Notes 44-46, 59-60 - Brother Dong Claims Only He Is Continuing
John's "Organic" Ministry, Which Will End the Age
44Brother Dong Claims That Only John's Ministry Is "Organic"
Dong Yu Lan, Conference in London, Canada, October 13, 2007, Message 3:
The Holy Spirit has brought us to study the latter ministry of John, which is the organic ministry.
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Dong Yu Lan, International Conference at Estância Árvore da Vida, September 2, 2007, Message 2:
God does not want the "traditional" ministry [of the twelve apostles], nor the "judicial" ministry if it is not being practiced. In the end, God raised up the elderly John... The latter ministry of John is an organic ministry. It brought life and spirit into the church... After John went to Ephesus, he taught them how to call on the Lord and pray-read the word in order to put Paul's word into practice. Then the condition of the church improved.
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Dong Yu Lan, International Conference at Estância Árvore da Vida, February 19, 2007, Message 6:
The Gospel of John brings all the words in Paul's judicial ministry into organic practice through spirit and life.
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Dong Yu Lan, Daily Food: The Organic Study of John's Writings, Week 6, Lord's Day:
Thank the Lord that John took the letter to the Ephesians that speaks about God's New Testament economy, developed it, and applied it through the Spirit and life in order to turn what was in the judicial realm into something organic. Hallelujah!
45Brother Dong Claims That Only John's "Organic" Ministry Will Remain Until the Lord's Coming
Dong Yu Lan, Daily Food: The Organic Study of John's Writings, Week 20, Lord's Day:
In the following verses we see that John was following them, and in verse 21 we read, "Peter therefore, seeing him, said to Jesus, Lord, and what about this man?" Peter seemed to be asking Him, "You are telling me how my death will be, how my end will be, and what about him?" Jesus answered in verse 22: "If I want him to remain until I come, what is that to you? You follow Me." The Lord had said how Peter's end would be— that others would lead him where he did not wish to go, indicating that his ministry would come to an end, but that the organic ministry of John would remain.
Dong Yu Lan, Daily Food: The Organic Study of John's Writings, Week 24, Monday:
At the end of the Gospel of John we see what the Lord told Peter about John: "Jesus said to him, If I want him to remain until I come, what is that to you? You follow Me. This word therefore went out among the brothers, that that disciple would not die, yet Jesus did not say to him that he would not die, but, If I want him to remain until I come, what is that to you?" (John 21:22-23). Surely John would die, but his ministry would not. This is the ministry that will remain until the Lord's coming.
Dong Yu Lan, Daily Food: Growth in Life for the Kingdom, Week 7, Monday:
...We saw previously that it is not that the Lord Jesus told the apostle John that he would not die. The Lord didn't say that he would remain until the Lord's coming. He said, "What is that to you?" (John 21:21-22). This doesn't mean that the apostle John would remain alive until the Lord's coming, but it means that John's ministry, the organic ministry, will remain until the Lord's coming. In other words, the organic ministry of John will be the last ministry.
Once the organic ministry is released to bear fruit in the whole earth, the Lord will be happy and then He will come back (Matt. 24:14).
46Brother Dong Claims That Only He and His Followers Have Entered the "Organic" Realm
Dong Yu Lan, International Conference at Estância Árvore da Vida, September 1, 2007, Message 1:
Not only did Brother Lee have a ministry, not only did the twelve apostles have a ministry, not only did Paul have a ministry, but we also have a ministry; and our ministry is a continuation of John's organic ministry.
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Dong Yu Lan, Conference in Piracicaba, Brazil, September 29, 2007, Message 1:
Today, among all the churches, only the churches in Brazil are still following his ministry of the Spirit.
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Dong Yu Lan, Daily Food: The Organic Study of John's Writings, Week 10, Tuesday:
This is also what we are practicing. In spite of my advanced age, my mind is very clear. We have spoken this word many times, but we always repeat it because we have new saints and also because we have still not entered fully into the organic salvation. Hence, we persist in saying that we are following John's organic ministry. This is the last ministry. Of all the Epistles and Gospels, John's writings are the last. God raised up John's ministry in order to use Spirit and life to mend the "tents" that were built by Paul and were damaged. Today God is using this ministry to recover the church to the organic realm.
Dong Yu Lan, Conference in London, Canada, October 14, 2007, Question and Answer Session:
So we have a lot of hope concerning the future of the church in London, because so far, this organic ministry, the Lord has not entrusted this ministry to any other church, except for the church in London, in Canada, for the time being.
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Letter from 16 brothers in 12 churches in southern Chile, October 31, 2007:
They [Brother Dong and his co-workers] spoke critically concerning the brothers in the United States saying that they only had the judicial ministry and that Brother Dong has the organic ministry, like the apostle John.
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Dong Yu Lan, International Conference at Estância Árvore da Vida, September 3, 2006, Message 3:
Today we listened to a message spoken by Brother Lee in 1994. He was eager that the brothers exercise their spirit by calling on the name of the Lord. Especially, he expressed his concern for those in Taiwan and North America. [He said,] "If you would not release your spirit, you are very likely to fall into Sardis and Laodicea." Look, he was very much concerned for these two major regions. However, did the brothers put this word into practice? Have we seen them do that? He [Brother Lee] once intended to bring what he saw in Brazil in 1984 to the United States and Taiwan; but the brothers didn't receive it.
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Similarly, Dong Yu Lan claims that only the churches in South America are preaching the gospel of the kingdom, which is a blatant falsehood.
Dong Yu Lan, Conference in London, Canada, October 14, 2007, Question and Answer Session:
Yes, the Bible does say that the gospel of the kingdom must be preached to the whole inhabited earth... But for the time being this has been practiced only in South America, only for the time being. In Mexico, I never heard them talk about this gospel of the kingdom. They talk about the church; the church is still in that stage of the church to church. They have not seen yet that the Lord put us in the church for the kingdom. They haven't had this light yet.
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59Brother Dong Claims That His Ministry Is the Unique Continuation of John's "Organic" Ministry
Dong Yu Lan, International Conference at Estância Árvore da Vida, Message 1, September 1, 2007:
Not only did Brother Lee have a ministry, not only did the twelve apostles have a ministry, not only did Paul have a ministry, but we also have a ministry; and our ministry is a continuation of John's organic ministry.
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Dong Yu Lan, Conference at Imperatriz, June 9, 2007:
John carried out or put into practice the judicial ministry of Paul through his organic ministry. Later Ephesus became a center of the spreading of the organic ministry. Today we are in this organic ministry. The Lord said, "If I want him to remain until I come..." Was he trying to say that John would not die or that He would come back before John died? So what will remain until the Lord's coming? The organic ministry of John will remain until the Lord's coming.... John wrote first the book of Revelation, then the epistles, and then the Gospel. Because John lived in the Spirit of reality, he could remember all the words that the Lord has spoken.... All the words that the Lord spoke and that were not included by the other gospel writers, because John was in the Spirit, he remembered all the words that the Lord spoke and put them in his Gospel. Hallelujah, now in the age of John the eagle took off and flew. This eagle here is not the USA; the eagle here is the Gospel of John.
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Brother Dong's co-workers have used their claimed "rediscovery" of "the organic ministry of John" to exalt Brother Dong's work very much and to justify their aggressive promotion of his teachings.
Pedro Dong, meeting with businessmen at Estância Árvore da Vida, May 20, 2007:
But now with John, the writings of John, this eagle has taken off! Has it taken off or not? [Saints: Yes!] So Brother Dong gave the subject of the first message in São Jose dos Campos "the Eagle took off." [Saints: Amen!] The eagle is no longer on the ground! Because we have rediscovered "the organic ministry of John." Brothers, this is not a small thing. This is not a small thing. Sorry to say, even Brother Lee has not spoken this! Watchman Nee did not speak this! Witness Lee did not speak this. When I was listening to this in São Jose dos Campos I said, "The Lord is sealing this ministry." I don't know what was your feeling when you were there in São José dos Campos; my feeling was that the Lord is sealing this ministry. No one has ever said this before! No one! I challenge you to find if Darby spoke about this, if Mackintosh spoke about this, or if someone else spoke about this. No one spoke about this! Not even Watchman Nee or Witness Lee spoke about this.
The Lord is really raising up a new phase. We have entered into this new phase. This eagle is taking off and will reach all the continents. Do you believe this? The eagle is going to reach all the continents. The Lord had much mercy on us that He came to us. He started like when Phillip was trying to introduce the Lord to Nathaniel. He said, "I found the one spoken by the prophets" and he answered, "Can anything good come out of Nazareth?" Phillip said, "Come and see." The Lord had much mercy that this eagle started flying here in South America, but this eagle is not going to be restricted to South America. She is going wherever she wants to go.
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Helcio Almeida, Conference in Boston, Massachusetts, Message 3, May 26, 2007:
You know the eagle represents John's organic ministry. John's gospel is represented by the eagle. In fact, it is not that the eagle is going to fly. The eagle has already flown, and is willing to go wherever. Wherever there is an open place, she goes. That eagle will fly to wherever there is an open place: Florida, hallelujah; north, Hallelujah. We hope to introduce the churches into the pace of the organic period, as we already have it in Brazil, to bring the Lord back. Every six months we have the gathering of the churches, receiving the fresh speaking of the Lord, and then we go to practice the word.
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Pedro Dong has completely misrepresented Brother Lee's speaking at the end of Elders' Training, Book 1: The Ministry of the New Testament to belittle Brother Lee's ministry and to exalt Brother Dong's teaching on "the organic ministry of John."
Pedro Dong, Regional Service Brothers' Meeting, São Paulo, Brazil, July 3, 2007:
Second, in the first book of the elders and responsible brothers' training, at the very end, Brother Lee also speaks about this. I read this two times to the church in São Paulo. Brother Lee, concerning the ministry of John, says that he does not know how to speak anything. Why? Because the Lord has not revealed to him what exactly the organic ministry of John is; he only knows that it is a very great thing. I will read that to you that you may understand, "In conclusion, we need to consider what part of John's ministry is in the New Testament Ministry. When we consider this matter, we have to confess that ministry of John, Brother Lee says, "We are short of words, I don't know what to say, I don't know what to say, I don't know what to say." Brothers, today we are experiencing the reality of John's ministry. "Compared with this part of the New Testament ministry, we are in the kindergarten." Brothers, with all the revelation that the Lord has given to the recovery through Brother Lee, he said that he was in kindergarten concerning John's ministry...
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Here is how Elders' Training, Book 1: The Ministry of the New Testament concludes (pp. 101-103):
In conclusion, we need to consider what the part of John's ministry is in the New Testament ministry. When we consider this matter, we have to confess that there is nothing that we can say because we are short. Compared with this part of the New Testament ministry, we ourselves are in kindergarten. What poverty there is today compared with this part of the New Testament ministry! We have to confess that we are poor.
THE RECOVERY OF THE UNIQUE MINISTRY OF THE NEW TESTAMENT
If you are burdened to go on in the New Testament ministry of God, you need to go on along this line, in this major, and in this school. I strongly encourage you not to get out of this school, not to get off from this major, and not to get on any other line. Here is a strong major in the unique school for you to explore in your spiritual study. In this line is what the Lord needs, and in this line you will never cause trouble. Your going on in this line will edify the saints, build up the church, and build up the Body to its fullest extent. Furthermore, it will never create any division or any confusion. If you take another way, you will be out of the unique school, off from this major, and not in the line of the New Testament ministry. In that case, whatever you preach, whatever you teach, and whatever you present will be a cause of division. I encourage you to consider this matter soberly.
In the Lord's recovery, if we were to control people merely so that we could present our teaching, that would be foolish, and it would be low or mean. No one can control people except a strong sect. Nearly all of the denominations exercise control over their preachers. For example, if you are going to be a preacher in a certain denomination, it is necessary for you to preach their teaching. Now we need to consider what is the teaching in the Lord's recovery, whether it is Witness Lee's teaching, Watchman Nee's teaching, or some other teaching. It is on this point that I am burdened. We need to be very clear that we do not have anyone's teaching. We are in the Lord's recovery, and His recovery is to recover His unique ministry. This unique ministry is the ministry of the New Testament, which is to minister the Triune God embodied in Christ as life into His chosen people to make them living members to form the Body of Christ to express Christ as the very embodiment of the Triune God. If we say that we have some kind of teaching, surely this New Testament ministry is our unique teaching, and this ministry should control our preaching and our teaching. We are not controlled by any sectarian denominational teaching, but we should be controlled by this unique New Testament ministry.
What we have seen in these seven chapters is the ministry of the New Testament of God. With this ministry as our basis, we will go on to see what the vision in the Lord's recovery is today. Then we will have a ground, a view, and even a standard of measurement so that we will know where to stay, where to go, and where to be limited.
Pedro Dong's speaking completely distorts what Brother Lee said in a self-serving and self-aggrandizing way, as the following points illustrate:
- The entire context of Brother Lee's speaking in the elders' trainings is that he was exhorting the co-workers and elders in the Lord's recovery to come up to the standard of the truth in the New Testament teaching of the apostles. He was charging them not to teach differently or to carry out any kind of private work in rivalry with the New Testament ministry. Pedro Dong's application of his word to the ministry of John only is a complete distortion of Brother Lee's intent.
- Brother Lee's speaking about needing "to go on along this line, in this major, and in this school," is not speaking specifically about the ministry of John but about the entire content of his sharing in Book 1 of the Elder's training series. It is his conclusion to his speaking on the unique ministry of the New Testament. He plainly says, "What we have seen in these seven chapters is the ministry of the New Testament of God." This is the line; this is the major; and this is the school in which we need to remain. It encompasses not only John's ministry but also the entirety of the apostles' teaching in the New Testament.
- In fact, Brother Dong and his co-workers are doing the very things Brother Lee warned against in the book, including teaching differently (for examples, see notes 36-38, 39-43, 44-45, 60, 61-63, 64-69, 104-106), carrying out independent work in rivalry (see notes 33, 73, 82, 83, 84, 85, and 86), and creating divisions based on different ministries (see notes 87-89, 90, 92, 121, 129-130).
- Brother Lee's word at the conclusion of the book directly follows a brief overview of the riches of the truth in John's writings concerning God's economy in and by the fellowship of the divine life and concerning the consummation of the divine economy, the New Jerusalem. In Elders' Training, Book 2: The Vision of the Lord's Recovery he spends nine chapters presenting the vision of the New Jerusalem. Nothing in Brother Dong's writings compares to the unveiling of God's ultimate goal contained in those chapters. In context, therefore, it is more than clear that when Brother Lee said, "we have to confess that there is nothing that we can say because we are short," he was not saying that he in his ministry had nothing to say about the ministry of John or that his own ministry on John's writings in the Life-study of John , the Life-study of the Epistles of John , the Life-study of Revelation , The Seven Mysteries in the First Epistle of John , The Mending Ministry of John , The Fulfillment of the Tabernacle and the Offerings in the Writings of John , as well as many other publications, was in the kindergarten. That twisting of Brother Lee's speaking is absurd. Rather, Brother Lee was telling the brothers that compared to the revelation in the writings of John the condition of the churches and of the standard of "ministry" being carried out at that time by the co-workers and elders (including those in South America) was substandard and that it was vain to try to vindicate ourselves.
60Brother Dong Claims John Found Paul's Epistles in Ephesus and Put Them into Practice
Dong Yu Lan, International Conference at Estância Árvore da Vida, September 8, 2007, Message 13:
[When John was serving in the church in Ephesus,] he found the fourteen epistles written by Paul. These marvelous words, however, were not put into practice, because all the saints were in their mind. Therefore, he introduced to the saints the practices of calling on the Lord and pray-reading the word that he saw in Revelation.
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Brother Dong claims that John found Paul's Epistle to the Ephesians and brought it into the organic realm:
Dong Yu Lan, Daily Food: The Organic Study of John's Writings, Week 6, Thursday:
When John came out of exile on the island of Patmos and went to serve in the church in Ephesus, he saw that in this letter to the Ephesians, Paul was speaking about God's New Testament economy, the heavenly vision, that God had given him. These precious words were written to the church in Ephesus, but the Ephesians did not put them into practice. They merely analyzed and examined them and took them as doctrine. When John saw all of this, he picked up the burden to practice these words. These words that were restricted to the judicial realm needed to be applied and put into practice by using the organic ministry. May we all take the words the Lord speaks to us as grace and reality, that we might practice them in an organic way!
Dong Yu Lan, Conference in Bariloche, Argentina, May 3, 2009, Message 2:
John expounded clearly the book of Ephesians in his spirit. So, the ministry of John developed and completed the things of Paul and put them to practice. He began to do the work of propagation. We are following him in the work of propagation. At that time, Ephesus was the center. We were taught in the past that Jerusalem is the center of the work among the Jews; Antioch is the center among the Gentiles. Now we see that the church in Ephesus in the latter stage became the place where Paul [sic, in context Brother Dong meant to say "John"] propagated his ministry, for the practice of spirit and life.
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Dong Yu Lan, National Conference in Concepción, Chile, October 18, 2008, Message 2:
Paul spoke in the church in Ephesus about the truth, the truth, the truth, and the truth. But he reached the point where he did not want to go back to the church in Ephesus. Now John, as an elderly person and after writing the book of Revelation, had the burden to go to the church that Paul no longer wanted to go to and see the saints. Paul was unable to advance in the practice of the truths in the church in Ephesus. John went there and practiced the truth. Why was John able to make the saints practice the truth in a church so difficult as Ephesus? How did he do it? With the Spirit and life. Hallelujah! With the Spirit and life he practiced the truths that Paul had spoken. Then, the church in Ephesus became a desirable church, which was not so in Paul's time. Paul did not want to see or enter into Ephesus, but John went there.
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Dong Yu Lan, Conference in London, Canada, October 13, 2007, Message 3:
Praise the Lord, and the church in Ephesus was rescued. Eventually, the church in Ephesus became a center for the work in the organic ministry. Many were sent out from Ephesus. All Ephesians were perfected like Paul said in Ephesians chapter 4; they were perfected to be evangelists, to be prophets with a ministry of the prophets; they were perfected as the apostles, they were all sent out. And then they raised up the new churches. Dear brothers and sisters, where did these things come from? From the church in Ephesus; so the church in Ephesus changed completely; became a center for the work in John's latter organic ministry.
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Although the saints in the Lord's recovery rightfully appreciate the ministry of John and practice calling on the Lord and pray-reading the Word, there is simply no biblical or historical evidence to support Brother Dong's claim that John led the saints in Ephesus into these practices causing the condition of the church in Ephesus to improve. There is certainly no evidence that John found Paul's Epistles, that he expounded them in "spirit and life," or that Ephesus became the prevailing center of an "organic" work. This entire line of teaching concerning John's "organic" ministry is based on an extra-biblical invention that carries a self-serving subtext—that the ministry of Watchman Nee and Witness Lee through which the Lord raised up His recovery over the entire earth can only be put into practice through the ministry of Brother Dong.
