Quote:
Originally Posted by Evangelical
From Normal Christian Church Life, Ch. 5 "THE BASIS OF UNION AND DIVISION".
"The scriptural method of founding a church is simply by preaching the gospel; nothing further is necessary, or even permissible. If people hear the gospel and receive the Lord as their Savior, then they are a church; there is no need of any further procedure in order to become a church."
"If in a given place anyone believes on the Lord, as a matter of course he is a constituent of the church in that place; there is no further step necessary in order to make him a constituent. No subsequent joining is required of him. Provided he belongs to the Lord, he already belongs to the church in that locality; and since he already belongs to the church, his belonging cannot be made subject to any condition."
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Interesting formula. It sounds inclusive. It seems benign.
But it does not meet the requested status as a definition. It is merely a statement asserted by someone. If I instead assert that it is a collection of all people who diligently watch every episode of Star Trek (the original series), I have said something no more or no less founded than what you have claimed Nee said in TNCCL.
I will admit that mine is seriously in left field relative to the underlying topic. But without something to make Nee's more than good-sounding mumbo jumbo, his is no more substantial than mine. An opinion placed into a book. It may actually be on topic, but there is no evidence that it is sound relative to the scripture — the one thing that must underpin anything that is claimed to be of spiritual and Christian significance.
And while I did not simply say that I do not agree with Nee and/or Lee on this subject, within this forum, you should presume that the statements made by Nee and Lee are insufficient in themselves to support any position. There must be more than their own statements.
And you have said nothing except for some nice-sounding things from one of their books.
Provide the evidence that the scripture actually defines such a thing. Not that Nee or Lee says that it is there, or what it means assuming it is there.