3 Genuine Questions

1) Witness Lee was a Calvinist (5 points of TULIP), i.e. teaching total depravity where nobody has the ability to receive what Jesus did on the cross without God irresistibly imposing salvation on you. Is there any proof this teaching is true that God damns people to hell without even giving them any enabling grace to have the opportunity to be saved, whosoever is willing, and irresistible imposing salvation on others?

2) Witness Lee called himself God, not in the Godhead, but God in nature as others in The Local Church do. Some say they are God without even saying God in nature. It would seem to me there should only ever be one use of the term "God" - the uncreated Creator. Wouldn't you agree? Besides, how can you be God in nature? I thought only God was God in nature-perfectly righteous and sinless. How can you be God if you are not part of the Godhead?

3) Those of The Local Church say they are not modalists, but at the same time they say Jesus is the Father and the Father is the Spirit and the Spirit is the Son. And they say God is a Person who is 3 Persons. If this is the very definition of modalism, then what makes a follower of the oracle of God think this is not modalism? How can there be 4 Persons and in this quaternity, why are there two different definitions of Persons? Hasn't the Church always used just this one term Persons to refer to each Person of the Triune God? I never see the 3 Persons of the Trinity ever confused one for another in Scripture. I never see Jesus saying He is the Father or the Spirit. He says He will indwell the believer by the Spirit while He remains at the throne. Jesus the Everlasting Father does not refer to Jesus being God the Father, but that term is used only once in Scripture to indicate Jesus is our ruler or chief and as a term of respect or honor.

Watchman Nee can help those of The Local Church in several ways:

1) get rid of denominations like The Local Church,
2) the council of the Godhead existed in eternity of the past as 3 Persons, and
3) through the dividing of your spirit, soul and body, your spirit can attain the sensitivity by the grace of God to appreciate these facts and let go of other false behavior patterns and beliefs such as shutting your mind down in shouting mantra, suing for faith for filthy lucre, altering Nee's writings by bearing false witness (e.g. changing "desire" to "hate" in TSM, chapter 2) so that you limit your emotion to hate and love, rather than God's full range of emotions.

Another Issue
Is the first rapture according to readiness? (Rev. 3.10, Luke 21.36, Matt. 24.42) to be raptured at Rev. 7.9 before the trumpets of the Tribulation? Or is the first rapture going to rapture the whole Church at that time? If the whole Church, isn't that sorta antinomian, because you can lie on a bed of fornication and be tied down to the world like a balloon, yet still be raptured at that time? I don't think that's how God works for it is a lower conscience. God's conscience is higher than that.

I think The Local Church believes everyone who is an overcomer is raptured at the first rapture, but it appears Scripture is only referring to those alive at the time of first rapture who keep the word of His patience, are prayerful and watchful and keep the conduct of Matt. 5-7 and include the martyrs in the past 20 centuries (5th seal) and the 144,000 firstfruits virgins (Rev. 14.1-5), but not all resting overcomers. So if this is true then The Local Church is wrong about who is raptured before the Tribulation.

What would be the negative consequence of claiming ALL overcomers are raptured at first rapture? It leaves those who have yet to overcome as martyrs during the Tribulation without the comfort of other overcomers to be raptured at the last trumpet. The martyrs are raptured individually 3.5 days after they go to rest like the Two Witnesses, but it seems strange to leave them behind with all overcomers from previous generations already raptured. First the dead shall rise then those who are "alive" and "left." If you are alive you are left so this is not redundancy, but God is saying those who were not taken at the first rapture, will be raptured at the start of the bowls at the last trumpet. There are strong reasons to believe both the "taken" and the "left" (speaking to Christians) in Matt. 24.40-41 and 1 Thess. 4.15-17 are saved.

Why at the start of the last trumpet which pours out the bowls (pre-wrath) does resurrection take place? The main reason is because 11.15 is the start of the last trumpet, but it is before the bowls are poured out, since the 7th seal leads to the blowing of the 7 trumpets and the 7th trumpet leads to the pouring out of the 7 bowls.