[Oregon]

Hi Igzy,

Firstly:
The word “church” in the NT many times is translated assembly and Paul may just be referring to the fact of saints assembling in someone’s house. Also it seems that there were some localities in the NT where there may not have been many believers and the whole church probably gathered in a single house in that city. I pointed out the fact in the Word of saints meeting in many houses and yet the scripture refers to them as “ the church” and not churches. Why is this? Are you neglecting this point?
I am well aware of the references in the Word of "the church in the house", although these are few and couldn’t even come close to the number of verses referring to the church in the city.

Secondly:
Please don’t think of me as an LSM person dealing with this matter in the way it has been dealt with by them. I am not. I am totally aware of the wrong application of this by certain ones and I believe I pointed this out in a previous post. I remember many years ago Witness Lee telling us that if we went to a locality and there were already some meeting there then we should join with them regardless of their differences from us. I guess you would call this “Early Lee”. I agree with this view. We should gather with the saints whom God had already brought together in that locality. The practice of the LSM saints has been very wrong in this and they have completely disregarded Witness Lee’s word from years ago. Therefore your argument concerning who are the real elders is irrelevant. The fact that some have done wrong in this matter doesn’t negate the truth. If some baptize in an abusive way does that mean that baptism is no longer legitimate?

Thirdly:
Your statement that the local ground practice leads to sin and is inconsistent and unworkable may be logical in your mind but to me it is somewhat ludicrous. The gathering of believers outside of denominationalism simply on the grounds that they are the Lord’s body and not Baptists, Presbyterians, Lutherans or what have you is something which would be very much in agreement with the Word. How this is practiced by the LSM churches may be in error but it doesn’t change the fact that when you look at the church in the NT what you see is believers assembling together in cities where the gospel had gone to and they are referred to as the church in that city. There is abundant proof of this in the Word……far more proof then the few references to “the church in the house”. If the few verses concerning the church in the house are any persons ground for believing that there can by multiple churches in any city then that ground is very weak indeed.