Quote:
Originally Posted by Evangelical
You seem to be making a round about argument that because Lee's doctrines have an old testament flavor, then James must apply to them?
|
I was responding to your post, which was not clear. You say that James is showing partiality because the book is written to the "twelve tribes in the dispersion". It wasn't clear -- what was the partiality? But here you make it clear, the fact that James is writing to them is the partiality.
By this reasoning if you call for the elders to lay hands on the sick, they come, pray, lay hands, and the sick get healed then the elders were showing partiality to the sick.
Or if a person wanders from the truth and James were to go to this one and turn them back to the truth then he is showing partiality to those who wander from the truth.
Yes, James burden is for those who are sick and have wandered from the truth. He is burdened for the Jewish believers that have wandered from the truth, as he also has had that experience and can share the word he received that helped him (just as Paul taught that a minister can minister the comfort they received to comfort others).
None of this is evidence of partiality.
If a doctor has penicillin, and it can heal many different ailments and I go to that doctor and he says sorry, this is not going to help your diabetes. That is not partiality, it is discernment.
My point is that the errors that a false prophet makes will have several things in common.
1. Jesus said that you can know a tree by its fruit. The fruit of a false prophet will be distinctive, it will result in a group of Christians being a "tribe". Mormons, Jehovah Witness and Lord's Recovery are all distinct tribes. That is very clearly a result of their teaching.
Quote:
Originally Posted by Evangelical
This is not considering the plain meaning of the text.
James verse 1 is clear : "To the twelve tribes scattered among the nations" can only be Jewish believers.
Bensen commentary on this verse says
"to the twelve tribes — Of Israel; that is, to those of them that were converted to Christianity, and with an evident reference, in some parts of the epistle, to that part of them which was not converted; which are scattered abroad — In various countries; ten of the tribes were scattered ever since the reign of Hoshea, and a great part of the rest were now dispersed through the Roman empire, as was foretold Deuteronomy 28:25; Deuteronomy 30:4. That the twelve tribes were actually in existence when James wrote his epistle, will appear from the following facts. 1st, Notwithstanding Cyrus allowed all the Jews in his dominions to return to their own land, many of them did not return, but continued to live among the Gentiles, as appears from this, that in the days of Ahasuerus, one of the successors of Cyrus, who reigned from India to Ethiopia, over one hundred and twenty-seven provinces, (Esther 3:8,) the Jews were dispersed among the people in all the provinces of his kingdom, and their laws were diverse from the laws of all other people; so that, by adhering to their own usages, they kept themselves distinct from all the nations among whom they lived. 2d, Josephus considered the twelve tribes as being in existence when the Old Testament Scriptures were translated into Greek, (namely, in the time of Ptolemy Philadelphus, about two hundred and fifty or two hundred and sixty years before Christ,) as he says that six persons were sent out of every tribe to assist in that work."
|
I don't dispute that the 12 tribes in the dispersion can be understood to apply to Jewish believers.
What I am disputing is that this book is therefore not written to non Jewish believers. If there is no Jew nor Greek in the new creation, then that means I also am a river crosser, I also, through faith, am a son of Abraham.
I agree 100% that for Jewish believers to consider themselves the "twelve tribes in the dispersion" is off from the New Testament vision. I also feel very strongly that just because a believer has wandered from the truth is not a justification to condemn someone that has a burden to turn them back to the truth. These Jewish believers were the Lord's sheep, they had gone astray, so he sent his bondservant to go bring them back. That is not partiality, that is obedience.
My point, which you clearly misstated, is that all those who follow a false prophet have turned from the truth and the book of James will help all those who have turned from the truth to return.
There are many examples of how the book of James can help anyone confused by Witness Lee. How do you explain his abhorrent behavior in manufacturing the "Sister's rebellion", falsely accusing saints of rebellion and booting them out of the church without explanation? On the other hand how can you say he didn't have a burden for God's move on Earth? In the end, if you apply James it is simple, he was a double minded man. This is the second rule -- 2. You can't serve God and mammon, the result is that you are a double minded man and will be unstable in all your ways. Say what you want, Witness Lee was clearly an unstable man in all his ways.
How do you know if Witness Lee had faith or not? He surely knew the Bible and taught on every book of the Bible? We cannot see his heart, we cannot see if he "believes in God". We can't see is his faith. The only thing we can see is his works. If he had trusted in God when Watchman Nee was excommunicated it would have been similar to Abraham offering up Isaac. It would have been as though he had sacrificed everything because he is obeying a righteous God. It would have demonstrated faith in a God of resurrection. But he didn't do that, he fabricated a story about how a bunch of idiot elders excommunicated the leader of the Lord's move in China because his mom was staying with him. We can see his works and it reveals that he did not have faith in a God of resurrection and was not obedient to a higher law. 3. This is the third way, I can't see your faith, I can't see your heart, but I can see your works. Witness Lee (and all other false prophets) tried to show us his faith by his words. James says that you can see his faith by his works, just like with Abraham. Read Genesis again, when he offered up Isaac God intervened and said "now I know". His obedience to God was a public demonstration of his faith, just like Baptism is.