Quote:
Originally Posted by aron
I watched the first few minutes of the video. Culture shock to say the least. I used to be there and counted myself fortunate, like I was in the "inner circle". Getting perfected, so-called, was part of the price of admission.
But perfected to what? To the image of Witness Lee? When I heard the words that his acolytes were so carefully rehearsing in his presence, "The economy of God is to bring forth an organism for the Triune God", it struck me as not entirely wrong, and therefore arguably true in some sense. But so what? I have written hundreds of posts here on this forum, and some of them arguably contain true statements. Does that mean that everyone has to memorize them verbatim?
How much mutuality was on display in that room, in that video? None. Zip. Nada. Not one iota. So where is the opportunity to 'confess your sins to one another'? It simply doesn't exist.
What is strange about the ministry of WL is that his sentences were placed on bulletin boards and memorized, but parts of the Bible that he couldn't line up with his ministry were ignored, as if nonexistent. If he was forced to acknowledge them at all, he'd downplay them as either irrelevant nonessentials or worse, as "low" or "natural" or "fallen men's concepts" or the like. So his ministry wasn't arguably about the Bible at all. It was about the ministry. The Bible was merely a vehicle towards an end; if he couldn't line it up, it was abandoned.
The concept of "the age of spiritual giants is over; now it is the age of small potatoes"... where did that come from? I never heard one Bible verse supporting it. But it was convenient to the ministry so it was pushed upon the local churches. Again I ask, where is the mutuality here?
I remember at one point WL said we should learn from the PRC "Red Guards". Why? Because it seemed to him to be successful. What did it have to do with Christ? Nothing. Jesus even taught, "It should not be this way among you" (Matt 20:25; Mark 10:42; cf 1 Pet 5:3). But WL could ignore such unhelpful parts of the Bible.
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Some of the comments posted on that video crack me up: "
Who else on earth has spoken like this!? Brother Lee a true apostle of the Living God had a double portion 5 talent Spirit!" What I find sad is that LCers find this teacher/student model of public humiliation (aka "perfecting") to be something completely legitimate. Lee was the supreme leader who always knew best. All others were candidates for his "perfecting".