[aron]

To go against everyone (family, friends, church) because your conscience was bothered must have been hard. I'm glad you found the strength to follow the truth as you saw it. Thanks for sharing.

An interesting parallel with my experience is that you found a life-line in your association with other Christians. I can relate to that. I was fully immersed in LC-life for years, and one day the Holy Spirit thrust me out, and I became a "missionary", wanting to spread the high truths to those languishing in darkened Christianity. I met in the denominations, and with the so-called "free groups"; taught Bible Study, supported the pastor, all the while wanting to pass on what I saw as the ministry of the age. I did this because I believed that all Christians are in one faith, and wanted to live the idea of "oneness". Not just talk about it, while being safely sequestered in our LC "meeting halls." That seemed too safe, to me; I wanted risk, and adventure, and true unity: I wanted to be with people who didn't see everything I saw. Unity isn't based on agreement over doctrinal points. It is spiritual. And it is in the name of Jesus.

Therefore, while I still was favorable to the ideas of Lee, and was fairly critical of everything else, my body was there in "the denominations". I began to be aware of 2 things. First was immediate: the "human living" of many Christians was just as much of a testimony of Jesus Christ as the LC "saints". Sometimes moreso. Some put me to shame. What good were all my so-called truths, absent the reality of the Spirit? Second was more gradual: that there were a lot of very solid Bible teachers out there. There was more out there for me than just the ministry of WL and WN. Eventually I realized that while the LCs had some good things to say (I had been using LSM materials for years, in sharing with others), it wasn't God's only "oracle" on earth today.

All of this was years before the quarantine of TC et al. So I had essentially already removed myself, and was re-programming, or learning to think again, in my own Post-Recovery period. Then someone told me that the midwest churches had "rebelled" and I began reading, and then posting on this internet forum. It has been true here for me that how I treat others is how God will treat me (surprise, surprise). If I attempt patience and forbearance with forum members who seemingly don't "get it", and accept them for who they are, then God has patience with me. The gap between me and the seemingly most intractable person is probably less than the gap between me and God! So if I receive them, then God (who I know loves me) has opportunity to receive me as well, "just as I am".

Anyway I just wanted to "amen" the idea that having fellowship with others, even if I occasionally secretly judge and despise them, has really been a salvation. The truth reaches us through the Bible, this I firmly believe. But God's love reaches us through people. And what I give to others is what I'll get back: pressed down, shaken, and running over.