Quote:
Originally Posted by bearbear
Jesus told us to bless those who curse us. Should we then bless the LCs? After all, they are in the business of cursing former members. Maybe ex-LCers suffer because we are hung up on criticizing the LC system when God wants us to move on so we can heal. Maybe we're cursing ourselves by cursing the LCs as they cursed the RCC and everyone else. Perhaps the wake of destruction left by Witness Lee can be described as a huge cyclical curse-fest that can only be broken when the hurt people decide to finally break the cycle by blessing.
If that's true, I'm sorry for all the fault finding of Witness Lee I've done in recent posts. What use is it to dwell on the glaring faults of a man who has long died? Perhaps God has much in store for us if we can move on.
May God bless those in the LCs so that they can find the freedom promised in Christ.
1 Peter 3:9
Don't repay evil for evil. Don't retaliate with insults when people insult you. Instead, pay them back with a blessing. That is what God has called you to do, and he will bless you for it.
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But it was Paul who said there should be disputes over the truth so that what is actually true may be found.
And unfortunately, avoiding the actual face-to-face hashing out of the disagreements is what gave us the fragmented situation we have today. It is rather benign to have one church whose style of "worship" is one way while another's is different. But just "agreeing to disagree" on a lot of the things that separate us is not what was intended.
The purpose of the nailing of the theses on the door was to announce an opportunity for people among a single community of believers to face differences of opinion and see where the discussion would lead. It was the "we have already decided and will not consider" attitude of the hierarchy of the church that divided us then and continues to divide us now.
There are two parts to reconciliation. One would be ideal but not likely. The other is imperative. The first is that we somehow actually begin to morph together but continue to have internal doctrinal differences that we slowly hash through, but in the meantime live with the unsettled nature of things. The other is to remain in siloes, but have an honest unity with our brothers and sisters with whom we do not entirely agree. There should be a core of belief that is common among us that we all identify with. From one extreme to the other. (That does not include those who disagree on the deity of Christ.)
This problem has been with us since the early days of the church. The Council of Nicaea was important in bringing together some divergent thoughts. But it was also part of the start of creating bright lines over every little thing and tossing people out for straying just a little. We now refer to those early writers as part of our "fathers" in theology. But we have little concerning the variants of the day because rather than hashing it out, they silenced those who did not support the official position. Everything was fully decided. And often by threat of harm.
So I would agree that cursing the LRC is a problem. But having open discussions of the issues that are seen as plaguing the group are part of the process of arriving at the truth. Meantime, they are set that their internal decisions, void of vetting against the thoughts of others, are not only the ones they will stick to, but the ones that everyone should follow or be reprobate.
We should bless the people. But we should be honest concerning discussion of the disagreements on what is true and righteous.