Spiritual Authority [Paperback]

Watchman Nee (Author)

Book Description

ISBN-10: 0935008357 | ISBN-13: 978-0935008357 | Publication Date: June 1, 1972 | Edition: First American Edition

Authority is a tremendous thing in the universe, nothing overshadows it. God s throne is established on His authority. God s authority represents God Himself. God alone is authority in all things; all the authorities of the earth are instituted by God. It is therefore important for us who desire to serve God to know the authority of God. God s authority is absolute, hence we must give Him absolute submission (our hearts attitude) and absolute obedience (our outward actions). But to His delegated authorities we can render absolute submission, but only relative obedience. For their authorities are circumscribed by the measure of the life of Christ in them. Only when they themselves submit to God s authority in them are they able to represent God. Hence there is much we have to learn about how to represent God.

Editorial Reviews

From AudioFile

Watchman Nee draws upon biblical stories for this book of teachings about the authority of God over humans. He writes with conviction and without pretense. Michael Kramer gives a straightforward and low-key narration consistent with the message and style of the text. He is an authoritative and articulate guide through the material and avoids becoming pedantic. Kramer maintains a steady pace that is easy to follow and lends itself to thoughtful listening. This volume could form the basis for individual or group Bible study, although the material carries over from disc to disc, making it somewhat cumbersome for use in this way. J.E.M. © AudioFile 2006, Portland, Maine-- Copyright © AudioFile, Portland, Maine --This text refers to the Audio CD edition.

Product Details

• Paperback: 191 pages
• Publisher: Christian Fellowship Publishers; First American Edition edition (June 1, 1972)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0935008357
• ISBN-13: 978-0935008357
• Product Dimensions: 8.2 x 5.3 x 0.7 inches
• Shipping Weight: 8 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 4.2 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (40 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #36,569 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)
  • #11 in Books > 4-for-3 Books > Religion & Spirituality > Christianity > Theology > General
  • #28 in Books > 4-for-3 Books > Religion & Spirituality > Spirituality > General

More About the Author

Watchman Nee (1903-1972) is remembered for his leadership of an indigenous church movement in China, as well as for his books, which continue to enrich Christians throughout the world. Beginning in the 1930s, Nee helped establish local churches in China that were independent of foreign missionary organizations and were used to bring many into the Kingdom of God. From these roots sprang many of the house churches that continued to meet after Western missionaries were forced to leave the country during the Cultural Revolution. Arrested in 1952 and found guilty of a large number of false charges, Watchman Nee was imprisoned until his death in 1972.

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

33 of 36 people found the following review helpful:

2.0 out of 5 stars A Sincere Effort, But Contradicts the Bible (explanation below), August 4, 2010

By 

Sean - See all my reviews

This review is from: Spiritual Authority (Paperback)

I want to focus on this book's view of Reason. First I have to prove that it says what it says, then I want to analyze it.

The author of this book had a noble and commendable goal; to search the scriptures and find what is at the root of every sinful decision. Throughout the first part of the book he goes through the Bible and looks at the ungodly decisions that were made, and his analysis leads him to a true conclusion. His conclusion is that Reason was at the center of all ungodly decisions. From there however, he figures that Reason is inherently bad, and that followers of God must do away with all reason. All of it. (see pages 93, 94, 96, and throughout the book). In Nee's eyes, Reason never serves a good purpose, rather it is something to be delivered from.

This view is taken to the point that we should do away with discerning right from wrong. I will defend this assertion with quotes. Page 23, "We should not be occupied with right or wrong, good or evil; rather should we know who is the authority above us."

Again on Page 71,"People will perhaps argue, `What if the authority is wrong?' The answer is, If God dares to entrust His authority to men, then we can dare to obey. Whether the one in authority is right or wrong does not concern us, since he has to be responsible directly to God. The obedient needs only to obey; the Lord will not hold us responsible for any mistaken obedience, rather will He hold the delegated authority responsible for his erroneous act. Insubordination, however, is rebellion, and for this the one under authority must answer to God." This book can be praised because it encourages us to make Authority a priority. BUT, should we really make it the most important thing? More important than doing what's right and wrong?

This makes more sense once you realize that to Nee, Authority is the most central thing, above everything else (page 91). For Nee, the idea of discerning right from wrong comes from the tree of knowledge of good and evil, and therefore is to be rejected for the principal of authority (page 21). It's giving up one thing for the other. Throughout the book, Nee tells us that we have a choice. That choice is between the principle of Reason (which includes discerning right and wrong), OR the principle of Authority (page 93, 94). You can't have both.

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Now that we've established a couple of the core themes of the book, let's analyze it. Nee's views are based on the idea that in the Bible, Reason only serves a negative purpose. Nee discovered that at the root of every sinful decision, Reason seems to be the culprit behind it. But, let's suppose I went through the Bible and looked at every good decision. I would find that at the root every godly decision, there is also Reason. I could, like Nee, come to an opposite conclusion that Reason is inherently good. But of course, this is false, because Reason has gotten a lot of people to make sinful decisions (just read this book to find about them). Nee provides very robust evidence for the idea that Reason is bad, but he ignores the positive roles that Reason plays in the Bible, such as in:

Evangelism (1 Peter 3:15, Acts 17:2, Acts 17:17, Acts 18:4, Acts 26:25)

Testing Teachings/Discernment (1 Thess 5:19, Acts 17:11, Romans 12:2)

As a Result of being close with God (Psalm 111:10, Psalm 119:10)

When Jesus was questioned about what the most important commandment is, he quotes Deuteronomy 6:5, Love the Lord with all your heart, soul, and strength... but he ADDS "mind" to it (Mark 12:30).

The Bible even alludes to there being value in reasoning that does not directly related to spiritual matters, in that Daniel learned from "all sorts of [Babylonian] literature" (Daniel 1:17), God gives Solomon wisdom about the natural world (1 Kings 4:29), and Paul quotes a Hellenistic proverb from a pagan culture, "Bad company corrupts good character" (1 Cor 15:33).

Since it's clear to see that Reason is a key part in all decisions, for good and for evil, it raises the question of "what is at the root of all sin?". I'm going to back to the Garden of Eden, like Nee, but I'm going to say that (since Reason is also in godly decisions), it must be something else. I would argue that at the root of all sin is Lies. Believing lies, thinking about lies, reasoning with lies... that is what leads to sin. Satan is called the father of lies, a master deceiver.

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If believing lies is what produces sin, it is important that we test this book, and every book we read, for falsehoods.

Falsehood #1: Nee asserts "Yet Paul did not use reason to fight against reason" (page 100), ironically, this is in reference to the passage in 2 Corinthians 10 about demolishing arguments. That chapter itself uses good reason to fight against bad reason, as well as almost every chapter written by Paul in the New Testament.

Falsehood #2: Nee asserts "He [Jesus] did not forewarn the disciples not to speak carelessly." (page 70) But Jesus did give such warning (pearls before swine) in Matthew 7:6.

Falsehood #3: The foundation of this book, which is that reason only leads to destruction, sin, and rebellion in the Bible.

Nee wants us to submit to who is just above us, submitting more to those in the chain of command directly over us, rather than going to straight to God. But young Jesus ditched his parents without their permission and disappeared for three days in order to reason in the temple courts (Luke 2). Jesus told us we have one master above us and offered a scathing, disrespectful, and offensive criticism of God's rightful representative authority, the teachers of the law (Matthew 23). Jesus disturbed the public peace and forcibly drove out the market from the temple (John 2).

Okay, but we're not Jesus. Then consider some other biblical examples of rebellion:
Moses versus Pharaoh. John the Baptist (who spoke critically against Herod and yet was called by Jesus the best man who ever lived (Matthew 11:11)).

To be fair, Nee does offer us a tiny 5-page chapter about such events, but he fails to help us navigate how these people were justified under his doctrine, and quickly returns to do the "do away with reason" doctrine after this chapter.

I hope people don't read this critique and think that I'm against increasing the priority of Authority in our lives. I am for increasing the priority of Authority. I just don't think it's biblical that Authority should be raised up above everything else, to the point that we should sin if Authority tells us to and that we should give up all Reason and all ability to discern good and evil. Is that strange?

If we're going to reject an idea, we need a better reason than doing it just because the idea is extreme. At the same time, if we're going to accept an idea, we need a better reason than doing it just because the idea is extreme. I can understand why radical, dedicated, extreme views can be attractive to some people and repulsive to others but whatever background you may be from, you may find that testing this book with scripture will be a great exercise for you. I have tested this book and found it to be lacking and disappointing, but it was a very edifying experience and I respect Nee and understand why he came to the conclusions that he did.

21 of 24 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Great book for discipling Americans, April 21, 2006

By 

David A. Bielby "Ev Xpistw" (Normal, IL USA) - See all my reviews
(VINE VOICE)    (REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Spiritual Authority (Paperback)

As an American Pastor who is not power hungry nor a control freak...as so many critics of this book claim it fosters...I have found this book deals with the issue of authority from a spiritual perspective. Nee doesn't hesitate to challenge Christians to trust in God and to demonstrate that trust in God by obeying leaders and by submitting to their God given authority. In our culture in America today, disrespect for leaders is considered a right. Nee calls it sin.

I think one of the reasons this book has so much controversy around it is because we are so off culturally in the land of the free and the brave...with respect to submission to leaders and to authority. We are so independent minded as a nation that the whole concept seems like a foreign concept. It's very easy then for some to label it as some sort of oriental influence. But in reality this book applied well is crucial for life transforming pastoral leadership.

Another reason this book has been criticized is because some leaders have used it while leading from their own insecurities and fear of losing people from their ministries. Some abusive tendencies have spawned just criticism of those ministries. But that is NOT Nee's problem...nor a result of the book. That is the result of leaders' allowing their old nature to cloud the spiritual principles laid out in scripture. So we should not blast 'Spiritual Authority'.

Some I know who have been wounded by this sort of
abusive leadership have overreacted by rejecting the entire concept of any leadership/authority at all. Some say that the
bible doesn't teach the concept of spiritual authority at all!!
That's pretty bad in my view.

Layered over that is the egalitarian movement which rejects authority in the sense Nee lays it out here. The combination is there are multiple pressures on the church to reject spiritual authority of any kind. I've seen some egalitarians fight hard
to redefine words which include the concept of authority and obedience so that they can remove the entire concept. But
the scriptures are clear on the subject.

If we can study what the scripture says about spiritual authority and compare it to what Nee says here, I think we will be encouraged to trust in God through all kinds of situations...and we will see the Kingdom of God advance.

There are very few books bold enough to tackle this issue. There are very few books which dealt with a failure to recognize authority in my life as this one did.

For me the most convicting chapter was the one on delegated authority. Nee points out that God places people in authority and that we are rejecting him when we fail to respect delegated authorities. This led me to contact the Assistant Pastor of my old church and ask for his forgiveness. He so appreciated the call.

Where do you have trouble submitting to authority?

Why not read this book...prayerfully and with an open heart?
Ask God to show you if you need to change and don't be surprised if you end up actually being placed into a place of spiritual authority after you learn the lessons God teaches you through this challenging book. I think that God used this book to help me transition into the ministry full time. It was and is a very helpful book for me personally.

I think one other caution is in line. Some people are so overly submissive that they don't need to read this book. For those people I would recommend NOT reading this book but instead focus on something that encourages them to have healthy conflict resolutions. Maybe these people should find a book on conflict resolution and read that instead. But for most of us...especially American Evangelicals in general...we desperately need this bold message!

31 of 37 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Nee the Elder, June 11, 2000

By 

Justin Hawley - See all my reviews

This review is from: Spiritual Authority (Paperback)

Watchman Nee is, to me, a perfect example of a person with no "Christian" culture. Living in China, when he read the Bible, he had no premeditated bias, and his insights are astounding. This book focuses on God's authority, his delegated authority, and why it is crucially important, for your own sake, to recognize His authority wherever it lies. It is a book for anyone who wants an extremely mature, humbled walk with God in a depth you can only now imagine. On a side note, don't plan on reading this in a weekend. The information contained within is so deep and profound I found myself stopping after every two paragraphs and meditating on what Nee said for a week. Next to the Bible, it is one of my two favorite books, (the other one being Neil T. Anderson's "Victory Over the Darkness"). Jesus' revelation be with you.