Quote:
Originally Posted by Terry
Best scripture that applies to Exclusive Brethren and LCM is found in 3 John verses 9-10:
I wrote to the church, but Diotrephes, who loves to be first, will not welcome us. So when I come, I will call attention to what he is doing, spreading malicious nonsense about us. Not satisfied with that, he even refuses to welcome other believers. He also stops those who want to do so and puts them out of the church.
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I said this a few days ago, and I will say it again, there are some striking parallels between the Exclusive Brethren and the LC. Earlier this week, I read something written by Nigel Tomes titled "
Watchman Nee Rejected the Exclusive Way".
http://www.concernedbrothers.com/His...clusivism2.pdf
It discusses some interesting facts related to how Nee was excommunicated from the Exclusive Brethren, and while I do not agree with Nigel's notion of "the Recovery", it is interesting to consider how Nee saw the problems with exclusivity, yet 70 or so later, exclusive is exactly what the LCM has become.
I thought a lot about the whole subject this week. I have to say that the most reasonable conclusion that I can come to is that Nee actually didn't see the fundamental problem with being exclusive. Sure he saw that the Exclusive Brethren were too exclusive, but I have to wonder, did he see a problem with their exclusivity other than the fact that it resulted in his excommunication? In other words, would he have remained primarily associated with them had he not been kicked out?
The whole notion of "the Recovery" is based on the idea that certain persons or groups "recovered" certain things. While it is true that certain people and groups have made valuable contributions to Christianity, the Bible says that God is not a respecter of persons. What I think this means for the LC is that their notion of God needing particular people or groups to "recover" something is fundamentally flawed.
With Nee and even Lee, I think they placed too much faith in what the Brethren had supposedly "recovered". Nee saw the Brethren as the prerequisite step or group to his ministry. He was building on what they "saw". When you take a step back and realize that Nee held onto some of the negative teachings of the Exclusive Brethren, all the sudden some serious issues arise. The quote about judging of sin is an example of that. Yes, certain sin should be judged within the Church, but that shouldn't translate into the practice of judging supposed sin as the LC so frequently does.