Quote:
Originally Posted by Drake
Igzy, you appear to be advocating any basis for assembling together is valid except if that basis is that all believers make up the one church in that place. You also don't appear to recognize the boundary of a city as counting for anything anyway.
To you any church group is acceptable, no matter the reason they divide themselves, except this one group who take a stand against those divisions. That group are dirty ducks to you.
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No, I recognize the city church. But to me it is possible the city church is an abstraction, much like the "universal church," but at the city level. The Bible gives no clear word that any of the city churches ever met together as a whole, nor that in doing so they called themselves "the church in <wherever>." The Bible never makes it clear that a city church is a "practical church" in the way the LCM envisions it. Nor does it say it is the only legitimate practical manifestation of the church. Further the NT records instances of house churches, thus casting doubt on the idea that the city church is the only valid "ground."
You are throwing out a red herring. I do not, as you claim, recognize any church "no matter the reason they divide." The actual fact is that you have no proof that just because there are multiple practical churches in a city that the Lord sees that as "division." This is a template you have imposed on the NT, not one it itself clearly contains.
Further, I do not think the LCM has truly "taken a stand against divisions." What the LCM has done is taken a stand against other church's legitimacy by claiming they are divisions, something they have no clear biblical ground to do. So if anything the LCM churches are divisions themselves. They have no right to speak for the whole church in the city and to claim to be the sole legitimate manifestation of the church in that city.
Claiming to be the only legitimate place for the city church to meet is itself a divisive act.
All groups that meet together in the Lord's name and receive all believers are valid manifestations of the church in the city. What they call themselves matters little. Their attitude matters much more, and from why I've seen the LCM attitude is very sectarian.
If you want to meet together in the spirit of the church in the city that's fine. But claiming to be the only legitimate manifestation of the church is taking it a step too far.