Quote:
Originally Posted by TJRiver
Its painful to see distance between those you love, almost like they are on a boat sailing away from the dock and you aren't quite certain that their voyage will be uneventful and that there's no guarantee they'll dock there again.
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TJ,
I would like to give you a couple of verses for encouragement. First, "Nothing can separate us from the love of God which is in Christ Jesus." Nothing. No group, no teaching, no practice. Eventually God wins. Never give up, never get discouraged, never doubt. God will win. Just be patient, and hold fast to your faith until the end. God will win. Through your faith, your family member remains "safe in the arms of Jesus."
Second, is the verse "Greater is he that is in you, than he that is in the world." I consider the whole schema of the Nee/Lee/Local Church system to be of the world, and in the world. Their incessant merchandising, and their total disregard for the poor, among other practices, made this clear to me. Eventually the One who is greater, the One whose Spirit abides in your family member's human heart, will win. So your guarantee is in the Word of God, and your stubborn faith which holds to and declares to this word firmly until the end.
Regarding strategy, there is a great quote from Igzy on another thread. You may have read it already but it bears repeating. It has been my experience, also.
QUOTE: "This is where LCers fall flat on their faces. And I mean flat. Has there ever been a Christian group worse at defending their beliefs than them? This is why their numbers are small, but devoted--precisely because their positions are not well thought-out, but rather are visceral and emotional. They are the product of being hammered with teachings week-in and week-out while being threatened with a dire fate not only for disbelieving them, but even simply for holding them up to the light of intelligent questioning. The result is people who will defend their beliefs to the end with everything they have...except a good argument.
To me, anything worth believing can be explained intelligently. You don't need threatening and you don't need to run away when someone asks a question you can't answer. You should consider such questions as gifts, because they point out the weakness in your beliefs, at least so far as you hold them at that moment.
LCers don't do that. They make declarations. If you question them, they make them again, perhaps slightly reworded, but essentially the same. If your questions make them uncomfortable, they will disappear, considering you "bad material." They never stop to think that perhaps their material is bad. They can't, because to them questioning is the beginning of the fall."
I tried debating with some Local Churchers, once. There were several of them, and one of me. They presented me with huge extracts of quotes from Witness Lee and Watchman Nee. Paragraph after paragraph of writings were quoted verbatim. I said, "Well, what do you think? Can you explain this to me in your own words?" No; they just wanted to quote Nee and Lee. They didn't want to think, to question, to examine.
When I persisted in my probing of the Nee/Lee analysis, trying to show there were other ways to approach the Word of God than the logic of these 2 men, one of the Local Churchers began to say that my heart was "dark" and I was "rebellious" because I had "ambition" which had been thwarted (I am a former member of the group).
So reasoning is usually a dead end. Have you ever tried to reason with a Mormon? They just keep repeating the mantras they've been handed. Any deviation from their 'group norm' makes them uncomfortable, and they avoid it at all costs. An integral part of their teaching is 'don't question the teaching.'
So it is a stubborn virus that you are dealing with here. It is resistant to many of the basic cures. But, greater is God than any worldly virus. God can raise the dead, and He can surely turn within the human heart. Just hold fast to the Word of truth, and God will have His way. "Thy will be done, Father God." Tell yourself that you will never let go, not of God nor your family member, and God will have a way.