With that simple statement on the cover of its flagship publication, the Christian Research Institute (CRI) recently declared that it no longer considered the ‘Local Church’ movement aberrational.

In an unprecedented move, all of the in-depth feature articles in the latest Christian Research Journal were devoted to evaluating the results of a six-year investigation into the movement founded by Chinese leader Watchman Nee.

Nee died in a Chinese communist prison camp; however, his work was carried on by Witness Lee, who helped spread Nee’s ideas through various Asian countries, and then to the West.

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In an editorial, CRI president Hank Hanegraaff said his organization had unwittingly propagated “a fountainhead of misinformation” about the local church movement.

He described a key meeting with members of Lee’s Living Stream Ministry: “I heard stirring affirmations of the very doctrines the Local Churches allegedly denied.”

While he maintained there were still differences over secondary things such as eschatology, “when it comes to essential Christian doctrine . . . we stand shoulder-to-shoulder.”

– DFD

March 2010