Quote:
Originally Posted by kisstheson
At the present time I do not have any answers to your big questions, but I do have one insight to share. One item the Spirit is clearly speaking to the seven assemblies is the crucial need for repentance. If I remember correctly, the word "repent" appears eight times in these seven epistles.
While I am not touching on the root cause of the problem of degradation, repentance is surely a big, big, part of the solution!
Humbling ourselves before the Lord and admitting our faults and shortcomings to Him, especially on a corporate basis, is too important!
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You are right on track. The idea of "repentance" being broadly applied to cover a host of woes afflicting the fellowships is exactly what I was looking for. I am looking for themes which might be applicable beyond those 7 assemblies.
As I said, if the seven assemblies in asia were merely "signs" meant to represent the seven "stages" of church experience through history, then that wouldn't help the Corinthians or the Antiochians, right? I think that John's letters were meant to have an immediate and broad application, what the Spirit was speaking to the churches, both in Asia and beyond. And one of the things was surely "repent". Another was "hold fast".
But I digress. Those words are therapeutic in nature, and I was first looking for diagnostic. What is the
problem with the seven assemblies? And how does this relate to others, including the lc issue, and us today outside the lc fold?
Well, I got some help from Jude's epistle, and I wanted to share it here. Jude in verse 6 says that some angels "abandoned their appointed place"; they had a position and function set for them by God and they left it. I realized this was of course especially relevant to Satan, who had a high position but wanted the highest position, reserved for God alone. Satan left his place. So did Adam and Eve. God set bounds for their human experience, and they trespassed the boundaries, went where they shouldn't, and suffered great loss.
Now, this is directly applicable to the christian experience. We all have an allotted portion of the common faith. There is a strong warning not to overstep our boundaries. To me, a common thread of the problems evident in the asian assemblies was leaving God's boundaries, and going somewhere you don't belong. To me, the Satan's throne, the Jezebel's fornication, the Nicolaitans (lording it over others), the claiming of some to be apostles, etc are all "wofish" ambition manifesting itself in the kingdom of sheep.
The second problem is pride. Attaining something spiritually is dangerous, if you look at the attainment instead of christ. That's what Satan did. And in the LCs you have the constant self-promotion of the "rich ministry" of Witness Lee. The "we have laid hold" theme is pervasive there. This can be seen in boasting of one's attainments, and also in lukewarmness (thinking one has already laid hold).
So, my diagnosis is: 1) Ambition, masking unremoved fear; and 2) pride, masking hidden shame. Those 2 spiritual "viruses" leaven the collective experience of Christ, and its expression on earth.
They issue in: 1) Egypt, which is carnality, and 2) Babylon, which is religious confusion. And the mingling of the two is seen in a golden cup full of abominations (Rev. 17:4), and the incessant merchandising ("cargo of gold and silver and precious stone and pearls and fine linen..[etc]..and cargo of horses and chariots and slaves and souls of men" - Rev. 18:12,13).
That's the kind of universal themes I am looking for, and it certainly seems applicable to the case of the local churches of Lee. But I am really just thinking aloud here; I don't pretend to have the definitive diagnosis of the situation. I just think it's fun to publicly explore ideas, it seems everyone has a piece of the puzzle and we can collectively find out things that would stymie us individually. My thanks to all for the input.
p.s. I have found that faith and love are the cures for fear and shame. I certainly need more of both. Lord, that we would fix our eyes on You alone!