The two trees is a topic that has been discussed in other threads, and it's not my intention to start another discussion about that here, but the way that LCers employ this specific 'analogy' just goes to show how much trust LCers are willing to place in certain things that WL allegorized as opposed to what the Bible actually says. The Bible is very clear about good and evil, yet LCers ignore this.
Despite what the two trees 'analogy' seemingly implies, the Bible doesn't tell us to ignore good and evil. Quite to the contrary it tells us that we
should discern and reject evil. Things that contradict the Bible outright should be immediately dismissed. Of course, it's probably fair to say that not everything can be solved according to a metric of good versus evil, but the so-called 'discernment' that goes on in the LC that is according to 'life' is anyone's guess as to the validity or rational of the decisions being made. The Bible is very clear about discerning evil and I believe that when we as Christians engage in any kind of discernment, the processes and rational should be transparent. There's no reason for it not to be:
Quote:
Psalms 97:10 You who love the Lord, hate evil! He preserves the souls of His saints; He delivers them out of the hand of the wicked.
James 1:21 Therefore lay aside all filthiness and overflow of wickedness, and receive with meekness the implanted word, which is able to save your souls.
1 Thessalonians 5:22 Abstain from every form of evil.
Romans 12:9 Let love be without hypocrisy. Abhor what is evil. Cling to what is good.
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I could go on all day with posting verses, but this should suffice. The point is that there are many examples of the Word instructing us to reject evil. That involves making a judgment between right and wrong, between good and evil. It is a perfectly reasonable metric of discernment for Christians. What has happened in the LC is that another metric has been projected, one that has little to no concrete meaning. That brings me to my point. The problem is not so much about how their discernment method is rationalized (the two trees), but the fact that no one could put their finger on the rational being used. What is
life and what is
death? No one knows because in the LC both things have been assigned arbitrary meaning and of course, the understanding of such things varies from person to person.
What this alternative style of 'discernment' leads to is confusion. At least from what I noticed, 'discernment' was always considered to be some kind of hocus pocus - a mirror house that only the mature leaders could work their way through. For example, someone in the LC who is considered to have good discernment might be the person who always seems to know what time during the meeting to break the bread. In reality, such things are nothing more than issuing a command, and anyone in the LC who knows the format could make a good guess about when to break the break or the proper chair arrangements, etc. But members are left in a state of confusion and not able to make basic decisions. It's crippling to members and it's tragic because the Bible really makes things simple. There's no magic to it, and it doesn't take anyone special to discern things. That's not to say it's always going to be easy or cut and dry, but for the most part LCers have concerned themselves in 'discerning' unimportant things to which there is no right or wrong answers, and all the while they have ignored the real elephants in the room.