Good vs. Lee's Trees

[Freedom]

Originally Posted by OBW

The two trees can only be viewed as metaphorical relative to our present life. We have a choice to make . . . do we choose Christ and life or reject Him and choose the consequences. It is not about whether I am currently turning to my spirit, or calling on the Lord. It is figurative about how I choose to order my life. Do I do it on my own according to my ways or according to God's ways, starting with accepting Christ as the one who leads the way.

The extreme view brought to us by Lee is not correct, along with so many other things he taught. When you keep taking the unusual positions that are still not accepted by the bulk of Christianity, you continue to follow the one who brought all the problems and errors that you do see. The Bible really doesn't support eating the chicken and discarding the feathers and bones. It says to reject the whole of a false teacher. Seek a different source. Consider that the things they are teaching you may not be as spiritual as you think.

Lee's problem is that he was too presumptuous in interpreting the Bible. He assigned meaning to things that deserved more than just his interpretation, and he often assumed that things had more "significance" than they actually did. But then again, that's what people wanted. Maybe everyone was bored of reading these stories over and over, so they took liking to his allegorizing everything. As a matter of fact, Lee presumed to have uncovered the "hidden meaning" for just about everything in the OT, and that was eventually said to be his "unlocking" the entire Bible. So it's what people wanted. I don't blame anyone. The main problem I see is that there wasn't any critical analysis of what Lee taught.

I'm not against new teachings. I just think it would have done LCers well to both evaluate the teachings Lee was introducing but to also evaluate how the teachings were being used or had potential to be used. When Lee started talking about the Moses authority model as being a present day metaphor for leaders, that should have set off the alarm bells. And one doesn't have to look far to see how it was abused within the LC, and even how other groups have abused this same type of teaching. Likewise, the two trees ultimately ended up being an excuse mechanism as Indiana put it. When viewed in that light, it is hard to view the two trees teaching of having much value regardless or whether the teaching is valid or not.