Originally Posted by aron
First, I read published stories about the recruiting practices of groups that split off the LC. In them, blatant deception was a tool: members were explicitly told to infiltrate Christian groups, build connections, and slowly move their contacts away and into the 'new revelation' of the cult....
Second, I read something on Facebook by a former member named Jo Casteel, who with her husband publicly left the group, and posted an open letter on FB telling why. One thing they noted was that LC recruiters won't use LSM materials at first, like their RecV translation, but use KJV to impress new ones with their Christian bona fides. As with Eastern Lightning tactics: first get them comfortable, ingratiate them, then maneuver them into the proprietary teachings. The Casteels said that this is deceptive recruiting, and unethical, and I agree. You're hiding information until there's leverage, and gradually special in-group teachings and experiences will increase that leverage.
Third, when there I’d watch Witness Lee give an “orthodox” or traditionally-affirming view, then veer off into personal revelation, which strained at the edges of heterodoxy or crossed it. An obvious example is that he called much of scripture “fallen”, or mere “human concepts” or “mixed sentiments” or such. I’m not talking about Job’s wife telling him to curse God and die (2:9) or Peter in the gospels telling Jesus, “Not so, Lord! This will never happen to you”. No, this was the bulk of the Psalms, with much that wasn’t cited in the NT treated thus, along with James, Peter, Jude, Job, and Proverbs. If WL couldn’t mine it for his personal “God’s economy” metric he’d pan the scripture as an example of fallen human beings trying to please God.
And back to the second point, this was exactly what I saw the cultic LC off-shoots do in China. God’s word, and Jesus, are merely props in the maneuvering process, to be used, and then discarded, as necessary. So I conclude that this as a Pseudo-Christian group. They pretend to be Christian, because it helps the recruiting process. But the fact that they reject their fellow heirs of the common faith should have tipped me off at the beginning. Just like the Mormons, they’ll sing classic Christian hymns, then reject all others, including the groups where the hymns were written! Christianity for them is a false front – it’s a useful pool from which to lure gullible converts, who can be persuaded that the New Revelation by the Ascended Master supersedes historical Christianity itself. The End of Christianity has come in the form of Witness Lee's Crystallization Study. They variously called it the High Peak, the Crystallization, the Consummation, or The New Way, among other terms, but it was really no longer Christianity any more, but its replacement.
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