The Tree of Life as God's Life

I haven't been following this thread but the mention of Watchman Nee led me to read the few posts on this part of it. I just want to ask if anyone can show that Watchman Nee and Witness Lee have anything in common theologically. Are both their names really associated with this Recovery Bible for instance?I understand that Witness Lee was originally a disciple of Nee's but I've read a great deal of Watchman Nee's writings and while some of it is questionable from the point of view of some traditions, overall it is orthodox Christianity and I've found it personally to be particularly inspiring.Witness Lee on the other hand sounds almost overtly cultic and for that reason I've read very little of his writing. What purpledawn linked to is far from orthodox Message 48.I suspect the two names should not be linked as they represent very different perspectives.{AbE: Reading the link to the Recovery Bible in the OP I found that the introduction to this Bible claims that Lee received help from Nee in the making of this Bible, but the dates given for the translation are 1974 to 1991. Nee had been imprisoned for his faith in 1952 and died twenty years later according to this Wikipedia article, two years before this translation was begun, and as I understand it had very little contact with the outside world during his imprisonment in any case.)This message has been edited by Faith, 12-11-2005 10:06 PM

Just to comment on one point, which may or may not make it a bit clearer than mud, but I hope, he's saying that the history itself, the real lived history reported on in the Bible, has symbolic meaning. He doesn't mean that Paul treats Adam and Eve as "merely" a symbolic story, which implies it is fiction, he means that it really occurred as it is told, and that the reality contains meanings God Himself intended in them.For instance, according to the idea of Types in the Old Testament, the Tabernacle isn't merely a structure demonstrating how God wanted the Israelites to worship Him, it represents Jesus Christ's own sacrifice for us, and it also represents God's "tabernacling" among His people, which means INDWELLING His people, which began with the sending of the Holy Spirit. The little tabernacles or booths or Sukkot that the Jews build on the Feast of Tabernacles symbolize the same thing -- God's ultimate tabernacling within the souls of His people. The requirements of the priesthood are also Types of Christ. Types aren't perfect correspondences in some cases, as in how David was a type of Christ although he was a sinner, and Solomon too. Likewise Adam was a Type of Christ in that he was the Federal Head of his descendants just as Christ is the Federal Head of all who believe in Him, who are in a sense HIS offspring. In Adam all die but in Christ all are made alive. IN Adam, IN Christ. Adam was the firstborn of the original creation, Christ is the firstborn of the New Creation. Etc.The idea is that God oversaw every aspect of his history in such a way that it is thick with symbolic correspondences that deepen its meaning.This message has been edited by Faith, 12-19-2005 09:19 PM