Quote:
Originally Posted by Evangelical
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 |
The fact is if its not 100% then it's not a binding principle. If there is an exception you have to honor the exception.
Here's an analogy of your argument: "86% of swans are white. 14% are black. Therefore, all true swans are white."
Say what?
And as I've said, history is not the authority. We don't really know for sure how things operated back then.
If you cannot make an airtight case from the Bible alone that the only valid churches are city churches then you don't have a case at all, and you should back away from it. It's called "reasonable doubt" and it's obvious to any clear thinking individual that you don't go around declaring everyone else is dead wrong and divisive and not real churches and out of God's plan based on an argument that has REASONABLE DOUBT. The implications are too grave to do that.
Would you sentence someone to death if there was reasonable doubt he committed the crime? I hope not. But that's what you are doing to churches all over the world. You don't know for sure God doesn't recognize them. The Bible doesn't make that clear. Yet here you are claiming to have knowledge you can't possibly have. Don't you know you are going to have to answer for that?
If you still like the local ground idea and want to practice it yourself, then go ahead, I guess. But lay off the public declarations and, I would suggest, the assurance that everyone else is wrong. You aren't smart enough, clear enough or good enough to do that. Show some humility, for your own sake if no one else's.