Quote:
Originally Posted by Cassidy
Ohio,
Your conclusion is perhaps based on the premise that all the previous situations were standing on the ground of oneness, at least in a biblical sense. Or you mean that those relations were not really based on the scriptural ground of oneness. Or maybe you mean that there is no such thing as a ground of oneness.
Yet, whatever you believe you make the assumption that a true ground of oneness would result in reconciliation with everyone regardless of the ground they stand on. Of course, that cannot be true. If one is not standing on the ground of oneness then they will not be in the fellowship of oneness because they exclude themselves.
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(emphasis added)
I've been away for a while, but this caught my eye, because of how familiar it sounded. It hit me in this visceral way, like waking up in a cold sweat.
It is that existential panic of confronting circular reasoning. Of being caught in a spiritual catch-22. You know, like your "spiritual authority" contradicting what you feel certain is a Lord's leading - which is exactly what that "spiritual authority" taught you to listen to.
Conceptually, I agree that if a group of folks are actually "one" with the Lord's leading, they will have good fellowship and if any one of them is NOT "one" with the Lord's leading, they will be at odds with the group.
That said, a problem enters in when one group PRESUMES that whatever they or their leadership does IS the LORD'S MOVE or the LORD'S leading. At that point, the SOURCE of the "Lord's Leading" becomes the group leadership, and not the Spirit, because no one entertains the possibility that the Spirit would do ANYTHING apart from that group's "feeling."
So then you get a brother who has a genuine leading from the Lord to do X, Y, or Z. The "group" thinks he would be better used by serving in a different capacity. That brother obeys his spirit. The others distance themselves or implicitly reject him.
Where in all of this is the "ground" suppose to fit in? Its just such an odd concept IN PRACTICE that it only causes confusion and, most often, is really just an excuse for a group to use THEMSELVES as a
proxy for the Spirit.
Thoughts?
Peter