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Originally Posted by Drake
That’s right!
And if their motive was profit they could make those printed publications the only way to gain access to the messages....
.... but then, the whole fake (and frankly silly) fill the coffers argument crumbles when they offer the same content at LSM.org for free.
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I'm glad we have your view, otherwise we might think they were strong-arming a captive market, and peddling the word of God for personal gain, and that the One Publication edict had some sinister edge.
Quote:
Originally Posted by UntoHim
..just listen to the president of the Living Stream Ministry, Mr Benson Phillips: “In any case, do not leave the Lord’s recovery. I can assure you that if you go away from the Lord’s recovery, you will have no way for the process of sanctification to go forward within you. Instead, you will just enter into a bankrupt situation. I know of no one who has left the Lord’s recovery and today is a great spiritual person on the earth. The sanctification process is carried out in the Lord’s recovery"
~The Ministry Magazine Vol. 8, No. 1 Page 189, first paragraph
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Anyway it's too pat to say the motive was merely profit. I'd say it was more like to control people. Money is just one of many means to control, and one of the benefits
of control. It has uses, clearly - how else to fund full-time campus recruiters and training centers? Money has been important in the Lord's recovery, a least since the days when Witness Lee was pushing cheap manufactured chairs on the captive assemblies. Positive cash flow has always been a theme at LSM.
Quote:
Originally Posted by Drake
to distribute these truths to the world and therefore am happy to support that monetarily. This is one way to do that.
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What LSM distributes to the world is the idea that there's only one legitimate collective representation of Christ, which happens to be their captive flock, that there's one ministry carrying out sanctification and edification and building up, which happens to be theirs, and that they have the only printing press in town.
Look at Lee's use of the word "proper" some time - he used it a lot, and in his hands it was a self-serving, loaded, subjective and unverifiable term. This constant theme helped him a avoid competing in the free market of ideas. In fact, he said that if you read other ideas, you might get "poisoned". You might get "confused."
But, controlling? Nah. They're just "distributing truths".