Quote:
Originally Posted by kappagamma
I would say that I was marginally in the CL until the FTT. It was there that most of the issues that I had came to the forefront and I, from that point, couldn't ignore it anymore and made my eventual (but quiet) exit. To me it was just another religion and, having been taught my whole life religion was bad... well, there you have it..
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First, an observation - noting the recent spate of ones posting here & on FB who have gone thru 2 years of FTT and rejected God afterward.
A few related comments follow: the best thing the regulars on a Christian forum like this can do is resist the urge to say, "You poor thing - you threw out the good (Christ) with the bad (LR)". No, resist the urge to correct their course back to Christian ground. Their current ground may be as valid to them today as yours is to you. Receive them as a messenger from God - they did what they had to, to shake off an oppressive yoke. Amen.
Instead, ask yourself a question: is the LR really that bad, and that mentally pervasive, that one must reject Christianity in toto to get the voice of Lee out of their head? Perhaps that's what they're telling us here, at least in part.
And this may lead to a solution of sorts. Instead of pointing them back to the safe harbour of our treasured concepts, we can have a discussion of mutual discovery where we learn from them, and each other, and the Word, and they may be inspired to learn from us.
Let me give 4 examples, all of whom I've raised here before.
1. What if 'ekklesia' didn't mean 'church' in the NT Greek but rather meant 'assembly' or 'meeting'. ~Acts 19:41 "And with these words he dismissed the '
ekklesia' ".
2. What if 'God's economy' meant something entirely different from what Lee said it did? What if it meant something more like (re)distribution of material possessions, guided by faith? "To give is better than to receive" and "he with abundance had no extras, and him that lacked had no hunger"?
3. Related to (2), notice how Isaiah 60 and Revelation 21 and 22 both have the 'nations' streaming to the Holy Mountain with their riches/gifts? If the NJ is the [gentile] 'church' in glory, then who are the nations walking in its light? Who are the 'kings of the earth' bringing in their glory? (Rev 21:24; cf Isa 60:3,5). Lee said, "These are non-Christians/unbelievers" and I ask if that makes any sense at all?
4. What if the 4th gospel's repeated references to the 'Ioudeans' should be translated "Judeans" and not "Jews"? Jesus and John and Peter were Galileans and they were opposed, as such, by the Judeans. See e.g., Matt 26:69; Luke 23:6. But both parties were Jews.. get it?
In all this I'm not pointing to 'truths' per se but avenues for exploration. Anyone can do it. There are myriads of avenues in scripture waiting... if our readers see us in such explorations, some may be encouraged to do so as well. Are we going to spend the rest of our lives talking about others' failures (and our participation therein) or are we going to go forward? On such matters the question of the 'gospel' hinges.
(The above 4 questions were not meant to undergird some larger discussion- one could pick any of 40 or even 400 different questions. My point was, Anyone can do this. It's an invitation - "seek, and ye shall find..")