Quote:
Originally Posted by aron
So we perhaps have "early Nee" and "later Nee", "early Lee" and "later Lee", and finally the BBs. We gradually go from an independent local assembly in Nee's original experience to what we might now regard as local franchises of the universal church, presided over by the president of the LSM corporation.
So the BBs are not so much a continuation of Lee as they are a continuation of the process of centralization, control, bureaucratization, and ossification ...
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Aron ... I have long been convinced that this
"process" which you describe is part of man's fallen nature received directly from God's enemy. No matter how much the Lord on earth addressed this tendency (read all He said to the Pharisees and scribes,) the church has fallen into this
"process" throughout its history. This process began in Jerusalem, continued at Rome, and Darby and the exclusives, and Lee and the BB's just have become "closer to home" for us here on the forum.
Apostle Paul addressed this in Corinth, asking "are you not fleshly," referring to envy, strife, and being "of men." He also spoke to the Galatians about the bondage of legalism "bewitching them." We believers can be decent, moral, upright and righteous, yet still be fleshly. We are fleshly when we walk "as men," longing to either rule or be ruled by men. Yes, we must be under man's laws, otherwise we become lawless, and fleshly in an ugly way, yet we must always "stand fast in the liberty." In this liberty, only Christ Himself really rules us.
Sorry to say, but fallen mankind is filled with those who love to rule over others, and those who love to be told what to do. These power mongers use such vehicles as
"centralization and bureaucratization" to rule over others. The genuine liberty of the Spirit is a dangerous thing to those who long to control. We believers also can become lazy in that we like to be told what to do, replacing the voice of the True Shepherd with formalized human manipulations. It is just amazing how we became slowly
"ossified" while endeavoring to know "high peak" theology and the like. We in the LC's lost much as we were transitioned from "knowing only Christ" to "knowing the full knowledge of the truth."