Quote:
Originally Posted by aron
The fact that the 4th-century church split apart after having just these sorts of conversations shows me a danger here. We are unfortunately too smart by half.
If Mary is the mother of Jesus, and Jesus is God, then Mary is the Mother of God, right?
Do you see my point? Our logic can lead us into perilous waters.
What happens today is that we can know what Witness Lee or Calvin thought of such things, or what we think, or even what Augustine thought. But we don't know what Jesus thought, as we have no contemporary systematic breakdown of his thought-world. We can at best only approximate it. We do know that he believed he would go to Jerusalem, and be ill-treated, and killed, and on the third day rise (Mark 9:31).
And we know that we believe. We should not let our thought-worlds drive us apart. Lee was a master at this. "Divide and conquer" should have been the motto emblazoned at LSM. Pretty much all of his teachings were levers, designed to pry us apart. Just look at the fruit and you should recognize the tree.
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Aron, you can surely know the thoughts of Christ. Those that are born of him are given his mind (1 Cor 2:16).
I highly doubt critical thought was ever the dividing factor between groups of professing Christians. Quite the opposite it seems concerning the LC, atleast from what I understand with my limited experience. I say that because I've read Lee had taught that thinking was bad and to just be in the spirit. Well, in my view, if you don't exercise your own logical faculties someone else will supply the logic for you. And if you've received the wrong spirit, it really doesn't help you to be "in the spirit" anyway at that point.
I don't understand why division is viewed only in a bad light in today's society. It reminds me of a saying by Adrian Rogers;
“It is better to be divided by truth than to be united in error. It is better to speak the truth that hurts and then heals, than falsehood that comforts and then kills.”
I can understand that those of you that have escaped the control of the LC are hesitant toward any type of debating that can potentially end up causing division. You've all been through a traumatic experience so I can understand wanting to stay away from anything that can rehash old wounds. I saw this very same fear within my friends that are still in the LC.
What I can say is, avoiding discussion and debate is not the way. We are to test all things within ourselves and other's that we choose to fellowship with. As a matter of fact Christ applauded the church in Ephesius on exposing false converts;
"I know that you cannot tolerate wicked people, that you have tested those who claim to be apostles but are not, and have found them false" (Rev. 2)
IMHO, the most important doctrine to have a firm grasp on is the nature of the Lord God and of his Christ because there are many different gospels being preached and many different Christs being taught as well. Paul says that those that accept a false gospel or a false Christ receive a different spirit. (2 Cor 11:4). That's why it's so important to test all things to make sure we are firmly in the faith.