Quote:
Originally Posted by Nell
There's the doctrine, and then there's the practice. That is, the practice of living a life of "not caring for right and wrong." ...and calling it the "church life."
What scenario are we talking about? It's probably not when you have heard truth spoken, or you obeyed the Lord's speaking, etc. More likely, you "don't care for right and wrong," when your conscience is bothered and you have a sneaky feeling something is not right. Your conscience waves red flags, blows a whistle, screams "nooooooooo" !!!!! Your conscience cares for right and wrong. That's what it does. You need a way to shut it up with the "ministry" hence, "we don't care for....".
It could be as simple as hearing something in the meeting that doesn't sound right. You make a choice to ignore the warning. You might venture out on the forum and read something that so obviously is true, or "right", but it's against "the ministry" so you can't go there. You would get yourself into so much trouble, so you have to ignore that nagging voice.
Not "caring for right and wrong" is the way to sear your conscience. The way to close your eyes, cover your ears, shake your head saying "la la la la la la."
It's the way to rationalize practices you have nagging questions about. If you do this long enough, you may begin to "call evil good and good evil."
Nell
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Their practice is to apply it when they are wrong and to conveniently forget it when they believe others are wrong.
Harvest House calls them a cult? Somehow "we don't care for right or wrong" evaporated and it mattered a whole lot to them. If Harvest House was wrong......why didn't the local church only care for life, rather than caring $136 million about right and wrong?
In-house abuses, sin, wrongdoing that are sorely mishandled? All of a sudden "we don't care for right or wrong" and "you are on the wrong tree, brother" and "we just say amen". They are all part of a tidy little package of abusive and thought-stopping cliches ready to be whipped out whenever they fear their whitewashed image is at risk of getting tarnished (read: their sins exposed).
I totally agree it's a conscience-searing teaching. I've seen elders who will apologize to a saint for a minor infraction then turn around and justify abuse and cover abuse by saying "we are not here for right or wrong", revealing their hardened and charred conscience beneath. It's shocking.
The "call evil good and good evil" verse is preceded by a warning: "woe to those" who do it. As with many other deviations in the local church, the way they use (abuse) scripture here is serious and grave. I don't think they understand how much God cares for His oppressed children, and how much His wrath is stored up toward those who oppress them, particularly those who do it knowingly.