The original title was, “What I’m Famous For”. Where this title came from is anyone’s guess. Goodness, what the subconscious will generate.
LA has now marked Kip again. I say again, because Bruce and Al were signers of the 1st and 2nd letters to him. According to Gordon in Hilo, the second letter was a marking.
Maybe they just responded to a triple-dog dare.
Someone recently went to the LA leaders and told them that if they really wanted unity, they needed to give. Years and years of pulling the most zealous and brightest, pulling in money for pet projects, and being the Jerusalem of the movement has created a lack of trust. This person was trying to say that they should give back, although that is a part of it. This person was saying that they should simply give with no strings attached. This kind of giving promotes trust, love, and peace.
Being one of those that does not trust the leadership in LA, I’m not sure I would have ever seen such gifts as pure-hearted. At this point, what would lead me to believe in a pure-hearted giving to others is probably too much for the current administration to publicly admit. Am I setting a standard too high? I do not know. I do know that the begining is simply adhering to the changes promised in 2003, but that’s a different post altogether.
What strikes me about the LA church’s letter is how different it is from Gordon’s response. Gordon, er Phoenix leadership urges. LA says that if you visit them, you’re out, too. Gordon met with people that visited the Phoenix splinter group while still attending Phoenix proper. From what is stated in the LA letter, fence-sitting and uncertainty are not allowed – those who are not with us are against us.
Insert famous over-used quote from Joshua here.
Ultimately, we reap what we sow. It is fair to say that LA has been sowing this very thing for years. The time has come to reap the harvest. The irony of what we as a ‘movement’ did since 1983 is striking. We split CoC’s, we pruned churches wholesale, we pronounced our brother in the RM as dead and dying. Now we are the ones dead and dying. Dire pictures of circling vultures are painted and promises of Yet Another Restoration flow like a river.
It serves all of us right, especially LA.
I’m not innocent in this matter, either. The same is true of me as well. I did the same things. I have continued to sow other things in my life and online as well. The harvest will come for me as well.
When I first wrote here, I was very angry. It could be argued that I still am. I said a lot of things that agitated people all over the world. Big name evangelists and elders stopped by to comment. A couple of times, when I realized that the readership was larger than a few friends, I even tried to pull the plug.
It very well could be that the total disintegration of the ICoC is being allowed by God as a demonstration of his power over hubris. How does God describe Egypt? “I rose them up for this very purpose.” Then again, that would assume that the ICoC was and is important enough to be made into a spectacle. The Worldwide Church of God had a similar disintegration, yet we didn’t know about them. The UBF is having a similar disintegration, yet we know even less about them. The WCG came out of it as a member of the Evangelical churches council worldwide. What makes them distinct from many other evangelicals is only their history, not much else. The UBF had their “God’s man on Earth” pass away and they are simply fading away. Who knows God’s purposes? It could be that all these things are unrelated.
What seems certain is that more letters like LA’s or Phoenix’s are coming. Too much energy can be spent worrying about Kip’s next target. Besides, Kip telegraphs everything – if he hasn’t mentioned your city, he’s not coming there. Fact is, we didn’t do anything 3.5 years ago and it’s too late now. A message like Gordon’s was needed before the 1st letter was written by the 65.
More splitting is in the near-term future. I don’t relish saying that. I hope God will work a miracle and actually build trust amongst ourselves. Until that time, it appears like Kip’s faction, independent factions, non-UP factions, UP factions, and other splits will continue to be realized.
Even in light of God’s mercy, it is impossible to escape that we really brought all of this on ourselves.