Quote:
Originally Posted by Oregon
Thank you for sharing concerning the early years Indiana. It brought back pleasant memories of the glorious church life. I remember well those turning years of 74 to 75 when "the ministry" started to become the real center. That was the beginning of the downward slide. There was such a freshness in those early days which was gone form 1975 and on. CMW......don't take this as a personal critisism but the sponateous moving of the Spirit among us was gone before you even arrived. I'm not discounting your personal experience but anyone who was not in the church life from 1974 and earlier will never know what a newness of Spirit there was among us. The organization that came in over time quenched the moving of God's Spirit among us. It reminds me of the account in Ezekiel when the glory of God slowly departed from God's house ... the temple.
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Good points,
Oregon.
I would like to hear more about this transition period during the mid 70's. When first contacted the LC's at this time, the "electricity" was still there in Cleveland, but the "voltage" was slowly transitioning from the focus on "
Christ, only Christ" to "
one with the ministry." The changes did come slower for us here in Ohio-land. We have always been a little "
behind the times," as they say. Thank the Lord for that.
History tells us that "
the freshness in those early days" and "the spontaneous moving of the Spirit among us," had little to do with WL per se, and had everything to do with the moving of the Holy Spirit. He did minister riches from the word, and spending much time with WN, his ministry was much enriched, but as time wore on, he demanded that the LC's be more about his ministry than about the Lord.
Ironically, were the Holy Spirit to once again pour out rich blessings on our land, perhaps as a result of the present economic chaos, the LSM/LC's would have no way to receive it. Their so-called "God-ordained way" is really nothing more than "human ways and means." This very thing happened to the Plymouth Brethren exclusives just 10 years after George Muller et al were so iniquitously "quarantined" by JNDarby and his minions such as Wigram and Trotter. The exclusive congregations had no way to contain the blessing of the Spirit poured out in the late 1850's, and which spread to the States during the civil war. They were still forcing new guests and converts to judge the likes of Muller's "declaration of independence."
Can you believe it? Some of their stories belong in the "strange, but true" category of human history.
Oh the stench of religious pride!
The condemned "Opens," who refused to judge the godly and fruitful Muller of Bristol, and bow down to Darby's ultimatums, received much blessing everywhere, with many gifted evangelists raised up in their midst.
How could God bless such condemned brothers? In all of church history, only Martin Luther can rival George Muller for the amount of condemnation heaped on his head. God's blessing, however, reached all His children in all congregations, including the Baptists and the Presbyterians. Even the Anglican church of England was benefited.
Imagine that! God was not bound by denominationalism!
But, sadly, God
was bound by the judgmental narrowness and religious prejudices of the Darby exclusives, who reaped little blessing, and seemed to spend all their days writing books and teaching one another about the "riches of Christ."