Quote:
Originally Posted by Ohio
Thankyou for this word of wisdom.
This is exactly the point I wanted to make on the "thread with no name" about Steve Isitt's articles.
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If you write a letter to the church in Ephesus, as the Apostle John did, you cannot assume that the writer has left their first love merely because the Lord says the church in Ephesus has. This is, in my opinion, the error Witness Lee makes.
James does not refer to himself as one of the 12 tribes, but as "a slave of God and of the Lord Jesus Christ". The fact that he is writing to the "12 tribes" should not lead to the assumption that he does not understand the change from the OT to the NT.
Second, you cannot write to the "church in Ephesus" unless there is such a place with such a name. The church in Thyatira is not going to assume that this letter were to them, that would be ridiculous. Therefore it is reasonable to conclude that there were believers in Jesus who considered themselves "the twelve tribes in the dispersion". Once again, this is Witness Lee's mistake (in my opinion). He assumes that this label was created by James, that assumption is not supported by this book. On the contrary the logical conclusion is that this label already existed and James was writing to this group.