Quote:
Originally Posted by aron
...at the end of Acts Paul told the opposing ones that after many years he returned to Jerusalem, bringing alms for his people (24:17). And this fits with the Jerusalem church, which was "daily dispensing" (6:1) to the widows and orphans, as Jesus had taught, and the OT commanded the righteous to do. Take care of those who can't care for themselves. Perhaps this is the "God's economy" that Paul alluded to in the epistle to Timothy..
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OT commands
Psalm 41:1,2 For the choirmaster. A Psalm of David. Blessed is he who cares for the poor; the LORD will deliver him in the day of trouble. The LORD will protect and preserve him; He will bless him in the land and refuse to surrender him to the will of his foes.…
Deuteronomy 15:9-11 Be careful not to harbor this wicked thought in your heart: “The seventh year, the year of release, is near,” so that you look upon your poor brother begrudgingly and give him nothing. He will cry out to the LORD against you, and you will be guilty of sin. Give generously to him, and do not let your heart be grieved when you do so. And because of this the LORD your God will bless you in all your work and in everything to which you put your hand. For there will never cease to be poor in the land; that is why I am commanding you to open wide your hand to your brother and to the poor and needy in your land.…
Proverbs 22:9 A generous man will be blessed, for he shares his food with the poor.
Then you read Paul in 2 Cor 8 and 9, he goes into an extended riff on this. Like for most of 2 chapters. Gee, I wonder why? And who is the donation for - Paul's family business? A new headquarters building for his ministry? No, for the poor. The focus of the epistolic text is consistent, and follows the commands of Jesus, who fulfilled the OT commands.
This looks more like God's economy to me. And if you say that I can't prove it, well, Lee's "proof" was that "the whole Bible shows just this one thing" then he did a cut-and-paste job with verses. Paul never said God's economy was what WL said it was. My version is most clearly given in Galatians 2:10 -- the leading ones told Paul to remember the poor, and he replied that he was eager to do it. And I find this theme consistently in the Bible from beginning to end, with Jesus as exemplar. Look at him going to the dispossessed, telling the disciples to find and help "the least of these my brothers", look at Zacchaeus saying, "See, the half of my goods I give to the poor" and Jesus' approval and blessing, and the clear pattern of alignment with this theme in Acts and the epistles, as I showed earlier.
2 Cor 9:7-9 Each one should give what he has decided in his heart to give, not out of regret or compulsion. For God loves a cheerful giver. And God is able to make all grace abound to you, so that in all things, at all times, having all that you need, you will abound in every good work. As it is written: “He has scattered abroad His gifts to the poor; His righteousness endures forever.”…
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But my main point here, is that the burden of proof is on Witness Lee to show that "God's economy" was what he said it was. Where does Paul or Jesus or anyone say "God's economy is this Processed Triune God and spiritual dispensing"? No, it was stitched together out of disparate pictures and types.
I only offer my alternative as a reply to one who says, "Well, what else could it possibly be?" It could be something like what I have briefly outlined. Or it could be something else. But there's no proof that it was what Lee said it was. And Lee's version was self-oriented, which makes me doubly suspicious. My version is more closely aligned with the great command "Love thy neighbor as thyself". As are all the examples which I cited above.