SPLIT THREAD - Early Lee - Later Lee

[Hope]

I have been reading posts on the other forum. Below I quote a post from Ohio.

The fruit of this teaching that I have seen is all bad -- for the most part, an arrogant, exclusive pride which causes its proponents to think more highly of themselves than they ought to think. I now believe that the reason for the teaching is simple -- arm the saints with teachings which cause them to be separated from other Christians, and provide them with ammunition to judge all outside Christians, in other words, put all the LC sheep into a pen and erect a high wall around it.

I know this post sounds harsh, but does anything else explain what has happened?

I first met WL in the early Spring of 1966. He came to Waco, Texas where 12 or so young people were meeting as the church in Waco. He came again in 1968. During that stay, he came to my wife's and my little one room efficiency apartment. We invited one of the college students, Bob Soroosh, to join us for a simple supper. He treated the three of us with great respect and answered all our questions with kindness and took our questions seriously. I can never forget Bob asked about dating. Brother Lee gave an excellent answer. I still remember it well. Bob called him by “Witness” and treated him like one would treat a kind old uncle. Brother Lee was not the least bit intimidating. Brother Lee showed great love and toleration toward Bob, my wife and myself. This is the image of Witness Lee that always comes first to my mind.

During this same time, Benson and I had a lunch with Brother Lee and an older bachelor man from Waco. He had been visiting some of our meetings and came to hear Brother Lee. Brother Lee showed him much respect and engaged him in fellowship. Afterwards he told Benson and I that the brother was surely a man of spiritual depth and was very complementary of him.

As I came to know brother Lee more, I did notice a difference between his public persona and the way he treated different individuals. Publicly, sometimes he got into hyperbole. He would say something extreme and some of the more extreme personality types would take off with it. Publicly he enjoyed stirring the pot and poking his thumb in the eye of official Christianity. When challenged on any level, public or private, he way over reacted, and a fight was surely on.

I have a hard time believing he was so complicated to have come up with a method of teaching and behavior in order to create a system for enriching himself or enshrining himself as an uncontested, anointed, God-man, who was God’s man of faith and power for this hour. But it did happen! How he, the local churches, the so called “recovery” got from that simple meal in a one room efficiency with three young people to La Palma headquarters is quite a story. Perhaps, the Lord willing, I will be able to tell it.

Hope