43 Facts About Watchman Nee

Watchman Nee, Ni Tuosheng, or Nee T'o-sheng, was a Chinese church leader and Christian teacher who worked in China during the 20th century.

Watchman Nee established churches throughout China and held many conferences to train Bible students and church workers.

Watchman Nee was honoured by Christopher H Smith in the US Congress on July 30,2009.

Watchman Nee was born on November 4,1903, the third of nine children of Ni Weng-hsiu, a well-respected officer in the Imperial Customs Service, and Lin He-Ping, who excelled as a child at an American-staffed Methodist mission school.

Since Watchman Nee's parents were both Methodists, he was baptized by a bishop of the Methodist Church as an infant.

In 1916, at age 13, Watchman Nee entered the Church Missionary Society Vernacular Middle School in Fuzhou, Fujian province to begin his Western-style education.

Watchman Nee then went on to the middle school at Trinity College in Fuzhou, where he demonstrated great intelligence and ambition.

Watchman Nee's action impressed Nee so much that he determined to attend the next day's evangelistic meetings to see what was taking place there.

Watchman Nee first attended Dora Yu's Bible Institute in Shanghai, though he was still a high school student.

Watchman Nee would visit Barber on a weekly basis in order to receive spiritual help.

Watchman Nee was one who was very deep in the Lord, and in my opinion, the kind of fellowship she had with the Lord and the kind of faithfulness she expressed to the Lord are rarely found on this earth.

Watchman Nee was known for his ability to select, comprehend, discern, and memorize relevant material, and grasp and retain the main points of a book while reading.

Watchman Nee derived many of his ideas, including plural eldership, disavowal of a clergy-laity distinction, and worship centered around the Lord's Supper, from the Plymouth Brethren.

Watchman Nee refused to follow their practice of isolating themselves from other Christians and rejected their ban on celebrating The Lord's Supper with other Christians.

Matters came to a head when Exclusive Brethren leaders learned that during his 1933 visits to the United Kingdom and the United States Nee had broken bread with Honor Oak Christian Fellowship associated with the independent ministry of T Austin-Sparks and with non-Brethren missionaries whom Nee had known in China.

When Watchman Nee became a Christian, Charity ridiculed Jesus in Watchman Nee's presence.

Watchman Nee began attending church meetings in Shanghai in 1934.

In 1936, before a group of fellow workers, Watchman Nee outlined the commission of his ministry:.

Watchman Nee began to write and publish at a very early age.

At age 21, Watchman Nee established the first "local church" in Sitiawan, Malaysia, while visiting his mother, who had moved there from China.

In 1926, Watchman Nee established up another local church in Shanghai, which became the center of his work in China.

In 1928, Watchman Nee published a three-volume book entitled The Spiritual Man.

In January 1934, Watchman Nee called a special conference on the subjects of "Christ as the Centrality and Universality of God" and "The Overcomers".

In February 1934, Watchman Nee gave a series of talks in which he defined and expounded the practice of the local churches, stating that in the Bible, the church is never divided into regions and never denominated based on a teaching or doctrine.

In 1938, Watchman Nee traveled to Europe and gave messages that were later published as The Normal Christian Life.

In 1939, Watchman Nee became involved with his second brother's failing pharmaceutical company.

Watchman Nee took over full management of the factory, reorganized it, and began to employ many local church members from Shanghai.

On March 6,1945, Watchman Nee moved to Chongqing to oversee the factory there.

Watchman Nee purchased twelve bungalows at Kuliang to hold trainings for his co-workers in the Christian work.

When he returned, Watchman Nee handed his pharmaceutical factory over to the Christian work as an offering to God, influencing many others to hand over their possessions to the work.

On June 21,1956, Watchman Nee appeared before the High Court in Shanghai, where it was announced that he had been excommunicated by the elders in the church in Shanghai and found guilty on all charges.

Watchman Nee was sentenced to fifteen years imprisonment with reform by labor.

Watchman Nee was scheduled for release in 1967 but was detained in prison until his death on May 30,1972.

Watchman Nee's remains were cremated on June 1,1972, before his family arrived at the prison.

Watchman Nee's grandniece recounted the time when she went to pick up Watchman Nee's ashes:.

Watchman Nee wanted to testify to the truth which he had even until his death, with his lifelong experience.

Watchman Nee believed in the verbal inspiration of the Bible and that the Bible is God's Word.

Watchman Nee believed that God is in one sense triune, Father, Son, and Spirit, distinctly three, yet fully one, co-existing and co-inhering each other from eternity to eternity.

Watchman Nee believed that every person who believes in Jesus Christ will be forgiven by God, washed by His redeeming blood, justified by faith, regenerated by the Holy Spirit, and saved by grace.

Watchman Nee believed that the destiny of every believer is to be an integral part of the church, which is the Body of Christ and the house of God.

Watchman Nee had a unique blend of Brethren theology, the exchanged life theology of the Keswick conventions and his own insights into Christian theology.

Watchman Nee held that assurance is not to be placed upon one's sanctification and put a heavy emphasis on eternal rewards.

Watchman Nee held that the "outer darkness" mentioned in Matthew is a temporal place for saved Christians who do not live in obedience.