StandfortheTestimony.Org

[Cal]

Originally Posted by Ohio

Since I was a part of the Recovery for many years, I understand that it is hard for brother Canfield to come to grips with these truths. I have concluded that nearly all of us young believers truly "came together simply as Christians, in the oneness of the Body of Christ, rather than on the basis of some teaching, practice, or person." We wanted Christ, only Christ, and most of us paid a huge price in that endeavor. For the most part, we had many "seasons of refreshing from the presence of the Lord" during those early years.

We were brainwashed early on that being "only for Christ" meant being "separate from Christianity." This made sense to us. But the fact is, it was false. In fact, the opposite is true. Being only for Christ means you don't focus on the shortcomings of Christianity, you focus on the people there.

We liked to say that we weren't separating from the people, but from the system. This was a rationalization, because the net effect was that we separated from the people in a major way.

I believe the Lord honored our sincerity early on, even though he knew we were on a path to exclusivism. But as time went on the consequences of our errant attitude could no longer be put off, and the Lord allowed them to catch up with the movement, and it dried up.

Canfield trying to go back to the old formula of raising up uber-churches with the local ground as the excuse for separation is like Thomas Edison going back to a failed formula for the light bulb. It didn't work then and it won't work now. Best learn the lesson why it didn't work and move on, instead of leaning the wrong lesson--like for example it just didn't have the right people implementing it. Communist sympathizers used that excuse for decades. Look where it got them.