Quote:
Originally Posted by Trapped
No one would ever join if they knew up front what they were getting into.
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Children in "local church" families don't have choice: they're born and they're inside, at least temporarily. Those who joined 35 or 50 years ago didn't know any better. The history of control was hidden, many practices were disguised. "Oh, we just love Jesus". Then little by little "restrictions" got introduced into the programme.
Today with the internet and those who've come forward, it's clearer what one's getting into. Steve Isitt has published his investigation, Jane Anderson has told her story, John Ingalls' STTIL is available. (Note that Steve I. asked LSM leaders for permission to publish his story, they denied him the right, and 'marked' him for even asking [even tho WL had publicly requested that someone find the 'lost' ones!]).
Quote:
Originally Posted by Trapped
Something I can't wrap my head around though, is that even now, I know of new ones who have "touched the church" who say very explicitly that the Lord told them to come there. Even they were prominent people in their former church, and yet the Lord led them to the local church to be a no one..
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There's an interesting phenomenon in the "local churches" where they say, "Oh, you have to get the vision" of some idea or concept. Whether of the Body or the Ministry or the Church or the One New Man or God's Oracle or whatever the label is this week. The idea is that there needs to be some inner surrender (unquestioning acceptance - again, think of an infant vis-a-vis parents) and subsequent behavioural transformation that enables one to overcome the natural barriers of reticence. Somehow the human will has to be weakened.
Of course there is biblical basis for all of that. Verses abound. But what happens is that the process of surrender, obedience, and transformation gets hijacked by unscrupulous ones, wolves in sheep's clothing. It's a widespread phenomenon in religion, not limited to this group. The subjects think they're surrendering to God but they're not. They're rather surrendering to a group with its customs and peculiar relations. That is their "subjective Christ".