Prescriptive or Descriptive?
A descriptive text tells us what was done.
A prescriptive text is instructional and tells us what we must do.
The verses about the New Testament church are descriptive. That is, "one church, one city" describes the church or the congregation of believers in the cities of Ephesus, Smyrna, Philadelphia, etc.
Do these descriptive passages also clearly prescribe, how all Christians for all times should meet? No. Could all Christians meet together as the church in that city? Yes, should they so choose. Is it mandatory? No. There is no evidence of a prescription that the church, even the early church MUST be local to the city. There is only a description of what the early church looked like during a period of time.
Nell
|