A System of Error

[aron]

I believe Paul at one time used the phrase "a system of errors" in reference to the traps which Satan used to snare the unsuspecting minds of people. An error is a sin, a mistake, a defect, a shortcoming. A system of errors is a self-reinforcing group of mistakes which collectively "cover" for one another and create a self-perpetuating system which traps the practitioner in endless loops of thought and behavior.

An easy example for me is the kind of circular reasoning that goes nowhere. "Well, we better do what he says because Witness Lee is the minister of the age."

Why is Witness Lee the minister of the age? On what do you base this statement? "Because what he teaches is the revealed truth, based on the Bible."

How do you know his teaching is THE truth, the only correct interpretation? "Why, because he is the minister of the age!"

This is an oversimplification, obviously, but I am trying to make the point that an error is one thing; we make them in our daily lives, and when we are exposed, we repent and learn and go on and hopefully don't repeat the thought or behavior. But a system of errors can perpetuate itself indefinitely. The practitioner builds a house of mirrors in which he or she continually sees the same 'truth', over and over again. And any new "light" which might change the system of thought is not allowed into the "house" that has been built.

I have 2 questions: One, does anyone know the reference from the Bible that I am talking about? I think it is in one of Paul's epistles. The phrase I remember was "with a view to a system of error..." I did a search but didn't find anything. I remember learning that 'system' in Greek is "kosmos", which is the Satanic "world" that opposes God, but that didn't help me in my search.

Two, what is the system we are dealing with here? I am trying to deal with "cause" versus "effect". If we just hash over the symptoms, we will be here 13 or 15 years from now, still pointing out the shortcomings of the LCS. Everyone has shortcomings. But, what are the causes of what we see here? What mutually reinforcing set of errors is rolling across the landscape in front of us?

I have a couple of possibilities. >>>Thankful wrote in one post that we start off following Christ, and eventually we follow a system. That, to me, is a good characterization of the drift into continual and self-reinforcing error.

>>>My idea is that when we get distracted, and "look away" from the Great Commandment, to love God with our whole heart and soul, and love our neighbor as ourselves. Eventually some "thing" becomes our goal, instead of loving God and the person next to us. This is evident when we try to follow some good, orthodox Biblical teaching but instead of loving one another we bicker, quarrel, and castigate one another over some so-called "truth". We pursue things, even seemingly good things, that eventually "leaven" our love for God and one another.

>>>YP's ideas on "local assembly" of /ekklesia/ as the rescue from the errors of seeking to create a "universal church" organization here on earth. The "stone cut without hands" in Daniel chapter 2, which destroys the great image and eventually fills the earth, is to me a clue. The stone must not be cut (formed, fashioned, shaped) with human hands. Any organization has human hands inevitably on it. If we meet locally, love neighborly, testify to the nearby sinners, God can build universally.

>>>OBW made the point recently about the validity of Biblical authority in the assembly versus the error of "deputy authority". Somehow I was touched that this idea, heretofore unconsidered by me, is worth delineating.

Just some thoughts here. We all err; it is in our nature. Nobody except God is without error. But here we are dealing with a self-reinforcing system of errors. What is this system we are dealing with? I would like to flesh it out, and have a look at it. "The truth shall set you free."

p.s. Readers may notice that I am "left of center" when it comes to organized religion. Perhaps, but I don't advocate leaving whatever assembly you happen to meet with, however organized (or disorganized) it may be. "Leaving christianity" as a directive merely creates new systems, which I am obviously not interested in doing.