Quote:
Originally Posted by OBW
Actually, the biggest problem with divisions in the definition. What is a division (as we talk about them here in this form)? Is it really about names, or groups that represent less than a city? Or is it about acceptance v exclusion.
|
One of the ways local ground advocates stack the argument is by their rarefied use of the word
division. Paul uses "division" to mean lack of fellowship caused by animosity. LCers take it to mean "not under the same leadership" and "not closely associated."
Hence, they say, only "divisions" caused by time and space (city limits) are permissible. But there is no evidence that the Bible considers two churches of any kind, even the local kind, as a case of any kind of division. That's an LC malapropism of the word
division to lend weight to the concept of localism.
Two churches are not divisions of any sort that the Bible speaks to. Associating the Biblical meaning of the word
division with the fact of some type of separation between two churches is a misuse of terms. In the LC case, it's a means to validate one eldership per city.
This was fairly typical of the LC approach: Redefine the meaning of words and then use them to make the case, or take a word with two meanings and then use the word as if it always means the same thing while taking advantage of the two meanings to make the case.