When I look back upon my experiences in the LC, I think WL's attitude towards good works always bothered me somewhat. It's just too bad that it's taken me so long to fully admit that. I think he led everyone to believe that those who are out doing thing to help others are just doing it for "show". I got the concept drilled in my mind that if anyone is out there doing good works, they must have a hidden motive. In the LC, even to do simple things to help others might constitute being distracted from "God's Economy".
When I consider how Lee constructed his teaching of God's Economy, it's clear that he left out anything of the Bible that didn't conform to his teaching. In the LC, they love to talk about man's purpose. Here's a verse they love to quote regarding man's purpose:
"For we are His workmanship, created in Christ Jesus for good works, which God prepared beforehand that we should walk in them." (Eph2:10, NKJV)
Ironically, it's always the first part of this verse, "we are His workmanship" (masterpiecein the RcV), that they talk about. For all the times I've heard this verse quoted, the "created in Christ Jesus for good works..." part is always ignored. I just don't understand how they can talk about the purpose of man, while completely ignoring and devaluing what the Bible actually says. After all, in the LC they would say that Ephesians is the "heart of the Bible". When considering Lee's perspective on good works, you have to wonder what a verse on being created for good works is doing in the "heart of the Bible". Actually, this was always a point of confusion for me, I wondered why the Bible contradicted WL
. As I have found out, the Bible can't be read according to WL's teachings. I think ultimately, that's what makes it so hard for people like me in the LC to get out of that paradigm of "God's Economy". Everything is evaluated according to it.