ETS/EPS Papers

In 2015 and 2016 Chris Wilde of Living Stream Ministry presented papers on the teaching of Witness Lee at the joint annual meetings of the Evangelical Theological Society (ETS) and its sister organization, the Evangelical Philosophical Society (EPS). His co-presenter, Paul Copan of Palm Beach Atlantic University, encouraged attendees “to extend the right hand of fellowship to fellow-believers in the local churches.” The following links will take you to brief descriptions of those papers and links to each paper in its entirety.

2015—Atlanta, GA

“In Life and Nature but Not in the Godhead: Witness Lee’s Contribution to a Biblical Understanding of Theosis”

This paper includes a brief survey of the orthodox teaching of theosis through the centuries and focuses on Witness Lee’s understanding of deification as a process that is carried out by the operation of the divine life in the believers. Further, the paper demonstrates that Witness Lee affirmed the limits of theosis, as encapsulated by his statement that believers become God “in life and nature but not in the Godhead,” a refinement of Athanasius’s famous aphorism on the goal of God’s salvation. (This paper was prepared by the Defense & Confirmation Project and was presented at the 2016 joint conference of the Evangelical Theological Society and the Evangelical Philosophical Society in San Antonio, Texas.)


2016—San Antonio, TX

“The Divine Trinity in the Teaching of Witness Lee”

This paper shows that Witness Lee’s teaching fully respected the eternal distinctions among the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit while recognizing that the Three are one in essence. Describing the Trinity as “a divine incorporation,” Witness Lee understood that the three Persons mutually indwell one another and work together as one, as this paper demonstrates. He therefore affirmed the scriptural identifications of the Son with the Father (Isa. 9:6) and the Lord with the Spirit (2 Cor. 3:17), as numerous respected theologians and Bible teachers have done. (This paper was prepared by the Defense & Confirmation Project and was presented at the 2016 joint conference of the Evangelical Theological Society and the Evangelical Philosophical Society in San Antonio, Texas.)