Quote:
Originally Posted by ExChurchKid
You make a really good point. Growing up it was all about not being "corrupted", but researching the facts and breaking out of your own little bubble doesn't "corrupt".
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Exactly. If the truth and facts are what "corrupts" the local churches.....what does that say about what the local churches are protecting or trying to hide?
Quote:
Originally Posted by ExChurchKid
Somewhat related, but this line of reasoning takes me to the tree of the knowledge of good and evil. Why was it bad for humans to seek knowledge? (Sorry, I know this is a little bit off topic)
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ExChurchKid,
So glad you decided to stick around. For reals.
I would say that the garden of Eden story is probably one of the all-time single most botched interpretations that Witness Lee disgraced us with. He twisted it until it is unrecognizable, and used that twisted version to control saints, excuse sin, cover unrighteousness, and oppress many consciences.
It wasn't bad for humans to seek knowledge. It was bad for humans to disobey God.
Knowledge, and distinguishing good and evil, are spoken of as
good things in the Bible (or as being bad to NOT have):
Hosea 4:6
my people are destroyed from lack of knowledge. "Because you have rejected knowledge, I also reject you as my priests; because you have ignored the law of your God, I also will ignore your children.
Hebrews 5:11-14
11 We have much to say about this, but it is hard to make it clear to you because you no longer try to understand.
12 In fact, though by this time you ought to be teachers, you need someone to teach you the elementary truths of God’s word all over again. You need milk, not solid food!
13 Anyone who lives on milk, being still an infant, is not acquainted with the teaching about righteousness.
14 But solid food is for the mature, who by constant use
have trained themselves to distinguish good from evil.
Witness Lee taught that knowledge was bad/death/poison. But the Bible never says that. Death was not a part of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, which is what Lee taught. Death was the punishment from God for disobedience.
There are numerous verses in Romans that speak of what the problem was, and I'll spare you from reading all of them, but I'll include two:
Romans 5:18-19
18 Consequently, just as
one trespass resulted in condemnation for all people, so also one righteous act resulted in justification and life for all people.
19 For just as through
the disobedience of the one man the many were made sinners, so also through the obedience of the one man the many will be made righteous.
The problem was not obtaining knowledge, or good and evil being "of death" (they aren't)....the problem was "the trespass" or "the disobedience". Adam and Eve had....probably.....100s or 1000s of other trees to choose from, and God only forbade one of them. God punished them for disobedience, but not because knowledge was bad.
Trapped