07 Jul '14 21:15>
Caljust, its me sonship, can we converse some more about this post ?
I have a few questions for you. I have contacted the brothers meeting on the ground of locality in Pretoria. I asked them about the number regularly meeting there.
Before they send reply do you wish to revize your statement that in the 30 years since you knew them to begin to meet it is the same 10 people ?
Hi sonship - a question, please. Are you a member of one of the Witness Lee Local Churches?
For the information of the others, here is my experience.
In the 1980s I was a member of a Home Church that consisted of about six families. We were studying (and trying to practice) the biblical model of NT churches. One of our members had to go overseas on a business trip to Stuttgart, Germany, and when he came back he was a changed person. He met in Stuttgart a group of believers that called themselves The Church in Stuttgart, based on Witness Lee teachings.
He then broke away from our home church and stared his own church, calling it The Church in Pretoria. He had about ten members at peak.
Now this person was a good friend of mine, highly intelligent. He was President of the Human Sciences Research Council and later became Rector of the University of Stellenbosch.
Yet all our discussions on the model of the church ended in a total stalemate.
Our arguments would go something like this:
"Rolf, I agree that there should be only one church in one locality. That is the NT model. But the reality is that there are already a large number of churches in Pretoria, why start another one?"
"Because all the other churches are not based on Locality, but on Doctrine. We will represent the Locality, and are hence the only True church in Pretoria"
"But can you not see that you are only making the problem worse, not better? Do you realistically think all the other churches will now disband and join you?"
"Well, if they don't, that is THEIR problem, and they will have to answer to God for that."
They continued and became the most closed new denomination that i know. They get their Bible Study material from HO in Anaheim, California.
Thirty years later they are still the same ten people and believe that they represent the Church in Pretoria.
How terribly sad. So much for Witness Lee.
I have a few questions for you. I have contacted the brothers meeting on the ground of locality in Pretoria. I asked them about the number regularly meeting there.
Before they send reply do you wish to revize your statement that in the 30 years since you knew them to begin to meet it is the same 10 people ?