[Thankful Jane]

Dear Ohio,

Sorry for the delayed response.

Originally Posted by Ohio

I am more and more convinced that this matter of "guilt by association" has no merit in the age of grace. Israel is a pattern for our admonition, but the N.T. provides no basis for this. We are no longer judged by our parents bad behavior.

Originally Posted by Ohio

I still see no judgment upon all of Israel for the sin of one. This story is similar to Corinth. The whole church suffered thru the sin of one, but Paul's admonition was to purge out the old leaven, via godly fellowship with the offender, who did repent and was restored. Joshua was forced to examine Israel, and the idolator was judged by fire. Let's be careful not to misapply this type. If we judge all Israel because of the sin of one, then all Israel should be burnt with fire. If we judge all the church in like manner, will there be enough firewood in the world?

What? I don’t see “godly fellowship with the offender” in Corinthians. (Which verses show this?) I just see that he was put away from fellowship by the majority. I also see that Paul delivered him to Satan for the destruction of the flesh that his spirit could be saved in the day of Christ Jesus. I guess you could call that “godly fellowship” if you wanted to do so. He did repent, but it took a lot more than some kind of conversation with him.

I see that some have been arguing using the phrase “guilt by association” as if I had used this phrase; however, I think that it was you introduced it.

I guess you considered it was “guilt by association” when God judged the Israelites and 36 of them died in battle because of the sin of another (Achan), whom they were associated with by virtue of being part of the children of Israel. You said this idea was frightening to you. It is healthy for God’s judgment to strike a chord of fear in us. The Ai story also makes it clear that it wasn’t men on some kind of a witch hunt that found Achan, but it was God Who directed them to Achan. God is the one who pointed out the idolater. So this is not a story about man’s misjudgment, but God’s righteous actions through men who were willing to walk in the light with Him.

The real judgment that the children of Israel experienced at Ai was that they were defeated by their enemies. God was not with them in battle. Why not? Because of the sin of one person among them—sin that no one apparently knew about except for God. Their defeat was His way of telling everyone something was wrong. I didn’t write this story, God did. I guess He wasn’t afraid of sobering us by it.

Shouldn’t defeat by our enemies concern us? When we see the enemy prevailing, shouldn’t we humbly pray for God’s light on the situation and not start defendimg ourselves as innocent? The norm is blessing and victory, not cursing and defeat.

The children of Israel were warned in advance they would lose God’s blessing if they served other gods. They were told they would experience pestilence, the sword, famine, and beasts devouring them. God told them what the loss of blessing would look like, so that they would recognize when they had offended Him.

Many, many, years ago, we in the Local Churches began to suffer defeat at the hands of the devil. It has continued for decades. We lost the blessing and were put to shame repeatedly. Yet, we did nothing but press on blindly in our sin. We believed we were following God because we were absolutely following our leadership (a false belief taught by the men who were leading us), but the defeats among us were screaming otherwise. Instead of looking in the mirror, our leaders re-characterized our defeats by saying these were “attacks by the enemy.” We all nodded our heads and said “Amen.”

Originally Posted by Ohio

This matter of "guilt by association" frankly scares me, and that's why I have protested repeatedly. History is replete with martyrs slain by well-intentioned religious folks who felt they were serving God. I know this seems extreme, but an O.T. story was cited which ended in holocaust. (see Joshua 7.15) The RCC has used this same story to justify their diabolical schemes via slaughter of whole villages and prison inquisitions. How far do we carry out O.T. stories?

Again, the point is how does God see our situation? Have we suffered defeat by the enemy or not? Loss of marriages; our second generation turning away from God and living sinful, immoral lives; untimely deaths, lawsuits against Christian brothers; brother hating brother; boasting in riches; etc. When all is said and done, it really doesn’t matter what we say, but what God says. If I or others say that the reason for such loss of blessing is our serving other gods, do you really consider such a statement to be the same as the crimes of holocaust or inquisitions? Don’t you think that is a bit of exaggeration? Isn’t there at least a possibility that God might consider our behavior (bowing to others voices and commands) to be idolatrous?

Originally Posted by Ohio

Let me propose another thought for this story, based on the patterns of the N.T. All prospering congregations of believers have healthy oversight by elders. One of their roles at times is to examine the church in prayer and fellowship and seek the Lord for any reason that they are short of the Lord's blessing. Just as Joshua sought the Lord in prayer, the Lord may wait until some do this before He exposes some matter. Our Lord has a heart of love and blessing towards His people, but neither is He mocked.

The problem in the LC is that there was not healthy oversight and there was never any admission that the blessing was lost. If anyone dared suggest that this might have happened, then they and those in their tent who were targeted as the troublemakers... been there, done that... i.e., if you name a problem, you are the problem. (To me, this is similar to what has happened in the resistance shown to this topic on this thread.)

Originally Posted by Ohio

The tragedy of the LC's for decades was to look to Anaheim for the way of blessing and for the reasons for which there was no blessing. This has robbed the Lord of His rightful place as the Head of the church and the Son of Man walking in her midst. Anaheim became a rival to God's own Son. The "ministry" became a rival to His word. Hence, very little blessing exists in the LC's, to the point that some would even say there is a kind of curse upon them.

How is this different than what I said? The O.T. cursings and blessings were directly tied to God’s children having other gods. The ministry and leadership hierarchy among us took the place of God’s word and His direct headship over each of us; hence, it was another god. Some may claim now that they never submitted. I ask, then, where were their voices of objection in the past? Silence is consent. Silence is the equivalent of bowing and it produces culpability. If we saw the problem and were silent, we had part in closing the door on blessing and opening the door to cursing. We share responsibility for our being run over by every kind of evil. I believe that even now, many people ex-LSM folks still value the teachings of the ministry more than the pure Word of God. They treasure the ministry and still have it hidden under their tents.

Thankful Jane