[OBW]

I realize that our failure to stand up to the wrong was not simply a failure. We were sell-conditioned to believe that there were spiritual things at issue in all of it. Especially in the outward things. Just like Nee essentially bragged about when he told of the nearly ridiculous regimen under which his trainees were placed, that could be argued to be a point of training in righteousness.

Odd that Jesus did not seem to take such liberties with his trainees. They talked and argued among themselves about all kinds of things. Jesus didn't jump on them for their discussion. He used the discussion as insight into their being and then taught them what was right. And he never berated them for having talked among themselves about "poor, low, pathetic things." Even when the discussion was concerning where James and John might sit when Jesus entered his kingdom, Jesus didn't just shame them for the bad thinking, but rather pointed to the fact that their destiny was not by request and that if they continued in following, it might not be anything like they would want.

I think that the more troublesome thing for us is that we did not at least occasionally ask why the verses did not say what we were told they did. And expect and answer that did more than suggest we weren't spiritual enough. Why was this group of people who were learning "so much" in the word unable to really read the word themselves? Why were they listening to someone who would almost openly say "this verse cannot mean what it seems to say because we know from our understanding of (fill in the blank with your favorite Nee/Lee overlay. like God's economy) that this must mean something else.

Why did we tolerate such nonsense? Steve I started a thread in the other forum a few years ago where he started pointing to the teachings of Lee that he agreed with. And most of them were predicated on reinterpreting clear words to mean something else because "God's economy" would override the plain meaning and make it into something else. No other explanation given. No attempt to show how this could be true. Just an acceptance that it was so.

How many times did we fail to balk for more than a few seconds at some of the ridiculous things that Lee said? Why did we let him do it? Because we thought he could see it all. That he was really that spiritual and smart. And we were just too pathetically ignorant to even ask the question and expect an answer besides "because I said so."

No he never was that brash. But it was effectively true.