Whistleblower

[awareness]

Originally Posted by UntoHim

All of this indicates what a dark spirit of utter corruption and deception dominated the Local Church of Witness Lee at that point. -

The problem is a system where one person is considered God's authority on the earth.

It happened to the Mega-church in Ft. Lauderdale, Calvary Chapel, that had grown to 20,000 members.

Pastor Bob, as he was called, had what he called the Moses system of church governance. That is, God delivers to the Moses figure, pastor Bob in this case, who carries the ultimate unquestioned authority of God. That same unquestioned authority was delegated to the 200 preachers below him.

That allowed all kinds of sorted behavior, because the leadership went unquestioned, and were unaccountable.

Long story short, Pastor Bob got caught messing with married sisters, and the preachers below him were even involved with same sex relations. It was all covered up until a whistleblower came forth.

It happens in cults. Rose McGowan, for example, that was first to expose Weinstein, grew up in The Children of God, that was basically a sex cult. At least they were honest, and didn't cover it up.

That's the kind of thing Watchman Nee's Spiritual Authority produces ... and that was produced in Lee's Recovery movement.

[TLFisher]

Originally Posted by awareness

The problem is a system where one person is considered God's authority on the earth.

That's the problem with deputy authority doctrine and practice. You can run roughshod over brothers and sisters without any real consequence. They either have to take it or leave.
The doctrine produces pride and negates any possibility of being called for accountability.
Reading the various posts through the day. So much focus what was included in John's book.
Not even talking about ones whose stories have yet to be told.

[UntoHim]

Originally Posted by UntoHim

All of this indicates what a dark spirit of utter corruption and deception dominated the Local Church of Witness Lee at that point. -

Originally Posted by awareness

The problem is a system where one person is considered God's authority on the earth....
That's the kind of thing Watchman Nee's Spiritual Authority produces ... and that was produced in Lee's Recovery movement.

awareness has brought up one of the roots of the problems we are discussing on this thread.
"Power corrupts; absolute power corrupts absolutely" Not a verse in the Bible but speaks of a universal truth nonetheless.

One of the main reasons that the Local Church of Witness Lee got nailed with the "cult" tag back in the 70s is the abject power invested in one man as the unquestioned "one apostle with the one ministry for the age". Of course Lee's off-the-wall home-brewed theology didn't help. Neither did their secrecy about what is really taught and practiced behind the meeting hall doors.

John Myer, in his book A Future and A Hope outlined this dynamic:
The most glaring of these was the stress on the group’s central figure, Witness Lee. I understood the concept of appreciation and respect toward ministers, but when titles like “the oracle,” “the minister of the age” and “the apostle” were routinely ascribed to Lee it struck me as being devotion of an unbalanced kind. According to my long-term observations, this issue alone raised red flags in more people than all the other questionable items in the Local Church Movement put together.
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