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Originally Posted by Ohio
the Acts 15 conference . . . under Lee's ministry it was presented to us as "bad James" and thank God Peter woke up from his "Jewish slumber" to hit a home run for our team. We missed the value of "much discussion." It never fit into the "MOTA model." Paul, the first Protestant MOTA, was supposed to give us a word while everyone else obeyed.
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In the Acts 15 conference there were 'senior members' like Peter and James. But it doesn't seem that they dominated the discussion, only that they concluded it.
Apparently multiple parties got to speak in Acts 15, and give differing views, then Peter and James got to conclude and vocalize group consensus. In the Little Flock/Local Church model, only the deputy God got to speak, and everyone else had to say, "Amen". Do you see the difference? In the Nee/Lee church model only one person got to speak and the rest had to echo. In the LC if anyone tried actual discussion they were told to "get out of your mind". If they persisted in attempting discussion, they were branded rebels, traitors to the cause and expelled.
And if their 'oracle' made logical errors, like in one place saying that the psalmist portrayed Christ through violent expressions ("this shows Christ defeating Satan") and elsewhere calling the same views "natural" or "fallen", or if the RecV footnote in one place said that the psalmist was blessed and rewarded for his fealty as Christ typified (e.g., Psalm 16, notably cited on Pentecost) while elsewhere footnotes panned the same views because "we all know that nobody can please God" (e.g., Psalm 15, Psalms 17-19), we simply had to say, "Amen", because the oracle had spoken. End of discussion. (or, better put, no discussion). "Get into your spirit, brother!"
Or if their deputy God erred and put his "unspiritual" progeny over the churches, to run roughshod over them, too bad. No commentary allowed, nor discussion. One must "take the cross" or some other pseudo-spiritual phraseology.
These kinds of experiences better fit a "cultural Christianity from the orient" model than the actual experiences shown in the NT.
The LC posits an 'expressed truth' or 'recovered truth' dominating each segment of the narrative, and one protagonist as its prime mover. In Acts 15, for example, Peter is perhaps the mover of the "gentiles can come in the church without restrictions" idea, acquiesced by James.
But we should stress that this idea only arrived at after open group discussion. The idea of one dominant oracular vessel holding one 'truth' per age doesn't fit the NT text nor church history. Only Jesus has such a place in the gospel narrative; none else. Those believe in the resurrection of Jesus find themselves in an assemblage of peers, of fellows, of mutuality, of "considering others as greater than oneself". Only Jesus is the Master.