Quote:
Originally Posted by ZNPaaneah
Wow, I must be really slow because you have completely lost me again. Please have patience with me, but here is what threw me.
1. Are you aware that the "Church in New York City" is not called the The Church in New York City but rather "The Christian Fellowship Center"? This is because it is illegal in New York law to call themselves the "Church in New York"....
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About the locality, I bring your attention to the logical and rational argument I made from the Bible about useage of the word church and churches in the Bible. This shows majority useage for the word church in connection with city, not house, is 86% compared to 14%. Found in Post #40 by myself in this thread:
http://localchurchdiscussions.com/vB...ad.php?p=50465
I also bring your attention to post #51 by "testallthings" here:
"It is a clear historical fact that there was only one church in one city."
http://localchurchdiscussions.com/vB...ad.php?p=50465
It is not Witness Lee's OT teaching, it is Nee's and is also based upon Jesus's words in the New Testament (not old) in Revelation that addresses only 7 churches in Revelation, one per city, and each city has only one lampstand.
This is the quotation by Nee church that I was discussing with testallthings:
(The Normal Christian Church Life, Chapter 5, by Watchman Nee):
Most believers of today are so utterly blind to the scriptural basis of a church that if one asks another, “To what church do you belong?” The first thought of the one questioned is of the specific line of teaching he approves of, or the group of people with whom he has special fellowship, or how his group of Christians is different from others, or perhaps the name that particular group bears, or the form of organization they have adopted—in short, anything but the place in which he lives. Few would answer that question with, “I belong to the church in Ephesus,” or “I belong to the church in Shanghai,” or “I belong to the church in Los Angeles.” It is our being in Christ that separates us from the world, and it is our being in a given locality that separates us from other believers. It is only because we reside in a different place from them that we belong to a different church. The only reason I do not belong to the same church as other believers is that I do not live in the same place as they do. If I wish to be in the same church, then I must change my residence to the same place. If, on the other hand, I wish to be in a different church from others in my locality, then the only solution to my problem is to move to a different locality. Difference of locality is the only justification for division among believers.
Right here, Nee says there is a (genuine) division in the church, and it is based upon locality. He also seems to sanction the use of locality to define and name a local church, and suggest that we should use locality when we define what church we belong to. Thus, Lee's church model of taking names according to the locality, appears to be in keeping with Nee's view about this.