieve enlightenment; you will win God’s favor. They gave instructions, This is the way to find truth.²

Only Jesus said, I am the way . . .

It’s an uncomfortable statement in a world where we just want to get along. Inclusiveness is the order of the day. A live and let live mentality rules the day, bringing a pseudo-peace perspective that equates to abject ambivalence concerning objective truth, creating a syncretistic, civil religion. It’s where all the different faiths are coalesced into one big hodgepodge of relative truths.

Is Christianity true? If so, then Islam is false, then Mormonism is false. Then Judaism is woefully incomplete. It’s an uncomfortable reality that most modern people have been taught to shun. We prefer living in the gray areas, contented to be immersed in fog; not because there’s not enough information, but because truth in its pure form forces us to make changes, forces us perhaps even to sacrifice the idols that we have long believed will really save us: position, power, money, friends, relatives. Like Pilate, we shun the fires of truth, fearing its searing crucible. Yes, we will be changed, no doubt. But changed for the better. Changed for all eternity.

This book is Hank’s magnum opus, a culmination of a life of research and theological course corrections. It is not just other faiths that Hank challenges, but many branches of Christianity as well. Jesus’ Church suffers for what divides us. Because along the way, through two thousand years, his adherents have tacitly echoed Pilate’s rhetorical query, What is truth? Incremental departures from the truth of Christ’s Church have created wide fissures, first dividing West from East, then Protestants from Roman Catholics. Then a plethora of Protestant denominations, where today the fissures are still splintering off more microdenominations based on things that have nothing to do with the truth of the gospel but have more to do with human desires; where feelings have replaced facts.

The individualism and secularism rampant in culture today have infiltrated the Church. Many factions are a long way from, I am the way and the truth and the life. And this lack of fusion in the Church is a direct result of truth ignored. It is a major stumbling block. Per Hank’s own words: Far easier to fissure than fuse. Yet there can be no doubt that you and I have been called for fusion.

So truth is step one. Now comes life. For there can be no life without truth and no truth without life.

And I defer to Hank’s magnum opus to explain the interplay of truth and life. Why should life matter more than truth? Because life is the arena in which truth is experienced. Truth is the third rail, the one with the electrical power that moves the train along. But it’s there to serve the train. It is the train that matters. Without it, the third rail is unnecessary. It’s much the same as the reason we need maps. You can stare at one all day long, but it’s not a substitute for the green hills or blue waters you long to see. You won’t get anywhere by just looking at a map. But you will likely not get to where you’re going without one. Thus, again, while it is true that life matters more than truth, the life that matters more is ultimately dependent on truth.³

This quote gets at the heart of the marriage needed between truth and life. It’s the application, the journey, the standing up for what the Truth says is right and good, not what the culture says or the latest polls say.

We understand Pilate’s predicament. When he looked into the eyes of Truth, his own incoherent pack of lies he’d lived by no longer supported him. The walls of his worldview came crumbling down as he experienced a self-quake, a disturbance in the force. To paraphrase that famous movie, He couldn’t handle the truth!

We’re not made just to know the truth—we are made to live it out and be in relationship with that Truth.

We have split the idea of truth and life, compartmentalized their application. But Hank has so importantly fused them back together as they were intended. Because, again, There is no truth without life, and no life without truth.

—Lauren Green

Lauren Green serves as Fox News Channel’s chief religion correspondent based in the New York bureau, host of A Spirited Debate for FoxNews.com, and author of Lighthouse Faith (Thomas Nelson, 2017).

BEFORE YOU BEGIN

Standing for Truth—My Portal into Life

I am the way and the truth and the life.

—JESUS¹

August 4, 2003, will forever remain etched in my mind. I was fifteen years into my tenure as president of the Christian Research Institute (CRI) when I met with a group of cultic Christians. Or so I thought.

The group I met with were the progeny of Nee Shu-tsu—better known around the world as Watchman Nee. Nee was a tall, handsome, well-spoken Chinese believer committed to feeding the spiritual hunger of Christians. I first heard of him from my father, who had been deeply moved by the simplicity and profundity of Nee’s stories. Stories that made the complex simple and relatable.

One such story found Nee wandering into an orchard farm in Fukien, a southwestern province of China.² The orchard was thick with longan trees—the fruit of which is believed to be medicinal. The orchard trees were quite pathetic. The fruit they bore were the size of raspberries consisting of little more than skin and seeds. Upon being introduced to the orchard farmer, a miraculous illustration began to unfold.

The orchard contained a father tree. In distinction to the other trees, it bore luscious fruit the size and consistency of plums. And it was this tree that changed all the other trees. The farmer had mastered the art of taking the nature of the father tree and grafting it into the trees bearing their useless fruit. He made cleavages in the bad trees and engrafted into them the nature of the good tree. Below the graft the fruit continued to be as useless as ever. But above it, the fruit the trees produced were radiantly rich and full of life.

Nee’s application was intoxicating. If an orchard farmer can graft the life of a father tree into a bunch of fruitless longan trees, cannot the omnipotent Father engraft the life of his Son into us so that we may become partakers of the divine nature?

Nee did not mince words. Salvation was far more than justification. It was nothing short of deification: To bring God into man, making God one with man as a God-man.³ While Nee’s views were consistent with Apostolic Tradition, within traditional denominationalism they sounded foreign—even frightening. Cultic. Particularly off-putting was his use of the word mingling—the notion that the life of God might be mingled with redeemed humanity such that the redeemed could legitimately be called god.⁴

Despite much controversy, Nee succeeded in multiplying his derisively branded Little Flock in neighboring cities such as Hangzhou and Nanjing; north to Beijing and Shandong Province; south throughout Fujian; and west to the ports of Wuhan and Chongqing. Worshippers wrote down his talks and sermons and gathered them into books that were not only distributed among Christians in China but also translated for believers around the world.⁵

In 1934 Witness Lee (Lĭ Chángshòu) joined Nee in mission and vision. They proved a formidable team. By the time the Communist Party came to power (1949), the Little Flock had swelled to more than seventy thousand devotees in eight hundred locations across China.

Foreseeing ominous clouds on the horizon, Nee compelled Lee to leave the mainland. Brother, you must realize that although in this desperate situation we trust in the Lord, it is possible that the enemy will one day wipe us out. If this happens, you will be out of China, and we will still have something left. So you must go.⁶ Nee himself stayed in Shanghai and in time paid the ultimate price.

In the years following the Communist takeover, Nee’s following became ever more expansive. Many Christian congregations that had been dependent on foreign missions joined the Little Flock, which offered them financial help if they needed it. Some American and British missionaries were so grateful that they handed over their church property to the Little Flock before China kicked them out of the country.⁷

Zhou Enlai, the first premier of the People’s Republic of China, cautioned Chinese Christians to rid their ranks of imperialistic and feudalistic influences.⁸ Being forewarned, Protestant leaders throughout China proactively drew up a ‘Christian Manifesto’ and urged others to publicly sign on, pledging to terminate ties with overseas missions and support the new regime.⁹

The Manifesto, christened the Three–Self Reform Movement, envisioned Christian churches as ‘self-governing, self-supporting and self-propagating’—in real terms, free of foreign involvement of any kind in the fate, finances, or future growth of Christianity in China.¹⁰

In theory, the Three–Self Movement was not particularly onerous with respect to Little Flock distinctives. They were ‘three–self’ even before there was a Three–Self Movement. The Little Flock members were ‘self-supporting,’ not relying on overseas funds to run their assembly halls. They were ‘self-governing,’ with no hierarchy like that of the Anglican House of Bishops. And they handled their own grassroots expansion, thus being ‘self-propagating.’¹¹

Nevertheless, because of Nee’s great influence on the burgeoning Christian population, the Communist Party viewed him as a threat. Predictably, they arrested Nee in 1952 as a "counterrevolutionary—fan geming. He faced accusations of spying; hostility to the government; fleecing fellow churchgoers; resisting land reform; and plotting against the People’s Liberation Army. On top of all of that, he was tarred as morally corrupt, a philanderer who made a mockery of his marriage and paid regular visits to prostitutes."¹²

Nee’s arrest culminated in a trial before the People’s High Court in June 1956 where he was found guilty of counterrevolutionary crimes and sentenced to a fifteen-year imprisonment at the notorious Tilanqiao Prison in Shanghai. Adding to the pain, Nee’s own church family turned on him. Their communiqué to Little Flock fellowships throughout China was nothing short of devastating. We represent all brothers and sisters of the Shanghai Christian Assembly to support the sentence of the government heartily!¹³

In 1972, twenty years after he had been arrested, Watchman Nee died in the midst of an onerous Cultural Revolution. When relatives came to get his ashes at the labor camp, a guard gave them a piece of paper that had been tucked beneath his pillow. With a weak hand, [Nee] had written in Chinese characters: ‘I shall die for believing in Christ.’¹⁴ Nee’s ministry, however, did not die with him. Instead, a branch grew over the prison wall. A branch that in time stretched from East to West.¹⁵

Nee was not only faithful to the end but wisely arranged for his legacy to continue. As evidence, he had the foresight of sending Witness Lee to Taiwan. Within a handful of years some fifty thousand believers were meeting in local churches throughout the island. From Taiwan the Local Churches that had originated on China’s mainland began to spread far and wide—to Singapore, Malaysia, Indonesia, Japan, Korea, and beyond.

In 1962, enthused by the growing interest in Watchman Nee’s life and legacy in Western regions, Witness Lee moved to Los Angeles and began the mission of establishing Local Churches throughout the West.¹⁶ As happened in Eastern regions, Local Churches spread rapidly from Lee’s base in Southern California to far-flung places throughout the Western hemisphere.

But then came the pushback. Concurrent with the burgeoning growth of Lee’s outreaches in the mid-seventies, the countercult efforts of the Christian Research Institute, founded by Dr. Walter Martin, were hitting their stride. Cults were rapidly proliferating across the continent, and CRI was strongly suspicious that Witness Lee might be the leader of one of them.

In October 1977 at a special meeting at Melodyland Christian Center in Anaheim, California, Walter Martin warned Christians that the teachings of Witness Lee and the Local Churches, also known as the Lord’s Recovery, were heretical and dangerous. In the considered opinion of Martin—popularly known as the father of the countercult movement—A number of the basic teachings of Witness Lee and the Local Church are false, and it is man’s carnal nature as well as Satan that breeds falsity. Such teachings are darkness, and the Christian must not walk in darkness.¹⁷

Martin and CRI called on devotees of the Lord’s Recovery