Additional Quotes about the Local Church by Witness Lee and Watchman Nee

We all must improve from knowing the church in a general way, or a so-called universal way, to knowing it in a local, specific, and practical way....The universal church is more or less something in doctrine, in teaching, and in theory. But the churches are the practicality of the universal church....when we move from Ephesians to 2 Corinthians, we move from the church to the churches....Second Corinthians is not the beginning; it is the advance in the local churches.

(Witness Lee, Christ as Life, 115-116)

The Church mentioned in chapter sixteen includes all the children of God in every locality, while the church mentioned in chapter eighteen includes only the children of God living in one locality; and it is because it is limited to one place that it is possible for you to tell your difficulties to the believers of whom it is composed. Obviously the church here is local, not universal, for no one could speak at one time to all the children of God throughout the universe. It is only possible to speak at one time to the believers living in one place.

We have clearly two different aspects of the Church before us--the Church and the churches, the universal Church and the local churches. The Church is invisible; the churches are visible.

(Watchman Nee, Collected Works, Set 2, Vol. 30, 52)

In Exodus there was a tent of meeting for God’s dwelling. He was no longer just in the heavens; He was also on the earth in the tent of meeting. When we come to the book of Leviticus, we find that God speaks out of the tent of meeting. On Mount Sinai, God spoke from the heavens, but since God has a tent of meeting on the earth, He can speak out of it. This is marvelous....Today we can all declare that there is a tent of meeting in Los Angeles! There is no need for God to speak out of the heavens because He has a tent of meeting. The Lord is speaking today out of the local churches, and the local churches are the tents of meeting.

The tent of meeting brings God to the earth. God is no longer in the heavens; He is here in the tent of meeting....Today God is in the tent of meeting. This is clearly seen in 1 Corinthians 14 where people coming into the tent of meeting of the local church say “that God is among you indeed” (v. 25, ASV).

(Witness Lee, Christ as the Reality, 8-9, 11-12)

The last five chapters in Romans begin in chapter twelve with the Body of Christ and conclude in chapter sixteen with the local churches for the fellowship and communication of the Body of Christ. Do not think that the local churches are one distinct side, and the Body of Christ is another distinct side. These two sides are one entity. They refer to the same thing. The Body of Christ is unique in the universe, but it needs an expression on the earth. These expressions on the earth are the local churches. The local churches are the Body of Christ, and the Body of Christ is the local churches.

(Witness Lee, CS of Romans, 5)

The church has both a universal aspect and a local aspect. In the local aspect the church is expressed in many localities as many local churches. The one universal church expressed in many places on earth becomes the many local churches. The expression of the church in a locality is the local church in that particular locality.

The universal church as the Body of Christ is expressed through the local churches. The local churches, as the expressions of the one Body of Christ, are locally one.

(Witness Lee, Incarnation, 32)

Do not think that the local churches are one distinct side, and the Body of Christ is another distinct side. These two sides are one entity. They refer to the same thing. The Body of Christ is unique in the universe, but it needs an expression on the earth. These expressions on the earth are the local churches. The local churches are the Body of Christ, and the Body of Christ is the local churches.

(Witness Lee, CS of Romans, 5)

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