[Trapped]

Originally Posted by Drake

Of course it is relevant to this discussion. You made an erroneous assertion that A&C was not published by LSM so it didn't count as being part of the One Publication. LSM publishes A&C.... it just doesn't fit your narrative around the "One Publication".

You're entitled to your own opinion but not your own facts.

This is my fault; I meant to imply by the rest of my post that even if LSM is the publisher of these other works (and I am happy to grant that via imprint), it still doesn't change the outcome. I re-address that in the maroon quote further down this post. Sorry I wasn't clear about that.

Originally Posted by Drake

You're estimates of 100 to 150 linear feet are way off... try 20 linear feet of Brother Lee and Brother Nee.... and so if your point is that LSM publishes primarily the works of those two brothers vs. others then the answer is ... OF COURSE! No one claims any different... why I conveyed that very idea in an earlier post. I even went a little further than that... I said LSM published a "genre" meaning the body of work published by LSM was of the same character and train of thought. Oh, but "genre" was untenable.. no, the argument from "some" went that the One Publication was exclusively about one author, Witness Lee, with a smattering of supporting documents from Watchman Nee. A utterly erroneous assertion. Therefore, if your criticism is that then we have nothing more to discuss... we are done... case closed...mission accomplished. Trapped and Drake agree totally that LSM publishes primarily the works of Witness Lee and Watchman Nee and others of that "genre".

Nah, it's not way off. I am quite literally thinking of my own home growing up and the 4 floor-to-ceiling bookshelves approximately 4 feet wide each with 8 shelves each. These were the Nee and Lee bookshelves. They were organized by title, and as a kid I made the joke to my family asking why we didn't organize by author. 4 bookshelves x 8 shelves each x 4 feet wide = 128. I granted that in the calculation maybe we had a few duplicates or maybe we didn't have absolutely every Nee/Lee publication out there, so I gave a range of 100-150 feet. I saw those bookshelves with my own eyes for decades, sorry not sorry.

Although I don't have time to scroll through to source it, I am not the one who argued that it was only Lee exclusively.

Originally Posted by Drake

But we're not done. The sum total of those other LSM publications on my shelf are about 5 linear feet. But I probably do not have everything... in fact, I'm sure I do not. And to refute an earlier allegation that members of the local churches in good standing must not have other authors except those published by LSM I have another 20 linear feet of non-LSM authors. I am not alone either.

I am fine to grant the 5 linear feet; I did say I was happy to be corrected because I much prefer to deal with the facts. But 5/100 or 5/150 is 3-5%. And I have NEVER seen those 3-5% show up in any conference, training, sharing, HWMR, outline, message, anything. In the church life usage and vernacular they are not considered part of "the ministry". As I stated before, they are insignificant to the point of irrelevance and their tiny existence doesn't negate or undo the rest of the points in this thread, or the point I make using the maroon quote below.

Originally Posted by Drake

Therefore, the answer is Option 1. There is one publication, primarily of two authors by volume, but includes many other authors of the same genre.

As I quoted from DCP in a previous post: One publication means the "publication of the ministry materials of [Watchman Nee and Witness Lee]" as well as the "ongoing ministry in the Lord's recovery as the extension of the ministry of these two brothers" ( Publication Work in the Lord's Recovery, p. 5).

My point in quoting that is this: even if there are other authors, even if there are other pubs, "one publication" = Nee/Lee. That is the explicitly stated definition. It is NOT "anything that LSM publishes". It is Nee and Lee. The "ongoing ministry" is regurgitated Nee/Lee, so there is no thread to chase there. The phrase used to describe other authors is "other kinds of publications". They aren't part of the one publication.

If the churches are to be restricted to the "one publication" (Nee/Lee), then the other authors and pubs aren't relevant. They don't exist because they are quite literally not part of the one publication to which the churches are restricted.

Originally Posted by Drake

No one is forced to only read LSM publications, no one is forced to buy LSM publications, and no church must buy LSM publications to be considered a local church. A local church's standing is not based on whether they read the ministry or not. Brothers and sisters can choose to go to LSM sponsored conferences and trainings or not.

This is a volunteer army.

This does not bear out in real life. I will leave that to the others who have already proven this repeatedly by the telling of their own experience.

This is not a volunteer army. The church is the army. The bride is the army. If you are saved, you are part of the church, the bride, and you are thus part of the army. If you have a Nee/Lee splintering within the Lord's army, well.......yikes. I'll leave it at that.

Trapped