Quote:
Originally Posted by Igzy
Yet, clearly from their behavior they feel they cannot carry out their mission of preserving the principles unique to their movement without also preserving as pristine the reputations of their founders.
The question I have is, Why do they feel this way?
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These two sentences are what I understand as the question you have asked. For all that I wrote about, then responded to you concerning, I believe that I have been answering this question.
But I will try a different approach, but the same thought behind it.
The reason they need to protect and defend Nee and Lee is that the things they think are truly important in their beliefs are not simply common things that do not required Nee or Lee. It is something that is unique in each thing that is important. It requires that they remain important so that their novel reading of scripture is supportable. If Nee and Lee are not accepted as viable interpreters of the Bible, then their strange misreadings don't just fall under the label of "controversial." They become panned because their credentials as Bible commentators would be revoked.
And even if the rest of Christianity has problems with Nee and Lee, the LRC must keep seeing things their way. If they allow Nee and Lee to go, then the Son did not become the Holy Spirit. The principle of covering the errors of your leaders ceases to be a principle (and all the skeletons come out of the closet).
There is surely something more important than "going to heaven." But was the LRC version really it either? You were right in a more recent post to mention it is how we live here and now more than what is to come. It is evident from reading Paul's words on the future that he saw it as a reason to be more fervent to do what is required today. So the LRC sort of got that one right.
Or did they? Were they really about how we live today? Seems that today was unimportant as long as I was in my spirit. It is as if they picked on a fault of evangelical Christianity then simply moved to a different fault. And a lot of people in the lead among evangelicals are arguing that this is a missed area. That today is ultimately important because without it there is no tomorrow. (Not talking about salvation.)
So I return to the idea that the LRC desperately needs to keep Nee and Lee intact, at least as far as the insiders are concerned. They are too dependent on beliefs and practices that could not be supported if you removed the reason for saying James was just a Judaizer (among other things). That keep the entire upper structure of their hierarchy in place despite gross sin being covered up and even allowed to continue. (Remember, they were fighting against John Ingalls before PL was excommunicated. They did not want him removed.)