Quote:
Originally Posted by Drake
aron,
The irony is that you talk about forgiveness, understanding, and members of the Body all having their place. Then without skipping a beat you launch a tirade against the local churches accusing them of adultery and heresy and idolatry. .
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Okay, mea culpa. I didn't define adultery - "having another spouse". We were betrothed to Christ, now we get betrothed to Christ and the church, and the ministry, and the high peak "vision of the age." God recedes further and further away. Just like in the RCC. Jesus is a statue in the corner, or a baby sitting on Mommy's lap (you know that one - the Mother of God.) Christ in the LC is whatever the Oracle needs it to be today. We never got the "Baby Jesus" but we got pretty much every other variation, and 'flavor'.
Heresy. I don't think I ever called the LC heretical. Sorry, you misunderstand me. I have issues with the "deification" idea as a matter of truth, per se. It's too speculative, and distracts the weak ones. No, better stick to "love your neighbor as yourself" and let the theologians (quietly) sort through the deification idea. But I didn't call it, or Witness Lee, heretical. If I ever wrote that, I don't remember, and would apologize for the mis-step.
Idolatry. "Little children, guard yourselves against idols". What is an idol? A false god. Made in our own images, or something nearly so, according to our own imaginations and fears. When John wrote, "Little children, guard yourselves from idols" I don't think he meant literal graven images. I daresay the 1st century Christians were too sophisticated for that. Plus Jewish practice was there, already suppressing that kind of behavior. No, John was referencing the subtle one, slipping little 'near-god' things in, good things, attractive things. The LC of Lee is rife with that stuff.
I'll give you one: "The Age of Spiritual Giants is over, it's the Age of Small Potatoes". That's what one of the current Blendeds said to us, post-Lee. To make an age center around the person of a fellow sinner is idolatrous.
Quote:
Originally Posted by Drake
You probably don't realize it and may never because the offenses you mentioned and still apparently harbor that occurred in your patch decades ago have become part of your constitution molding and framing the way you think about those things, your perceptions, and how you rationalize your beliefs. In short, those offenses apparently were not dealt with and therefore, it is perfectly consistent in your mind to write about forgiving and yet not forgive, to teach that every member has its place and yet dismissing the place of the local churches and their members, to call for a heart for understanding yet exercising a spirit of judgement, condemnation, and incessant criticism to use your terms.
And yet the most obvious idolatry you will not condemn. You will not draw a line that condemns the idolatry in the Catholic Church, the Lutheran Church, and others like them.
Those are examples of your use of different weights and measures.
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Yes, those offenses were probably not dealt with, and I apologize for wracking yourself, Evangelical, and all our dear readers through the mud of mine own making. But my theme consistently has been that Watchman Nee and Witness Lee did the same thing - projected all their unresolved fears onto the larger population, and dragged them hither and yon. Local Church culture was just as bad as the culture condemned everywhere else. Just as natural. Just as fallen. Look at the fruit! Turmoils, storms, rebellions.
I do apologize for my failures, and my accompanying "bitter spirit", and forgive WN and WL for theirs. Thankfully nobody has anointed me the Apostle of the Age and created a movement to follow me. Then we'd all be in big trouble! Things are bad enough, already.
BTW I have no trouble condemning the obvious idolatry. Yet I still receive the believers. And it's the subtle idolatry we really need to guard against. That's the most pernicious of all.