Notes 32 and 112 - Criticism of Brother Dong's Work Equated to Blasphemy of the Holy Spirit
On many occasions when brothers have expressed concern over deviations from the truth in Brother Dong's work, the response from Brother Dong and his co-workers has been not to address those concerns, but to warn the concerned ones that they may be blaspheming the Holy Spirit.
32Criticism of Dong Yu Lan's Work Equated with Blasphemy of the Holy Spirit
Letter from Brother Dong's co-workers dated June 20, 2005 (in response to the letter from 21 co-workers to Brother Dong dated June 4, 2005):
So, dear brothers, in criticizing the work in South America, aren't you running the risk of, perhaps, offending the Holy Spirit? For certainly this work is not a man's work, but the Spirit's own doing. We would like to remind you of the following verse: "And whoever speaks a word against the Son of Man, it will be forgiven him; but whoever speaks against the Holy Spirit, it will not be forgiven him, neither in this age nor in the one to come." (Matt. 12:32; cf. Luke 12:10). We know you will say that according to the truth this verse does not apply to this situation, but still we would like to apply the principle of the possibility of speaking against the Holy Spirit.
Dong Yu Lan, Conference in Ribeirão Preto, Brazil, September 16, 2007, Message 2:
"But men spoke from God while being borne by the Holy Spirit." We are also being led by the Holy Spirit. How can they accuse us of being in our flesh? They have no idea that by doing this they blaspheme the Holy Spirit.
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Dong Yu Lan, Conference in Piracicaba, Brazil, September 29, 2007, Message 1:
"Therefore I say to you, Every sin and blasphemy will be forgiven men, but blasphemy against the Spirit will not be forgiven. And whoever speaks a word against the Son of Man, it will be forgiven him; but whoever speaks against the Holy Spirit, it will not be forgiven him, neither in this age nor in the one to come." Dear brothers, some people are too insolent; when they are attacking Brother Dong, they are attacking the Holy Spirit.
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Dong Yu Lan, in a meeting with some co-workers in Cerritos, California, February 18, 2008:
After Witness Lee passed away, condemnation came. I received a letter, the work in Brazil is the work of the Holy Spirit, not the work of Dong Yu Lan. I'm afraid you will offend the Holy Spirit, it will not be forgiven.
Dong Yu Lan, International Conference at Estância Árvore da Vida, February 23, 2009, Message 6:
This afternoon I was told by the brothers that some people used the Internet or other means to slander the church of God. They are fully aware that this act offends God. The Lord Jesus once said, "Everyone who will say a word against the Son of Man, it will be forgiven him; but he who blasphemes against the Holy Spirit will not be forgiven, in this age or in the age to come." They are fully aware that the churches here are of the Holy Spirit, of the leading of the Holy Spirit.
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Dong Yu Lan, Conference in Salvador, Brazil, June 21, 2008, Message 1:
Our soul is often used by Satan. For example, why are some people criticizing the Holy Spirit's work in raising up the churches? They are not attacking those individual local churches but the Holy Spirit. The Lord Jesus said, "And whoever speaks a word against the Son of Man, it will be forgiven him; but whoever speaks against the Holy Spirit, it will not be forgiven him, neither in this age nor in the one to come."
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Dong Yu Lan, International Conference at Estância Árvore da Vida, February 23, 2009, Message 6:
Now, they use things of deceit, malignity to damage those of us who are truly in the spirit. Verse 32 says, "Who, though fully knowing the righteous judgment of God, that those who practice such things are worthy of death, not only do them, but also have fellow delight in those who practice them." These people are inventors of evil things, disobedient to parents, senseless, faithless, affectionless, merciless. Brothers, it says here that they fully know the righteous judgment of God, that those who practice such things are worthy of death, not only do them, but also have fellow delight in those who practice them. I hope we will see some light from such a word. God will judge according to each one's work. Do not think that if you defame or envy others, nothing will happen. You lie, spread rumors, and slander the church of God. It is bad enough that the people in the world have such a condition, but it is even more terrible if the brothers in the church of God also do these things. Verse 32—we already read it—says, "Who, though fully knowing the righteous judgment of God," in other words, to be cast in the lake of fire, "not only do them, but also have fellow delight in those who practice them;" that is, to push others also into the lake of fire. Dear saints, this is terrible! I cannot imagine that this has happened among the children of God.
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Dong Yu Lan, International Conference at Estância Árvore da Vida, February 23, 2009, Message 6:
This afternoon I was told by the brothers that some people used the Internet or other means to slander the church of God. They are fully aware that this act offends God. The Lord Jesus once said, "Everyone who will say a word against the Son of Man, it will be forgiven him; but he who blasphemes against the Holy Spirit will not be forgiven, in this age or in the age to come." They are fully aware that the churches here are of the Holy Spirit, of the leading of the Holy Spirit. Even Brother Witness Lee, whom we respect and appreciate, in 1984 he witnessed this in the back of this place where we started our meetings. He said, "The Holy Spirit is truly in the midst of the churches in Brazil and South America." He even sent his tapes to the churches everywhere to show them. So many people saw it, but they pretended that they did not see. So, all those of you who heard this word, we all need to be enlightened.
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Brother Dong has even called those who express concerns about his teachings and work "sons of Satan."
Dong Yu Lan, International Conference at Estância Árvore da Vida, February 28, 2009, Message 15:
The Holy Spirit has been leading us. This opposition has been around for more than seven or eight years, or six years. But we did not argue with them over these things. I told them that we were in the Holy Spirit. Their response was just like that of the three friends of Job. They have their arguments to counter yours, but not according to what you have answered them. You have made it clear, but they launch another attack based on your words. Then you explain again, "there is no such thing," and they know there is no such thing; they are fully aware of it. They are sons of Satan, the deceiver. They will capitalize the weak points in your answer and attack you again.
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A Corrective
Such warnings given by Brother Dong, his co-workers, and their supporters are clear attempts to intimidate others through fear. Their threatenings rely upon misinterpretation and misapplication of the truth in the Bible. To blaspheme the Holy Spirit, the "unforgivable sin," is to directly slander the Holy Spirit by saying that the work of the Spirit is the work of demons (Matt. 12:24, 31-32). As Brother Lee explains in his footnote on Matthew 12:31:
Blaspheming the Spirit differs from insulting the Spirit (Heb. 10:29). To insult the Spirit is to disobey Him willfully. Many believers do this. If they confess this sin, they will be forgiven and cleansed by the Lord's blood (1 John 1:7, 9). But to blaspheme the Spirit is to slander Him, as the Pharisees did in v. 24. It was by the Spirit that the Lord cast out a demon. But the Pharisees, seeing it, said that the Lord cast out demons by Beelzebul, the ruler of the demons. This was blasphemy against the Spirit. By such blasphemy the Pharisees' rejection of the heavenly King reached its climax.
To claim that any expression of concern over deviations from the truth in the work and ministry of Dong Yu Lan risks blaspheming the Holy Spirit is to put Brother Dong and his co-workers above receiving any correction, even that offered in brotherly fellowship and love. Such an attitude is foreign to the status of the New Testament ministers as slaves of Christ and exalts Brother Dong and his co-workers above their proper status as members of the Body of Christ:
Learn to listen to others in connection with your work. The teaching in Acts 15 is to listen, that is, to listen to the views of all brothers because the Holy Spirit may speak through them. Be very careful lest in refusing to listen to the voice of the brothers you may not hear the voice of the Holy Spirit. ( The Collected Works of Watchman Nee, Vol. 26: Collection of Newsletters (2) & Watchman Nee's Testimony , pp. 491-492)
Ironically, while Brother Dong and his co-workers fend off all criticism of their work and teaching with warnings about blaspheming the Holy Spirit, they themselves exhibit no fear that by refusing to listen to the Body, they themselves risk missing the speaking of the Spirit.
No one should assume that relative and temporal success in the Lord's work proves that a particular work is absolutely according to God's will and way. Both the Bible and church history show us that the Holy Spirit can use a work that is not entirely pure, but that such a work ultimately becomes a hindrance to the full accomplishment of God's move to carry out His economy. In Matthew 7:21-23, the Lord did not deny that the workers of unrighteousness had done many works of power in His name. In Acts 21:20 James boasted to Paul that there were tens of thousands of believers in Jerusalem who were all zealous for the law. In 1 Corinthians 3, Paul warns that our work for the Lord must be a work of constituting the elements of the Triune God (gold, silver, and precious stone) into people and that it is possible to carry out the Lord's work using natural, fleshly, and earthen means (wood, grass, and stubble). In Philippians 1:17, Paul says that some were preaching the gospel in rivalry and out of selfish ambition. In each of these cases, it was not that these impure works had no success, but that they had deviated from the central line of God's economy.
History bears the same testimony. No one can deny that millions of believers have been saved through the multitude of Christian works and denominations. Nevertheless, the divided and degraded condition of Christianity has prevented the Lord from fully accomplishing His economy there. The Lord's recovery began in China when the brothers recognized Christianity's deviations from the Bible and departed from that system of error (Eph. 4:14). In the Lord's recovery, we should not measure our work for the Lord by outward success but by its inward purity.
All of our work must be measured by the standard of the truth. When Peter, who initially was the leading apostle, erred concerning the truth, it was his fellow worker who corrected him by speaking according to the truth of the New Testament teaching of the apostles:
In the New Testament ministry, who is the "pope"? Who is taking the lead? The teaching of the apostles is taking the lead. When Peter was rebuked, it was not actually Paul who rebuked him; it was the teaching in the New Testament that rebuked him. If one does not act according to the standard of the truth of the gospel, such an action damages and violates the truth of the gospel. It was the truth of the gospel, not Peter, that was taking the lead. The teaching of the apostles is the leadership in the New Testament ministry.
In the Catholic Church, Peter is considered irreproachable. He is called the successor of Jesus Christ, the leader in the New Testament. However, this is not according to the facts. When Peter and Paul carried out their ministry, their ministry was led by the apostles' teaching. As an illustration, a nation is actually led by its constitution, not by its president. The "constitution," that is, the leadership in the New Testament, is the teaching of the apostles; we all need to follow this teaching. ( Crucial Words of Leading in the Lord's Recovery, Book 2: Leading the Saints to Practice the New Way Ordained by the Lord , p. 188-189)
The co-workers' attempts to fellowship their concerns with Brother Dong are in the same principle. It is also worth noting that although Brother Dong receives no criticism of his own work, calling it blasphemy of the Holy Spirit, he and his co-workers freely criticize the co-workers and churches from other parts of the earth (for examples, see note 103) and carry out their work in direct competition with the one work in the Lord's recovery (see note 33).
112Criticism of Dong Yu Lan's Work Equated with Blasphemy of the Holy Spirit
See note 32.
