Church kid from the 80s (Anaheim)

[JJ]

Originally Posted by bettercountry

I think the true benefit of this forum only comes when everyone has an “iron sharpen iron” mentality, and that none of us are correct on everything. We all have something to learn in our spiritual journey, and that will never stop on this side of heaven. That’s at least, my personal prayer for myself. To be willing and even grateful to be corrected where I ought to be. If that's not my stance, the usefulness of a site like this would be rather limited.

As I continue to ponder the points from “Just Saying” (and others in the same boat as him)….a crude analogy came to mind that might possibly help understand why those of us that left the LC may have varying/different experiences about the LC, and ultimately, different conclusions. If we can imagine the LC as being a large house with many rooms….let’s say there is a slow but constant carbon monoxide leak that exists. And, up until the mid-80s or at some point in the LC history (which is probably another item of debate), there were still a few isolated rooms in the house where the leak did not infiltrate. So, perhaps in the totality of my time in the LC, perhaps I was able to, on brief occasions, be in a few of those isolated “rooms” where there was still no exposure to the CO poisoning. And, perhaps for others, for whatever reason, the carbon monoxide happened to be present in every single room that they entered. Perhaps they never found any rooms at all that were secured from the leak

The iron sharpens iron attitude is the best to bring to this forum for sure. The carbon monoxide analogy is a little bit like the old canary in the coal mine story. I.e. things are fine but better get out when the canary drops dead

How about applying Jesus’ parable of the tares (weeds) in the grain field in Matthew 13:24-29 https://biblehub.com/blb/matthew/13.htm
and his warning about wolves in sheep’s clothing in Matthew 7:15-20. https://biblehub.com/blb/matthew/7.htm

Everything seems fine in the wheat field until the grain begins to ripen and it becomes clear the tares can’t produce more grains of wheat (https://www.biblestudynote.com/blog/wheat-and-tares/ tares). Jesus concludes that bad fruit comes from a bad tree.

Everything seems fine in the flock until the wool is pulled off the wolf and all the sheep need to run for safety.

We may genuinely reminisce with fondness about how great the early days of the wheat field and flock of sheep were. And, it is kind of like that. Once the tares and wolves have been revealed we warn others about them, marvel at how we were fooled and hopefully learn something about spotting the tares and wolves faster.