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Old 07-22-2011, 08:08 PM   #58
Indiana
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Join Date: Aug 2008
Posts: 718
Default Re: Eli and his Sons

Brother Lee Portrayed as Old Eli

Although clear indications warranted it, Brother Lee complained of being “portrayed as the old Eli” from the Old Testament (p. 70, FPR). Instead of acknowledging his record of leniency with his two sons, he complained about the comparison, as he did about every legitimate complaint made about him. Brother Lee had two sons who were reputed as sinful men and evildoers. Many saints knew this and had to live with this knowledge in the church. Both sons were placed in prominent positions in two different businesses of their father. One was made president of a secular, saints-supported business called Daystar, a builder of luxury motor homes. The other was made general manager of a church-related business, the Living Stream Ministry. Both brought corruption to the businesses and into the recovery and into saints’ lives. Both committed sins of sexual immorality at the “doors” of the church. Both the sons and the sins were tolerated. (I don't mean condoned, but not swiftly or properly dealt with.)

The second son’s acts of immorality have been, in part, already represented in appendix 2, where two eye-witness accounts are given of his sexual improprieties. The first son, Timothy, has his history also. (I don't want to mention the first point.)

When work on the motor homes was taking place in Taiwan, rooms at a hotel were provided for the American workers. At the end of the hall from where one American worker stayed was a room where Timothy Lee resided. He frequently was visited by a “certain lady” or ladies and was caught and reported to Brother Lee. The brother, not Timothy, was dealt with, and sent back home to the U. S. This matter became known because of an elder’s wife who knew Timothy’s wife and often had the “Lee clan” into her home where she learned many things. “Tim’s wife would phone [my wife] and pour her ‘guts’ out to her in anger. She had found out about Timothy’s escapades.” This was the person who was put at the head of Daystar, Timothy Lee.

Why would brothers with a conscience in the recovery not compare Brother Lee to the “old Eli”? This same former elder reported: “Timothy had come into our bedroom [where his baby’s bassinet was] and he ended up trying to molest my wife, putting his arms around her. She ran him out of the house and went straight to Brother Lee and reported the incident to him. Witness Lee said, ‘Don’t tell your husband. I will handle it’. The way he handled it was to send my wife and I to San Francisco.” (This is also the way he handled the immoral problem with Philip Lee in the LSM office; he sent the woman, and her husband and family, away to Texas!)

I am sorry to have to give such a report to the reader, but there are two sides to talk about concerning Brother Lee. The one side we have "all" enjoyed and appreciated, being the grateful recipients of the riches of Christ that he has dispensed into us through a heavenly ministry for many years; the other side is what we have not all seen, and we certainly cannot enjoy or appreciate, but, we can and should take into account its corrupting effect in the churches.

The story of Eli from the book of First Samuel:

"Now Eli was very old; and he heard all that his sons were doing to all Israel... And he said to them, 'why do you do such things, the evil things that I hear from all these people. No, my sons: for the report is not good which I hear the Lord's people circulating.'

"Then a man of God came to Eli and said to him, "Thus says the Lord...'Why do you kick at My sacrifice and at my offering which I have commanded in My dwelling, and honor your sons above Me'... And the Lord said to Samuel, 'Behold, I am about to do a thing in Israel at which both ears of everyone who hears it will tingle. In that day I will carry out against Eli all that I have spoken concerning his house, from beginning to end. For I have told him that I am about to judge his house forever for the iniquity which he knew, because his sons brought a curse on themselves and he did not rebuke them. And therefore I have sworn to the house of Eli that the iniquity of Eli's house shall not be atoned for by sacrifice or offering forever. So Samuel lay down until morning. Then he opened the doors of the house of the Lord. But Samuel was afraid to tell the vision to Eli." (1 Samuel 1:12 - 3:21)

In Brother Lee’s final words of his dishonoring talk to the elders and co-workers in The Fermentation of the Present Rebellion, he said, “instead of excellent Christian virtues, what we see in the present rebellion are exaggerated criticisms…” (p. 75). Is the portraying of Brother Lee “as the old Eli” an exaggerated criticism? Actually not. It is a valid criticism, one that he should have humbly acknowledged.

(Because the leadership has covered over the truth and promoted lies through the years, other voices are heard and more detail given than would have been necessary in the beginning.)
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