In Reply to: Re: Do all things always work together? posted by George on August 05, 2003 at 08:48:27:
Hola George.
I don't think God is in total control of things for the same reason you do. As people and not just as Christians, , we have freedom of choice. The reality in The Family is that while there is lip service to being free when in reality it is a controlled environment supporting the theology that God controls everything. It is one extreme that results in paralizing personal initiatives as much as possible.
I read Ro. 8:28 the same way regardless of translation. There must be some interaction between God's Will and the will of each individual. Your last sentence says that clearly: "He redeems even the bad things so that they ULIMATELY work for our good." But it only happens under thsoe two circumstances: to love God and to be called according to His purpose.
What the verse doesn't cover is the cituation where one of these two is missing but, for that same reason, one cannot assume one way or the other. In any case, God's mercy and redemption are His to dispense any which way He deems it. My observation came from the fact that the initial point was the extreme taught in The Family, of total control and as we shed off those layers of false teachings we discover a less bound and restrictive environment where we are free in God's arms and care, even make wrong choices.
So, what is the situation of sincere Christians in The Family? Can there be any? I don't mean sincere people, or people who sincerely try to do things but sincere Christians who become exposed to the doctrines of The Family. Many of us wanted to serve God and follow Jesus (I am not including myself here because I was not a Christian then) before they found The Family but there were two things:
1) We didn't know the Bible enough to know what a real Christian is or even was supposed to believe
2) There was misleading information and willfully, even criminal intention to deceive in order to gain the famous "forsake all" from new disciples.
But those were different times then. Allow me to say that The Family was more Christian back then so it was easier for Christians to be deceived back then. The doctrines are so warped now that any real and sincere Christian would have no trouble seeing the problems with having sex with somebody's wife. Arthur may have been a sincere good hearted man (and I believe he was and maybe even is to this day) but had he been a true Christian he would have seen that was wrong to have sex with Maria (uggh) and to take Becky as a wife later. Real Christian may do that everyday in real life but they would know it is a sin. Only a non-Christian would think it is not a sin and continue doing it.
Then, can there be sincere Christians in The Family? What The Family has is many sincerely deceived people who think they are Christians. On the other hand, are there some people of God in The Family? I am sure there are and He is taking care of them.
What do you think?