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Spiritual Abuse Titles Spiritual abuse is the mistreatment of a person who is in need of help, support or greater spiritual empowerment, with the result of weakening, undermining or decreasing that person's spiritual empowerment. |
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#11 |
Member
Join Date: Apr 2008
Location: DFW area
Posts: 4,384
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TJ,
I think JPL is onto something. But I’m not sure it is truly the advance guard that runs into these crazy deceptions. I think it is those who are somewhere in between. It is believers who have moved beyond milk and have a little knowledge. They are seeking more, and do not yet have sufficient defenses against the wiles, traps, sugary words that sway them away from the truth before they have the spiritual strength gained from further spiritual growth. They may be willing to follow “at any cost” but have not truly counted the cost. In other words, there is an aspect of the cost that is actually away from Christ and is not taken into account because of the exuberant desire to follow something that looks so good. Most of the early Texas contingent would be in this group. Even by 1973, that is probably where I would put my family. There may have been some exceptions, but it seems mostly true from my limited knowledge. They surely were strong seekers of Christ, but they were not yet an “advance guard” with wisdom to see through the wiles of the enemy. Even the now-senior Texas member (and often pointed to as a leader) of the BBs was just an enthusiastic kid in the mid 60s. He was far from any “advance guard.” I believe that the true advance guard will not be so easily fooled. That means that virtually everyone who came to the LC was somewhat less than advance guard. Some may have been closer, but they were still captured by the less obvious and then carried into what should have been more obvious. Or they were captured by the less obvious and then spent time trying to reconcile the discrepancies as aberrations that could be overlooked or explained away. This would be those few that we consider more like true advance guard. The John Ingalls types and other more seasoned Christian ministers who joined the LC with some spiritual weight already under their belt. One way or the other, many of those have seen the light. If you take into account the ones who are charting a modified course in the GLA and other places, there are few of the true “advance guard” remaining in the old-line LC. I’m sure that someone can find a hole in this theory. It is just that. I see several places to pick it apart. But like a good metaphor, it only tells the part it tells. If we try to make it fit the entire situation, it will fail, or our account of the entire situation will be faulty (depending on whether we want to throw an incomplete metaphor out or presume that a metaphor tells it all and applies in all possible analogies). Now if JPL simply meant "those burning for more of Christ" by the term advance guard, then I see her point a little better. In that case, "advance guard" does not suggest weight of experience and knowledge, but desire for more. We already know that those who do not desire more probably have no interest in the LC.
__________________
Mike I think . . . . I think I am . . . . therefore I am, I think — Edge OR . . . . You may be right, I may be crazy — Joel |
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