Article: Beware of the writings of the Watchman

[aron]

Originally Posted by markpaul

I left without reading Rcv.

Some of the Rcv notes are good. Many of them, in fact. Many are awful, though.

Two examples: in the Revelation 2 and 3 letters to the seven Asian churches, the Rcv notes say that the source problem was that the seven churches were not "absolutely identical". I think this may have been during one of the "storms" or "rebellions" in the LC movement, where the church leaders wrote to Witness Lee promising to completely reject any differences among them.

But notice - the church is build of living stones, not bricks (bricks are of course absolutely identical). But stones are unique. Also notice that Babylon the Great has enforced outward uniformity: no one can buy or sell without the mark of the beast. So Lee's idea to make everyone absolutely identical (to what, one also wonders?) is completely off base.

Second example: in the Psalms, Lee said that David was being "natural" and writing according to "fallen human concepts". Most of the Psalms that were not quoted in the New Testament were rejected by Lee.

Why? Because David fought with people, instead of blessing them! He should have forgiven his enemies, and turned the other cheek! I am not kidding. So David should have gone out and apologized to Goliath? When the wolf and the bear came for the sheep, David should have offered a second sheep?

1 Samuel 17:33 Then Saul said to David, "You are not able to go against this Philistine to fight with him; for you are but a youth while he has been a warrior from his youth." 34 But David said to Saul, "Your servant was tending his father's sheep. When a lion or a bear came and took a lamb from the flock, 35 I went out after him and attacked him, and rescued it from his mouth; and when he rose up against me, I seized him by his beard and struck him and killed him.…

Etc etc. Probably 3/4 of the Psalms are rejected by Lee, and disparaged. If it wasn't cited so heavily by the NT he would have treated it worse. The Rcv treatment of the Psalms is ridiculous. Other books get this kind of treatment: James' epistle, the book of Job, some of Peter's epistle.

But Paul clearly told us that we struggle not against flesh and blood but spiritual forces. Yet Lee rejected this idea, or forgot about it, when covering the OT writings. Lee was clearly out of his league here: his lack of training, and outside counsel, was glaringly obvious. Yet in the LC everyone must be "positive" and "one with the apostle" so they sat there and passively listened to this amateurish garbage.