Quote:
Originally Posted by allinclusivechrist
There is two lampstands in Lebanon.
One in Beirut and one in jounieh.
There is 2 saints in Beirut and around 10 in jounieh.
Usually we meet in our homes.
|
One of the interesting things of the "lampstand'' idea is that there once was a "proper lampstand" (one church per city) but that the "lampstand" got removed somehow, and then the Lord's Recovery "recovered the proper ground" and voila the lampstand is now back, in Lebanon or wherever.
This presupposes a loss, but I was never told how the loss occurred. Just that somehow the "lampstand" vanished from the earth. Then when Watchman Nee ''took the ground" in Shanghai in 1932, the "lampstand" was back. Now there are lampstands in this and that city.
Now, how do we know the lampstand was lost? Says who? And if so, in what manner and time?
We are sold the "degradation of the church" story without any details. I presume because there are none to offer. Or precious few. My own idea, growing of late, is that the church degradation was so enormous and thorough that various "recovery" and "restoration" groups can come along and sell us counterfeits. So we are still degraded, still illegitimate, but we think we are "proper" and "genuine" and can judge everyone else while escaping judgment ourselves. "And the last state of that person was worse than the first".
It's sort of like when you are in the desert, and some trickster gets you to think that you are in the Promised Land of Milk and Honey. So you sit down, and refuse to travel on, and berate anyone who thinks otherwise. You have "taken the ground" in the desert.
Let me try to be more specific: "to the angel of the church in Pergamos"... at that time (so the story goes) the city of Pergamos had a lampstand. A genuine, proper local church on the local ground. But at some point, it got removed. My question: when? Or Corinth. There was a church in Corinth. Paul wrote to them, a letter or two. Who's to say then that the church in Corinth lost their lampstand? I mean, there are Christians still meeting in Corinth, no? If they are not affiliated with the LSM then they are not on the "proper ground"? What arbitrary subjectivity to base one's judgment of others.