Apostles in The Church: Yesterday and Today

[Cal]

Originally Posted by ZNPaaneah

I have always felt that 90% of the blame for people being deceived is on the people who were deceived.

Depends on the age and experience of the people involved. The LCM indoctrinates young people and children.

Either way that doesn't get the deceivers off the hook. They are culpable too.

Drake says he cares about the people who have been hurt. Well, how is he demonstrating that care? By continuing to support the systems and people that hurt them? I don't get that. His care is abstract. Love is a verb. It means taking action. James 2:17 says, "... faith by itself, if it is not accompanied by action, is dead." The Bible says over and over "Seek justice for the oppressed." To me this includes the many people who have been hurt by the LCM system. So how are we to take action to help them? Speaking out on this board is one way.

The question we all should be asking is, why did so many people get hurt? The answer must be there is something wrong with the system. And it's clear to me that the problem boils down to their teaching that people have no choice but to remain in that system and follow those leaders. I cannot see how those teachings can be true, given their fruit and the fact that biblically they are questionable. So I don't believe them.

My belief is that where they went wrong is with a legalistic application of locality, conferring too much authority to extra-local workers, and the idea that their movement is a special move of God in which one must remain. All these beliefs work to hold people in the LCM. So once in the system a person who has compelling reasons to leave experiences intense inner conflicts which are psychologically, spiritually and relationally damaging. This is the source of the hurt, the same hurt Drake claims to care about.

I believe my views of apostleship are viable. Drake says they are not scriptural and contain logical fallacies. He is entitled to his opinion, but I feel no necessity to agree with him. I believe God cares about people first, and don't believe he would ever set up a system that would result in so many people getting hurt. Given that the core beliefs that support that system are biblically questionable anyway, I feel I can ignore them.

I don't have to "prove" I'm right on this board. And Drake is not the judge to say whether I've done so anyway. He can argue all day that the LCM system is sound biblically. I’ll just keep asking “Then why is it so damaging?” I don’t agree that it is biblically sound to begin with, even without the damage. But with it as far as I’m personally concerned the case is closed.

So, when I point these things out and wonder aloud about where Drake's heart is, he doesn't explain how he can live with and even defend these things, he just complains that I'm slandering him. But the other shoe never drops where he explains why he continues to defend a religious system which is damaging. He just acts like it's not damaging while claiming to care about the people who he admits were damaged. I'll leave it to the reader to decide whether that makes any sense.

If I'm misinterpreting him, Drake is free to explain himself better than he has. Wouldn't it make more sense for him to clarify things, rather than complain that I follow the few dots he's given us exactly to where they lead?