Quote:
Originally Posted by GoodLand
Here is what I have discovered about why people leave.
4. They feel that the Local Church acts like they are the only legitimate church.
5. Many current church members were gained in college, and it's the parents that are concerned that it's a cult. Some of them go to FTTA, and their parents are not happy with that decision.
Yes, there is some validity to these concerns. I have gone to some home meetings in which some people either go to another church or don't go to any at all, but we welcome them. I keep an open mind on things and a balanced life as I previously stated.
|
GoodLand,
I agree with UtahGiant that it's not simply "they feel". It is the explicit teaching, understanding, and viewpoint within the local church that they are the only legitimate church. Here's a couple examples:
One day, the bride, the wife of the Lamb, will be ready. But if there were no church life on earth today, how could the bride be prepared? It would be impossible. Could the bride be prepared in the Catholic Church or in the denominations? No! Could she be prepared in the free groups or in the charismatic movement? Certainly not! I believe strongly, not because I am in it but because I have seen the vision, that the Lord intends to spread His recovery to build up the proper church life throughout the world so that His bride might be made ready.
-Young People's Training, Witness Lee
Use a little God-given reasoning here. If Witness Lee teaches, and all the members follow his teaching, that the bride is not being prepared in the Catholic Church, in denominations, in free groups, or in the charismatic movement, but is being prepared in the recovery (i.e. in the local church), and the recovery is where the "proper church life" (i.e. other places do not have the "proper" church life) ...... then the local church is the only legitimate, bride-building church, according to the direct teaching of the local church. Aaaaalllllllll other Christians are not part of the bride being prepared!
The Lord’s building of His church began on the day of Pentecost (Acts 2:1-4, 41-42). Yet the Lord’s prophecy here still has not been fulfilled, even up to the twentieth century. The Lord is not building His church in Christendom, which is composed of the apostate Roman Catholic Church and the Protestant denominations. This prophecy is being fulfilled through the Lord’s recovery, in which the building of the genuine church is being accomplished.
-Recovery Version's footnote 4 of Matthew 16:18
And here Lee is more explicit. He claims the Lord is not building His church in Christendom......[in] the Protestant denominations. This prophecy, the building of the church, is being fulfilled through the Lord's recovery, i.e. the local church. In the local church, Lee teaches, is where the "genuine" church is being built.
If the "genuine" church is only being built in the local church, then the direct parallel is that all other non-local church churches are not genuine. And what do we call something that is not genuine?
Fake. False.
In other words, all other churches are false, and the local church is the only genuine church.
It is not a matter of former members "feeling" that the local church acts it's the only legitimate church. It is the black-and-white, explicitly spoken, printed-on-the-page, taught over and over, understood by all the members teaching, perspective, and practice of the local church.
I'm a church kid. I grew up in it for decades. I know exactly what's taught and what's understood.
The confusing thing is that if you press anyone on this issue, they will say something that can't go hand-in-hand with this teaching, like "Oh, well, there are genuine believers in denominations!"
This is cognitive dissonance. Holding two contradictory beliefs that cannot stand together and both be true.
Because what this means when you put it together, GoodLand, is that there are millions of genuine believers all over the globe who are not in the local church, and yet....somehow......these believers for whom Holy Spirit has also come upon them just like you, for whom the same God who will never leave them because they are His children just like He won't leave you, and for whom the Son of God died so they would not perish, just like you......all of these holy truths about those believers are rendered ineffectual simply because they are not part of your group. They have missed out on what REALLY makes them part of the church.
Accepting Jesus as their Savior isn't enough. They aren't part of the genuine church if they aren't part of the local church that follows Witness Lee.
And these logical conclusions drawn from the local church's beliefs are a massive affront to God.
Do you believe that? And if you don't believe that, is simply enjoying what people say for a few minutes every Sunday enough to stay part of a group who's beliefs carry those kind of un-Christian implications?
This belief, among many, many others, is also one of the reasons the local church is called a cult. Because this "only us" belief is a marker of a cult. And there is no way around it. It's literally in print.
Trapped
P.S. Although saints from DCP (the legal entity that defends LSM) have been pretty quiet on this forum for over a year, I have to assume they still monitor the forum regularly. It is entirely possible, GoodLand, that the brothers in DCP will contact the elders in Austin to notify them that you are on this website. You have given enough information about yourself that you are probably identifiable by someone in that locality. The elders might not do anything unless it looks like you are "speaking negatively", or they might approach you. This strange, paranoid monitoring of a website where people are simply talking about the truth of a group.......is also a marker of a very unhealthy group.
I sincerely hope you will continue the conversation. Acts 15 shows us that the apostles did not shy away from debate, discussion and even "sharp dispute". If the local churches are in the light, there should be no problem discussing these things in the light.