Watchman Nee had completed The Spiritual Man, contained in The Collected Works of Watchman Nee, volumes 12-14, in June, 1927. He was not quite 24 years old. Although he felt he might soon die of tuberculosis while he was writing that book, soon after it was finished he experienced divine healing and was not troubled by tuberculosis after that.
The editors of CWWN chose to follow with Study on Matthew, which is based on notes taken by participants in a Bible study with the church in Shanghai that he conducted beginning in 1931, and continued for a few years. The study is a verse-by-verse exposition of chapters one through 25; he did not complete the Gospel. However, the 361 pages of this exposition are full of light and practical instruction.
His exposition has two underlying themes: dispensational doctrine and eschatology. At this point in his life, he had been reading great numbers of books by leading Christian authors, with quite an emphasis on books by the Plymouth Brethren and others of the Brethren more generally. Sadly, "the Brethren" having begun a new turn in God's work with great anointing and much light in 1828, became divided within no more than a couple of decades. They disagreed over various interpretations of prophecies, particularly regarding "the Rapture" and the Great Tribulation.
I placed "the Rapture" in quotes because I don't like the term. It is derived from the Latin word raptus, meaning to carry off, snatch away, abduct, or seize, and even to rape. The naturalist's word for hawks and eagles and their kin is "raptor"; I have seen a red-shouldered hawk snatch a squirrel right off the ground. The word became popular to describe the "taking away" of living believers at the end of the age, first in the 1700's and even more in the 1800's, and then this use of the word mostly died away until about 1980, in the waning days of the Jesus movement, when eschatology (study of prophecy) became very popular. The term "rapture" has long also had an emotional meaning, synonymous with being "rapt", a feeling of being carried away by ecstasy.
Wranglings over this matter have divided Christians into numerous mutually hostile camps. Brother Nee read literature from writers in every sect, and drew his own conclusions. He uniformly used the term Rapture, and so, perforce, must I in the remainder of this presentation.
An example of a dispensational interpretation is seen in the latter part of Matthew 9. The events may be parsed thus:
- Called to raise a just-dead girl, Jesus heals a woman with an issue of blood (vv 18-22)
- Jesus raises up the girl (vv 23-26)
- Jesus gives sight to two blind men (vv 27-31)
- Jesus heals a mute man (vv 32-34)
- Traveling and seeing the great need, Jesus exhorts the disciples to pray for laborers (vv 35-38)
The first two items show a turn of the Gospel from the Jews, represented by the dead girl, to the Nations, represented by the bleeding woman. This was an acted-out prophecy of the turn that would take place in the book of Acts. The number 12 is significant. The dead girl was 12 (the age of accountability to the Jews), and the woman had been bleeding for 12 years. Jesus first heals the bleeding woman, then raises the dead girl. Thereafter he deals with blindness and muteness; those who cannot see the things of God cannot praise God. The gospel to the Nations results in many who do see and who do praise.
The last item is transitional. We may infer that the disciples did pray as He asked. This is immediately followed by the beginning of Chapter 10: Jesus chose twelve disciples as His apostles and sent them out to preach.
When it comes to eschatology, there are points here and there in early chapters of Matthew, particularly chapter 13. The parables of Jesus, intended to conceal His teaching from the Jews who now adamantly opposed Him, while affording Him an opportunity to reveal their meaning to His disciples, have both prophetic and dispensational significance. Once we come to Chapters 24 and 25, it is all prophecy. Between expounding these two chapters, brother Nee had a special study of the Rapture and along with it, certain points regarding the Great Tribulation.
He shows definitely that the Rapture is not a single event. Rather, a minority of Christians who follow Him closely and diligently are blessed by being taken up first, before the Great Tribulation. The majority of Christians then living will endure the trials that follow, which are "shortened" to three-and-a-half years. His Return, a translation of parousia, meaning "presence", is simultaneous with the Rapture of the majority of the Christians at the end of the Great Tribulation, and also with the First Resurrection, which actually occurs just beforehand. The principle is of taking the first-ripe "firstfruits", followed by the general harvest.
Concerning the status of the slaves given the talents and the ten virgins, also those of whom it is said, "one is taken and one is left", brother Nee goes into detail, discussing dozens of Scripture passages which prove that all the slaves, all the virgins, and all those in the "taken/left" duos, are Christians. The early Rapture of a few is based not on regeneration, but on faithfulness, showed in three ways by these three matters. Many, perhaps most, Christian teachers consider that the slothful slave, the foolish virgins, and the workers left behind, are either (by Calvinists) not saved in the first place, or (by Arminians) have lost their salvation by their unfaithfulness. Neither is correct. Their discipline is not to perish in Hell (which is never described as "outer darkness"), but to be corrected during the millennial Kingdom. This is the most-opposed teaching of brother Nee and those of us who follow him and his co-workers including Witness Lee.
I will not go further into this matter here. Other publications by both brother Nee and Lee discuss it in detail. Simply take away this: Be warned, having your "fire insurance" does not mean you have no more problems with God. A newborn Christian needs to grow, to be spiritually educated, and to mature in spirit. If these things are neglected, God has a way to deal with His children after they are raptured or resurrected!
The book ends with encouragement. Whether we overcome to be taken up earlier, or must endure the Great Tribulation (I call it "becoming overcomers the hard way"), God cares for all His children, and has many provisions to ease their sufferings, at least in part; but He knows that some of the sufferings are like the bright sunlight that ripens the crops so they will be ready for harvest. The age of grace does not end until the end of the Great Tribulation. Learn to enjoy God as grace now, or learn it later, but be sure every child of God will learn this lesson well.
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