Quote:
Originally Posted by Indiana
I have been writing in response to Why there was such a blessing in the local churches in the U. S. pre-1974. And it was partly because people were coming out of denominations on their divisive grounds and coming up to Jerusalem to the proper ground - to the place which the Lord your God shall choose to put His name there....I am not denying that there was blessing elsewhere though they were not meeting as we were, “on the ground". All I was doing was answering the two questions, Why the blessing and Was Lee responsible for the blessing in any way? I was dealing with 1962 thru 1973....Don Rutledge saying that some blessing also occurred in other places does not cancel out my testimony or his.
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The way you have formulated your question presupposes that there was a blessing, that is was pre-1974 and that it was lost thereafter. Then you extrapolate from there a cause and effect scenario: this blessing was because Christians were leaving their divisive grounds and coming up to Jerusalem i.e into the LC system and then the blessing left because the ground changed.
I don't accept your before and after scenario and neither do a lot of other people. In a previous post on this subject you mentioned: John Ingalls, Al Knoch and Bill Mallon. To my knowledge these men do not think the so called blessing left in 1974. If anything they think it left with the New Way "flow". I would suggest when the blessing came and went is a moving target that changes depending who you are talking to at the time.
Furthermore I don't accept your cause and effect conclusion for two main reasons:
1. If you want to talk in terms of "blessing" other groups were being blessed that did not meet "on the ground" and
2. Witness Lee and his ministry was the ground of oneness in the LC system before and after 1974.
Regardless of his dogma about the ground of locality doctrine he was very fast and loose in it's application when it suited his purposes. (And IMHO used it as a convenient excuse not to work with others as peers or mentors e.g. TAS who interestingly enough both Watchman Nee and Stephen Kaung could work with.) In any event I gave several concrete examples of backstage events that went on in the US prior to 1974 and you choose to ignore them and instead made ad hominem attacks on those "who know otherwise" i.e. who don't agree with you. But I will offer two more examples so if not you than at least other readers understand why I have this position:
1.
Prior to 1974 there was a migration "flow". Many families moved out of LA and elsewhere to start LCs in different cities a/k/a "taking the ground". Soon thereafter there was a consolidation "flow" because several of these migrations were considered failures. Some families who couldn't move again were left behind with no LC any longer meeting "on the ground". So in effect Witness Lee said now there is an LC there and now there isn't going to be one anymore - playing with people's lives and the ground of locality doctrine. And he left these people who couldn't move with a dilemma: now that there is no more Jerusalem and we can't meet in Babylon what are we going to do? While they were wrestling with this conundrum Witness Lee had moved on to his next "flow"!
2. There was an LC started by some Chinese immigrants. The elders came from a LC in the Far East plus a local brother. They had been meeting for several years on the ground of locality. They sold Watchman Nee, Witness Lee, Stephen Kaung, TAS books, etc. They attended conferences with Witness Lee. They listened to reel-to-reel tapes of Witness Lee. They invited Witness Lee to visit them and minister - which he did several times. But the elders were not tied directly to Witness Lee. So Witness Lee decided to send
from Elden Hall some people to migrate to this place and make one of them an elder who was beholden to him. Immediately upon arrival they caused a division because they didn't want to meet where the church was already meeting. When they couldn't get their own way they set up another LC "meeting on the ground" in that city. So now
before 1974 there were two LCs in that city. Further they totally disrespected and undermined the existing eldership. At one time they visited one of these brothers in his home and before his family were so insulting he had to ask them to leave his house. Of course Witness Lee was fine with all of this and the LC his people from Elden set up was the one he recognized as the "true church" in that city.
Do these kind of activities indicate some sort of great blessing prior to 1974 because of the ground of locality? I don't think so. But you can if you want!