Should you leave the denomination?

[YP0534]

Now we must see what we should do with the denominations. Some brothers who have seen that the denominations are wrong still insist that we must stay there. They say that if we do not remain in the denominations, we will be charged with causing division. They also say that we must stay to help others, for if we leave, they say, there will be no way to help them. At least some who have seen that the denominations are wrong speak in this way. I know some dear saints who are like this.

Well, are the denominations right or wrong? If they are wrong, should we stay in them? Should we remain in something wrong? If you cannot leave because others will say that you cause division, I am afraid you are the biggest politician on earth! You are not faithful to what you see. You know the denominations are wrong, yet you still remain because you are afraid of what others will say. This is not honest or faithful.

Witness Lee - The Practical Expression of the Church

I think many of our recent friends here have now realized that they have somehow become a part of a denomination but do not know what to do about it. Here is what brother Lee taught back in 1968: it is not right to remain in something wrong.

The thing to understand, and it is a little scary and difficult at first, but there is nothing for you to join if you were to depart from the Local Church. You have seen something about the oneness of all the believers and yet you look around and see all the believers meeting in various divisive ways. While some may have the peace to move to another denomination, or to return to the one they previously left, many are left without support of any kind. One thing is ceratin: we must not forsake the assembling of ourselves together!

I think I would have to fellowship with you that you should not leave the Local Church alone. You are better off to stay there than to become a lost person. But if the Lord gives you a way that you may remain in good fellowship with other saints after you remove yourself from the religious system, you should have the peace to know that there are believers such as yourself who have found their way to this forum and are watching as the Lord is doing something among us that no one can ever control but Him.

In 1992, after seven and a half years of developing and working on the "new way," brother Lee had to still admit that things were not correct in the practical way of the meetings of the Local Church. (See Fellowship Concerning the Urgent Need of the Vital Groups.) It is clear to those of us who were there that despite many efforts and changes, this never transpired in the fashion brother Lee intended by the time of his passing. Neither has it been picked up and improved upon by any great spiritual leader, either inside or outside of the denomination since then. Do not look for that. This is not what the Lord is doing with us in these mysterious days. Rather, the Lord intends to gain His real and practical expression among even many small groups of His sons who would meet to bear His glory in the reality of the oneness of the Spirit and not merely in the unity of a denominational practice.

We surely love all the brothers and that is how we can realize that the Lord's assembly in Philadelphia has a little power in its weakness, it keeps the Lord's word, and it does not deny His Name. Do not be concerned that you will not have more than this if you leave the practices of a denomination.

This is all that we need to have. This is our open door.


May the Lord's plentiful grace meet your practical need.

[aron]

I think many of our recent friends here have now realized that they have somehow become a part of a denomination but do not know what to do about it. Here is what brother Lee taught back in 1968: it is not right to remain in something wrong.


Because of the local church practice of "quarantining" ex-members who open their mouths, many who have extended families involved to various degrees with the movement may have reticence to move, speak, or act, regardless of personal feelings. Remember, we are dealing with a multigenerational movement here. I suspect the number of people who are involved in the local churches as part of a family, as opposed to as individuals, is pretty high. The local church only has to get one or two 'true believers' among the group and the whole family is either paralyzed, or else riven. It is a big leverage they have with individuals. "If you speak you'll never see your granddaughter again".

Quarantining is very serious business. These are true believers here. They believe they have the "ends", and any "means" are therefore justified, even unbiblical and unethical ones. Many who are unhappy nevertheless do not dare "oppose" the leaders.

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Matthew chapter 23:27 says, "Jerusalem, Jerusalem, who stones the prophets..." Not all people in Jerusalem stoned prophets. But enough people did that the Lord painted them all with the same brush. Everyone, even the 'clean' ones, were in God's eyes infected with the same taint.

I imagine some of those who tarry midst the chaos and confusion, knowing all is not well, wondering where the blessing of the Spirit of '76 or '72 or '67 went, tell themselves the verse from Revelation chapter 3, "But you have a few in Sardis who have clean robes, and their reward...." They hope to be the few who remain clean, who don't have the smirch of the "deep things of Satan" in the Thyatiran assembly. Perhaps, perhaps not. If you remain in Jerusalem, who stones the prophets, you may share Jerusalem's fate.

One whom I talked to who over the winter was very troubled about the trend of recent events, and very discouraged, but nevertheless said, "It's the church", and stayed.