Bible Answer Man Broadcast ExcerptsTranscripts of Excerpts from the Bible Answer Man Radio Broadcast
January 5, 2010, 1:26-2:38 [ audio excerpt / complete broadcast ]:
Hank Hanegraaff: This goes all the way back to 2003 when I asked Elliot Miller to join me for a meeting with representatives of Living Stream Ministry. This is a ministry which supports the Local Church movement founded by Watchman Nee and his protégé, Witness Lee. Now during that meeting, Elliot and I heard stirring affirmations of the very doctrines that the local churches allegedly denied. One by one, in their own words, representatives of the local churches testified to their belief in one God revealed in three Persons, who are eternally distinct; to the reality that human beings can never ontologically attain Godhood; and to the fact that they were only the church, not the only church.
January 5, 2010, 3:19-5:00 [ audio excerpt / complete broadcast ]:
Hank Hanegraaff: What we did is we initiated a special research project, again it’s in this edition of the Christian Research Journal, and that research was conducted not only in the United States of America but also in China, in Taiwan, South Korea, England, and it involved careful evaluation of literally hundreds of books, of papers, of church documents, audio, video recordings, even court documents.
And the result of this primary research is encapsulated in three words. The words are on the front cover of this journal. The three words are: “We Were Wrong.” In fact, I still remember Elliot Miller saying those three words, “I was wrong,” to a man in China who had suffered imprisonment for a total of twenty-four years. That just falls off our tongue. But think about it, being in prison for twenty-four years, not four years or fourteen—twenty-four years. And these words therefore were not merely uttered in a moment of emotion, no, quite frankly these words were uttered after years of painstaking primary research.
January 5, 2010, 39:40-41:12 [ audio excerpt / complete broadcast ]:
Hank Hanegraaff: Elliot, in this edition of the Christian Research Journal, writes that the group that we’re talking about here, the Local Church movement, is not only Christian but in many ways an exemplary group of Christians. They’re a fellowship of believers with a level of commitment to Christ, a level of discipleship that puts most Western Christian groups to shame. They’ve been tested by the fires of persecution and have persevered. And as a result they have been forged into the image of Christ to an inspiring degree. Their love for Jesus Christ is compelling, their sacrificial living, convicting.
You and I experienced that in China and I want to underscore, Elliot, that the primary research that we’re talking about has been conducted not only in the U.S. but in faraway places throughout the world. We traveled to many cities in China. I’ve been to Hong Kong and to Taiwan and Shanghai and to Bejing, Fujing. I have been to London, I’ve been all over the world in earnestly searching out this matter. And what I have seen is exactly what you write here—authentic New Testament Christianity in action.
June 12, 2007, 24:26-26:01 [ audio excerpt / complete broadcast ]:
Gretchen Passantino: Yes, I did. You know many years ago, the late Dr. Walter Martin, my late husband, Bob, and other CRI associates did an evaluation of the teachings of the Local Church movement following the teachings of a man named Witness Lee who was the successor to the Chinese Christian mystic, Watchman Nee, and at the time we did our evaluations, for a wide variety of reasons, some of the lack on our side and some of the lack on their side, we came out with some very critical evaluations of that movement.
Now here it is, thirty-some years later and having sat down with you, the Christian Research Journal Editor-in-Chief, Elliot Miller, and some of the leaders of this movement, we have completely reevaluated not only the materials that were available back then, but the materials that are available since then. We have spent time in dialogue in conversation with these leaders and with, you know, ordinary people in the group as well, and we have determined that the Local Church movement is well within Christian orthodoxy. They are not a cult, they are not cultic, they are our brothers and sisters in Christ, and although there are a number of issues on which we have differences, a number of practices and understandings that we do not share, none of those are in the areas of the essential, foundational, cardinal doctrines of the Christian faith. They are our brothers and sisters in Christ, and I am not afraid to say that.
All audio clips are © Christian Research Institute and used by permission.
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