Watchman Nee's Research On Rebirth

Watchman Nee is one of the most important figures of Christianity in China in the 20 th century.His theology and the ?local church? he founded provided a beneficial attempt and exploration to promote the indigenization of Christianity in China,and had a great impact on the life of Chinese and Western Christians.Regeneration is a core concept and the hope of faith of Christianity,which not only has its biblical source,but also has a rich history of interpretation.In the efforts of response to the trend of the times and seeking the reforms of the church,Watchman Nee creatively inherited and developed the concept of regeneration and put forward a distinctive idea of it.Watchman Nee believed that because of the fall,man was far away from God,suffered the death of the spirit,and could not save himself.Therefore,the essence of regeneration is that the Holy Spirit as a life enters into the spirit of human beings,so that people can get a new life.This is based first on the death and resurrection of Christ.The death of Christ forgives people's sins,removes the gap between God and man,and releases God's life in Jesus.The resurrection of Christ proves the completion of Christ's redemption work,and makes Him enter into the spirit of man as Holy Spirit.Second,regeneration is based on personal faith.Faith is a necessary and sufficient condition for regeneration which is interpreted as union with Christ and acceptance of him.This is not the credit of man,but of God.To make a man believe focuses on touching his emotions.The proof of regeneration is the feeling in one's spirit,but not every feeling of a regenerated man is from spirit,so feeling is not stable.But regeneration is stable,it's forever.However just to be reborn means to get eternal life,not to get the reward of the millennium.The reward lies in the development of new life after regenerated.At the same time,regeneration is the only condition to enter the church.Nee's view of regeneration combined with Trichotomous fully embodies his principle of human nature.He divided man into three parts: spirit,soul and body,which are totally different,but at the same time he regarded man as a whole.He emphasized the individuality of the experience of belief,and pointed out that regeneration lies in the individual's faith of Christ.And after regeneration,believers should experience Christ individually.This emphasis on personal experience of belief is one of the reasons why his theology is welcomed by practical Chinese believers.Nee denies that man can save himself and emphasizes that Christ is the only way for man to be saved,which embodies the principle of Christocentric,while human subjectivity is reaffirmed in the mode of ?death and resurrection?.At the same time,when dealing with theological problems,Nee tried to achieve the balance between individuality and collectivity,theory and experience,sensibility and reason,God's grace and human power,which embodied the nature and characteristics of the moderation,and made his theology flexible and full of tension.From the perspective of Sinocization of Christianity,Watchman Nee's view of regeneration is of great value and significance.On the one hand,his view of regeneration focuses on the spiritual growth of believers,comforts people in troubled times,promotes the hope of belief of Christians,and provides theoretical support for the development of local churches.On the other hand,his view of regeneration adheres to the tradition,focuses on the present,affirms the dual dimensions of the divinity and humanity of belief,combines living things and discards abstruse terms in expression,and becomes an important theoretical resource in the construction of Chinese native theology.