Quote:
Originally Posted by Unregistered
I see the church as a tree and this tree releases acorns every year. As a result new trees are sprouting and growing, but in my mind it is just "one" oak tree. The DNA is the same, the nature and expression is the same. The fact that we have an oak tree here and another one there doesn't equal a division rather it equals a forest. This is the practical way in which an oak tree can evangelize the entire earth.
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I like the oak/acorn analogy. I think in the main it holds true. But I add the detail that some acorns respect the oak and some don't. And some PRETEND to respect the oak but if you look carefully at how they treat the other acorns you have to wonder just what they are spreading.
Jesus said, "You honor the ancients but your fathers killed them". Luke 11:47
John wrote, "They came out from us because they were not of us." 1 John 2:19
Remember the parable (in Matt. ch 13) of the "other seeds" mixed in with the crop. This may pertain to congregations as well as individuals. For the Mormons I think this is true. They are arguably a Christian spin-off but they are also arguably not a Christian assembly. Same with Unification Church, etc, etc. Similar but arguably a different DNA.
Where the line is drawn, is of course not so clearly delineated. But lack of respect for the parent "oak tree" and/or the "fellow acorns" gives me a clue of which way they are tending. The fruit is being manifest, of what sort it is. I think "receiving one another" a la Romans 15:7 is a big marker for identifying the children of the original oak tree.