[Trapped]

I think the issue is the frequent refrain when it comes to Witness Lee that "the Bible doesn't really say that" or at least "the Bible reeeeeealllly doesn't say it that way".

I may be wrong but I think this is what Raptor alluded to.

What does it mean to "take someone as my person"?

Where does my own person go? Does the Bible say we need to do this?

It doesn't mean anything.

The Bible says things differently. I don't have time to get into it detailedly right now, but Witness Lee always seemed to teach things in a way that obliterates who we are.

The truth is......what Lee says here is not an across the board thing. Each of us, I think, can be fully mature Christians.....and yet still have very different tastes, feelings, inclinations, and preferences. And none of those things are bad or wrong.

But without that distinction, it just seems like everything we taste/feel/inclined/prefer needs to go and be replaced by Christ. But the Bible never represents a body of Christ with those characteristics......one where each member has no special characteristics. It's patently not in the Bible.

I mean, I'm not ever going to like vanilla ice cream with fruity chunks in it, no matter what. I'll always prefer some chocolatey thing. And another Christian is never going to want chocolate. Has one of them failed? Of course not. What concrete things does "His preferences become our preferences" refer to? I'm not disputing this happens in some ways, but Lee is too broad here to be meaningful.

If he is speaking about, say, sinful inclinations in particular, I would agree more with what Lee is saying here, except I wouldn't say "take Christ as my Person". I would say something more like "as we walk in obedience to Christ". And I would make it clear that the things that need to be conformed to Christ are not wholesale the way Lee has described, but things that can be brought into submission while we still retain a whole lot of individual distinction that makes each of us who we are and the specific person God made us to be.

The thing is, I know there are times in our Christian life where it seems like God is speaking/leading in a particular way that has nothing to do with sin or not, and has nothing to do with what makes sense to us. But I don't think that's how it happens all the time. And that kind of thing isn't really something you can legislate or make overarching principles about. It's just about doing what you can tell, to the best of your ability, that He is nudging you to do. I feel like it's those types of experiences with the Lord that Nee/Lee try to make seem happen all the time, and then they try to make sweeping statements about how that should go down that don't match the Bible at all.

They, as usual, are just wrong.

Trapped