Quote:
Originally Posted by countmeworthy
_Steve Sampson - Confronting Jezebel_
Here are some of the characteristics of the Jezebel spirit listed in Steve's book:
* Refuses to admit guilt or wrong.
* Takes credit for everything.
* Ignores people.
* never gives credit or shows gratitude.
* criticizes everyone.
|
I find bullet point 3 interesting: "ignores people". On the one hand the apostle John didn't ignore the church in Thyatira. He wrote them a letter, too. But he did threaten to "ignore" Ephesus, in a way: "Unless you repent I will come and remove your lampstand from its place" (Rev 2:5).
So at what point do we ignore someone? The only guideline I can think of is the one Jesus gave in Matt. 18: going privately, then with another, then "telling it to the church" and considering that person "as a pagan or a tax collector" (NIV).
There is a famous apocryphal story of the apostle John. He was walking down the street and a man he didn't like was coming toward him. John crossed the street in order to avoid talking to him. The man, bothered, also crossed the street and hailed John. "Don't you recognize me?"
John replied, "Yes; I recognize you as the spawn of Satan."
Another story from Irenaus has John in the public baths with his disciples. A man with whom he disagreed (Cerinthus) entered. John cried out, "Quick, let us leave! Perhaps the wrath of God will send the roof tumbling down on this place, and we will perish alongside this person!"
So ignoring isn't necessarily unchristian. Certainly the LC system of "rebellions", "storms", and "quarantines" certainly strains the notion, though. Maybe one could reword it to say, "Ignores all people who don't do exactly as you say", which in WL's system would consist of all unbelievers, all non-LC believers, and all LC believers who don't seem sufficiently compliant.
At some point when you "ignore" everybody except your tiny fringe sect, the light might go on and you realize that by cutting everybody else off, you have effectively cut yourself off. There is some indication that at the end WL realized this and repented.
His system, however, seems to have continued unabated. One could argue that the system itself is built on "ignoring everybody else", and were they to really end that self-imposed isolation, it would be like Gorbachev allowing
"perestroika" reforms: next thing you know people are pouring through the Berlin Wall and the Soviet Union is dissolved.