[aron]

Confession: I continue to follow a guru to this day. He's from the East, the Near East to be precise. The Eastern Mediterranean Region, aka the Levant.

His name was Jesus and was held by many to be God's Anointed Christ, the King of the Jews. He was wisdom personified (Matt 12:42; 1 Cor 1:21), and Savior of the World (John 4:41; 1 John 4:14). His disciples called Him "Master" (Gk: kurios), also translated as "Lord". And these disciples, aka Christians, of whom I profess to be one, claim that God furnished proof of His divine character and status, by raising Him from the dead (Acts 17:31).

But I don't see any of His immediate followers claiming the "mantle" for themselves. Paul for example was an apostle, which means "sent one", which means today missionary, or traveling evangelist. Not Paul the Uber Boss, the Big Kahuna Maximus, who can do no wrong and whose every pronouncement is fawned over as "God's Oracle." No; that kind of man-elevation seems to come from a source outside of the Christian tradition.

Look at 1 Corinthians, for example. It is from "Paul and Sosthenes" (1:1). Who was Sosthenes? Perhaps the bearer of the letter. But his name was on the letter, too. This wasn't from the church of Paul. Nobody wrote, "Lovers of Jesus affiliated with the ministry of Paul". No; they were affiliated with Jesus, as was Paul, as was Sosthenes. Who was baptized in Paul's name (v.13)?

Was the apostle John "absolutely obedient" to or "absolutely one" with the leading of Paul, recognizing him as God's chosen vessel for that present age? No? Why not, was John then in rebellion against God? Or was maybe this reading of "one special [dominant] vessel per age" a kind of hopeful reading, and rather culturally-biased at that?

Did Paul really expect that the church in Corinth would identify themselves as "Lovers of Jesus, whe recommend the rich ministry of God's bondservant Paul"? I think Paul would have torn his clothes (see Acts 14:14) had he heard such nonsense.

On Witness Lee's death in 1997 the blendeds said that the age of Spiritual Giants was over, and it was the age of Small Potatoes. From whence cometh such statements? Not from scripture, history, or logic. Why should God have one Top Minister per age and give this up post-Lee? Was Lee really that good, that God couldn't find another charismatic soul and henceforth must rely on caretakers and bureaucrats?