Quote:
Originally Posted by aron
I probably should have put in my scriptural reference, given that OBW asked for them, and I usually assume (wrongly) that people get what I am alluding to. I am specifically thinking here of the parable of the two sons. One promised to obey the command, then didn't. The second refused, then repented and did it. Jesus asked them, Which one did the will of the Father? They answered, the second.
So my analogy was, we can be in the front row of the meeting, making noise, testifying of all our "experiences of Christ" during the week, which may be real and legitimate. But they may not. So drop it. Drop it and go on. Ultimately it is what you "hold to", that is real. And that cannot be assessed until it is found what you are holding to, at the end.
Ultimately, WL developed a catch-phrase, sold a few thousand books, and a few thousand folks bought them and read them. Or put them on the shelf, unread. Life goes on.
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Again, I don't see that talking about experiences of Christ generally was the cause of the problem. To me the cause of the problem, ironically, was thinking we needed
specific "experiences of Christ" that you could shout about in the meeting, i.e. get a bunch of Amens to. So the problem was not generality. Quite the opposite. It was a misguided specificity, i.e. of LCM-approved "experiences." The LCM-approved experience list was actually quite narrow.
To me saying we need to experience Christ is like saying we need to pray. Paul said "pray unceasingly." He didn't say at that moment what to pray about specifically. Being general about experiencing Christ doesn't encourage invalid experiences any more that generally encouraging prayer encourages invalid prayers.
A generalization for a real encounter with God, whether as grace, or love or joy or service or prophecy, is an experience of Christ. It makes a very valid point that genuine Christianity has the element of real experience, not just theory. God is involved and when he is you, at least eventually, realize that. That's an experience. I think it's silly to be told that I have to find in the Bible where it talks about experience. As far as I'm concerned it's implied all over the Bible.
I think you guys are making a huge mountain out of a molehill. I see correlation masquerading as causation.