Witness Lee on the local church: God's Revelation and God's Recovery of the Local Churches
Witness Lee on the local church: Main

Main 

Four Main Figures 

Progressive
Knowledge
 

Being up-to-date 

The
Lord’s Recovery
 

The Age of
Local Churches
 

The Spread of the
Local Churches
 

Links 


  Quotes by Witness Lee

Introduction:The Bible consists of sixty-six books full of many subjects, doctrines, historical accounts, and other matters. However, hidden within this book are four principal figures—God, Christ, the Church, and the local churches. The first verse in the Bible speaks of God (Genesis 1:1), while the last book of the Bible mainly emphasizes the local churches (Rev. 1:4, 11, 20; 2:7, 11, 17, 29; 3:6, 13, 22; 22:16). Witness Lee, a prolific Christian writer of the twentieth century, presents these four main figures in chapter 2 of his book The Seven Spirits for the Local Churches (Anaheim: Living Stream Ministry, 1989)these four main figures. In this chapter, Witness Lee focuses on the believers’ need to know and experience the fourth and final figure—the local churches—in order to be up-to-date with the Lord. He also emphasizes the need for the spreading of the local churches as the means to prepare the Bride of Christ for the Lord’s return. This website is taken from that chapter.


Witness Lee begins his discussion of these four main figures—God, Christ, the Church, and the local churches—by focusing on the local churches. He stresses their importance by pointing out their key position in the final book of the Bible. Revelation, which is “a book of gold,” begins with seven golden lampstands, symbolizing seven local churches (Rev. 1:20), and ends with a golden city, the New Jerusalem, which is the Bride of Christ—the Church—as the consummation of the local churches (Rev. 21:2, 18; Eph. 5:25, 31-32).

The last book in the Bible is a book of gold. At the beginning there are the seven golden lampstands, and at the end the golden city, the New Jerusalem. What is mentioned at the beginning and at the end of any book is always the main content of that book. There are the seven seals, the seven trumpets, the seven vials, etc., mentioned in this book, but these are not in the beginning or at the ending. At the beginning are the seven golden lampstands, and at the end is the golden city. And we are told clearly that the seven golden lampstands are the seven local churches. We are also told that the golden city is the Bride of Christ. Therefore, at both ends of this book, we see the Church. Firstly, there are the local churches, and then eventually there is the ultimate consummation of the churches, which is the New Jerusalem. Therefore, we must have a thorough look into the local churches, for as we have seen, this book is a book of the seven Spirits for the local churches. (19)

In chapter two of his book, Witness Lee stresses that the local churches, symbolized by golden lampstands, appear at the beginning of Revelation, and that the New Jerusalem, a golden city, consummates the book. It is evident, therefore, that these two golden items are related in their significance in the divine revelation concerning the church.