"... out from whom all the body grows, building up itself in love"
Quote:
Originally Posted by Freedom
As movements exceed the boundaries of nationality, they naturally take on a different form. Thus, the whole idea of a globalized movement seems questionable as to both its continual feasibility and applicability.
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One could possibly make the same critique of Christianity; not a few have done so. As time went on and the message spread, it changed.
Did Paul fundamentally change the gospel of Jesus Christ? I daresay no. "The love of God, which He recommended to us, by sending His Son" is what was spoken of, from the day of Pentecost forward. Paul relates that when he presented his gospel message to the brothers in Jerusalem they did not modify it, as was being done to some like Apollos, who had enthusiasm and power, but needed clarity.
No, Paul had clarity. As did John, Peter, James (both of them) etc. Unless we are explicitly told someone lacked clarity, we shouldn't reason our way there. This leads me to some considerations:
1. Nowhere do I see Paul or any NT writer recommending the rejection of scripture as "fallen" or "natural concepts". Yet WL did this wholesale.
2. Nowhere do I see advocating of a separate or special group with its own carefully evolved theology, in which the explicated truths take our focus away from God's saving love. You know what I'm referring to: the Consummation of the Processed Triune God, becoming God in life and nature but not the Godhead, God's New Testament Economy, One Trumpet, the Central Lane of God's Move Today, the Deputy God principle etc. All of which are sold as love practically expressed but don't seem to resemble the many instances of love practically expressed in the NT, in the gospels by Jesus, in the Acts, in the epistles.
3. This globalization of Chinese Christianity emerged from a back-drop of Western imperialism, Western economic, military, and cultural domination, and became imperialistic in its own right, not so much military or political but certainly economic (monopolistic merchandising) and cultural.
3b. The globalizing movement claimed to stand for "all the body" but it rejected all other members of the body as not standing for the body (via the local ground). So how can all the body build itself up in love? By exclusively buying publications by the Living Stream Ministry? How can we as the body build? It makes no sense. So this exported message became the globalization of yet another form of sectarianism, through the propagation of a culturally-infused, i.e. Chinese, Christianity.