[aron]

If the apostles in Jerusalem - James, Peter, John - told Paul, "only remember the poor" and he said, "this very thing I was eager to do" (Gal 2:10), don't you think we'd consider this as a candidate for God's economy? Especially when Paul repeatedly goes into this in his various epistles, occasionally at length, and Luke also makes prominent place for it in his apostolic narrative? And even more so if this also dove-tails with the gospel message, "do this unto the least of these my brethren and you also do it to me"? Are the "least of these" of Jesus' flock perhaps the same "poor of Jerusalem" of the apostolic agreement?

No, that's not God's economy, we were told in the LC... how are you so sure?

Remember how Witness Lee's doctrines were developed, following Watchman Nee's pattern. Mr. Lee like Nee his mentor was supposedly the "Seer of the divine revelation" whose visions from God had a distinct pattern of abetting his own interests. Watchman Nee's "vision" could switch from local autonomous assemblies (to help shed Western control) to centralization - the "Jerusalem Principle" - for coming under Nee's control. Concurrently, Nee's "Handing Over" thrust was likewise beneficial for the Church [of Nee], for the Work [of Nee], for the Ministry [of Nee].

Later, Lee's version of "God's New Testament Economy" ensured that we'd be buying books, yelling slogans over and over, telling each other not to think or question, flying to Anaheim twice-yearly for trainings, sending our children to his FTT, scouring the campus for College Freshmen, writing our testimonials online about his "rich ministry".

Yet what if Chicago believers sent funds to help the poor of Detroit, and Detroit's believers helped the poor of Flint, and Duluth helped the poor of Bismark? What would happen to the flow of funds to Anaheim, to support the Ministry and the Work of Building up the Body? What would happen to the residuals flowing to the Lee family? Who'd fill the reflecting pool at Lee's mausoleum?

So there was an interest in NOT seeing the economy of God as outlined in the consistent pattern in gospels, Acts and epistles. Instead it became a selfish orientation. Do what Lee says, and you'll be God in life and nature but not in the Godhead. You'll be "filled unto the fullness of God" by sitting in a chair, pumping your fist and saying 'amen' along to sing-song cadence. You will be "enjoying the riches". The message is, you, you, you. You are the center of the universe. "Oh I'm a man, I'm the center of the universe!" we all sang.

Then, once you're seduced and co-opted into pursuing selfish ends, then you can be manipulated. Then the Bible can be ignored, as "dead letters". Certain half-verses of Paul can be obsessed over for clues, whilst whole chapters of Paul are ignored. Likewise teachings of Jesus are waved off, or given 'mystical' interpretations. James' epistle is "low" and "not God's economy". Jesus' talk of his "food" being to do the Father's will, ignored.

At some point the disconnect should become alarmingly obvious. The teaching that leads to the "God's economy" as sold by Living Stream Ministry benefits LSM and its ilk, but it's at variance with Scripture, and look at its fruit. It's no longer 1964, and we're no longer naïive. We don't have to keep going down that path.