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Originally Posted by NewManLiving
As far as WL he is not the originator of most of what he said including the kingdom truths. This light as you well know came from the writings of Govett, Pember, Lang and others. At the very least I suggest to anyone who is serious about the subject to do their own research. I suggest Lang's Firstborn Sons for a real eye-opener.
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Quote:
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Originally Posted by Wikipedia
Lang once said,
"No man should write a book until he is 40. He needs to prove his theories in practice before publishing."
Most of Lang's books were published after he was 50 years old.
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I guess WN skipped that chapter, eh? Or maybe he was so smart that, as WL said, he could take parts from each author, which pleased him, and build his own hermeneutic. And while the sources of WN's theology were arguably cutting-edge stuff 150 years ago, they're far from it today. So while we don't dismiss them out of hand, they're neither definitive nor foundational.
As NML says, "Do your own research". Our reading shows a sin unto death, and sin not unto death. (1 John 5:16-18) One is probably "gross sin" of the flesh - i.e. fornication, theft, drunkenness, and the other is being soulish: barren, petty, small-minded, and lazy. Both are sins... but where's the proverbial line between "unto death" and "not unto death"? Not always clear: people can get clouded, and deceived. Experience can blind as much as clarify, as biases and pre-dispositions become reinforced, and entrenched, and hardened. The Pharisees spent all day staring at scripture, discussing and debating, but still didn't recognize the incarnate Word speaking to them.
In the LC, with its "inner life subterfuge", as John Myer put it, terms like “revelation” and “vision,” "life,” and "view," ended up taking on a kind of Fu-Manchu aura of mystery, which consequently swamped peoples' ability to discern what scripture actually meant. Subjectivity then ruled, especially the subjectivity of top leadership. So whatever Max Bro wanted was "according to the vision" and was "life". How could anyone figure out what the Bible actually said, in such an environment?
If WL could hide the ongoing sins of one of his sons (PL), and "shoot the messengers" who exposed the goings-on in LSM offices, then anyone could be deceived. A Christian might simultaneously put out a book like "Spiritual Man" and still be ensnared by gross sin, even a sin "unto death". And while we wouldn't dismiss WN's version of 'purgatory', it was developed so long ago with so few sources, mainly British Brethren cited by NML above, that it's crude and unsatisfactory.