Quote:
Originally Posted by InOmnibusCaritas
I am not at all suggesting that we must return to NT form of church government. Nor am I advocating for a reformulation of the "one true church". I am now a youth pastor in a Methodist church.
But I was asked on whether Acts 9:31 and 16:5 refute Nee's local church model. So I looked it up and reported my findings: they don't. I'm happy to look at other verses.
What I do hope to do is to engage in a dispassionate and scholarly review of Leeism. It is hard to suppress deep-seated misgivings so I've not participated in this forum for 9 years. But now that I've resettled in my new congregation and ministry, I want to see if I'm able to lay the ghost to rest and help others do so.
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The local church was implied not overtly stated. Jesus never said "Go forth, evangelize the world and establish local churches in every city" nor did Paul advocate that structure although he wrote to different churches in specific cities and to the "churches" of Galatia. It appears that part of the problem of many of us Biblical students being drawn into the LC was the inherent issue of the implication of what scriptures mean even though they may not clearly state a specific doctrine or dogma.
Paul went to different cities and established churches so if he was going to advocate such as structure it would seem that he would have made that an issue. However, his letters are primarily dealing with problems so maybe that wasn't a problem although there certainly were divisions in the early churches but Paul never focused on the one church in one city as an issue. The LCs like denominational churches work like McDonalds...create the same franchise in various cities and sell the same message.