[UntoHim]

I am a little - strike that - I am more then a little confused about what David Canfield is trying accomplish with this paper. (maybe he's not trying to accomplish anything, but simply making his views known?)

This paper is filled with copious amounts of Local Church talk. And even though I am fully fluent in this language, I can't seem to decipher exactly what David is getting at. The "recovery" theme of Nehemiah is one quite familiar to us all, but his particular application here "does not compute" I'm afraid.

Canfield uses the term "among us"...suggesting that he considers himself still in The Local Church. My understanding is that he is one of the ones quarantined or just left on his own accord. So who is the "us" he is speaking to?

"subvert the churches’ testimony to Christ"... I'm not altogether sure what he means here. What have the Blended brothers actually said or done that is subverting the testimony of the Local Churches? Like them or not, they are doing exactly what Witness Lee did to protect the religious institution and culture he initiated and fostered for about 50 years. Furthermore, they are doing this in the exact same manner as Witness Lee - bowling over and attempting to defame and destroy every thing and every one that has even the smallest of disagreements or difference of opinion. These guys are acting as clones of Witness Lee and this is what Lee taught us to be. Think the same thing. Do the same thing. Act the same way.

"gave place to the enemies of God" "The answer is, because he was “related” (13:4) to an enemy of God’s people"...How is the current leadership of The Local Church giving place to or acting as enemies of God? There is no doubt that they have made enemies out of many brothers and sisters (such as Canfield himself) but there is a disconnect here - how does that make them enemies of God or of his people? Again, Lee and his followers have been quarantining and speaking against former members and other Christians for decades, why all of the sudden do they deserve this label of giving place to the enemies of God or being related to an enemy of God's people?

In the churches we always sought to stand as the testimony of Christ, with the Lord as our unique center, to be His temple so that He could have His dwelling among us; the Lord blessed us very much for taking such a stand.... I strongly disagree with this general characterization. We always sought to stand for, spread and defend at any cost the teachings and practices established by Witness Lee, and this is exactly why the Local Church movement is in the condition it is in today. I don't know about each and every individual, but the facts of history show that the Lord was never the unique center of the LC movement. This is clear.

Eventually, however, the Blended Brothers rose up to turn the churches away from Christ to being, instead, a testimony of their ministry....Again, the objective facts don't back this claim up, or I should say that they don't back them up in the manner that Canfield is implying. The facts are that the Blended brothers have kept them dead on the course that Witness Lee set for the movement in the years before his passing. They have not wavered from the teachings and practices established by Lee to any significant degree. As recently as a few weeks ago there were "trainings" conducted in many localities instructing everyone how to carry out "The God Ordained Way" by becoming "vital people" (whatever the heck that means), joining up with other "vital groups" and by preaching the gospel in the (you guessed it) "God Ordained Way" by using nothing but "The Ministry".

The elders and leading ones in the churches should have recognized that evil work to tear down the genuine church life for what it was and stood against it; "Stood against it"? Huh? I suppose this MAY have been somewhat possible if the elders and leading ones would have had a little practice of standing against all the evil work of Witness Lee and his sons way back in the day...but then again we know what happen to those who stood against evil work back then, now don't we. Really we can't blame anybody for not wanting to end up in the Local Church "rebellion" dumpster, especially after you have decades invested.

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