First, many in Christianity despised him, even as a young man in his twenties. When Brother Nee was in his mid-twenties, he published the three volumes of The Spiritual Man. One top theologian commented that Brother Nee was merely a clever young man, who could pick up many things by reading English books and translating them into Chinese. Brother Nee was really despised. Being criticized is not as serious as being despised. Criticism "circumcises" us and "cuts us into pieces," but being despised is something more. Especially in those days, we were reminded of Hebrews 13:13: "Let us therefore go forth unto Him outside the camp, bearing His reproach." Together with Brother Nee, we were going to the Lord outside the camp to bear His reproach. We considered that reproach as the cross. The more we were despised, the happier we were because we were bearing the cross.
Following being despised, Brother Nee was criticized by Christianity. He was criticized because he repudiated and renounced the entire unscriptural system of Christianity. In the twenty-four issues of his magazine The Christian, published in 1925 and 1926, Brother Nee "demolished" all of fallen Christianity. Some people today condemn me by saying that I am different from Watchman Nee. But what I have ministered cannot be compared in strength to what Brother Nee released to expose in detail the fallen situation of Christianity. Those in Christianity had to publish many things in criticism of him in order to defend themselves. I noticed that by being criticized, Brother Nee learned to deal with the flesh. He never reacted to criticism in a fleshly way. He learned the lesson of having his flesh dealt with.
In addition to suffering criticism, Brother Nee was opposed by Christianity. One Christian publication in China opposed him in issue after issue. Following this opposition, they attacked Brother Nee. They did their best to put him down. By that time China was a constitutional country with the freedom of religion. Otherwise, even Brother Nee's life would have been in danger. The strongest attacks against him did not come from the native Christians but from the missionaries. The missionaries thought they had sacrificed their country, their homes, and so much for the Lord Jesus to go to a pagan country like China. They did this to help people be saved and to lay the foundation for and build up their mission churches. The Presbyterian missionaries built up the Presbyterian church, the Baptist missionaries built up the Baptist church, etc. They all built up their so-called churches. Some of them would collect the people they had converted together, take a picture of them, and send that picture back to the mission board so that they could receive some money in return.