Partial Rapture And Dispensational Punishment

[aron]

Hi Guest,

My problem with the "outer darkness for 1,000 years for lukewarm Christians who don't walk properly" is this: Jesus taught that some who did poorly, but were given little to work with, would be punished somewhat ("a few stripes" was the term I remember), whilst those who were given much and also lagged would have worse punishment ("many stripes"). A thousand years of "outer darkness" seems to be kind of arbitrary. A miss is as good as a mile, as they say. Imagine a kingdom in which all infractions were dealt with equally. Jaywalking and littering, ten years in jail. Capital murder, also ten years in jail. Doesn't make sense to me. (See Luke 12:47,48; cf Deut 25:2).

Now, the Nee/Lee apologists may have a ready answer (I would hope so), and I don't consider myself an expert having pursued every possible explanation and permutation. But the simplistic way it was presented in the local churches, and the fact that no one could challenge the idea the way I've briefly done here, makes me rather suspect of their theology. To put it mildly.

Like most of the Nee/Lee corpus, whatever good was there, if any, got quickly turned to levers of control. The "1,000 years" were hovering over every LC attendee, if they ever became "negative" against the church leadership. I was in a meeting once where Lee said, "There is a dark place. Go there!" and he made a little shoving motion with his hands, palms down, like he was pushing trash off a table. Some people shifted and a few sisters made nervous laughing noises.

Today I look back and feel that he was transferring his anxiety and shame onto us, using his theology, and I reject that utterly. I still have to answer to God (I know) but not according to Lee's theological dictates.