"Only the church?"

[Acolyte4236]

Hi,

Often when discussing with LC members when querried about whether they are the only true church or not, they respond with the line that they are "only the church." Obviously this is a dodge.

I am curious to know what responses former LC'ers have to this line.

For my part, given their view of apostasy and that they believe that there is only one church in a given area and they are it, it seems that they are implicitly making the claim to be the only true church, in a way similar to the LDS make the claim that they are the restoration of Christianity.

Thoughts?

[OBW]

Deep in their beliefs is the notion that only those "on the proper ground" can really receive God's best and really experience Christ. You are correct that the reference to being a church is a dodge. They are avoiding saying what they believe — that they are the only church meeting according to the formula "prescribed" in the Bible. They allow that others are churches, but deficient (or to borrow from a recent pope, damaged).

And the ways in which they consider their teachings, doctrines, practices, etc., to be right and others wrong (or at least deficient) is almost without limit. They believe that saying it better makes it better, so they have a lexicon of terms that do not necessarily mean what you think, or are so convoluted as to defy description or definition. The so-called "ground of the church" is just the anchor holding it all together.

[Acolyte4236]

Thanks. That comports with my experience.

Can you point me to any LC documents that either speak of their belief about being the only true church or that speak of how they are to use misleading terms and language?

[Sons to Glory!]

Originally Posted by Acolyte4236

Hi,

Often when discussing with LC members when querried about whether they are the only true church or not, they respond with the line that they are "only the church." Obviously this is a dodge.

I am curious to know what responses former LC'ers have to this line.

For my part, given their view of apostasy and that they believe that there is only one church in a given area and they are it, it seems that they are implicitly making the claim to be the only true church, in a way similar to the LDS make the claim that they are the restoration of Christianity.

Thoughts?

I look at this as a 1st Corinthians 1:12 thing, that is, "I am of . . . Christ." Well of course we are all of Christ, but even saying the accurate thing in the flesh is just divisive. Saying, "We have recovered the proper ground of the church and are standing on it in oneness with all believers" is still something of fleshly pride, and is divisive in nature. I have witnessed this with other believers, meeting elsewhere, when I was with the LC. Trying to make this a point is to divert from Christ and immediately puts up an unnecessary self-righteous wall of separation with other members of the one body.

[Acolyte4236]

Well, I think it is more than that.

Obviously Lee, Nee and the rest are 19 centuries too late to claim direct connection with Christ and the apostles. So, if they are going to mark themselves out as special, they need something that cuts the floor out from underneath everyone else and that is essentially, an apostasy claim.

The problem is, that for anyone knowledgable about church history, claims along with the kind of "trail of blood"story they want to tell are impossible to sustain.

[Ohio]

Originally Posted by Acolyte4236

Hi,

Often when discussing with LC members when querried about whether they are the only true church or not, they respond with the line that they are "only the church." Obviously this is a dodge.

I am curious to know what responses former LC'ers have to this line.

For my part, given their view of apostasy and that they believe that there is only one church in a given area and they are it, it seems that they are implicitly making the claim to be the only true church, in a way similar to the LDS make the claim that they are the restoration of Christianity.

Thoughts?

Insiders are long convinced they are "THE only true church." After LSM established a Public Relations Department (Chris Wilde), they developed catchy phrases for outsiders like we are "only the church."

It works for them to have one message for insiders, and one for outsiders. WL did this too when he went to court or was talking to the media. If you can adequately bifurcate your brain, this works for their loyal members. I found it quite hypocritical.