My Testimony: Olvin

[Cal]

Originally Posted by Friedel

I consider Olvin's first post, his testimony, one of the most significant posts ever on this forum. Why? Because he testified and proved that there is the definite possibility of a fulfilling spiritual life after the Local Church, still using Witness Lee's sizable volume of books.

Unless I am mistaken, never before did anyone dare state that after leaving the Local Church. My considered conclusion was that it is impossible to function as a Christian after the Local Church and the only option is to be cynical, bitter, angry and a skeptic. Until Olvin came and said he still reads Witness Lee's books but he does not meet with the Local Church. Suddenly, here was a voice of reason.

...

Let us be fair and allow Olvin to share the Lord with whomever he crosses paths. He is not advocating a wholesale return to Witness Lee.

Was it a mistake to be in the Local Church and for so long? (Twenty three years, in my case.) I honestly do not know. Only the Lord knows.

Friedel,

I appreciate your perspective, but it's mistaken on several levels. First, where did you get the idea that no one is going on with the Lord here? I didn't really start growing as a Christian until I dumped many of the LC ideas. I have a very rich Christian life. And I'm really a very nice guy. To quote one of my favorite lines, If I had any friends, they'd tell you what a nice guy I am.

Maybe you are talking about going on with the Lord while still reading Witness Lee. Okay, well, I'm not sure why such an experience is really necessary, but that's not the problem here either.

The problem I had with Olvin is he suggested that none of us would know the purpose of life without Lee's ministry. He backpedaled on that and said he didn't just mean Lee but all "the ministry." But clearly his point was that Lee unveiled "the mystery of life" to us, he even quoted Lee's word-for-word definition of the purpose of life as his belief.

Well, my point is whether Lee did that or not we could have gotten it elsewhere and, more than that, we could have gotten a better version of it. Lee's version leaves out a lot as I explained.

I reacted strongly, mostly because I grow tired of the attitude of LCers, that they are so much more enlightened than everyone else. That attitude is deception. I just wanted to nip it in the bud.

My registration from Olvin's reactions is that it is he that is the intolerant one. He accused me, among other things, of being a conscious "evader of the truth." All I said to him is he didn't know the whole truth in the first place. I didn't accuse him of evading it, just not being aware of it.