There's an app called ChatGPT, where users ask questions in a conversational style, and get an AI-generated answer, which is based off of scraping the internet (up till 2021) and then a program which predicts how people form language. It's kind of fun - you can repeat the question and it will generate a new answer each time (it's occasionally very wrong, so user beware).
I asked, "Who were the Lollards" and this was the answer
Quote:
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Originally Posted by ChatGPT
The Lollards were a group of religious reformers in England during the 14th and 15th centuries. They were followers of John Wycliffe, an English theologian who advocated for the translation of the Bible into English and criticized many of the practices and doctrines of the Roman Catholic Church.
The Lollards rejected the authority of the Pope and the clergy, and emphasized the importance of individual interpretation of the Bible. They also criticized many of the sacraments and rituals of the Church, and called for a simpler form of worship.
The Lollards were persecuted by the authorities, and many were burned at the stake for their beliefs. Despite this, their ideas continued to spread, and their influence can be seen in the later English Reformation.
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I was struck by the phrase "emphasized the importance of individual interpretation of the Bible." The so-called Lord's Recovery of Witness Lee follows a standard Reformist/Protestant rubric, aligning with the above, except the individual interpretation of the Bible part. There, they've done a neat twist: they emphasize rather the importance of one individual's interpretation of the Bible. That individual is the Apostle of the Age.
Try to follow me here: the religious lineage says, "we emphasize the individual interpretation of the Bible." Luther, Wesley, or any trained believer could read the plain words and figure out for themselves what it meant, and how to apply. Then, one believer comes along, and says that his individual interpretation is that everyone has to be "one" with his individual interpretation. Get it? He uses his freedom to interpret, as a lever to remove everyone else's freedom to interpret. His freedom of speech negates that of everyone else.
Now, suddenly the
RecV footnotes appear, that we all must be "absolutely identical", and "without any differences whatever". So, one Christian believer has used their freedom to interpret the Bible, as a tool to remove everyone else's freedom. It's a pretty neat maneuver, if I do say.