Quote:
Originally Posted by Ohio
For years I had heard that WL was like the sweetest "Grandpa," and that helped to shape all my early views of him. I remember hearing that Francis Ball had told an outsider, "WL is an old preacher whom we all love." The side of WL publicly shaming his fellow workers and elders was hid from me, just as TC's pattern of shaming brothers was hid from many others. I now believe that this tremendous dichotomy of personality is almost a determining characteristic of exclusive systems. One of the root causes is a departure from a living faith and trust in God. Human manipulations become imperative when God decides not to bless the exclusive ways of the leaders.
George Muller was the epitome of ironies for the Brethren exclusives. Darby had successfully "purged" him and his ire, and had succeeded in "weeding out" all of the followers of Benjamen Newton, Darby's other "rival." Yet God blessed Muller's faith in the living God in caring for the orphans! To Darby's followers, this was just an impossibility. How could God bless the most condemned man on earth?!?
The man Muller was the same at home, as an elder, as head of the orphanage. Sure Muller had a tough German character, but he never turned into a "completely different person." And this simply proves my premise at my own departure from the program, "exclusivity is a disease that makes bullies out of beloved brothers." Brothers who stay are forced to change. They often become the same abuser they learn from. Those who refuse to change for the worse, often must depart. They cannot remain and be true to their heart and the Lord.
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This is true. Bullies are taught to be bullies by being bullied.
When you watch saints being bullied you are forced to make a choice, do I support the brother being bullied and ignore the stigma and possible contagion of this brother that is implied by the elders? Or do I sit pat and do nothing? Or do I make excuses for the elders and justify their actions"?
If you stand up for the saint being bullied you probably no longer meet with the LRC, but at least your conscience is probably at peace.
If you sit pat and say nothing you are probably suffering great turmoil within like humpty dumpty sitting on a fence.
If you make excuses and justify their actions you are a partaker in their deeds. You have taken the first step to becoming a son of gehenna. The day will come when you also will have to bully saints, at that time your conscience will protest and if the Lord is merciful you may heed your conscience and leave the LRC. If not, you have taken your second step towards being a son of Gehenna. Then the day will come when you have to take an innocent brother and train him to be more a son of gehenna than you are. Again, your conscience, if it is not completely seared, will protest, and again if the Lord is merciful you will heed it. Otherwise you will join the ranks of the great hypocrites of the NT awaiting the wrath of the Lord. Then the worst thing that can happen is the Lord gives you long life and you see the fruit of your labor.