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Originally Posted by UntoHim
Evangelical, how did you get from "imperfect local church" to "imperfect local division"? What's the determining factor(s)? WHO gets to decide which is which?
I think you may want to have a talk with some of the brothers from the Great Lakes/Canada area about this local church verses local division business.
You see, once upon a time there was ONE imperfect local church in Toronto (one which followed the ministry of Witness Lee). Then, once upon a time some brothers came up from Anaheim Calif to declare that the imperfect local church in Toronto was all of the sudden considered as an imperfect local division! And then, so very conveniently, these brothers from Anaheim set up their own meeting and declared THEIR IMPERFECT LOCAL CHURCH to be the true "Church in Toronto".
Let's humor for a minute the poor fellow who just dropped in from Mars and knew nothing about imperfect local churches or imperfect local divisions - - WHICH IMPERFECT LOCAL MEETING PLACE SHOULD HE CONSIDER TO BE THE TRUE LOCAL CHURCH IN TORONTO?
This is not a trick question my dear friend. It does, however, have some huge implications on the practical implication of any "local church" that claims to have Jesus Christ and the Bible as it's only factor of oneness.
By the way...Welcome to LocalChurchDiscussions.Com, the only imperfect venue for open discussions regarding the teachings, practices and history of the Local Churches established by Watchman Nee and Witness Lee.
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Have you ever heard the moon analogy? If not I will tell you, it is a good one.
If we are in London and we look up at the moon, we are looking at the "moon in London".
If we are in New York and we look up at the moon, we are looking at the "moon in New York".
How many moons are there? Only one.
How many visible expressions of it are there? One per city.
To confine a church to a particular assembly hall or ministry is to make it too narrow. To say the church is a national or international church is to make it too big.
The Bible only speaks of the church being in a particular location.
Now suppose someone comes along and says, you know what? That moon is kind of ugly, I can do it better. I'm going to make it better and give it a new name. They then take the moon, improve it, and give it a name, "The Improved Moon". That is essentially denominationalism. That has happened, what, 10,000 or so times now? Every denomination has a name other than its locality.
Leaving denominationalism to go to the ground of locality, is not creating a new denomination. I know that is hard for some to understand, because they are so used to the idea of a divided Christianity.
Leaving denominationalism, to create a new church called "the such and such non-denominational free church", IS creating a new denomination.
So based on this, I would say that if both are on the ground of locality then they are both the "one church in Toronto".
An imperfect local church is a church on the ground of locality.
An imperfect division is a church on the ground of a denominational organization or institution. This is a human addition to God's plan.
Even if such a denomination were perfect in terms of brotherly love and sin, it cannot be truly perfect as it is a division.