Quote:
Originally Posted by OBW
I think that there is something preferable in Kaung's apporach, yet there is something in there that still suggests the kind of exclusive view of the church.
Why?
Because both groups appear to conclude that they are unable to meet separately within the same city. Kaung, who saw no freedom to claim to be the church in a city with a very robust presence of Christian assemblies, could coexist with them all, but evidently not with Lee's group. It is not entirely clear whether that was strictly Lee's fault of being openly beligerent and forcefully subsuming the other group, or a position that they had such a similar understanding of the church that neither could separately meet in the same city with the other.
Of course it seems that Lee and the LCM got over that problem. They just added the following of the ministry of the age and defined the other away, even those who had been of their own group before they excommunicated them.
I do note that in the earlier days, the LCM would go to a city where a Kaung group was already meeting and begin by meeting with them. Then slowly they would insist on one thing after another until they either took over the original group, or found "ground" to ignore them and meet separately (pun intended).
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What I find preferable to Kaung's approach is that he didn't go around telling people that they had to "take the ground". With Lee's approach, the "ground of oneness" immediately became grounds to divide.
Lee and Kaung were both trying to implement a church model according to their understanding of what Nee taught. I've said before that I don't think Nee was even aware of what would be the result of his local church model, and he never was around to see it. The whole idea of one church, one city was bound to create conflict sooner or later.
Kaung doesn't strike me as someone who see's himself as a "MOTA". That is probably the big difference between him and Lee. The both could be considered as "successors" to Nee, but I'm sure that Lee viewed himself as the heir apparent over Kaung. Was there any rivalry? I don't know.