Quote:
Originally Posted by Evangelical
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.
|
Who came up with this analogy? There is only one expression of the moon. The only difference is not the moon or its expression, but the observer and their location. That makes it all about the people and the places and not about the moon.
You can look at the moon "while in London" or "from London." But it is not ever "the moon in London" other than to be a phrase meaning "the moon as observed from London."
But the word "church" in its original language has meaning that is primarily local,
NOT universal. It is about meeting. It is an actual, physical gathering or assembly of people, not a declaration of common bond, like an ethnic group.
It is fairly clear that there are some references where the term in singular ("church" rather than "churches") was used in reference to what could have been more than one single assembly. But there is nothing that negates that the separate assemblies are, in themselves "the church." It just doesn't say anything about it. And there is nothing in this which declares any kind of "boundary" to the group that comprises an assembly (church).
Are there some mentions in the Bible to a universal church? I want to say "yes." But even the ones that I think are may be no more than statements about the churches (all of them) individually by reference to each of them singularly as "church." The characteristics being referred to are universally true. They are the theologically sound facts concerning the church(es) therefore do not need reference to separate groups as all are the same.
Does that make all churches the same? Obviously not. Otherwise the problems in Galatia would have been the problems in Ephesus, Smyrna, Philippi, Colossae, etc. There would be only one epistle to cover everything.
So I would suggest that the moon analogy is really irrelevant.