Quote:
Originally Posted by SavedbyGrace
I'd much rather people call the local church an organisation than a cult. Most lay people do not have any idea what 'cult' means. They just know that it has bad connotations and refuse to give it a chance.
And, I do not subscribe to everything that Brother Lee says nor do I accept that he is 'the' minister of the age. I do not see the Bible having one minister. Paul worked along with Peter, John, James and other Apostles.
I agree with brother Lee that denominations are bad. But, it seems that it cannot be helped. The good thing, IMHO, is that the local churches have a rich word, though others in this forum may not agree.
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I'm glad you don't buy into the idea that Witness Lee succeeded Watchman Nee as the "minister of the age", and that you feel the freedom to say this.
I'll let you know a little about where I'm coming from on this, I grew up learning about the "minister of the age", the "ministry of the age", the "apostles' teaching", etc. Ron Kangas and others told us that we can't "pick and choose" from the ministry of the age. They spoke about the importance of using the "proper utterance", which I believe has to do with using the same vocabulary the man Witness Lee used.
But more than this, I grew up in a church that claimed to be
separate from what it called
"Christianity". We were
us, and words like "Christianity", "the denominations", "Christendom", all referred to the big, bad religious system --
them. Even local "non-denominational" and "community churches" were labeled as "denominational" -- the minister of the age devoted messages to explaining how "non-denominational" churches are really "denominations"!
But I think you know all this. To me, this attitude is a big problem. For me personally, it really disgusts me that I spent most of my life buying into this kind of attitude.