[aron]

Originally Posted by Ohio

In the early days, there was a strong promotion of the Psalms. One of our favorite verses came from Ephesians 5.18-19, "and do not be drunk with wine, but be filled in Spirit, speaking to one another in Psalms, singing and making melody in your heart to the Lord."

And the fact that the wording of this passage in Ephesians closely parallels that in Colossians 3, where Paul said to "Let the word of Christ dwell in you richly" really emphasizes how deep the practice of singing the Psalms was with him and the saints in the churches. I find it ironic that the "NT revelation" of Christ is largely based on the saints' revelations of Christ in what we call the OT, and yet many of us nearly exclusively looked to the NT for revelation of Christ, and downplaying the "history" and "poetry" and "wisdom" of the OT. It took me years as a Christian, after studiously avoiding the OT as without merit, to begin to try and look at the older texts the way that the NT believers might have considered them. Because they certainly were considering them, as Paul's citation above indicates.

That's what really bothered me about WL's approach. He said "Go instead to the NT revelations of Christ", and what is Paul repeatedly writing in the NT? Sing the Psalms!

Originally Posted by Ohio

I have often said that one of the driving forces behind the proponents o the KJV is the body of songs which accompany it, especially in the Psalms. It's hard to sing the same beloved songs to another translation. Which is why I say there is no "correct and perfect" translation -- all are good -- except for a few gross distortions, like the watchtower one.

The body of songs from the KJV, with its distinct terminology, is part of our "goodly heritage" and continues to bless. When the LSM switched to their own translation, they lost a lot of good songs. One of the many "One Publication" losses. I am with you on allowing variations in translation to highlight aspects of the text. One of current current favorites in contemporary Psalm music is based on the NIV, which I had heretofore considered "dry as dust". Suddenly I was getting "living water" from the NIV. Surprise, surprise.

Originally Posted by Ohio

I believe that the biggest reason for the deterioration in Lee's ministry was his unrighteous mistreatment of other believers, both within and without the Recovery. Others have commented about the noticeable decline in the anointing he once enjoyed. In its place, Lee latched onto exclusive and esoteric teachings which propped him up for his minions. His period of "crystallization" ministry was fraught with this. He diminished the Psalms, he promoted "make man god," he denigrated "locality," and he promoted the "one work," to name a few.

It's hard to know where the denigration of God's word fits into the decline; whether it was causal or was a symptom/effect of some other issue (mistreating believers, desire for power/security/money, etc).

Actually I don't think WL & Co did a "bad" job with the RecV translation & footnotes per se; the problem was that it was sold as being the apex of 2,000 years of Bible scholarship. So if you looked in the RecV for light and WL didn't get any light, then that's it: no light.