[Trapped]

OBW - I read a little bit so far. I just have some comments but they won't be a well laid out as yours, and they probably won't be as deep as yours were either. To be honest they are mostly complaints as the more time passes the harder time I have reading anything of Lee or Nee. This is just what I have the time for at present.

The first thing I noticed is the phrase "church life", which was repeated three times in the first three sentences. This is a phrase commonly used within the local churches to refer to itself (i.e. "when I touched the church life" means what would typically be stated as "when I joined ABC Church"). So immediately it seems like Lee is stating that the local churches are special because they hold a Christian faith. This is, as usual, hand-in-hand with the viewpoint in the local churches that they are "it" and are the only expression of the Body, or, excuse me, the "practical" or "proper" expression of the Body.

"God" section: I don't know what the LCs get out of using the phrase "uniquely one" to describe God. I have checked out a number of other churches' statements of faith and they just use the word "one".

His "Christ" section is incredibly difficult to read because it's a handful of words broken up by parenthetical verse references, repeated more times than I can count.

I also noticed too what you said that Lee says things like "genuine believers" or "genuine Christians". It's just another dividing, us-vs-them word.

While he does admit that some may disagree on OCOC, he then essentially calls anyone who does disagree an "improper Christian", by saying as "proper Christians" we have to believe OCOC.

Just a little further down Lee uses another phrases that chaps me, "so-called". The "so-called" Pentecostal people. There is too much haughtiness and arrogance in just the first few pages for me to stomach.

Although I just kept reading and it's interesting that in chapter 3 it gets more tolerable. He talks about the importance of accepting, for example, a Seventh Day Adventist brother comes to the LC and insists on their own keeping of the Sabbath, or accepting weaker saints who are afraid of eating food sacrificed to idols. I don't disagree there.

Sorry if this isn't the kind of response you were looking for; this is just my reaction as I read the first few pages.

StG - While I haven't read the entire book, it has come up often in conversations with LCers who do see issues in the LC. Many try to "come back" to this book as the handbook for how to fix issues and how the church "should be". Essentially the book is supposed to be what things we have to contend for in the church, i.e. what is non-negotiable, what we cannot bend on (speciality), and then what things we can accept as different one from another but do not become contentious over (generality), and then how to carry out the "proper" church life using things that we may not insist on but realize they are the "best" practically for the carrying out of the church, e.g. pray-reading, etc. (practicality).