Quote:
Originally Posted by aron
The system as pushed by LC leaders took great pains to appear strictly adherent to the Bible, both in letter and spirit, often using coded terms like 'proper' and 'genuine' and 'normal', but under stress they'd abandon this while church members pretended not to notice. But it's just been too obvious.
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Very well said, aron. You have summarised so much here, so well. WL got himself into a pickle that was not possible for him to get out of. Words like ‘proper’, ‘genuine’ and ‘normal’…I remember those being used too. And they are so very subjective words.
The things we can all take-away through coming to an understanding of this……appearances can be deceiving, never trust in them alone. Feelings of identification and familiarity can also be snares, (but not always).
Above all…take care, lest we may fall into the same trap. Wanting the glory for ourselves, to set ourselves up on the throne that belongs to God alone. Its more tempting than we realise if we’ve never come close to tasting it personally. To be aware of how vulnerable we can all be to being corrupted in this way, if the opportunity is real. It truly is harder to resist than one might think. A leader or historical figure who has demonstrated themselves to be immune to the corruption of power has not happened often in the history of the world, although is has happened.
Also, at the every-day level, keep up on our own spiritual housework, as recommended by Nell in the 12th post on this thread. Be ever open to acknowledge our own ‘vulnerability, error’, and be ‘willing to change’, trusting God with the outcomes is where faith replaces self-reliance. Self-reliance that rejects facing our flaws, builds up a system of self-defence within us. Trust in God is the faith then that gets attributed to us as our righteousness. Like it did for Abraham. Like it equally did for Rahab. Righteous servant of God, or Canaanite prostitute, makes no difference: their ability to trust God and take risk based on that trust is at the heart of true faith. Self-reliance is based in fear and doubting God and leads to sin. Repenting of sin is in itself a step of faith in God’s reality and stepping away from our own reality. I had better stop, I’m getting carried away sermonising where I hadn’t meant to.
In short, WL hadn’t taken some essential steps of faith, (as far as I understand true faith to be). (He built up a system where he did not need to rely on God as he was managing his own security on the side!) He needed more opportunity to figure the fundamental things out, yet rose to leadership roles without such a foundation. Einstein said ‘premature responsibility breeds superficiality’ and some have said that pearl of wisdom is more significant than E=mc2.
To benefit in a positive way from being aware of WL’s error, it helps remind me of mistakes I could also make, especially if I’m over focused on being bothered about him more than being mindful of the principles of repentance, faith and humility, and applying them to myself. that's my lesson. and I think it is a valuable lesson to hold onto, one to be thankful of.