Quote:
Originally Posted by Igzy
Lee's mentality was to take the basic truth of the Church (and the local church) and identify his movement solely with it. Therefore to oppose his movement was to opposed God's very Church.
Well, of course, any Christian who genuinely opposed the idea of the Church itself would experience a decrease of blessing. What's fallacious about Lee's mindset is he reserved the status of Church only his movement and the groups in it. It was a kind of bait and switch mentality, what I have called equivocation--playing two or more meanings of a word or idea to an advantage.
It would have been the same error for him to say to oppose his teaching was to oppose salvation itself, since he believed his teaching embodied the idea of salvation better than was ever uttered. He didn't exactly make that error (though he came close), but he did make the same error with the matter of the Church.
As to Lee's never "seeing" anyone blessed by the Lord after criticizing his movement--was he omniscient? Really was he even paying attention? Few people's awareness of what was really going on around him was more limited than Lee's. And even if he was aware what went on outside his little world, would he have judged it objectively? I doubt it. His pattern and the pattern of his followers is to ignore their own failures and nitpick those of others. He saw exactly what he programmed himself to see.
|
This does appear to be the case. And his use of vague and indefinite references do appear to apply in this particular quote. However, to take a verse in Psalms which talks about the blessing God's people and link that to the New Testament church is not in and of itself enough to make this point. You have to combine this with other quotes in which he questions the legitimate standing of all other Christians and another quote where he claims that you only have the proper standing if you are "on the ground".
Unless you can put together these three quotes you are not nailing him down, he is merely using references to Jerusalem, and God's people and applying them to the "New Jerusalem" and God's family, the church.
There are valid Old Testament examples of God dealing with those that attacked His people.
All I am saying is that you are claiming that Witness Lee taught something, and you are pulling up quotes that can be interpreted that he taught something, but these quotes, by themselves don't prove it.