LSM's Fallacy of Identity

[OBW]

Originally Posted by aron

This "revelation" of Lee's, which showed him Revelations 2 & 3 indicating the "identicality of all the localities" from the golden lampstands, was indeed his hopeful interpretation. This is, however, the exception from Lee, in my opinion, because he was in fact posessing "... a clarity in understanding of the letter due to the addition of the Spirit", as you put it so well. Lee's exegesis of the Bible was deeply rooted in study of the written word. His basis for success among the christian community was due to this very fact, more than any charismatic hand-waving. But eventually he flew too high and errors came in which, when left unchecked, marred the whole enterprise. The above quote of Lee is Exibit A. It is indeed far beyond the black and white.

I don't think it can be overstated the need to have one's ministry checked by one's peers. Any religious system which builds a top-down pyramid leadership style with one pooh-bah left free to stand alone at the peak is only courting disaster, with subjective edicts departing from the written letter at the whims of the 'spirit' of the 'deputy god'. As good as Lee was at covering his tracks with the written letter (and I know that my evaluation of his logical trains is more generous than yours), he wandered afield occasionally, and now his wanderings are "written in stone" (pun intended).

You are a hard guy to figure out. You think that Lee really is grounded well in scripture. But lately I have been seeing that the "important" doctrines that he pushes (the ones that are so different from the rest of Christian thought) often have little more than lip service given to the scripture that he uses to dress the discussion.

Here we are reading three chapters (primarily in the first concerning the lampstands) and Lee simply claims the scripture says something that is not there. This is a recurring pattern in his teaching. I will admit that he was not alone. Even Nee did this at some level. It is quite visible in Further Talks on the Church Life.

Yet you refer to Lee as having "success among the christian community." Can you explain how it was that Lee had any success among the Christian community? His organizations, the LSM and the LCs, have been busy for decades suing anyone who says even one word against them. And there are writings at which they can take aim. They are spoken against in cult books, and ministers and theologians who have any knowledge concerning the LCs warn Christians to be careful in contacts with them.

Where is the success?