Quote:
Originally Posted by aron
I believe it was because of the weakening of the soul, by the so-called charismatic experience. We didn't practice tongues in LC meetings, but the shouting, repetitive chanting, arm-waving, jumping up and down, running around, yelling at each other, hysterical screaming, weeping, etc was so sensorily overwhelming that the natural defenses simply collapsed. Then, if they said something like, "The age of spiritual giants is over" and now we have to gather in memory of the last "giant" Witness Lee, we'd do it. Even if it really made no sense, historically, culturally, scripturally, logically.
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Great points
aron. I was "caught" in 1976 in a gospel meeting in Cleveland where I was encouraged to stand with others and "release my spirit." That night changed my life.
That event, in and of itself, was spiritual, healthy, reviving, and positive in every way. I stood up, shouted praises to my Savior, pumped my fist, lost my face, and was completely filled with the Spirit of God. That one "charismatic" experience shaped my entire life. Had I sat on my seat clinging to embarrassment, a very real possibility, I would have left that meeting in shame, and never gone back.
So far so good. I wish every young believer would have such a dramatic infilling, overwhelming experience of Jesus. And I was not alone. Many other young people like myself were similarly caught since back in the days at Elden hall. What subsequently happened to many of us, and not just to me in Ohio, became destructive to our life-long walk with the Lord --
Witness Lee took credit for what happened. Over time, Lee and his cohorts convinced us that he alone was responsible for our being filled with the Spirit.
Think about the consequences of that delusion. Lee was now indispensible to our experiences of salvation, and should we ever leave him, we were "wrecked" for life. It would be nearly impossible to continue our Christian life with another church without Lee.
For me, this explains why so many ex-LCers leave the faith when leaving the LC. Our Christian life had been improperly defined according to some charismatic "high," and Lee was the "reason for that season." We may have left the LC's due to their unbearable hypocrisy, yet we may still be convinced that the joys of our faith were inextricably tied to Lee and his ministry. Not able to live out the rest of our lives with such joyless failure, many of us become willing to look anywhere else for it. It's not easy to live out one's life being hounded by the memories of being a dismal failure and leaving "God's eternal purpose."