Quote:
Originally Posted by Ohio
Nearly every new denomination has begun because certain men of God desired to restore the church to its virgin "purity."... all wanted a "purity" of churchlife which apparently did not exist in the greater body of Christ, and so they started something new.
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Brother, now you are starting to think, which makes you useless for the 'building up'. (Sorry, a little tongue-in-cheek humor there)
Quote:
Originally Posted by Ohio
when should the leaders exercise love, tolerance, and forbearance, and when should the leaders decide to "cut off" that which is impure. ...Who determines what is evil? That is the difficult question which each and every church or group of churches must confront. As these denominations amass their own list of taboos (in their mind unforgivable sins), they become more exclusive and disconnected.
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Looking back at my experience, it seemed as if "purity" was kind of positional: if you did whatever the local church leadership dictated, that was pure. If not, you were called "evil", "rebellious" and were cut off. "Pure" was whatever the leaders deemed it to be.
And purity from them was a moving target. Sports and television were once worldly and impure; now they are purified because current leadership says so. Drums and electrical instruments are either pure or impure depending on leadership's judgment. And so forth.
I would argue that the whole system is built on fear. That elder who physically struck you,
Ohio, was merely channeling the fear which had been imposed on him. You were supposed to 'shepherd' someone under you, and to do the same. This abusive shepherding is presented as a kind of soul-purifying, cross-imposing duty of flock leadership. I remember one quote of WL in the "Elders Training" book, where he basically channeled the spirit of Rehoboam in 1 Kings 12 and said that he was not here to help, or to release the elders, but rather to lay heavy burdens upon them.
"Thus you shall say to this people who spoke to you, saying, 'Your father made our yoke heavy, now you make it lighter for us!' But you shall speak to them, 'My little finger is thicker than my father's loins! 'Whereas my father loaded you with a heavy yoke, I will add to your yoke; my father disciplined you with whips, but I will discipline you with scorpions.'"…
This is a hierarchical, fear- and power-based system masquerading as spiritual -- in my dictionary the very definition of "Babylonian". Funny how we ended up looking so much like the RCC that we had despised and fled from.
In the local churches, as long as we remained dutiful to leadership, this was our standing, our "purity" before God. This was our "positional sanctification", the basis of our faith and expectation. And the only room in this conversation for love is if today's purity expectations are met. As long as you obey current dictates of leadership you feel the love (i.e., approval); if not, watch how quickly it disappears. And occasionally even this ''love'' will be arbitrarily withdrawn, just to show you your place.