Quote:
Originally Posted by Unregistered
A BRIEF REPORT CONCERNING THE LORD’S MOVE IN EUROPE, DECEMBER, 2014
Increase in Europe
In the past fifteen years, the Lord has gained a significant increase throughout Europe:
In 2000, there were 32 lampstands in 12 countries. There were approximately 750 saints in
the Lord’s recovery throughout Europe. Now in 2014, there are 85 lampstands in 23 countries. There are now approximately 3,000 saints in the Lord’s recovery throughout Europe.
|
I do not know whether this account is copied and supplied by the unnamed poster, or is supplied from their personal knowledge from the inside. But I will take on the wording of the post with no intent beyond that.
Lampstands. Since the one-to-one correspondence for this term is not clear, I will approach it in two ways.
If Lampstand is intended to refer to the fact of an expression of the church in a particular city, then there is likely no increase since the number of cities in Europe in which there is no meeting of Christians is near to zero. It is quite possible that there are some small hamlets where those who are Christians meet with others in a nearby village of somewhat larger size, but those would be the exceptions. Even in the very dwindling Christian landscape of Europe, there are Christians everywhere, though not in the kinds of relative numbers found in the US.
If lampstands is intended to make reference to assemblies, then surely there are some more lampstands if the LRC has increased. But they are but a drop in the bucket compared to all the available lampstands in the areas, even with the same city in every case.
Last, if lampstand is intended to refer only to meetings of the LRC, then I will respond with a story (a true story). Several years ago when I was still keeping up with my facebook fairly regularly, I noted a post that was repeated by someone I was (and probably still am) connected to (can't remember who) that said something like "this weekend the Lord's table was resumed in Rome for the first time in centuries." (Since this was at least four years ago, I cannot remember the wording, just the thrust of what it said.) While I know that contrary posts are generally frowned upon, I could not let such a false report go unchallenged. So I responded with something like "the Lord's table has never ceased to be taken in Rome since it occurred in the first century" or something to that effect.
But no matter which of those was intended, or would be argued as correct by the source of the report, it is clear that the LRC claims the right to cloak their assemblies with the nomenclature of "lampstand" and to exclude all others from it. If they aren't there, then there is no lampstand. If they are there, then there is a lampstand. And if they move away, the lampstand goes with them.
But it is not so in the NT, especially in the one place the term is used — Revelation. The lampstand is there in the city that was declared to have lost its first love. It was there where that woman, Jezebel, taught despicable things. It was there where everyone was lukewarm.
The lampstand is everywhere that there are people shining as the image of God in their lives among the darkness that is the world. The LRC's interest is not its testimony to the world. Only to the principalities and powers. And they don't even know how little that testimony means when their lack of shining to the living humans demonstrates that they are not having any impact on the world. At least not as a single group.
Saints. I would take on the terms "saints," but they did at least note that they were referring to saints "in the Lord’s recovery throughout Europe." It does not mean they think of others as saints, but it hides where the truth is.
Lord's recovery. Not much to say here other than the fact that the Bible defines no such thing. The only recovery mentioned (though without the use of the word) is the recovery of human souls from death to life. The Lord's recovery is a designator for the sect of people who follow the ideologies of Watchman Nee and Witness Lee, declare that the only true church is the one that stands "on the ground of locality," accept that they are becoming God in life and nature, but not Godhead, and believe that the trinity, though true, and therefore three, is irrelevant because they are "simply" one. And if they do not agree to excommunicate Titus Chu and others who did not follow the unscriptural decrees, such as the Phoenix Accord, they are themselves cut off.
And then the legal team goes to work to "recover" the name (that they don't have) from the excommunicated group so that they can declare another lampstand in that city and call themselves by the "proper" no-name name. Oh, and try to sue for the property of the local assembly (the assembly that was at least once local in administration) by claiming more than local administration.