[Ohio]

Originally Posted by Cassidy

Ohio, There are several fallacies in your argument. Your first fallacy of argumentation is that you have been there and I have not therefore you are the expert and I am not.

Not at all Cassidy. I made no comment about your expertise concerning the Recovery. I only mentioned my tenure so that the reader knows that I was once steeped in that system, and now have left. My comment was more about what I know to be true. It's obvious to me that you are more than familiar with Recovery teachings and history.

Originally Posted by Cassidy

Then, you've layered that with a second fallacy in argumentation that goes along the line of "I don't understand therefore it can't possibly be true".

Not at all friend. I do understand what you posted completely. I spent many years there and am well versed in their ideology. I had hoped my point was clear. I am saying that your reasoning here is "wordy and generally unintelligible jargon." You and I may have learned this from the ministry of WL and the Blendeds, but now I am telling you that, though it sounds spiritual and intelligent, it actually makes no sense to the Bible-reading public. It is simply insider jargon designed to deceive us. Your wordy instruction has never matched the facts of history.

Originally Posted by Cassidy

Your third is that you cannot possibly know what a "thousand learned Christians on the street" think therefore it is pointless to introduce this to shore up your case.

It would be equally fallacious for me to argue that I have been there longer than you so I won't go down that path and neither of us know what a "thousand learned Christians on the street" would think so we can ignore that one too.

Now you're nit-pickin. I am saying that no Christian I ever met outside the Recovery speaks like this. These concepts are totally foreign to the body of Christ, except for exclusive sects like the Recovery or the Brethren. The reason they are foreign to the body of Christ is because there is no Scriptural support for them. If you did have some support, you would now be dumping that on me.

Try to understand that WL made up these so-called "principles" to justify his numerous and spurious quarantines. John Darby used these same principles in the 19th century to justify his actions in expelling Newton, Muller, and anyone else who refused to goosestep to his marching orders. Read Brethren history and you'll understand.

Originally Posted by Cassidy

However, I'll will clarify the point about the ground of oneness. The ground of oneness does not embrace those who take just any basis for fellowship. Rather the ground or stand or basis, pick your term, is oneness. Your notion that Paul N. would need to embrace everyone on your reconciliation list regardless of their stand to prove your idea of the ground of oneness is fanciful. It is not even logical. The reason it is not logical because either you choose to take that particular ground, stand, or basis, or you don't. If you don't, you exclude yourself. This is not hard to understand so I do not accept your argument that it is gobbledygook, on the contrary, that just sounds like you are unable or unwilling to make a compelling argument.

I would say the ground of oneness is a narrow path and not the broad one you suggest.

The narrow way is not the ground of oneness, it is the way that leads to life. Our ground is not oneness with the body, it is Christ. Listen to what Paul teaches us in Ephesians 4.1-6

Therefore I, the prisoner of the Lord, implore you to walk in a manner worthy of the calling with which you have been called, with all humility and gentleness, with patience, showing tolerance for one another in love, being diligent to preserve the unity of the Spirit in the bond of peace. There is one body and one Spirit, just as also you were called in one hope of your calling; one Lord, one faith, one baptism, one God and Father of all who is over all and through all and in all.

Listen to Paul's admonition "with all humility and gentleness, with patience, showing tolerance for one another in love." This is so absolutely contrary to the intolerant and judgmental attitude of WL. This section spells out the fundamentals of our oneness in the Spirit, and Lee's "ground of locality" is no where to be found. So it's no wonder that the Recovery today has become so intolerant and judgmental like her founder. They must be intolerant in order to defend their extra-biblical standards which are applied to all Christians.

Look at our recent history. The Blendeds applied these false standards firstly to TC and the GLA, and then to DYL and Brazil, quarantining and shaming them publicly. Then local discontents become trained by LSM operatives at DCP in order to confiscate church assets via lawsuits. This occurred church after church, while the saints violated clear Biblical mandates with impunity. LSM used their phony principles about "the ground" to divide churches and shipwreck the saints in their conscience, and you want me still to believe that this way is the "narrow path."

Then TC applies these same phony standards to John Myer in Columbus. I'm telling you the system is sick. They absolutely need to reconcile. Reconciliation alone will deliver them from the blindness of their exclusive ways. Start by loving the brothers the Lord put you with! Isn't loving your neighbor the 2nd commandment? Start by dropping these phony ordinances which the Lord abolished on the cross. Don't talk about loving the new ones you just met, how about the ones you were with for 10, 20, 30, 40 years?