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2. You are not fair in dealing with my answer to the question of prescritpve things. I answered the question by saying the case of Trinity. You have not mentioned about that. Please tell me. Do you accept the truth of Trinity? If so, show me any prescritpve verses which support Trinity.
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Gubei, I have explained this already, please go back and read. But let me summarize. The Trinity is a pattern in the Bible, it is a truth. But it is not one that is necessary for salvation nor fellowship not anything that practical. A specific interpretation of the Trinity is not a matter of faith. The fact is the truth is a little vague. It's a mystery.
No, if you want to put forth locality in the same manner--a vague, somewhat mysterious principle, then fine. Then you'd be comparing apples to apples. But the difference between Trinity and locality is that locality by its very nature is extremely practical.
It cannot be practiced unless everyone agrees on exactly what it means. With the Trinity we can disagree a lot on the meaning and still fellowship. LCers believe the Son is the Father; non-LCers don't. Yet they can still fellowship. But if you believe locality means the city and I believe it means the burrough then we've got a very practical problem which is insurmountable.
The point is that non-prescriptive patterns in the Bible do not provide enough to enforce doctrine which restrict freedom. The fact is the Bible does not give us enough information about locality for it to be practically practiced. It just doesn't. That was God's choice not mine. This is why you can't answer practical questions about how very real problems are solved.
Let me use an analogy, ground of locality advocates are like someone who comes in and says:
"I think the best way to have movie theater is for the audience to sit in a 360 degree circle of seats around a cylindrical movie screen."
So people say, "OK. So how do we make it work? What's the technology?"
To which the advocate answers, "I don't know. But I know it's the best way."
And the people, trying to be helpful, reply, "Well, it might well be in theory, but if it's the best it should be workable."
The advocate answers, "This is just your human logic."
And the people say, "Whatever. Just come back when you have some practical answers."
I represent those people waiting for practical answers.