Quote:
Originally Posted by Evangelical
Why is LC a cult and RC, Orthodox, Anglican and Lutheran not cults?
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This is one of the key burdens of this forum, to answer this question, at least the part about the LC. “Carry Up My Bones From Here” attempts to summarize this answer based on the book of James and quotes Nigel Tomes, Don Rutledge, Steve Isitt, John Ingalls, Ohio, Witness Lee, Kerry Robichaux, Ed Marks, and others.
The burden of James is to turn back those who have wandered from the truth.
Those who have wandered from the truth look like “the twelve tribes in the dispersion”. In the Old Covenant we had 12 tribes, but not in the New Covenant. What is it that makes the LC, RC, Orthodox, Anglican and Lutheran distinct? The Old Testament teachings they hold onto.
For example, the Ground of the Church doctrine which you are so strong to champion is an Old Testament teaching. Cut out everything from the Old Testament and there is no teaching. You have letters addressed to a church in Ephesus, or to the churches of Galatia, or to the church in their house, or to “the twelve tribes in the dispersion”. No one is saying that James is teaching us that we need to be “tribes in a dispersion” but somehow you infer a very strict teaching that condemns all other believers beside yourself because Paul addressed a letter to "the church in Ephesus". This is a commandment of men.
Why do you ignore the very clear commandments of the New Testament? We only have two: love God with our whole heart and love our neighbor as ourself. According to James once you start judging your brother because he is not “on the proper ground” you are a judge of these two New Testament commandments.
If you really have some great insight into the New Testament that will help everyone then show us with the meekness of wisdom in works of faith. If you want to change the age, if you want to bring in the kingdom it is not going to be by being “a hearer of the word only” but rather by being “a doer of the word”. Any group, whether it is the LC or any other one that is a hearer only has wandered from the truth.
When we appear before the Lord’s judgement seat we are not going to be judged based on whether or not we were faithful to Witness Lee’s “ground of the church” doctrine. We will be judged based on whether or not we were faithful to the two commandments Jesus gave us to keep.
Tribes are characterized by individual leaders and doctrines that make them distinct. I infer that this picture of 12 tribes in dispersion, people who are believers in the New Testament but holding onto their Old Testament distinctions, are like dry bones scattered in the valley. Every single bone in my body is distinct from all other bones. If you knit them together in life, then you will have one body, but take away that life and you have scattered bones. The basis of our oneness is what the Lord did on the cross, not the boundaries of a city purchased by people in the world.