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This is the way I look at authority. If you are going to join a group, then you should respect the order in that group. If you can't, for whatever reason good or bad, then don't make a big fuss, and perhaps the answer (which might very well be fully of the Lord) is to move on.
I believe the pastors of my church should be respected. But I don't believe they have authority in the way Nee/Lee taught it. God asks me to respect the role he has given them. If I cannot handle that then I need to come to grips with why. If the why is God, perhaps I need to confront them in a respectable way. Or perhaps I just need to move on. All as the Lord leads. But blessed are the peacemakers.
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I agree with this. Most authority should be looked at from a practical, orderly perspective. Romans 13 says cops are God's authority. All that means is that I pull over when they turn on the siren. To help me with this, they are willing to throw me in jail if I don't comply. When authority becomes over-spiritualized it can become dangerous. Igzy said it better than me:
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But the idea that someone's "authority" looms, e.g. WL's or an elder's, over me wherever I go, like an umbrella, is, I believe, a false teaching that usurps the Holy Spirit's rightful position.
This is one of the gnarly problems with the one-church-one-city belief as practiced by the LCs. It gives way too much power to so-called local elders--effectively giving them authority over every Christian in the city. I think this idea is absurd and indefensible.
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