Quote:
Originally Posted by aron
Question: do you believe in 'God's economy' as taught by Lee? Were you ever influenced by it? If so, have you dropped, modified it? Or just sort of ignored it, let it sit quietly on the shelf?
I ask this for three reasons: first, that when I left the LC physically I continued to promote WL-sourced interpretations/teachings like this; second, Tomes' essays on this forum don't include this subject, which makes me wonder; and third, it was one of WL's most referenced notions and becomes a kind of bellwether for his lingering influence.
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I asked this on another thread, but was probably in danger of side-tracking the thread, so move it here. I wanted to bring this over because I forgot the most important reason to talk about 'oikonomea theou' - because Paul told Timothy remain in Ephesus and to teach things that resulted in this 'oikonomea theou'. So then what is meant by this, and what teachings result in this?
First off, there's nothing in the surrounding text that suggests that 'oikonomea theou' is the 'Processed Triune God in us as life and everything' or 'God becoming flesh becoming intensified Spirit' or 'God becoming man to make man God' or anything similar. In fact, it's hard to believe that Paul taught intensification, as it doesn't appear in his written works - so how could he charge Timothy to teach it?
What then is 'oikonomea theou', which is said to be 'in faith'? My guess is that the answer is found in the line of Paul's letter to the Galatians: "remember the poor", which Paul says that he's eager to do. This is the sending charge of the Jerusalem leaders to Paul the Gentile apostle. When Jesus had said, "Feed my sheep" to Peter, what do we see Peter doing afterward? In the early chapters of Acts Peter and the Twelve were feeding the widows in Jerusalem. There was no Salvation Army, no Homeless Shelter, no Medicaid, no Social Security. If you were a widow, you starved. So the disciples gave food to the poor, as Jesus had asked them to.
Jesus taught, "Give to those who can't repay you and it will be repaid in the resurrection of the righteous." Isn't this "in faith" as Paul says in 1 Timothy 1:4? If you give, "in faith", believing in the resurrection and hoping in the reward of the righteous, isn't this following Jesus' command to trust and to give, and his promise of reward?
Then what do we see Paul writing continually, in his epistles? "Store up something and lay it aside, that when I come I may have something to bring to the poor of Jerusalem". Then Acts closes with Paul coming "bringing alms for my nation". Now, is that God's economy? I don't know for certain. But it's more in line with the actual text of the NT that Paul was associated with. I don't see Paul associated with sevenfold intensification at all. Textual support for that concept came considerably later.
Then what do we see James teaching? If you have food, share with those who don't have food. That kinda sounds like this 'oikonomea theou'.