Quote:
Originally Posted by Swed
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Qzze...sBK9p3VmQPLYjT
*Important Message*
To everyone reading this comment section, the above conversation just demonstrated a complete arbitrary nature of a typical accuser who criticizes the local church as if their words have higher authority over us, while having no ways to justify that. Basically, “Don’t listen to Witness Lee, listen to ME instead”
I’ve pointed out that this channel is doing just the same thing as the ministry, both giving biblically interpreted teachings. Why is he hypocritically telling our church to stop certain ministries? Wouldn’t that mean we get to also tell him to stop his YouTube videos? In the conversation above, he only repeatedly denied the fact that he’s told us to stop ministry teachings, no answers.
This channel closed the conversation when asked to address why he thinks his Bible interpretations have any higher authority to judge Witness Lee’s ministry. Both of them are fallible interpretations made by men. Fundamentally, they should have the same authority level, but this channel has repeatedly crossed that level and presented himself to be more correct than Witness Lee’s ministries.
Very ironic, the ministry that is being intensely refuted by this channel “Get out of your mind and TURN TO YOUR SPIRIT” is actually being strengthened by how this channel reveals his arrogance and self-contradictions. He can’t justify why his position is any higher authority than another’s. This was why Witness Lee encouraged the saints to just turn to their spirit and allow the Holy Spirit to touch them.
The above is my response to fight against this accuser’s judgement. Much grace.
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Welcome, and thank you for coming here to continue the discussion!
I followed the comment thread with interest since I long for frank and earnest discussion with saints who are still meeting in churches in The Lord's Recovery (TLR) about its teaching. Very few have been willing to engage, since this kind of activity seems to be seen as "too much in the mind", so thank you for coming here.
Please tell me if I followed your arguments on the YouTube video correctly. You believe that the author of The Lord's Recovery Unchained (TLRU) videos is being hypocritical because he is claiming the same authority that he would deny to Witness Lee. Why would @TLRU discredit Witness Lee only to place a different set of chains on the saints with a different ministry? At the heart of your argument is the question of spiritual authority: whose is greater, @TLRU's, whose qualifications you don't know, or Witness Lee, who studied the Bible and read so many authors for so many years? If @TLRU admits to being fallible, how could he claim greater authority than Lee, even if Lee also admitted fallibility? In that case, @TLRU is only putting a different set of chains on the saints. Implicit in your arguments are the idea that we should submit to a ministry based on the level of spiritual authority and the idea that submitting to a ministry is a "chain". Did I make your case accurately?
If that is the case, then I understand your frustration with the way the discussion went in the comments. But if that is the case, I invite you to consider the idea that maybe you entirely missed the point of the video. As I understand it (@TLRU please correct me if you're reading this and I have it wrong), the point of that video, and the whole video series, is that it is not about who has the greater spiritual authority, it's about the
teachings themselves. The
Bible is the authority! The saints should feel free (and even obligated) to test the specific teachings of any ministry against the
Word of God, using logic, reason, and discernment. The Bereans tested Paul's teaching this way. Paul and James and various other brothers had vigorous debates in the early councils and "sharpened" each other by exposing and correcting false teachings. @TLRU is not putting chains on the saints by setting up a separate ministry or claiming authority of any kind. Rather, he is testing the ministry of Witness Lee to remove "chains" by exposing what he believes are wrong teachings.
Let me give an example of how a teaching can become a chain. In my own experience, the teaching on the ground of oneness "chained" me to the local church where I was meeting for a long time after my wife and I became aware of problematic teachings and serious problems in the leadership and culture of TLR. For years, I did my best to put a good face on it, raise my concerns, "spit out the feathers and bones". But I, and especially my wife, suffered for years before we eventually realized that the teaching on locality as the ground of oneness was a false teaching that had "chained" us there. Leaving was never an option because of this constraining vision, yet attempts to serve with other believers or meet with them and (gasp) take communion were always viewed with suspicion or outright condemnation. I was chastised by a brother for supporting a Bible study that "was not the Bride-producing ministry", by which he meant "didn't use Local Church materials". This idea of the ground of oneness is a real chain that binds the saints. After I was released from this "chain", my wife and I finally felt freedom to follow the Lord to another congregation, where the oneness of the Body of Christ is in actual practice. We declare our oneness weekly during communion and in reciting the words of the Creed, and we practice the oneness of the Body by receiving believers and receiving
from believers regardless of their affiliation and by joining with them in service to the community. And all this happens at a place that "takes a name".
I have other examples, but I don't want to belabor the point.