Quote:
Originally Posted by aron
And Lee had an Oriental lens, which picked up on certain characteristics of the text and ignored a lot or the rest. For example, he said that the epistles to the churches in Asia in Revelations 2 & 3 showed that all churches "should be exactly identical". That is a clearly Asian cultural reaction, of trying to maintain order, which necessitates uniformity. Individuality should be not only repressed, but sought out and crushed. Why? It threatens order. So anyone in Lee's Local Churches who tried to think, and persisted in this bad habit, got branded a "rebel", or "leprous", or "ambitious" or similar castigations.
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Had we polled a thousand thoughtful mature believers, not none would conclude what Lee did about these 7 churches.
Oh yes, of course, Lee could "see things no one else could see." I heard the same thing about TC too.
Such leaders we had!
No church in Revelation was identical, nor even remotely similar. The same could be said of any NT church. But Lee, in his infinite knowledge, convinced us all the differences were "negative." How far from the truth was that? Look at the Thessalonians acclaimed for spreading the word of the Lord and the Bereans noted for their study of scripture. Most of those in Revelations were praised for different aspects unique to them.
These differences were all positive!
Perhaps most unsettling to us former LCers is the way Lee manipulated the Bible for his own personal gain. His own brand of Chinese leaven infected us all. Diverse viewpoints were eventually expelled from the Recovery until only Lee's teachings remained. We were all to become WL "
tape recorders." Lee even went so far as to condemn all "natural affection" as honey, so that we would have no sympathy for those who left or were expelled.