Quote:
Originally Posted by Ohio
I could say the same thing about the way some Pentecostals talk about the "holy ghost."
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Yes. That is often true.
And it is a bit of a tightrope that we walk when talking about the LCM here. If it was just a little of one kind of apparent disagreement on something (more like what marks the differences between denominations) then I could agree that it is the same thing. But it is not just a particular stance on one thing. Or an over-emphasis in one area. It is a collection of nuanced disagreements with the rest of Christianity that makes even the things that they actually agree on seem like disagreements because they have to say it differently (and behind closed doors they point to the fact that the way they say it is better and therefore enhances their experience of it).
It is not just too much emphasis on the Holy Ghost. Or sprinkling v emersion. It is a litany of both real and artificial differences of their own making with which they willfully separate themselves from the rest of the body of Christ. While I do not agree that they are teaching a truly different Christ, they are clearly interested in making enough separation in their teaching in virtually every area that there is something worthy of comment. It finally reaches the point where they, by their own admission, do not want to be associated with the broader body of Christ and thereby despise the desire of Christ when he prayed that we would be one.
Someone could say that because of books like the God-Men or the Mind Benders we have refused them entrance. But while they want to be understood as "mainstream" in so many ways, they insist on standing far away from everyone else while calling them whores and harlots.
Each single point of divergence can be commented on by reference to a similarity with someone else's divergence from what we might call the center. But when there is such a collection of divergence, it is no longer enough to say that group A does something sort of like LCM error X, and group B does something like LCM error Y, and group C does something like LCM error Z. The difference is that each of the other groups showed up with one or two divergences (and often of lesser extremes) while the LCM had its own similar divergence for every one of them — and then some.
It comes to a point where either they have to be almost completely right that the rest of Christianity is horrible and they got it right, or the LCM is really the collection of error that I keep seeing. A system of error. They are not just too Arminian or too Calvinist. They are intentionally divergent on virtually everything and that cannot be washed away by a reference to a somewhat similar single item in one other particular group. The rest of Christianity is mostly at peace with each other. Christianity does display unity. But as long as the view is only the issues of difference, and the large body of agreement is ignored, we can continue to miss that the LCM has intentionally stood against unity with other Christians and made big points on a lot of issues to drive wedges in.