Quote:
Originally Posted by InChristAlone
I am more concerned about "Into the good land" than "In the divisions". To me, the good land of the LRC is nothing but a barren desert, with the mirage of an oasis.
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Mirage is a good word. First you set up the mark with a simplistic version of history. "It was dark and dreary, then God raised up Prophet X to rescue us." And the listener is lured into becoming a co-conspirator; all they have to do is agree that this is in fact how history has played out. When in fact history contains much more than your narrative.
I myself do not know much of church history before the Great Schism of 1054. I was born a Protestant and church history effectively began for us in 1525 with Martin Luther. Everything before that was "the Dark Ages", an empty void. We were ignorant, and people like Lee prey upon our ignorance with their simplistic "just so" stories.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Just_So_Stories
I may not know much, but what I have seen demonstrates convincingly that church history is not as Lee portrayed it to us.
And to complete the mirage of the Local Church as equivalent to the good land, once you've convinced your mark that history is "just so", then you present them with your shiny alternative. You can repeatedly yell at them, "We're in the good land!!!" Believe me, it was convincing when I went to my first meeting and everybody was shouting, euphoric, and enthusiastic. I thought, So this is what church meetings should look like!
And later, when the enthusiasm dies down, when the Prophet begins to demand more and more, when you hear of "rebellions" and "storms" and whispered conspiracies, when you start having questions, you just need to keep repeating the mantra. Just keep telling yourself that everyone else is Babylonian, in the divisions, in dead religion, and we the blessed Local Church are in the good land. Ignore what your eyes and ears tell you. Ignore the history not in your simplistic version. Ignore those pesky Bible verses that don't line up with the Oracle. Just keep repeating the mantra. Probably that's why they made Lee's teachings into songs, so people would just keep beating them into their brains. Just keep repeating the mantra - it's God's economy!