Quote:
Originally Posted by aron
Or we might have two or three in Toronto or Mansfield who want to affiliate themselves with the ministry of TC, and a different two or three agree in the same city to affiliate themselves with the ministry of the BBs. What if you have one group agreeing to disagree with another group? How does one "tell it to the church"?
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Based on the context of Matt 18, a disagreement is not necessarily something that calls the force of the passage into action. This is one of the ways that the LRC escalated so many differences into excommunication.
There is a difference between being requested/required not to teach certain things, or even take your differences and go elsewhere, and telling the membership to have nothing to do with them. And it is also why there is often a less-than public telling even of sins in many cases in Christianity. Often, only those who would have reason to be in contact are told anything because the effect of the expulsion is complete without full public disclosure.
So the rest of Christianity understands that differing on doctrine is a rational basis for separating to meet but not outright excluding. Only a group that insists that only they are a true and proper church would (incorrectly) escalate such a difference to the level of a Matt 18 dispute. That is because they really do see disagreement as a form of sin no matter what they say about it.