My perspective

[YP0534]

Even if I could agree with the current administration of the LSM about all the points of doctrine, and I certainly can't at this point because of how far they are now ranging from the pure Word of the Bible and even from the reasonably arguable Word of the Bible, the consequence of the practices are ABSOLUTELY the litmus test. I think the word is "fruit" in the New Testament.

I've used this phrase a couple of times recently and it really describes the situation for me: They ended up throwing the saints themselves under the bus of the Local Church.

The teaching about the universal "Local Church" somehow caused all of us over time to lose our clarity about what God actually wanted in the meetings of the believers and eventually a system grew in place that chewed up and spit out not just our families and our brothers and sisters in the denominations but even the very members with a heart for the Lord and for the group.

To paraphrase a friend of mine, DON'T TELL ME that you love the brothers when they are dropping like flies from your callous neglect and myopic misapprehension of God's purpose and you tell the story of Lot's wife to the survivors in response!

The thing I realized today about the difference between the notion of "universal church" and the Body is that the one tends toward uniformity while the other inherently recognizes the many different life functions. The "universal church" has the same everything everywhere, all blended up into some kind of metaphysical smoothie. But, as similar as they are in form and appearance, and acknowledging the real inward mingling of the life substances, fingers and toes have VASTLY different functions in the body. Not to mention the rather striking visual distinctions between ears and elbows. The multifarious wisdom of God is displayed in the local assembly because it is the rich expression the many members of the Body's functioning.

Seems to me if we were all supposed to end up homogenized God wouldn't have invented fingerprints and DNA. We do share the same life and nature but we don't all need to wear the same necktie.

All the different portions are the glory of the meeting, not its shame. If you go to a pot luck and everybody brings the same 3-bean salad, I think we might all throw up.

At least, I think the Lord would.

Even if you repeated the highest things, how does this shame the enemy? This is what the monkeys do! This is what the babies do!

So, saints, I'd say:

1 Cr 13:11 When I was a child, I spoke as a child, I felt as a child, I reasoned as a child; when I became a man, I had done with what belonged to the child.

[OBW]

Originally Posted by YP0534

If you go to a pot luck and everybody brings the same 3-bean salad, I think we might all throw up.

At least, I think the Lord would.

Well said!!

[YP0534]

it's been a long time but I'm still ok with what I wrote here

I have continued to grow over these years and my sympathy for those saints continues to grow. But I understand something further now about our spiritual destiny in the New Jerusalem and I am still less harsh on those ones in those days. I cannot say anything about the present condition of the Local Church believer. Lee himself clearly indicated more than once that he believed this was the degraded recovered church.

I think I might just start calling it The New Way Church, because that's clearly when the biggest division happened in the US. But the truth is that the New Way Church is largely characterized by its old way influences. Influences that lead to divisions.

There IS a unique way and it is always new: JUST CHRIST

[Ohio]

Originally Posted by YP0534

it's been a long time but I'm still ok with what I wrote here

There IS a unique way and it is always new: JUST CHRIST

Great to hear from you again!

You wear your moniker like an Auschwitz survivor's tattoo.

[YP0534]

Originally Posted by Ohio

Great to hear from you again!

You wear your moniker like an Auschwitz survivor's tattoo.

You recall that was my number?
LOL

THEY GAVE ME A NUMBER FOR LIFE

My interest is in getting that name that no one else knows on a white stone.

It's not a number, though.

[Ohio]

Originally Posted by YP0534

You recall that was my number?
LOL

THEY GAVE ME A NUMBER FOR LIFE

My interest is in getting that name that no one else knows on a white stone.

It's not a number, though.

Haha, too funny. Reminds me of this old TV show I watched as a kid called "Get Smart." It was a spoof on the secret agent genre of the day.

The theme song went something like this:

He's a secret agent man, secret agent man!
They're givin' you a number, and takin' away your name.

You'd think after 50-60 years I would have forgotten this stuff? lol

I still got my LSM badge souvenir too! I'm Agent 034B.

[OBW]

Originally Posted by Ohio

Haha, too funny. Reminds me of this old TV show I watched as a kid called "Get Smart." It was a spoof on the secret agent genre of the day.

The theme song went something like this:

He's a secret agent man, secret agent man!
They're givin' you a number, and takin' away your name.

You'd think after 50-60 years I would have forgotten this stuff? lol

I still got my LSM badge souvenir too! I'm Agent 034B.

Actually, that song went to the somewhat serious TV spy series called "Secret Agent (Man?)" with the song sung by Johnny Rivers. "Get Smart" was a Mel Brooks spoof with no words to the theme song.

And like you, I remember way too much of this old stuff.

[YP0534]

I'm just going to put it out there:

Does anyone have any notes or anything from the message Lee gave at the "high school training graduation" in July 1987?

Anyone know anyone who was there?

Shot in the dark.

I was required to leave early.

Might have been printed in a "heart of the high schooler" newsletter or something?