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Originally Posted by Freedom
WL really did take advantage of the military analogies found in the Bible, and it wasn't hard for him to find ways to apply everything to the LC. All the characteristics of the military had parallels that he could apply to the LC. Things like not having an opinion, submitting oneself, doing everything as a collective group, etc. It is no wonder that he liked that analogy so much.
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I think of two words to sum it up: conformity and uniformity. All local churches in the new 'military regime' had to be "absolutely identical" (his words). See e.g. the footnotes in Revelations 2 and 3.
That's where my "bricks in the wall" analogy came from. No more living stones, but featureless and bland bricks. See e.g. Genesis 11:3
Quote:
Originally Posted by Freedom
Even the amount of control WL had from day one, there was really no pressing need to run a training or to assert authority in an overt manner. So what made him change?
It seems that the main problem he kept running into was that of those who were not afraid to call him out, or those not afraid to think for themselves. He had to find a way to put a stop to this, thus the advent of the FTT.
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There was a stated change in stress from "life" to "truth", and the establishment of the FTT, and the Life-study trainings. Just meeting on the "local ground" and "enjoying Christ" was deemed insufficient to keep the sheep docile within the pen.
And yes, it was a firewall against the freedom which is in Christ Jesus to make an appearance in the Local Churches. Freedom, to Lee, meant loss of control, and instability. But conformity and uniformity, however dull and deadly, were safe, from his perspective.