[aron]

The God who died, part B.

Now that I have gotten your attention with a question about what the opened heaven reveals, I want to look at the God who died.

Witness Lee asked the elders of the Shanghai Christian Assembly, "How did you feel when you evicted Watchman Nee from fellowship?" I think he wanted to expose them, as disconnected from God, but to me he actually exposed the system that he and Nee were enslaved to. They created a God, who died there when the Shanghai elders found out what Nee was apparently doing (I say apparently because I don't know for sure. But they had enough information to strongly suspect).

The God of the church in Shanghai was the Little Flock organization, with Nee firmly at its head, as the "acting God"... Eventually this collapsed when Nee apparently was mortal, even venal, like the rest of fallen humanity. This is the view of earth. We may dress it up in scriptures, arrange it with our logic, argue convincingly and even emotionally, even having convinced ourselves, we may insist that it bears no traces of the world, or the fall, or the flesh, or the grasping human soul. But eventually our God will be revealed for what it is, an illusion. And then WL asked them, "How did you feel"? All you had to guide you was your subjective response. Not scriptures, not your conscience. Just your fallen, thrill-seeking self. You wanted to be part of God's best. But you were part of an illusion. How did you feel when you found out?

For me, I didn't feel good. I gave up on God. I got discouraged. But eventually I went back to the Bible, and eventually Jesus told me that I would see the heavens opened, and the angels of God ascending and descending upon the Son of Man. I got curious (shame on me, right -- like Moses and the burning bush, I turned aside to see this marvelous sight) and began seeking. I believe today that the God who failed is anything we construct with our human will. Like Peter, we say "It is good for us to build three booths here: one for Jesus, one for Moses, and one for Elijah". We see God but we want to come alongside and do something.

I think the Shanghai Christian Assembly was the result of some kind of Asian-flavored Protestant spin off (the Brethren, the Keswick Convention, some 19th century European revivalism) which was itself a reaction to Catholic idiocy (even Catholics admitted that the medieval RCC was pretty weird [but "it's the Church", as LRC faithful are wont to repeat] ), which was a reaction to the orthodoxy of the late first millenia, etc... a long chain of fallen, well-meaning people reacting to the failures of the fallen, well-meaning (mostly) people around them. Sure, God was there, but eventually we build illusory Gods. And when our Gods died, someone like Witness Lee might come alongside and ask, "How did you feel, when your God died?"

By contrast, I would argue that the supernatural view, the kingdom of heaven, continues to call.. because it is real. The Bible reveals Jesus Christ, who reveals the Father, who clearly reveals the sent Spirit. If we would wait, and watch, and pray, the text would begin to stir, and our hearts would open, and a fire would fall.

I was there once. The Local Church life was indeed my God. Eventually what I saw, and felt, convinced me that my God was illusory.