Quote:
Originally Posted by UntoHim
The next hurdle Nee faced was "who gets to appoint the elders in your new THE CHURCH is a particular city". In the NT elders are appointed by apostles, and Nee had previously denied that he, or any of the Local Church movement pioneers with him, were apostles. So he had to do a double-take and boldly declare "ok, ok, I guess we are apostles after all!"
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The LRC logic says the following:
Our leader was the apostle and he appointed our elders therefore they are the correct elders in the city therefore ours is the correct church in the city.
Leaving alone for the moment the completely unsupportable presumption that their leader was indeed an apostle with the authority to appoint elders,
the idea that they are the correct church in the city because of their presumed apostolic elder appointment emphasizes the fact that their whole claim to church legitimacy is based on the so-called apostle, not on Christ or even the church.
Nowhere does the Bible claim that church legitimacy is based on who appointed the elders in a city. Apostles never got to decide what was the church and what wasn't. Furthermore, elders, whether appointed by the apostle or not, never got to make this distinction either.
Ultimately, then, the LRC oneness is not based on the oneness of the Body, but rather on who is the apostle. This is a false oneness.