Quote:
Originally Posted by Evangelical
These are failures of a genuine church (no church is perfect) as opposed to continued degradations in a false one.
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The essence of your error is you think you can discern a real church from a false one. It's the height of arrogance to think you have that ability, and the height of ignorance to think the Bible gives us enough information to have any confidence doing that.
I tell you one thing, Evangelical, you have been indoctrinated. You've become identified with lies of those who captured you.
I used to be like you. Not as extreme, but I know what it feels like to be convinced that stuff is true. But the fact is if you really just look at the Bible you will have to admit there is not enough clear evidence to support your adamant approval of "local churches" and you adamant denigrating of all alternatives. Your attitude is one of "my mind is made up, don't confuse me with the facts."
I'm not asking you to reject the Bible. I'm asking you to actually read it without the LCM filter. The Bible just does not spend any time defining what is a genuine church and/or what is a false one. So for you to think you can determine these things puts you in the category of people who say, for example, the dinosaurs never really existed. They cannot know that. It's just a thing they want to believe. Who knows why?
I guess some people just need to feel they have special insights nobody else has. Or maybe they've been so traumatized by the threat of the message that tells them they must believe it that they simply cannot view it objectively. Their internal safety becomes identified with it, and so they defend it to the death, oblivious to the contradictions and hypocrisies inherent in it--things which if they were able to see them, would lead to freedom.
I think this is probably it. That's what it was for me. I didn't believe the LCM message because I liked it. I believed it because I was traumatized by Lee and others into being totally afraid not to believe it. It was fear that kept me there. It was God that got me out.