Quote:
Originally Posted by Ohio
The appointment of elders, on the other hand, provided great power to Lee, and he was all about control. He appointed many elders whose only qualification was blind loyalty, a criteria which never crossed Paul's mind. To Paul, elders were consecrated to God on behalf of the church, and not devoted to a work or a man's ministry.
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Lee really believed that the way for God to accomplish his purpose was to produce uniformity in the Church at large. If we were all on the same page, so to speak, God could accomplish much.
That thought is not all bad, but the problem is he sought to enforce that uniformity by coercion, by swinging the weight of authority, or rather presumed authority.
All you have to do is look at the Catholic Church to see how such a thing can go wrong, and that when it does go wrong, which it did, if you accepted his model of authority there is absolutely nothing that can be done about it, other that to stop following him. This dissonance was eased by extreme rationalizations such as "even when he's wrong he's right," and other such nonsense.
Lee was a megalomaniac. Most megalomaniacs really believe the world would be a better place and everyone would be happier if they were running things. They see themselves as saviors; and like Thanos in the Avengers series they have "noble" intentions. But they are still nuts.