[aron]

I would follow Charlie's post (#65) by adding, look what happens to the rest of scripture if you take "neither Jew nor Greek" to the literal extreme. The scripture concludes the NT by calling "every tribe and tongue and nation" to be present in glory. They are not effaced in the church.

Rev 7:9 "After this I looked, and behold, a great multitude that no one could number, from every nation, from all tribes and peoples and languages, standing before the throne and before the Lamb, clothed in white robes, with palm branches in their hands."

There is no sense that human distinctions are obliterated. It even says the 12 apostles will sit on 12 thrones judging the 12 tribes. If the 12 tribes are in the New Jerusalem, they can't be in church?

And finally, look what happens when we try this - it becomes a trojan horse for whatever culture wants to rule the others. There's no mutuality, reciprocity. I think of Lee's face beaming as he sees the Taipei trainees, during "The New Way". He has eliminated all possible rivals.

And lest anyone think this was an odd blip, he codified it in the Recovery Version footnotes. All local churches were to be "absolutely identical", and "with no distinctions whatever". Does this sound like utopia, or dystopia?