[MacDuff]

Awareness

“A cynic is a man who, when he smells flowers, looks around for a coffin.”
H. L. Mencken


Do the gospels say anything about the Recovery way of doing things? Since the ekklesia as the community of believers didn’t as yet exist, and was only mentioned twice by Jesus as something future....no, can’t say as I do. The whole idea of the Recovery, unless I miss my guess, was intended to be a recovery of what Lee called the practical expression of the Church. Well, since I don’t see the ekklesia and the Church as being the same thing, which Lee did....no, can’t say as I see it anywhere in the New Testament.

Christians, on the other hand, would say that the Recovery is a degraded version of the Historic Christian Faith (Catholic/Orthodox), or the Historic Biblical Christian faith (Protestant). It seems what goes around comes around. As Lee judged Christianity and the Christians therein, so also has Christianity and the Christians therein judged Lee and his Recovery.

In my opinion, the Recovery is the creation of one man, Witness Lee. He interpreted the Bible allegorically to conform to his own creation. Why is that seen as so unusual? Christians have been interpreting the Bible for centuries to conform it to their own version of reality. Catholics and Protestants. They have that practice in common. Whether the Bible is interpreted by so called “Church Fathers”, or by contemporary Christian rulers, it is still interpreted. In my opinion, if the Bible is to have any real meaning at all, meaning that could be called its own, it certainly won’t be discovered by interpretation that is just the exercise of the mind of men upon the Bible. And the ludicrous idea (ludicrous in my opinion) that the different interpretations of men are based on something Spiritual? Well....

Jesus’ way was to choose 12 men whom he taught, who understood little of what he taught. One could conceivably equate that with “going to meetings, conferences, and training's”. Post 1st century version. Gatherings in buildings built for the purpose has been the practice of Christianity also for centuries. Wouldn’t you say that the Sermon Service of Protestants is very like a meeting or a conference or a training? Lee was, after all, a Protestant by his own admission.

But to refer to going around calling Oh Lord Jesus as Obsessive–compulsive disorder.... Well, I remind you that Atheists think that just believing in Jesus Christ as the answer to personal sinfulness is to be equated with taking opium. But you’ll have to take calling on Jesus up with Paul who originally perpetuated the idea (1Cor 1:2).

The consistent practice of cynicism could be considered a form of OCD. A form of ANB, abnormal negative behaviour. And that’s what this thread is all about, isn’t it? So your ideal was shattered by someone in the Recovery. We all have to go through that sort of thing. I went through that a lot in Christianity. It helps us to differentiate reality from non-reality. Didn’t make me a cynic. Just showed me a better way to go. I attend a Christian Church and don’t say anything about what I believe. And the necessity for that is pretty abnormal to me. But the reality is that Christianity is what it is. Doesn’t mean that a person who prefers to go to meetings, conferences and trainings, that they think is applicable to them, or is something they enjoy doing, is necessarily a bad thing. Secular people do it all the time pertaining to what interests them and what they think is applicable to them. At least they’re doing something. At least they have an interest in something more than just their own bodily functions. More than one could say for most pew potatoes.

MacDuff