Quote:
Originally Posted by Nell
If "the ministry" as defined by a bunch of old fat men in "the one publication", were all it claimed to be, it would in fact be UNSTOPPABLE. If you have to legislate allegiance to your "ministry", there is something really wrong with your "ministry."
Does the Bible owe its longevity to a bunch of old fat men who, by mandate, crammed it down the throats of the faithful for centuries in order to keep it alive?
In fact, the nature of God is to give people the freedom to choose to follow Him---or not. We have the Bible today because of the faithful men and women, Divinely inspired and empowered, who chose to keep it alive for centuries. We are told that the Word of God is living (not the "one publication"). In the beginning was the Word...the Word was God...And the Word was made flesh, and dwelt among us, (and we beheld his glory, the glory as of the only begotten of the Father,) full of grace and truth. John bare witness of him, and cried, saying, This was he of whom I spake, He that cometh after me is preferred before me: for he was before me.
How does this compare to "the ministry" of Witness Lee, in which Lee points the way to himself and not to Jesus? This "one publication" letter/document/whatever is an embarrassment to those who wrote it...as Trapped has noted. Further, this document is an obvious admission that Lee's "ministry" cannot stand on its own. That is, Lee's "ministry" can only stand as long as some old fat men prop it up with bogus mandatory loyalty imposed on those over whom they have "power". This "one publication" edict is an admission that the "ministry" of a dead man will die without someone (a bunch of old fat men) pumping air into it.
Why do we need "the ministry," the "one publication", when we have the eternal, unstoppable Bible?
Nell
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I do have to say in agreement....the only one who can have "up-to-date speaking" after his death is Jesus! He is the only one! For the blended brothers to claim that Lee's refried and rehashed ministry contains the Lord's up-to-date speaking 20 years after the mortal human being passed away is just ridiculous.
I have had conversations with elders in which I asked why we still do certain things (e.g. some aspects of the seven feasts) and they admitted that we only continue to do them because it was the practice that Lee set forth, even though as time goes by the reasons for doing them are no longer relevant and it would actually be beneficial to be able to make a change, but we can't because the man behind it is dead and we are unable to do anything different. (paraphrasing and editorializing a little obviously) We have trapped ourselves into not being able to take care of the needs of the saints and the churches in the best and most beneficial way!
In one sense it is "better" for a church to gather around a practice or teaching, like baptism by immersion or speaking in tongues, rather than gather around a specific man's ministry, because the practice/teaching can last forever, but what does a group of churches do after the man they followed dies?! Pump air into it, like you said
