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His main argument is that the ground of the church is not necessary because the ground of oneness is all that's needed according to his estimation of the Bible. However this isn't fundamentally sound if we look at the what the Bible actually says and what the Bible actually practiced. Deuteronomy 12:11 says that we do not have a choice where we meet, it's wholly up to God, and we have to go where his choice is.
-Jay
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If we are being specific, he is saying that Witness Lee’s teaching of the ground of the church, which was crafted according to his estimation of the Bible, is not necessary. Witness Lee claims that a proper and legitimate church can and should only identify itself based on the boundaries of whatever city it is in, and that everyone else is causing division solely based on the name of their meeting hall or congregation rather than the condition of their hearts or righteous living and without any regard to the fact that many of these groups are more than happy to fellowship with one another and don’t care what the other groups call themselves.
As for your verse reference, one must always consider the proper context of the scriptures they use. Let’s bring it up, shall we? I’ll throw in some verses before and after for greater context out of the goodness of my heart.
Deuteronomy 12:8-14
8 You are not to do as we do here today, everyone doing as they see fit, 9 since you have not yet reached the resting place and the inheritance the Lord your God is giving you. 10 But you will cross the Jordan and settle in the land the Lord your God is giving you as an inheritance, and he will give you rest from all your enemies around you so that you will live in safety. 11 Then to the place the Lord your God will choose as a dwelling for his Name—there you are to bring everything I command you: your burnt offerings and sacrifices, your tithes and special gifts, and all the choice possessions you have vowed to the Lord. 12 And there rejoice before the Lord your God—you, your sons and daughters, your male and female servants, and the Levites from your towns who have no allotment or inheritance of their own. 13 Be careful not to sacrifice your burnt offerings anywhere you please. 14 Offer them only at the place the Lord will choose in one of your tribes, and there observe everything I command you.
There are two very important questions that I believe most of us know the answer to. First, who was the Lord speaking to? The answer: Israel. Second, how did the Lord have Israel follow up on this command found in Deuteronomy? The answer: by building the temple in Jerusalem. This was a very specific command given to a very specific group of people so that they would have one place of worship and give sacrifice in the land that the Lord had given them.
Now for another question. There are many Old Testament laws, traditions, rituals, etc., that find some parallel in the new covenant established by the work of the Messiah, The Lord’s Anointed, Jesus. How is the matter of the temple paralleled in the New Testament? I’ll ask essentially the same question in another manner: Where in the scriptures can we find something that is explicitly paralleled to the temple where we are commanded to worship the Lord?
John 4:19-26
19 “Sir,” the woman said, “I can see that you are a prophet. 20 Our ancestors worshiped on this mountain, but you Jews claim that the place where we must worship is in Jerusalem.” 21 “Woman,” Jesus replied, “believe me, a time is coming when you will worship the Father neither on this mountain nor in Jerusalem. 22 You Samaritans worship what you do not know; we worship what we do know, for salvation is from the Jews. 23 Yet a time is coming and has now come when the true worshipers will worship the Father in the Spirit and in truth, for they are the kind of worshipers the Father seeks. 24 God is spirit, and his worshipers must worship in the Spirit and in truth.” 25 The woman said, “I know that Messiah” (called Christ) “is coming. When he comes, he will explain everything to us.” 26 Then Jesus declared, “I, the one speaking to you—I am he.”
We can see clearly that the one place of worship in Israel, the temple, is paralleled here by the Spirit. Where else is the temple, God’s dwelling place and one place of worship and sacrifice, paralleled?
Romans 12:1-2
1 Therefore, I urge you, brothers and sisters, in view of God’s mercy, to offer your bodies as a living sacrifice, holy and pleasing to God—this is your true and proper worship. 2 Do not conform to the pattern of this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind. Then you will be able to test and approve what God’s will is—his good, pleasing and perfect will.
1 Corinthians 3:16-17
16 Don’t you know that you yourselves are God’s temple and that God’s Spirit dwells in your midst? 17 If anyone destroys God’s temple, God will destroy that person; for God’s temple is sacred, and you together are that temple.
1 Corinthians 6:18-20
18 Flee from sexual immorality. All other sins a person commits are outside the body, but whoever sins sexually, sins against their own body. 19 Do you not know that your bodies are temples of the Holy Spirit, who is in you, whom you have received from God? You are not your own; 20 you were bought at a price. Therefore honor God with your bodies.
Ephesians 2:19-22
19 Consequently, you are no longer foreigners and strangers, but fellow citizens with God’s people and also members of his household, 20 built on the foundation of the apostles and prophets, with Christ Jesus himself as the chief cornerstone. 21 In him the whole building is joined together and rises to become a holy temple in the Lord. 22 And in him you too are being built together to become a dwelling in which God lives by his Spirit.
Hebrews 13:11-15
11 The high priest carries the blood of animals into the Most Holy Place as a sin offering, but the bodies are burned outside the camp. 12 And so Jesus also suffered outside the city gate to make the people holy through his own blood. 13 Let us, then, go to him outside the camp, bearing the disgrace he bore. 14 For here we do not have an enduring city, but we are looking for the city that is to come. 15 Through Jesus, therefore, let us continually offer to God a sacrifice of praise—the fruit of lips that openly profess his name. 16 And do not forget to do good and to share with others, for with such sacrifices God is pleased.
God’s temple, which is referred to as the one place of worship and sacrifice, is directly paralleled by the Spirit and our bodies. God’s temple, his dwelling place, is directly paralleled by the believers individually and collectively. It is paralleled by the body of Christ. Not once, however, is God’s temple, his one place of worship we must all come to whether we like it or not because we don’t get to choose… Not once is it paralleled with the physical boundaries of cities made by men.
As such, I’d say that your use of Deuteronomy 12:11 is hardly enough to justify Lee’s rabid insistence on a particular naming scheme for the assemblies of God that are based on arbitrary boundaries created by men, often pagan men.