The book of James and the LRC

[Ohio]

Originally Posted by ZNPaaneah

Perhaps if we are going to bad mouth Lee we should begin with

"I certainly have no intention of belittling WL or his ministry. However, I must truthfully point out..."

I love the use of "truthfully". I guess he realized much of what he pointed out wasn't truthful.

I'll do just that. Thank you!

[ZNPaaneah]

"There has been to some extent an atmosphere of fear brought in among the saints and among the churches, bringing the conscience of the saints into bondage. I believe this has been done by an over-stressing and distortion of the teaching concerning Deputy authority. This has brought the saints into a condition where they are fearful to follow their conscience, to be one with their spirit, and sometimes to speak their genuine concerns." (John Ingals as quoted by WL in the elder's training, book 10, chapter 6, section 9).

His point is not that there is no basis for this teaching but that it is distorted so that saints are fearful to speak their genuine concerns. On the one hand it is critical for a church to have "deputy authority". Someone has to pay the electric bill. Someone has to open the mail. Someone may need to speak to someone who is unruly or disruptive. However, Matt. makes it very clear that if you are going to discipline a brother you need to "tell it to the church and if the church refuses to hear him then...". This telling it to the church is not the elders saying that they have decided to discipline this person but it is an opportunity for this saint to share their case. This never happened in my experience in the LRC and I saw several saints excommunicated.

James
2:1 My brethren, have not the faith of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Lord of glory, with respect of persons.

To me the distortion of the teaching on "deputy authority" is when you have the faith of our Lord Jesus with respect of persons. The best example of this is the MOTA. The combination of the teaching of "deputy authority" and "MOTA" is a poisonous mixture.

[TLFisher]

Originally Posted by ZNPaaneah

"There has been to some extent an atmosphere of fear brought in among the saints and among the churches, bringing the conscience of the saints into bondage. I believe this has been done by an over-stressing and distortion of the teaching concerning Deputy authority. This has brought the saints into a condition where they are fearful to follow their conscience, to be one with their spirit, and sometimes to speak their genuine concerns." (John Ingals as quoted by WL in the elder's training, book 10, chapter 6, section 9).

Have not read this before. Had names not been mentioned, the quote could easily pass as the present condition. Just shows times has not changed how the deputy authority teaching keeps brothers and sisters silenced out of fear.

[Ohio]

Originally Posted by ZNPaaneah

His point is not that there is no basis for this teaching but that it is distorted so that saints are fearful to speak their genuine concerns. To me the distortion of the teaching on "deputy authority" is when you have the faith of our Lord Jesus with respect of persons. The best example of this is the MOTA. The combination of the teaching of "deputy authority" and "MOTA" is a poisonous mixture.

Healthy church leadership always has the safeguards of both plurality, accountability, and the scripture. The Recovery lost all of these, mainly due to distortions of the teachings on "deputy authority." This deputy authority had no peers and answered to no one. He was never balanced by other elders or church leaders. He used distorted teachings, such as Noah's curse on Ham, to hold the adherents in fear. That distortion provided the cover of darkness for every failure of Lee, including those of his profligate sons. His teachings provided the sole interpretation by which scripture could be read. In case of conflict, Lee's interpretations always superseded the plain words of scripture.

Coupled with this was the notion that the MOTA could "see" things no one else could. He was a "seer" of the unseen. Whereas mere mortals could see abuse, manipulations, unrighteousness, distortions, man-pleasing, hypocrisy, etc. at LSM, the MOTA would "see" rebellious lepers attacking God's Economy to bring the kingdom of the heavens to this earth, and the leader He raised up to bring His people into the New Jerusalem.

Or so, as I was taught to believe.

[ZNPaaneah]

Originally Posted by Ohio

Healthy church leadership always has the safeguards of both plurality, accountability, and the scripture. The Recovery lost all of these, mainly due to distortions of the teachings on "deputy authority." This deputy authority had no peers and answered to no one. He was never balanced by other elders or church leaders. He used distorted teachings, such as Noah's curse on Ham, to hold the adherents in fear. That distortion provided the cover of darkness for every failure of Lee, including those of his profligate sons. His teachings provided the sole interpretation by which scripture could be read. In case of conflict, Lee's interpretations always superseded the plain words of scripture.

Coupled with this was the notion that the MOTA could "see" things no one else could. He was a "seer" of the unseen. Whereas mere mortals could see abuse, manipulations, unrighteousness, distortions, man-pleasing, hypocrisy, etc. at LSM, the MOTA would "see" rebellious lepers attacking God's Economy to bring the kingdom of the heavens to this earth, and the leader He raised up to bring His people into the New Jerusalem.

Or so, as I was taught to believe.

This is the connection between "the ground of the church" and the sins we were looking for.

The implication of "the ground of the church" is that WL has no peers. Everyone else is disqualified due to their stand on divisive ground.

Second, it implies WL sees things others don't hence he doesn't answer to anyone since he has the vision and they don't.

Once you have WL all alone you have rejected "plurality". This eliminates accountability -- who should he be accountable to, they don't have the vision, their stand was/is wrong, and he has no peers.

Therefore, if you take this away by exposing the fallacy of "one church one city" everything else falls as well.

[TLFisher]

Originally Posted by Ohio

Healthy church leadership always has the safeguards of both plurality, accountability, and the scripture. The Recovery lost all of these, mainly due to distortions of the teachings on "deputy authority."
He was never balanced by other elders or church leaders.

I emphasized the last sentence because it wasn't from a lack of brothers trying.
Truly the doctrine of deputy authority has muted I not discarded accountability. I do believe brothers would and will say in the recovery we do have safeguards of plurality and scripture. Can you say there is a safeguard to impartiality?