Quote:
Originally Posted by aron
Steve Isitt attempted to eliminate the double bind. One day in a meeting, Witness Lee said, "We need to reconcile with those who have left. We need to find out what happened, to heal their wounds, to restore fellowship." So Steve tried to do this, and yet to remain "one" with LSM-affiliated church leadership. Eventually he found out that these were incompatible goals.
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Actions speak louder than words. I'm sure many of the leading ones at LSM knew where John Ingalls had resided since 1974, and it was known to knock on John's door or for John's presence in a meeting hall was not to be tolerated. Not just John, but others similar to him who left, there was no willingness to reconcile and heal wounds.
Instead what you will find over the decades is LC conference messages focused on rebellion as seen in The Book of Numbers. Many churches I have been in focus on a New Testament ministry instead of an Old Testament type.
A much more healthy word to nourish and restore brothers and sisters is a ministry of reconciliation as seen in 2n Corinthians 5:11-21
11 Since, then, we know what it is to fear the Lord, we try to persuade others. What we are is plain to God, and I hope it is also plain to your conscience. 12 We are not trying to commend ourselves to you again, but are giving you an opportunity to take pride in us, so that you can answer those who take pride in what is seen rather than in what is in the heart. 13 If we are “out of our mind,” as some say, it is for God; if we are in our right mind, it is for you. 14 For Christ’s love compels us, because we are convinced that one died for all, and therefore all died. 15 And he died for all, that those who live should no longer live for themselves but for him who died for them and was raised again.
16 So from now on we regard no one from a worldly point of view. Though we once regarded Christ in this way, we do so no longer. 17 Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, the new creation has come: The old has gone, the new is here! 18 All this is from God, who reconciled us to himself through Christ and gave us the ministry of reconciliation: 19 that God was reconciling the world to himself in Christ, not counting people’s sins against them. And he has committed to us the message of reconciliation. 20 We are therefore Christ’s ambassadors, as though God were making his appeal through us. We implore you on Christ’s behalf: Be reconciled to God. 21 God made him who had no sin to be sin for us, so that in him we might become the righteousness of God.