Signs of Spiritual Abuse by Steven Lambert

[ZNPaaneah]

When I was in the LRC I soon learned that there were some "vain talkers", the people who taught others to "parrot" Witness Lee for example. I took the approach to ignore them, I thought that a head on confrontation was not wise. However, here Paul says "there mouths must be stopped" and I now see that their word spread as gangrene so that the church was put under some stupid Judaizer law of everyone being a parrot of Witness Lee, a concept straight from the concision all for filthy lucre's sake.

If you ask how do you "stop their mouths" seeing as those that did confront these ones were disciplined, maligned and booted. It seems obvious that the proper approach is

Heb
11:33 Who through faith subdued kingdoms, wrought righteousness, obtained promises, stopped the mouths of lions,
11:34 Quenched the violence of fire, escaped the edge of the sword, out of weakness were made strong, waxed valiant in fight, turned to flight the armies of the aliens.

The antidote to mindless parroting is clearly a word of faith.

Paul says to "reprove them sharply" because this testimony is true. His point is they should be reproved sharply for gluttony, sloth, lies and evil deeds.

The LRC is not "sound in the faith". To allow a man with the character of PL to be in an oversight position of the ministry is a symptom of their error. To allow and even finance the unruly behavior of lawsuits is a symptom. To allow vain talkers to convince everyone to mindlessly parrot WL's words is a symptom.

Giving ear to this "Jewish fable" about MOTA's is a symptom.

To heed commandments, like "one city one church" from men that turn from the faith is a symptom. The items of the Christian faith are very plainly written in the NT and "one city one church" is not one of them. Likewise, the "ground" of the church is also very clear in the NT, the ground that Jesus is building His church on was purchased with Jesus' sin offering on Calvary. To deny that the redeemed of the Lord are the ground is to turn from the faith.

Being blinded because these ones "profess to know God" while they are denying God by their works is a symptom.

[Ohio]

Originally Posted by ZNPaaneah

When I was in the LRC I soon learned that there were some "vain talkers", the people who taught others to "parrot" Witness Lee for example.

Titus Chu and the GLA were a total paradox of values when it came to Witness Lee and his cadre of supporters. Titus taught us to receive everything from Witness Lee, but nothing from those he surrounded himself with. Titus Chu viewed Lee as his own spiritual father, a spiritual man unparalleled on the earth at the time, yet had no respect for the lackeys hand-picked by Lee to facilitate his many programs. I don't know how Titus reconciled this stark disconnect in his own mind other than by his oft-used Chinese maxim, "the mistakes of my father are none of my business."

We never bought into the "Witness Lee parroting" that spread during the New Way of the 80's. We viewed it as one more instance of those dunces kissing up to Lee. It was really not until the FTTA began, with the constant recruiting during the trainings, did LSM nonsense begin to seriously affect us. GLA leaders knew that Titus was some kind of "umbrella" protecting us from all the crazies out there, but never did the topic come up that perhaps the source of the problems was Witness Lee himself. Instead we viewed ourselves as the "purer" and more spiritual segment of the Recovery.

The FTTA was definitely a toxic influence. Many of those young people who joined it, most with lofty expectations, eventually turned against the GLA leadership. Trainers actively undermined the relationship they had with their sending family and church. Brothers like Chuck Debelak were instrumental in restoring these young trainees to the healthy faith upon returning from the FTTA. Many others were lost.

Over time I have been convinced that Titus adopted this contradictory paradigm relationship with Lee and LSM because of his intentions to one day lead the Recovery and "clean house." Obviously things haven't work out as planned. Ironically Lee saw through it and prepped his Blendeds and the rest of the unsuspecting to prevent such an occurrence from ever happening. Eventually Titus Chu's own abusive ways did more than anything else to spoil his plans to become the next MOTA. All the church leaders who should have supported him decided that, though the Blendeds were nothing without Lee, the alternative under Titus was far worse.