You Tube Theology

Fuller systematic theologian Veli-Matti Kärkkäinen — a Lutheran minister and ecumenical scholar — returns for a follow-up interview. You can see the first interview here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=blxiI0_F7lQ
Across the conversation Dr. Kärkkäinen reflects on the relationship between the Holy Spirit and Christ, deification (theosis), the proper spirit in which to approach and evaluate the teachings of others, and what Witness Lee and the local churches contribute to the wider Christian understanding of these things.

The conversation revisits the multi-year study Fuller Theological Seminary made of Witness Lee’s teaching. Dr. Kärkkäinen describes coming to it not as a critic or an advocate, but as an “ecumenical friend”: reading the whole body of writing rather than isolated sentences, spending hours in conversation, and asking directly whether he had understood rightly. Fuller’s conclusion, he reports, was that when read fairly the teaching of Witness Lee represents what held by orthodox fellow believers.

Dr. Kärkkäinen weighs several points he finds significant: Witness Lee’s emphasis that Christ, after His resurrection, became the life-giving Spirit (1 Cor. 15:45 (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gYgvFtyzC6E&t=945s); 2 Cor. 3:17 (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gYgvFtyzC6E&t=197s)); the “compound Spirit,” by which the whole work of the Triune God is seen from the Spirit’s vantage point without blurring the distinctions among Father, Son, and Spirit; and deification (theosis) — that believers come to share God’s life and nature, with proper safeguards to the Godhead.

He also speaks personally — as a Lutheran shaped by the rediscovery of Luther’s own teaching that Christ truly lives in the believer — about where he finds real convergence with Witness Lee and of his appreciation for the local churches’ readiness to engage in dialogue with other Christian believers.

0:00 (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gYgvFtyzC6E) Introduction
 7:51 (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gYgvFtyzC6E&t=471s) Discovering Watchman Nee through The Normal Christian Life
 9:55 (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gYgvFtyzC6E&t=595s) What the local churches add to our understanding of the Holy Spirit
 14:59 (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gYgvFtyzC6E&t=899s) Christ and the Spirit as one — the life-giving Spirit
 17:52 (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gYgvFtyzC6E&t=1072s) Why Witness Lee’s teaching cannot be called modalism
 21:18 (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gYgvFtyzC6E&t=1278s) Pneumatological and Christological grounds for the church’s oneness
 24:31 (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gYgvFtyzC6E&t=1471s) The compound Spirit — one in God’s economy, distinct in His eternal being
 25:31 (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gYgvFtyzC6E&t=1531s) How Fuller approached their study of Witness Lee’s teaching — neither attacker nor advocate
 28:35 (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gYgvFtyzC6E&t=1715s) Fuller’s conclusion: rightly read and understood, fellow believers in the faith
 30:40 (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gYgvFtyzC6E&t=1840s) Witness Lee and the Nicene faith concerning the Triune God
 36:10 (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gYgvFtyzC6E&t=2170s) What “mingling” really means — the two natures of Christ
 38:17 (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gYgvFtyzC6E&t=2297s) Becoming God: deification (theosis) and its biblical limits
 41:20 (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gYgvFtyzC6E&t=2480s) Is deification for every believer?
 44:24 (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gYgvFtyzC6E&t=2664s) Deification in Martin Luther: Christ living in the believer (“little Christs”)
 50:02 (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gYgvFtyzC6E&t=3002s) Deification clarified — God in life, nature, and expression but not in the godhead
 54:19 (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gYgvFtyzC6E&t=3259s) What deification means for everyday Christian living
 56:08 (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gYgvFtyzC6E&t=3368s) What first drew Dr. Kärkkäinen into the dialogue with the local churches
 57:57 (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gYgvFtyzC6E&t=3477s) Why the common criticisms of Witness Lee didn’t match the writings
 1:00:30 (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gYgvFtyzC6E&t=3630s) On the Recovery Version of the Bible
 1:04:44 (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gYgvFtyzC6E&t=3884s) The Bible lived out together; the oneness of the Body