Watchman Nee & Witness Lee — Doctrine of God
b4 — Basic Elements of Christian Life, Volume 2
The Father as Seeking God — True Worship
In BXL2, Nee/Lee expound John 4:23-24 with a new emphasis: not merely that God is Spirit, but that the Father actively seeks worshippers who will worship Him in spirit and truthfulness.
“But an hour is coming, and it is now, when the true worshippers will worship the Father in spirit and truthfulness, for the Father also seeks such to worship Him. God is Spirit, and those who worship Him must worship in spirit and truthfulness.”
(Ch. 2, p. 15-16; John 4:23-24)
“To every Christian this true worship of fellowship is intended to be constant and life-giving. The true worship in these verses is not participating in and keeping certain rules, forms, rituals, and regulations, but rather calling upon the Lord from deep within, contacting and fellowshipping with Jesus Christ, the truth and the reality.”
(Ch. 2, p. 16)
Source: John 4:23-24.
Interpretation: Compared to b3, where John 4:24 primarily establishes God’s nature as Spirit (with implications for the human spirit), b4 shifts the emphasis to the Father as an actively seeking subject. God is not a passive object of worship but initiates fellowship. This marks an immanence-accent that remained implicit in b3.
Immanence — God’s Desire for Constant Fellowship
The Father actively desires fellowship with the believer, not limited to church services or rituals.
“The desire of the Father for us is that we may enjoy and participate in this true worship of touching and fellowshipping with His Son all day, every day. Whether on the job, in the classroom, driving a car, talking to a friend, or in meetings with other Christians, His desire is that we contact and fellowship with our Lord.”
(Ch. 2, p. 16)
Source: John 4:23.
Interpretation: Nee/Lee describe God’s immanence here as a desire of the Father — God wants constant fellowship, not episodic contact. This connects to the dispensing theology of b3 (God actively distributes Himself), but concretizes it as a personal pursuit by the Father.
Knowledge of God through Christ
In the 9-point confession, Nee/Lee articulate the revelatory function of Christ: Jesus as a genuine man made God the Father known to men.
“Jesus, a genuine Man, lived on the earth for thirty-three and a half years to make God the Father known to men.”
(Appendix ‘About Two Servants of the Lord’, point 4)
Source: John 1:14; John 14:9.
Interpretation: For Nee/Lee, knowledge of God is strictly Christologically mediated: the Father is not directly knowable apart from Christ. The incarnation has an epistemological function — Jesus’ earthly life is the revelation of God’s nature to humanity.
Trinitarian Confession — Repetition of Creed
BXL2 repeats the Trinitarian creed from BXL1 (b3) in the 9-point confession:
“God is the only one Triune God—the Father, the Son and the Holy Spirit—equally co-existing and mutually coinhering from eternity to eternity.”
(Appendix ‘About Two Servants of the Lord’, point 2)
Interpretation: [TENSION with earlier source] Identical to the formulation in b3 (BXL1 appendix). No new theological material, but confirms that this is the fixed confessional formula Nee/Lee consistently employ.
God as Spirit — Calling as the Method of Contact
In extension of John 4:24 (God is Spirit), b4 works out how the believer practically contacts God: through calling upon Him from within the human spirit.
“Our calling upon the Lord should not be in an objective manner, calling on the Christ who dwells in the heavens, but calling on the Christ who is the Spirit and who dwells within our spirit (2 Tim. 4:22). By calling upon Him from deep within, we will sense the flowing and fellowship of Christ within us.”
(Ch. 2, p. 16)
Sources: John 4:24; 2 Tim. 4:22; 1 Cor. 15:45b.
Interpretation: The assertion that God is Spirit (b3) receives a practical application in b4: contact with God is not geographical (heavenly) but pneumatological (in the human spirit). This deepens the doctrine of immanence: God is accessible not ‘above’ but ‘within’ the believer.