Quote:
Originally Posted by Igzy
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.
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I am basically a mathematician (sorry), I am more comfortable in the realm of logic, facts and figures. I deal with these sorts of mathematical problems all the time.
The thing about "reasonable doubt" is that reasonable doubt depends upon what we are talking about. For taking ones life, 86% is probably not beyond reasonable doubt. For deciding whether we should gamble $5, we may accept we could be wrong and willing to risk $5 for 86%, so 86% would be acceptable. If gambling $5000000 we may not be happy with 86% , we want 99.999%!
We must consider the consequence of the thing we are talking about. To kill an innocent life is a high consequence.
But I will accept a level of 100% if you wish, assuming that being wrong about this is a high consequence.
You make a valid point. I can modify my statement to say "86% + 14% = 100% use of the word church for city OR house, proves beyond a doubt that
a church is never greater than a city.
Would you agree with that?
In other words, that 86% are white swans and 14% are black proves that none of those swans are elephants.
I may accept that a church can be smaller than a city, as I cannot prove it beyond reasonable doubt. But since I can prove that a church is not greater than a city to a degree of 100%, surely this rules out any church that claims to be bigger than a city.
This excludes any group that extends its organization larger than the city. Most denominations, the clergy-laity ones are in this category (baptist for example, are not).