Quote:
Originally Posted by aron
I think this is an important question. My experience was that the system WL created offered us security and comfort. You no longer had to think, or wrestle with the tough questions. The "oracle" gave you all the truth. And if the "oracle" said don't bother, you could ignore those bothersome questions, with a good conscience. "Just exercise your spirit", we were told.
So you had firm direction, which is good. We were "wild Americans" with few boundaries and we suffered in a wild system. WL offered us a very controlled environment. The truth was clear. No more gray areas.
Secondly, we had "home". We were "home in the church". Our feeling of alienation disappeared. We had a place to go. We had purpose. Our job on earth was "to build up the church".
Thirdly, we were offered a charismatic experience, which touched us at a deep level. Many of us cried when we "touched our spirit" in the church. The Bible was no longer a book of black and white "dead letters" but now was living and operating within us. So we really felt alive.
I tried to start this thread with the idea of having a balanced and objective look at the LRC experience. I was encouraged that caveman (and others) have related to the idea. But it is not an easy one to work through. When we become simple we risk being simplistic. That is why it is good to have others consider our ideas.
So I will try to be simple and clear, with the warning that I may be too simplistic. I think WN started his indigenous Chinese church at least partly as a reaction to Western "imperialistic" domination of Asia. Remember that the Boxer Rebellion was happening also. The Russo-Japanese War, etc. WN was not operating in a social vacuum. Far from it: one of the main reasons for the successful Little Flock expansion was it offered an alternative to the largely Protestant missions that were operating. I believe both WN and WL came out of the Protestant denominations.
So the Little Flock was a local, indigenous, "biblical" alternative to the Western "Reformed" tradition. But with its success WN found the same problems as the earlier churches. How to organize, how to coordinate, how to maintain growth. And the Asian mind-set really emerges there. If you read WN's organizational works after WWII it's pretty clear. The "Spiritual Man" has receded and the "Organizational Man" is now at the fore-front. And it is the Asian Organizational Man that we see. One that emerges from an oriental culture.
Again, there is no problem with this, any more than the Puritans coming from England and imposing their idea of "progress" on the so-called "savages." The problem, as I see it, is that we assumed that WL had left human culture behind. We were not getting oriental culture but heavenly culture. And who could criticize heaven? So when problems occurred, as they always do, we had to pretend they didn't exist.
In the Local Church meetings we were free, even encouraged, to criticize "Christianity", and that meant the Protestants, the RCC, the EO, the "free groups", etc. But we were not free to question the Local Church organization, or the Maximum Leader in Anaheim. So a group that offered "home" actually became quite alienating, because there was nowhere else to go. Many American saints testified that they were "wrecked" for the Local Church. I don't know what they say there in Russia, but in the U.S. Local Churches they strongly push "burning all your bridges" with any connections outside the collective. It is an immersive, intense experience where everything inside the collective is "good" and everything outside is "bad." Your family doesn't know any better, the Christian Church is degraded, the world is sinful, etc etc. Supposedly the only source of information free from corruption is from the Maximum Leader who is "God's oracle." And thus the path has been cleared for a distorted Christian journey. No longer do you hear your conscience, the Bible, or the Spirit; instead your focus is on the speaking of God's current oracle.
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That helps to explain your OP. And helps me somewhat with the "Asian Mindset."
It doesn't, however, explain what Zeek brought up. If Nee and Lee's theology was informed from an Asian mindset, how is it that we Americas fell for it?
I read somewhere in this thread a mention that Nee and Lee were raised in some form of the protestant movement. If I'm not mistaken, they were both raised in Christian homes.
So weren't they raised with a Christian Mindset?
They were Chinese in China. If Lee let go of that then why was he still speaking in a broken English Chinese accent?
None of us failed to realize that the local church came out of China. In a sense the Christian missionary imperialists invaded China, and China, thru Lee, invaded America back. Now who was the imperialist? Now who was, like the Christian missionaries bringing Western culture and ways into China, bringing Chinese culture and ways to America?
With something new, to American Christians. And high grade Christians joined the Nee/Lee movement, that invaded America.
It was something new, and it came out of China.
Our question is, how much of China was brought in? How much of the local church was influenced by China?