[UntoHim]

Originally Posted by Indiana

I wonder, Igzy, why you did not refer to my points in post #19, which were in response to the pertinent forum questions: 1) Why there was a blessing of the Spirit in the early days of the church life;.

There is always a measure of blessings when "two or three are gathered in my name". But God's blessing does not necessarily signify God's approval. God's approval can only come with the knowledge of and continuation in the Truth. The original disciples and apostles experienced a great deal of blessing while the Lord Jesus was among them, but the Lord did NOT pray to the Father to "bless" them - he prayed that they would know the TRUTH, and be guided into all TRUTH. The blessing they received did not help them when the trials came...When the Shepard was persecuted all the blessed sheep scattered. It was only when the Spirit of Truth came to dwell in them did they go and boldly proclaim the Gospel.

So what is the true measure of God's blessing among a group of Christians? Is it numbers? Well if so the Local Church of Witness Lee has fallen woefully short. There are a number single location "megachurches" that have weekly attendance with larger numbers than the Local Church has in all it's USA locations put together. Even in the "heyday" of Elden Hall, the Local Church was not particularly blessed with impressive numbers.

Is the true measure how long, loud or raucous the meetings are? Is it the enthusiasm, dedication or devoutness of the members? The Local Church was hardly alone in these things.

2) What effect Witness Lee had on that blessing in the local churches in those days. References by me in #19 to the ground of oneness were concerning the early church life in America; not current day Local Church life on a path of deviation from the earlier days.

Not much to say here except to challenge you to consider this - What effect did Witness Lee have on the Local Church movement for the 25 or so years after Elden Hall? These 25 years make up about 70% of Lee's time here in America. Sorry but "selective memory" does not work here in the information age. This is the real world, not a Local Church conference meeting where we all just shout out AMEN! to everything.