Quote:
Originally Posted by OBW
It seems to me that most who go astray have abandoned their reason and substituted a feeling (that they attribute to the Spirit) that their nonsensical misreading of scripture is sound.
I have plenty of sense of the Spirit. He confirms my feelings of my own error by reminding me of the words of the Bible (in my case, usually in paraphrase as precise memorization has not been my forte). He is closely tied to my life. I know when I go astray and when I am on track.
But it is always a sense that confirms, not creates chaos out of, the words of scripture.
Lee claimed a leading from the Spirit to turn scripture on its head. To take a few words and insist they meant what they could not even be talking about if returned to their natural habitat (the context). He was following a spirit. I'm just not sure which one.
The Spirit leads to the unity of the body, not to the denigration of 99.99% of it for not following new and novel ways of reading the Bible. So I would suggest that the meaning of the "leading of the Spirit" has been altered in our minds. We may have rejected Lee, but we have a buried propensity to continue to want things the way we learned it from him.
And I am including me. I find it way too often in my natural thinking. I start with some nonsense that I eventually realize is a relic of my LRC past. That does not condemn it. But it makes it subject to serious scrutiny.
And trusting your feelings (and calling it the Spirit) to go with what you like rather than what scripture actually says is a recurring problem for me. The nonsense sounds reasonable until you make yourself stand it up against scripture. Suddenly the feeling goes sour when you realize the error.
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OBW--Thank you for explaining yourself. I think I understand you a little better. Your view of this issue is complex. You try to balance reason, intuition and skepticism based on experience. What else can we do? between you and I the differences are specific. In general, I seem to be dealing with the similar elements of experience in a somewhat similar way. Or at least I think I understand where you are coming from i.e. your point of view. The devil, as they say, is in the details. Are you familiar with the "theory of mind" concept?