Quote:
Originally Posted by Evangelical
Luther initiated the Reformation, and can be considered the person God raised up to release the vision of the age. Just like God raised up the apostle Paul, and the Recovery started with Paul. All of the reformers with Luther would be considered part of the Recovery as well.
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If LC'ers continue to espouse this idea, then they must admit that the Reformation was as much a socio-political coup d'etat as a spiritual "Unique Move of God." (I suppose similar things could be said of the decree by Cyrus the King of Persia to return to Jerusalem.) Were it not for the secular longings of the German nobility to be liberated from the bondage of Rome, there would not be the so-called Recovery with Martin Luther established as the first MOTA.
Truth is that church history tell us for centuries there had always been urgent reformers inside the RCC and genuine Christian communities outside the RCC. Papal emissaries had always been able to squash these "leperous rebels" either by excommunication, inquisition, deceit, open murder, or merely show of force. The collective cry of western humanity moved God to finally provide necessary military might to limit the Pope's reach.
It's so ironic how the Recovery loves to exalt Luther, their founding MOTA, and blame all his followers for "messing things up" and forming that first dreaded Lutheran church denomination, the so-called "daughter of the harlot." For many years in the LC's, I heard the same mantra about Witness Lee, the consummate MOTA -- how every one of his endless "moves" and "flows" emanated from the throne of God, but how his many followers constantly "messed things up."