I took a break for a few days on posting while continuing to follow along. I just went back to my last post and read forward from there to here.
From the start, I have to apologize to the BlessD's of the forum who don't care for all the intellectualism. You're right, we tend to get stuck in it. I'm one of those analytical types that easily gets into it. Sorry. I think it was Igzy who noted that we need to get some of this straightened out in our heads with some more clarity.
About the forums: I've actually been happy that this forum came about and that I am not bearing all the weight of the past environment. I am very thankful for this forum and have felt no rejection by the departure from the other forum. In my mind, I've called this forum, Safe Harbor.
Maybe it's Safe Harbor except for me on this thread!!!
I have felt only to contribute to ONE topic on this forum. The topic is a kind of amalgamation (look it up,
www.dictionary.com) of several things and thus it is somewhat confusing. I honestly believe we need light (God's light) on this thread. I don't have the utterance for what needs to be said here, but I have a portion of it.
Without names here are some positions I've seen:
View A - there are some 'holism's' (alcoholism, etc.) that many current and ex-LC are addicted to and this has impacted families.
View B - the leadership is a problem and committed the errors of the LC, but the regular folk are fine.
View C - there is a "good" LC and/or Witness Lee and a "bad" LC and/or Witness Lee and we saw these two things evolve over time.
View D - let's look at all this in concrete terms, but not use the words 'demons', 'idolatry', etc
View E - there is idolatry present that had a pervasive effect on individuals and families.
I believe that View A and View E are effectively one in the same.
When something is amalgamated it can be somewhat difficult to extract into it's respective elements.
I'm going to take a particular approach. I'm going to try to present some of this from God's perspective based on the substance of the OT. I'm not going to twist God's language to make modernists happy. I'm going to stick with His language and His perspective. I believe it is essential to tune into His perspective to understand idolatry, because the subject really is
all about Him and His point of view. Idolatry is set in opposition to
Love the Lord your God with all your heart and mind.
Idolatry is the single most prevalent topic related to disobedience and sin in the entire OT. If we don't know how to map it forward with a sober mind to the current day, then something is wrong. We are told to 'guard' ourselves against idols. If we are ignorant of what they are and how they come into our lives, then we are not on 'guard'. To the frightened, I say what Jesus said, "Fear not". Jesus said that a lot. For now, just learn knowing that God is full of mercy for you in anything you have erred if you are willing to repent of it.
More later...
Matt
P.S. I continue to believe that the consequences of idolatry are much of what we have witnessed across many families in the LC and therefore I continue to address it within this thread.