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Originally Posted by OBW
I have noted that there is too often a push to use military themes when discussing the Christian life and calling. But from what I can tell, the uses of military analogies is really rather limited, and even then it is difficult to assert that the purpose of them was to infer that the Christian life should be like the military.
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I would agree with you on this. My takeaway from the military analogies found in the Bible (such as Eph 6), is that Christians should be aware what they're up against (the devil). I don't see how any of that would translate to there being a need to behaving as if in the army, renouncing opinions, etc. WL really went off the deep end in this respect. Analogies are only analogies, WL had the habit of taking analogies too far.
Quote:
Originally Posted by Ohio
One of the most pathetic things in Lee's checkered history was to declare himself "commander-in-chief" of God's army, usurping the rightful place of the resurrected Christ. As such, he could hire and fire anyone he chose to, and institute martial law so that he suspend all the rules, which he clearly did when we consider his sons.
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What I find to be the most troubling are the implications of WL's need to run the churches military-style. I'm not entirely convinced it was totally a Chinese/cultural thing. My impression of the early LC is that things were strict, there was a unspoken understanding of submission to WL, but none of it had to be forced, like things became later. Even the amount of control WL had from day one, there was really no pressing need to run a training or to assert authority in an overt manner. So what made him change?
It seems that the main problem he kept running into was that of those who were not afraid to call him out, or those not afraid to think for themselves. He had to find a way to put a stop to this, thus the advent of the FTT. I am inclined to think that the FTT was viewed as some sort of "insurance policy", namely to reduce the likelihood of 'damage' cause by any defectors. The more young people that they can 'break', the better.