Quote:
Originally Posted by HERn
shortly after Sparks challenged Lee's exclusive doctrine of the ground and the co-workers started to speak messages along the same line the practice and requirement of using outlines for the co-workers messages was started. Seems like that practice is continued even today. Who writes and approves the outlines used in the winter and spring trainings?
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What would probably be the definitive account of Local Church (LC) beliefs and practices would be a chronological narrative of when various "storms" and "rebellions" occurred, and the subsequent doctrinal promulgations under the cover of "Bible Studies" (or "Life Studies" in their parlance). For example, I bet that if you looked at what LC events occurred prior to the Revelation Life Study training you would find something that led Lee to conclude that any problems in the LC was due to the various assemblies not being absolutely identical. Therefore he was able to read into the letters to the various Asian churches in Revelations 2 and 3 and see the "present need" of being absolutely identical. That, he said, would solve all our problems, right?
And so forth. Each training, each outline, was designed to meet a "present need" in the Lord's Recovery movement. Of course we all do this to some extent - we read into, and onto, the eternal Word our own temporal thoughts, values, dispositions, and understandings. Our own subjective history colors our assessment of the "present need", and we then read it into scriptures to find the answer. This is how we have the Worldwide Church of God of Herbert Armstrong, the Millerites and the Great Disappointment, the Seventh Day Adventist Church, the Mormons, the Christian Scientists, and sor forth. Nee and Lee were no different. They saw what they wanted to see. First it was to shake off the Western yoke, then it was to consolidate control, and on and on. Everything was done on the fly - there was no master plan. Just find whatever you have to, in order to meet the "present need". Life is nothing but exigencies for us mortals. Get through today. And that includes the self-proclaimed "seer of the age". No different, I bet. Was Lee getting caught smuggling gold part of some master plan? No - he was just trying to make it through another situation. Trying to keep the cash flow solvent. Just another day in the life.
Anyway, a double-stranded history of the years 1975 to 1995 showing Lee's various "flows" and the various "storms" that accompanied them, along with the development of LC thought in various Ministry trainings, outlines, and RecV footnotes would be nice. I think it would make a nice Amazon e-book. It would have a narrative structure, controlled by chronology (time). Without such a structure it is hard to get a clear picture: you get various statements at various times, which mean whatever people want them to mean today, just as they meant whatever Nee and Lee meant for them at that time. We cherry pick the Ministry to find statements that back whatever agenda or interpretation we're currently promoting. Just like Nee and Lee did to the Bible.