Testimony of RCTW

[RCTW]

Hi Aron,

Thank you for your beautiful testimony!! I totally understand why Lord put you in local church first. He has also put me into this church at a very desperate time. I married into my husband's country, and after 8 years he left me. It was during Covid time. I was all alone and could not go back to my home country. I was shattered to pieces and even attempted to take my own life one time. I got to know Jesus for more than a decade but did not go to any church. God has miraculously put my name to the heart of a pastor nearby, so we talked in an one-to-one meeting. That was it. I was disappointed as I was expecting more love and caring from church. Then God put me into a neighbor local church, and the sisters took good care of me. Praying every morning, a neighbor sister visiting me every night for Bible study and prayer. I was in God's ICU for two years.

I always found it is funny that God reached out to the pastor in a regular church first and then the local church.

I guess for you and me, we really need that kind of intensive care during that special period. Praise the Lord.

Best wishes,
RC

Originally Posted by aron

Psalm 18:30 says, "The LORD has dealt with me according to my righteousness/according to the cleanness of my hands He has rewarded me." The "me" according to the pattern of NT reception should be Jesus Christ. Psalm 16:10 says, "You (the Father) will not leave my (Christ) soul in the grave/neither will Thou (Father) suffer Thine holy One (Christ Jesus) to see corruption." Psalm 40:8 says, "I (Christ) come to do Thy will, O God (the Father)/behold in the scroll of the book it is written concerning me". The 'me' here is clearly Jesus Christ.

Jesus verified this by saying that all the things written concerning him must be fulfilled. See Luke 21:22, 24:44; Mark 14:43-50 etc. There are probably 40 or 50 references in the NT about how Jesus was the focus of prophecy and its embodiment, fulfillment, in the Gospel record. He was "the Word made flesh". The focus was entirely on the person of Jesus Christ: his experiences, his suffering, his triumphant rise, his promise to return.

Now, what has happened in the meantime, as the centuries passed and the endless ages rolled? Currently, the focus is put on the believer, not on the belief, and on the Christian, not on the Christ. In the Recovery we were told that there was one word in the dictionary: "Christ"... actually, that's completely false: the one word is in the Recovery dictionary is "me". Instead of "no longer I but Christ" it is "no longer Christ but I". This unrelenting and all-consuming focus of the subjective experience of the believer has made Christ a cipher, to be made into whatever the subjective self needs at any point.

For verification, look at the hymns - who's the subject, the object and focus of attention? The believer and his/her experience. "What can was away my (the believer) sins? Nothing but the blood of Jesus". Or, "And can it be that I (the believer) should gain an interest in my Saviour's blood? Died he (Christ) for me (Christian) - who caused his pain...etc." Or, "So subjective is my Christ in me (the redeemed sinner)/real in me (sinner) and rich and sweet/all my (redeemed sinner) needs he (Christ) meets" It's all about the sinner's experience, satisfaction, and joy. But that subjectivity is quicksand!

The unrelenting focus is on the sinner: redeemed, reborn, transformed and transfigured. The doorway to deception is cast wide open. Instead of focusing on the One with clean hands - Jesus.

The Lord's Recovery is not unique in this path of error, but they do it to a greater degree, with more horrific results, than most Protestant spinoffs. It's probably not coincidental that all these frauds that I've been writing of originated from the same tradition (I know the Bible Answer Man is Greek Orthodox now, but I doubt that he'd have gotten as much traction there, to start). The Protestant Revelator gets some great immutable Truth, but that's the backdoor for the Revelator to become the Seer of the Divine Mystery for the Present Age, yada yada. A circle of deception and self-deception, drawing in trusting and hopeful rubes, those well-meaning seekers who will take the claims on face value because it makes them feel good. As long as you have some "enjoyment" engendered by repetitive shouting, it must be true... right?