Quote:
Originally Posted by Suannehill
Strange that you should mention "not siding with any party right now". This is exactly the position that I took.
Do you know what the LSM people nearly screamed at me? CHOOSE! CHOOSE! You HAVE to take a side. My reply was that I am for Christ and the Church and I choose God's side...Wrong answer!
The choice HAS to be LSM in all of the turmoil...or you are out! No arguments, prayer, or logic means anything to them...only LSM.
I walked through this nonsense... it is a mental illness that seems to take the place of spiritual discernment.
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Suannehill,
As early as almost 20 years ago when I was first attracted to the "Lord Recovery" in my country, I noticed something wrong which was operative in the speaking of some leaders in the local church there. I was disappointed at the spiritual pride and exclusiveness of them. But, generally speaking, the church life in the “Lord Recovery” in my country was better than my previous experiences in other denominations. However, during that period, I have gone through every type of negative things – wrong leadership, rebellion, condemning other brothers, and even worse forms.
The single biggest reason I did not leave my church life was the fact that I was attracted to the ground of locality – which was supposed to be for oneness of saints. I read the classic of WN – “Rethinking the work.” The logic was perfect to me. It was the very ground of locality which have made me remain in the local church until now. And I still believe the truth itself is right.
Problematic is the abuse of that truth by some immature and “naïve” saints who blindly follow the truth. They do not know how much and how seriously they can be “divisive” by wrongly using the ground of locality which is supposed to be used for the opposite purpose..
Such expressions as “concubines,” “illegal building-ups” which were used to describe other denominations were enough to prove that the attitude we had was very far way from the “sprit” of the ground of locality - oneness, I believe. Fortunately, WL repented his wrong attitude at his final official conference.
In a sense, now all the storms and problems in Toronto is a part of the legacy of the erroneous past that should be settled down by us. And I believe the best remedy is not to side with any party. It will take some time. But I learned we should be patient to see the movement of God. Even though I’ve got informed of the situation of Toronto from internet sources, to be honest with you, I’m not so familiar with the situation of Toronto. However, if already one party began their position by insisting something, which seems to indicate they are divisive. I hope God will show his will as soon as possible.
One thing I’m sorry is that some brothers in this forum attribute those storms and problems to the ground of locality itself, not distinguishing between a truth and its wrong application. It is very easy to give up the ground of locality which is much more difficult to practice than head covering or the Lord’s supper. However, just because practicing it is difficult, that does not necessarily follow that we can give up the practice. The attraction of the ground of locality is that the more we accept the truth, it forces us embrace other dissenting Christians the more, which is unlike other truths which make us so easily condemn dissenting ones. Of course, the NT prescribes a few cases in which we can cut our fellowship with other Christians – for example, divisive ones. Let’s keep an eye on who is divisive in Toronto.
BTW, I do think Igzy and OBW are my good brothers. At the end of the day, “one-set of eldership” which we should follow is not essential practice for our practical Christian life. “One-set of eldership” should be achieved by natural consensus of saints, not by enforcement. Actually the end image of Igzy’s model is similar to mine. But I think his approach is very dangerous.
I’m preparing another post to clarify my model further. I believe other members in this forum can benefit from the discussions between I and Igzy, OBW.
Gubei