Chapter 2 Watchman Nee’s Theology and Interpretation of Scripture
1. The Ministry of God’s Word: Nee’s Practical Theology of Scripture
Consistent with his practical approach to Christian faith, Nee treats the subject of Scripture under the rubric “the ministry of the word.” Scripture is God’s ministry of the word for the world. Thus, Nee begins his discussion on Scripture with God, postulating that the most
89 Ang Lee, “Watchman Nee,” 35–36.
important work of God is the speaking of his word. In a move reminiscent of contemporary speech-act theory, Nee argues that God does things through his word, for God’s word is his work.90 But Nee quickly adds that God always uses human agents, whom Nee calls “the ministers of the word,” to speak his word.91 All Christians today are called to be ministers of the word, but always in the footsteps of the ministers of the word in the past: the prophets in the Old Testament, the apostles in the New Testament, and Jesus in the Gospel as “the special minister of the word.” Nee emphasizes that “all of God’s subsequent words are based on His original words.” Just as “[a]ll of the words of the New Testament are based on the words of the Old Testament,” Nee writes, our ministry of the word today must be based on the speaking of the New and Old Testaments.92 In this sense, there is no new word of God apart from God’s
“old word” in Scripture.
Yet Scripture alone is not enough for the minister of the word. In addition to basing our words on God’s previously spoken word, Nee argues that one needs to seek God’s own
interpretation of his word.93 As he puts it, “God’s word must be the foundation, but God must also furnish the explanation.”94 Underlying this statement is Nee’s belief that God’s word can
90 “Without the word, there would be no work. As soon as His word is removed, His work becomes a void…. God’s work is carried out through His word. In fact, His word is His work.” Watchman Nee, The Ministry of God’s Word, vol. 53, The Collected Works of Watchman Nee Set 3 (Anaheim, CA: Living Stream Ministry, 1994), 3. Nee does not specify the scope of God’s work here, but it is safe to assume that by ‘work’ he means the whole range of divine economy as depicted by Scripture.
91 Indeed, Nee even says that God requires human ministers of the word, for God would not release his word through any other means than a human’s mouth. “Only when God’s word has been impregnated with the human elements is such a word complete” (Ibid., 16). Nee further asserts, “The basic principle of God’s speaking is the principle of the Word becoming flesh. God is not satisfied with having His word alone; He wants His word to become flesh, to become part of man’s word. This does not mean that God’s word has been downgraded to the status of being just man’s word. It means that… [i]t is truly man’s word and at the same time truly God’s word….
God’s word is manifested through man’s word and expressed through human elements” (Ibid.). This is what Nee called the principle of incarnation.
92 Nee, The Ministry of God’s Word, 53:77.
93 Nee further notes, “There were many scribes and Pharisees who were very familiar with the Old Testament, but none were ministers of the word. Today some people may have studied the Bible very thoroughly, but this does not mean that they are ministers of the word. Ministers of the word are those who are familiar with God’s Word and those to whom God has also explained and opened up the Word. A minister of God’s word must first possess a proper foundation. Next he must have the proper interpretation” (Nee, 53:78; emphasis mine).
94 Ibid., 53:77.
only be interpreted by God Himself: “Without the interpretation of the Holy Spirit, the Word is closed to us and, as such, can never become the basis of our speaking.”95
Another assumption at work here is Nee’s understanding of the revelation and
inspiration of Scripture. Nee believes that Scripture has a dual nature: human and divine. “On the one hand, there is the outward, physical dimension of the Bible. As far as man’s physical dimension is concerned, he is made of the dust of the ground. But on the other hand, there is a spiritual dimension of the Bible. The Bible is related to the Holy Spirit; it is God’s speaking and God’s breath.”96 Nee, however, does not wish only to recognize the distinction between the two; rather, he wishes to keep the two separated, for they belong to two different realms. This explains his insistence, as we will see later, that it takes different organs or faculties to deal with different dimensions of Scripture. While historical knowledge and linguistic skills may help to understand the physical dimension of Scripture, its spiritual dimension requires another organ for understanding it. As Nee likes to put it, only spirit can touch the spirit behind Scripture.97
The breath of God is a very important notion for Nee; he returns again and again to the creation of Adam in explaining the inspiration of Scripture: “When God created the world, He created man out of the dust of the earth, but the created man was not alive. Man became a living soul after God breathed His living breath into him.”98 In the same way, Scripture as a book written by human authors is not alive until God’s breath is upon it. While this line of thought is not uncommon within evangelical discourse on Scripture, what is perhaps unique is Nee’s belief that the divine breath in Scripture is temporal or conditional in nature. That is, the divine
95 Ibid., 53:80.
96 Ibid., 53:94.
97 For a thorough examination of this idea, see the following section on Nee’s hermeneutics.
98 Nee, The Ministry of God’s Word, 53:93. He continues, “The Bible… is made up of words spoken by men, yet it is God’s word in every sense. It was written by men, yet it was written by God’s own hand in every sense. It contains many expressions, sentences, and words, and God’s breath is upon all of these words.”
breath in Scripture is not static, locked in the text, as it were, but is rather dynamic, blowing actively through the text like a wind.
For Nee, Scripture is “the ministry of God’s word by His servants in the past.”99 The letter to Romans, for example, represents Paul’s past ministry of the word to the church in Rome. At that time, Nee explains, God really spoke those words through Paul. “But today when we read the book of Romans, we may only touch the surface of the Bible, the physical and outward side of it. Today God has to breathe His breath upon this word once again before we can know God’s word and before we can be a minister to Him.”100 This breath of God that needs to be invoked to enliven the scriptures again for us today is the same Holy Spirit who inspired the human biblical authors in the past. Nee differentiates between “revelation” and
“inspiration”:
Inspiration is a once-for-all occurrence, but revelation is a repeated occurrence. When God breathes His breath upon His word a second time, when we find light again through the Holy Spirit and the anointing upon His word to see what Paul once saw, we have revelation. Revelation means God is doing something today; He is reviving today what He once gave to man through inspiration.101
The first time a word was released, it was released according to the principle of creation. When the word was spoken, something was created. A ‘son’ was born; there was a new birth. But the ministry of the word does not function this way today. God’s word is already here, and He is merely repeating what He has already spoken. God is putting His life into His word once more, and when this word becomes living in man, it is revelation to man…. This is resurrection.102
While Nee emphasizes the temporal and theological differences in these two acts of the Spirit, they are related. There is no revelation today if there was no inspiration in the past. The
“principle of resurrection” (revelation), according to Nee, presupposes and follows the
99 Ibid., 53:97.
100 Ibid. Emphasis mine.
101 Ibid., 53:98.
102 Ibid., 53:103. Emphasis mine.
“principle of creation” (inspiration). Thus, while he speaks of “fresh revelation” and “the breathing again of the Spirit,” Nee does not open the door to God’s revelation outside of Scripture. “God has to speak to us a second time through the words He once used. He has to enlighten us a second time through His revealed light. He has to grant us fresh revelation within His established revelation.”103 Nee considers this position to be a balanced view—one that takes both the authority of the text and the role of the Spirit, as well as both divine freedom and human responsibility seriously.104
As noted above, Nee frames his theological discussion on Scripture within the practical context of the ministry of the word, which is synonymous with preaching ministry. In this context, the notion of divine usage or divine speaking becomes central to Nee. The inspired Scripture becomes revelation for us only when God uses it to address us through the preaching of the minister of the word. Furthermore, while God is bound to use only Scripture to speak, God is not bound to always speak every time someone reads, teaches, or preaches Scripture. In short, God has the prerogative to use/speak Scripture according to his own will and time.105 This, however, does not mean that there is no place for human agency in Nee’s theology and
103 Ibid., 53:100.
104 As Nee puts it, “We must see the balance here. On the one hand, God has to use the word that He once released. When we preach God’s word, we do not have to look for new words. Rather, we should base our
speaking on what has already been spoken. Yet on the other hand, what we preach should not be just the old words. It should be the same word and yet not the same word. It is the same word, because without that word as the basis, God cannot speak; there is no disagreement in His speaking. Yet in another sense there is the fresh anointing and revelation of the Holy Spirit with this word. Without the fresh anointing and revelation of the Spirit, the same word will not produce the same result. A man has to maintain a proper balance between these two aspects” (Nee, 53:101–2).
105 As Nee puts it, “Revelation and anointing are in God’s hand. We can only repeat and recall the words;
we cannot repeat or recall the revelation…. In reality, if a man does not hear God’s speaking, he can do nothing about it…. If God does not want to speak, man can do nothing. If the Lord will not speak, the ministers will not accomplish anything even if they all speak…. If He does not speak, nothing will happen” (Nee, 53:101, 104).
Based on this conviction, Nee offers interesting advice for his followers: “We should never be
professional preachers. Once we become professional preachers, we will speak because it is our job to speak, and we will preach because it is our job to preach. We will not speak or preach as a result of receiving something from God. We must live in the presence of God. Without His presence we will not have the ministry of the word. God has to gain this among us…. For this we can do nothing except ask for His mercy. If the Lord does not speak through us, we cannot convey His word to others. If what we have is nothing more than a book—the Bible, we have nothing that is living. It is true that the basis of the ministry of the word is the Bible, but the Bible alone is not enough; there is the need of the revelation of the Holy Spirit.” Ibid., 53:110.
interpretation of Scripture. On the contrary, Nee devotes a large portion of his treatment of Scripture to discussing human prerequisites for being a minister of the word.