Quote:
Originally Posted by Terry
OBW, what do you think? Why is that?
My perspective, those from the churches in North America, until the Daystar fallout, they had nothing to be concerned about.
It is possible for a time; after what happened in Taiwan in the late 50's until the early 70's, there were no shenanigans to speak of.
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I think that UntoHIm is right. There were always things going on. But they were not visible to us here in America. I understand that while he may have come to America sort of as an outcast from Taiwan, he returned to pretty much take control with an iron fist during the 60s. I think that Hope may have given some information about that in the past. But my memory may be wrong on it.
My observation strictly from an "in America" perspective is that Lee, by providing a live person behind the growing popularity of the inner-life movement and its teachers, including Nee, managed to gain an inroad into a rather small contingent of these people. While the entirety of the early days was not completely connected, many of the small groups that came along had a link to someone in another group that had already started to listen to his teachings.
And, like Duddy said, Lee liberally used scripture. That was an appealing action. Most sermons in Christianity were based upon a single passage, maybe with one or two obviously connected passages. But Lee virtually littered his speaking with scripture. Here is a tongue-in-cheek version of what would become a paragraph in one of his books.
"First we have to realize that God is the Father [verse]. He is the supplier [verse]. He is the healer [verse]. And we also know that the Son is God [verse]. And so is the Spirit [verse]. Together they (whatever) [verse]. And Jesus, the Son, is both God and man [verse]. I am the walrus, goo goo kachoo."
Now I really took that to an extreme. But when I did my reading of some of his books (and even a couple of Nee's) to discuss on these forums, that is the kind of scholarship I found. The "I am the walrus" point was the real point of the paragraph. It did not need a complete dissertation on a plethora of the attributes of the Godhead. In fact, those are essentially extraneous to the discussion which is really about "I am the walrus." But after that many verses underpinning so many obviously true things, how can we expect to receive a false statement in that last sentence?
In effect, the last statement is accepted as true based on attribution from the preceding true statements that are otherwise irrelevant to the discussion.
And Lee was already doing some of this. But he was doing it from a position of "visitor" rather than leader. We were enamored with getting "free" of those stifling ways of Christianity. And based on the predisposition of various people toward certain kinds of activities and teachings styles, etc., we (meaning everyone striking out from their roots) looked for something that struck a chord with us. For some, it was to become more liturgical. (I know, that is hard to believe, but there are many very good Christians that eventually end out worshiping and serving God in a more liturgical church than the one they grew up in.) Others move away from liturgy. Some went with free groups. And in the realm of free groups, there were many varieties. A new kind of Pentecostalism arose under the moniker "charismatic" and many went after that.
None of these were, by definition, good or bad. There are examples of bad among them all. There are the preachers who got rich off the donations and ultimately fell from grace (relative to the views of the followers). Those made the headlines. But there were many more that were not like that.
And in the 60s, the LRC was a small but growing free group that centered on certain teachers, primarily Nee and Lee, with a growing emphasis on Lee. But a lot of what we understood as "blessing" was the freedom from the forms of the old ways. We are not just "sitting in pews" listening to one man speak. Instead, we were creating new forms. We were still listening to one man, or maybe two. We didn't call it a sermon. It was just "sharing." Then we all got some time to jump in with our "hallelujahs," "wows," etc. We had more meetings than others, so we were together more. It was a badge of honor that we wore.
We enjoyed it. It was a kind of blessing to us. But the idea that there was some special "blessing from God" is a self-proclaimed benefit of getting what we wanted. We got out of a form we didn't like and into another that we did like. So we must have been blessed by God.
And Lee was including his teachings of speciality relating to the "ground." It must be the "ground" that was giving us this feeling. Lee said it was. And we bought it. We were hooked.
So when Lee began to put the screws on in 74 (at first just onto the elders) it was subtle for the membership. We were primed to get more and more of this ministry. 30 messages a training, two trainings a year. Plus some tack-ons given later in conferences or just in meetings in Anaheim.
But we were still a little too independent. We still answered to no one but God. And bit by bit that changed.
So, whenever it is that you first came along, there is something about the new group that is better than the one you left to get there. Otherwise you would have kept looking. And that was what we were convinced to attribute to "Christ and the Church." To attribute to being in "God's unique way."
Doesn't matter that it wasn't the reason. We believed it.