Quote:
Originally Posted by aron
The Brethren and Little Flock and Lord's Recovery were no exception. ... a lot of ink was spilled over one or two words in the text, while other whole sections of the very same text, even in the same passage and even the same verse or phrase, were simply ignored. Why? Because they weren't helpful to the emerging formula.
The power of the Holy Spirit allows us to return to the text and look at stuff that WL & co didn't think were important..
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I would like to offer a couple of examples. First is the dream of Jacob in Genesis 28. He called the place, Bethel, the house of God. WL, like most Christian teachers, references the church as God's house in the NT. Fine. Then, when Jacob pours oil on the stone, WL says that symbolizes the Holy Spirit. But Jacob didn't see the Holy Spirit, he saw heaven open and angels ascending and descending. But no mention by WL of angels because we were all good Protestants (even tho we may have changed our name). Then in John 1:51 WL repeats the same thing. Much ink is spilled on the house of God, and some on the Spirit, but no reference to the angels ascending and descending by WL except the vague phrase "much traffic". That's it; 2 words. And he goes on and on about the House of God, because of course that is his focus, to build up his organization. So the text gets unbalanced treatment according to the motives of the Bible expositor.
Second example: the Centurion's slave in Luke 7. The centurion's word says, "For I also am a man under authority, and I say to my servant, "Go", and he goes, and to one "come" and he comes, and to another "Do this", and he does it." Jesus marveled and said that there was no such faith in all of Israel. But the question that is begged by the centurion's word is simply ignored. Jesus clearly is also a man under authority, who came to do the Father's will. But who are the servant's of Jesus, that He merely needs to give the word to, and the Centurion's slave will be healed? Is the Holy Spirit the servant of Jesus? Or is it angels? Or some combination?
Look at Psalm 147. "Jehovah sends His command to the earth/His word runs swiftly". The Luke narrative said that "in that same hour the centurion's slave was healed", that Jesus said it was to be done. So the centurion indeed understood what was going on. Jesus just spoke the word and the slave was healed at that very hour. Indeed the word does run swiftly. But what did the centurion understand, that Jesus marveled? We don't ask, because it might upset our dogma. At least that is my impression. The centurion's explanation, that Jesus marveled at, is simply excised from the discussion. If Jesus has invisible servants who go and come at His word and do what He commands, we don't want to think about it because our job as Protestants is to ignore the angels. Or, how can we say the Holy Spirit is "under" Jesus? The centurion said, "I
also have servants under me"????
So we ignore it. Not neat and tidy like our theology. We would rather be comfortable.
Lastly, the epistles directed to the seven churches in Revelations 2 and 3. Jesus spoke to the angel of the church in Fairview, and through the messenger, gave a word to the church there (actually Ephesus, Smyrna, etc but bear with me). So there we were in Fairview Ohio in 1974 and we would all go up to Christians there and say, "If God was going to write a letter to the church in Fairview, who would he write it to? The Baptists, or the Lutherans? Look at Revelations 2 and 3. Clearly there is only one church in each city." We were so smug. We had the truth. One church per city -- it was right there in Revelations 2 & 3. Christians were so blind. But we ignored the actual text, which said "
To the angel of the church in Fairview." Not once did we ask, "Who is the angel of the church in Fairview?" No, we were too busy being superior and waving our superiority in the air. We ignored the words of the text because Lee told us to. We focused on what was convenient to the ministry of Witness Lee, and not what John the apostle actually wrote.
Those are just a few examples. And I could pick other subjects besides angels. I am simply trying to make a point. When we use a phrase like "in the power of the Holy Spirit" we are using a historically developed idea, which may not coincide exactly with the text. As
Dancing put it so well, there are unknowns here, mysteries. It's okay. I'm okay with that. But it's worth mentioning that the ancient writers used to talk about this mysterious stuff. Long before Darby & Pember and Penn-Lewis and Nee and Lee plied their logic. Just something to consider. Peace.