Quote:
Originally Posted by Freedom
In the case of DYL, it sounds like some pretty bizarre teachings have been introduced..
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The corollary of my third point, that the leader gets elevated to quasi-mystical status, with oracular utterance (God's final prophet, etc), is that the scripture gets skewed almost beyond recognition. In extreme cases (Eastern Lightning ) scripture is dispensed with entirely.
I won't bother to drag out the LC cases; they've been covered on this forum in some detail. Just one thing: notice how the terminology sets it up: "Crystallization" is the culmination of all previous teachings; "Consummation" likewise supersedes everything that precedes it. So Lee the Bible expositor eventually became the Bible's de facto replacement. Where it was convenient (which was often) the Bible could be pointed to as the buttress and shield. Where it was not convenient (also often) the Bible was simply ignored, as if its words had never existed in the divine conversation. Instead we got warmed-over Chinese aphorisms from the oracle. Or something would be snatched out of 19th century Protestant Sunday-school lessons, and waved in the air as if it were suddenly the pathway to the recovery of truth.