Curious!

[aron]

Originally Posted by Curious

The understanding and expectation the LC leadership promote to its followers is the Chinese religious model not the biblical one.

The Chinese goddess of mercy is named Guan yin. Personified as a woman usually looking rather floaty and serene. Guan yin deals with ‘sin’ by EXCUSING it. that’s how it works in the eastern religious system. This cultural mindset is contrary to Christianity and the harm it can do is well documented elsewhere on this forum. It is why all situations of accountability mentioned in the bible, especially form the prophets etc are ignored by the LC leadership and their twistings of the Noah story etc are cited. They have been used to back the practise and thinking of another religious system.

Biblical forgiveness actually exposes and names sin. It identifies and confronts it and is already willing to reconcile, bestow its blessing. However it requires acknowledgement from the offender in order to be received. The offender can only benefit from it and submit to some consequences as a result, if they hear, receive, and repent. Like the city of Ninevah is a good example. That is the pattern God has provided for the provision of forgiveness. Not excusing sin. Not His idea or plan. That is just giving licence to a system that is actually in rebellion to God.

The system as pushed by LC leaders took great pains to appear strictly adherent to the Bible, both in letter and spirit, often using coded terms like 'proper' and 'genuine' and 'normal', but under stress they'd abandon this while church members pretended not to notice. But it's just been too obvious.

I'm thinking specifically of Lee's own hand-picked cadre of senior co-workers (Mallon, So, Ingalls, Rapoport et al) who used Matthew 18 principles to confront him with concerns about his son. People were being damaged. But repentance (i.e. acknowledgement of vulnerability, error and willingness to change) for Witness Lee was impossible. His cultural model demanded a different approach, alluded to by Curious above.

When challenged, all that rhetoric about propriety according to scripture went right out the window, and the LC system showed itself to be just as 'deformed' and 'fallen' as any in Christianity that it so often derided. Conversely, LC members who violated its unspoken tenets, even if raising concerns using Matthew 18 principles, were called 'rebels' and summarily ejected.

The lone sign of repentance was at the end, in a vague statement about failure in "receiving others", as if leaders needed more charity toward fellow Christians, even as 'deformed', 'fallen', 'satanic' and 'Christ-less' as they were held to be. Evidently Lee felt that they could have been more magnanimous towards others. But any facing of internal flaws - no. The system was predicated on avoiding this.

[Curious]

Originally Posted by aron

The system as pushed by LC leaders took great pains to appear strictly adherent to the Bible, both in letter and spirit, often using coded terms like 'proper' and 'genuine' and 'normal', but under stress they'd abandon this while church members pretended not to notice. But it's just been too obvious.

Very well said, aron. You have summarised so much here, so well. WL got himself into a pickle that was not possible for him to get out of. Words like ‘proper’, ‘genuine’ and ‘normal’…I remember those being used too. And they are so very subjective words.

The things we can all take-away through coming to an understanding of this……appearances can be deceiving, never trust in them alone. Feelings of identification and familiarity can also be snares, (but not always).

Above all…take care, lest we may fall into the same trap. Wanting the glory for ourselves, to set ourselves up on the throne that belongs to God alone. Its more tempting than we realise if we’ve never come close to tasting it personally. To be aware of how vulnerable we can all be to being corrupted in this way, if the opportunity is real. It truly is harder to resist than one might think. A leader or historical figure who has demonstrated themselves to be immune to the corruption of power has not happened often in the history of the world, although is has happened.

Also, at the every-day level, keep up on our own spiritual housework, as recommended by Nell in the 12th post on this thread. Be ever open to acknowledge our own ‘vulnerability, error’, and be ‘willing to change’, trusting God with the outcomes is where faith replaces self-reliance. Self-reliance that rejects facing our flaws, builds up a system of self-defence within us. Trust in God is the faith then that gets attributed to us as our righteousness. Like it did for Abraham. Like it equally did for Rahab. Righteous servant of God, or Canaanite prostitute, makes no difference: their ability to trust God and take risk based on that trust is at the heart of true faith. Self-reliance is based in fear and doubting God and leads to sin. Repenting of sin is in itself a step of faith in God’s reality and stepping away from our own reality. I had better stop, I’m getting carried away sermonising where I hadn’t meant to.

In short, WL hadn’t taken some essential steps of faith, (as far as I understand true faith to be). (He built up a system where he did not need to rely on God as he was managing his own security on the side!) He needed more opportunity to figure the fundamental things out, yet rose to leadership roles without such a foundation. Einstein said ‘premature responsibility breeds superficiality’ and some have said that pearl of wisdom is more significant than E=mc2.

To benefit in a positive way from being aware of WL’s error, it helps remind me of mistakes I could also make, especially if I’m over focused on being bothered about him more than being mindful of the principles of repentance, faith and humility, and applying them to myself. that's my lesson. and I think it is a valuable lesson to hold onto, one to be thankful of.