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Originally Posted by Ohio
This may sound good, but why teach it? It's like arming people with guns, teaching them gun safety, and then leaving the guns laying around for the wrong person to use them. Why not limit your teaching to the Bible? Why even discuss the authority of a "deputy?" Why not focus your teaching, as the Apostle Paul does, on the character of the Lord's servants and on the numerous warnings in the Bible about the abuse of authority. I daresay that the word "deputy" has never helped anyone but he who misused it for his own selfish gains. Paul called this filthy lucre.
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It is Pandora's box, once it is opened you can't put it back. Once there are 350 million guns in the USA it is a little pointless to talk about getting rid of guns. Once Satan has rebelled it is too late to talk about how much better life would be if he had never rebelled. Jesus said that the believers would rule over cities. Therefore we are being trained in the matter of authority and should not shy away from this topic. Also, Hebrews talk about the word of righteousness which immature Christians are unable to deal with, so there are scriptural topics which are not suitable for all Christians.
Quote:
Originally Posted by Ohio
Supposedly Witness Lee himself was there in person for all of Nee's messages on spiritual authority, and supposedly he should have been the one with the most fear of the abuse of authority. He claimed to be absolutely one with Watchman Nee and his ministry. Yet was he not the one who abused these teachings the most? Why did he teach others like the God-fearing John Ingalls these messages about deputy authority and then neglect to teach his own profligate sons?
Timothy and Philip Lee obviously knew what it meant to wield great authority over the brothers and sisters in the Recovery. I'm sure they witnessed daddy's public rebukes, humiliations, and chastisements for many years. They obviously lusted over the great adoration their father regularly received. By all accounts, Lee's own sons knew little about respect, morality, virtue, kindness, faith, godliness, decency, etc. yet Witness saw fit to place Philip over LSM and all the workers.
It's hard not to believe that the teaching of deputy authority in the Recovery had far more to do with Chinese culture than the Bible, especially since the Recovery has become little more than the Lee Dynasty.
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I went straight to the chapter about "The Kind of Person God uses to be his deputy authority". He has 3 requirements which I found somewhat strange.
1. You need to recognize that all authority comes from God. So for example, the laws that regulated the formation of Daystar come from God. Skirting those laws and playing fast and loose with the laws is in essence thumbing your nose at God.
2. Must deny themselves. For example, if you had a profligate son that you wanted to be part of the ministry you would deny that desire and discipline him once his sins were manifested.
3. The third requirement is that you have constant, intimate communion with the Lord. You might wonder how you would know that someone does this? WN quotes (John 5:19) “I can do nothing from Myself; as I hear, I judge, and My judgment is just, because Ido not seek My own will but the will of Him who sent Me” (v. 30). He said that "a wild person who has no control of himself is far from God".
"Please give me the liberty to say a frank word. The problem with many of God’s servants today is that they are too bold, or to put it in a stronger way, they are too reckless."
So, it seems to me that the lawsuits were an example of a man who was not in constant, intimate communion with God.