Quote:
Originally Posted by SpeakersCorner
KSA,
By extension, your argument would appear to confirm the idea of modern psychology that everything ultimately is just a chemical imbalance. If we could just fix that, then the schizophrenic would become whole (I'll buy that) ... and the demon-possessed would be free (not willing to buy that).
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Dear
SC, I am enjoying this discussion here as it allows to sort things out, even though you are the one who misunderstands me the most.
The fall is not just about chemical imbalance. As I mentioned earlier, the fall effected the whole human being: spirit, soul and body. The fall effected our whole nature. Our nature is corrupt to the uttermost. What I object to is that at the fall satanic nature was added to us. Our nature is evil enough even without some additional nature of the fallen angel.
I believe Eph. 2:1-3 will shed additional light. Here we see that sinners are called the sons of disobedience. It shows that the root issue of sin is disobedience. Men fell because he disobeyed. This disobedience opened the way for Satan to work in man -
"the spirit who now works in the sons of disobedience". Now verse 3:
"...we all once conducted ourselves in the lusts of our flesh, fulfilling the desires of the flesh and of the mind, and were by nature children of wrath...". Look, the key word here is desires (including lusts). That is how sin operates. It is not Satan who wills in our stead and makes us sin against our will. It is our own desires that entice us and draw us away. "Each one is tempted when he is drawn away by his own desires and enticed. Then, when desire has conceived, it gives birth to sin... (James 1:14-15). Satan tempts us by presenting something desirable to us. There should be something in us that responds to Satan's temptation. That is why Satan could not succeed with Jesus, because there was nothing in Jesus that would respond to Satan's temptation -
"for the ruler of this world is coming, and he has nothing in Me" (John. 14:30).
Why I so much object to Witness Lee's hamartiology. Not just for the sake of theology, but for practical reasons. When sin is just a foreign nature in you, all you need is to get rig of this nature - here comes the theory of dispensing, of gradual liberation from this sinful nature. It is considered as a kind of panacea in our spiritual life. But things are not that easy. We are all tempted differently. We all have different desires. We all have different weak spots. Therefore, we need to deal with our particular problems, not with some kind of abstract "nature". For example, someone suffers from fear. You cannot just make him pray-read 2 Tim. 1:7 and trust that the dispensing will do it. You have to work with this person to find out the reason of his fears. And it is not psychology - because you have to find out spiritual roots. Well, just read Neil Anderson to get a glimpse of it. I began to doubt Witness Lee's teaching in this area, because his teachings did not work when I tried to help the saints with big problems. Pray-reading, calling on the Lord, reading the ministry, attending the conferences did not work, no matter how "constituted" they were with "the ministry".
Let me give you one example. We had a brother who turned out to be a drug addict. I tried to help him, but to no effect. I pleaded with brothers, asking them to help this brother. All these brothers could do is invite him to the conferences. I had a morning watch with this brother by phone every morning. It did not help. The situation grew worse and worse. Everybody in the church gave up on him. (This is when I began to seriously doubt that the recovery is "the way"). Eventually I advised this brother's wife to send her husband to a rehabilitation center of another assembly in our city. When he was sent there 1st time, he came back after a month. When I asked him why he had left the center, the reason was that he felt that his knowledge of the Word was superior to theirs (you know, being constituted with the ministry). Very soon he resumed taking drugs. I really felt helpless. I was really struggling with the Lord at that time - it was a very painful process for me - I, being so constituted with the ministry, not only reading it, but translating it, being a leading brother, could not help this brother. I was absolutely helpless. Eventually this brother was on the verge of death, it really humbled him and he went to the rehabilitation center 2nd time. This time he had a powerful encounter with the Lord, got fully free, his family was recovered, he found a good job and fully involved with the ministry in that church.