Quote:
Originally Posted by Ohio
I have always resisted the notion that the LC's were cultic and preached "another" gospel. These are just not things I can say with a clear conscience.
|
Yours is a conviction on the topic that I have vacillated on depending on the "difference" that is currently in front of us. My general conclusion is that Christ is Christ, but that there is something in the teachings of some groups that makes their description go from marginal to someone else. We are clear that some do not think Christ is even God. And some hem and haw about it, declaring that Christ is just the brother of Lucifer and/or some prophet. (Not a lot different than what the Moslems think.)
The LCM is not where those groups are. But they do define away parts of the historical Jesus and what he taught. The idea of maintaining a higher view of the righteous law was taught by Jesus, but to the LCM even the old version is declared as something to be avoided or ignored. If it is important it will flow out of "the dispensing." The Father and the Son may be one, but are not described as the same. But they might as well be as far as LCM teaching goes.
The LCM, from the time of Nee until now has been about the inner life teachings that Nee was steeped in early on. The inner life is not wrong if it is not the only "life" taught and lived. But for the LCM, that is just about all there is. Like those commercials about having an unbalanced diet where everyone is walking around slanted almost 45 degrees relative to the ground, there is a lot more to the full Christian life than what the inner-life people teach. And Nee and Lee took that teaching to a nearly ridiculous extreme.
No, they do not teach a different Christ. Yet so many aspects of what their "same" Christ teaches to us today does not look like what the rest of us are learning from Him. Theirs seems to be an abridged version. That might not be a big deal if it is
The Teachings of Christ for Normal Living. But instead is seems to be
Our Favorite Chapter From Christ's Words Reanalyzed for Isolated 'Church Life' Living. And then they spend a lot of time telling us how that paying attention to the rest of the stuff is evidence of being degraded.