Quote:
Originally Posted by Evangelical
Suppose a woman is married to Mr Smith. Her name is Smith also, but Tom Cruise comes along and she decides to change her name to Cruise, because Tom Cruise is better than Mr Smith. She stays married to Mr Smith but she names herself after Cruise. By doing so she has just caused a division between herself and her husband.
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Analogies are interesting. They can demonstrate something that is true. But they cannot make something true because you can find a similarity between something in life and something in the analogy.
Just because there was a place where power was translated from a word from which we get "dynamo" does not make a modern electrical system with the power plant, the wires, and the electricity a good metaphor for what was being spoken of. So such a system is pointless to analogize what was talked about in the Bible because no such thing was contemplated.
And it is truly something "new" to suggest otherwise. And not in the Bible.
The same goes for the effects of marriage on the name of the wife. This is a matter of tradition. And in different cultures, this tradition is not followed in the way that it has been in Western society of recent history.
Besides, "the Church in [City]" is a name and it does not in any place say "Christ" on only say "Christ." So if your analogy is to have any meaning, then it must apply to you as well.
You argue that you don't call yourself (your assembly) the Church in [City]. But you do. You have registered your name with both the federal government and with the State, and probably the city. Under that name you may be exempt from certain taxes, but not all.
You argue that you don't generally call yourself that, but then most of the time the others don't either. They don't say they are going to [fill in the name of an assembly], but to church or to the meeting. (And take a poll. Even those who say "I am going to church" do not presume that the place or the building is church, but the meeting. That superiority of thinking that you only say "I am going to the meeting" is a meaningless gesture.)
But if someone wants to clarify where they are going, they will typically say that they are going to [name], and if that is not clear enough, they will state the address or general location.
When you speak of only meeting as the church in [City] you are interjecting a somewhat false impression in your words. You are not meeting any less specifically within the city than any other assembly of Christians. You do not simply meet as Christians in the city. Your history is full of arriving in a new city to find a group already meeting in that way, though not associated with the group that you come from. They will make an effort to meet with those persons, but always be looking for reasons to be able to declare that they are no proper so that thy can part ways with them and start a separate meeting. Why? Not because you actually have a meeting of Christians with no other defining factors, but because you have very defining factors that those others do not have.
And your defining factors are:
- An insistence upon what is an acceptable name.
- Adherence to the teachings as provided by Witness Lee. (The fact that he got anything from others is irrelevant because only those things brought by him are acceptable.)
- The belief that there is only one minister in any age and that Lee was such a person. (Funny that the rule lasted for just under 2,000 years and then has been abandoned.)
I could go on, but it would be a waste of space.
Go look at the doctrinal statements of most evangelical places and you will not see anything about persons. Individuals are not raised up to such heights of authority. Nothing as extreme as what Authority and Submission would have you follow. No, the doctrinal statements look more like:
- We believe in One God, expressed in three Persons, the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit.
- We believe that Jesus Christ, the Son, came to earth, born of a virgin, lived and taught for 33-1/2 years, was crucified, died, buried, resurrected, and ascended to the right hand of the Father.
- We believe that he is coming again and will judge the living and the dead.
Some will put in statements about how they do baptism. I even saw one that had a statement about angels. Probably none of them say it how I just said it. My intent was not to be theologically perfect, but to get the points out there.
The meeting I attend has piano and organ, and they sing hymns, both old and new. Others attend meetings that have a variety of music styles.
Some pattern their meetings in certain ways with a more strict adherence to format and content. Others have a looser style and at least some sense that it is being "winged." There are good arguments for either. Some use pre-written prayers while others ad lib. Some find a middle ground and rely on both the well founded truth in older prayers, such as in the Book of Common Prayer, and on speaking from the heart as moved.
How any of it is done is not part of the faith.
And it does not make any particular group deficient or reprobate. And yours is no different in this matter. It names itself just like the others. It has doctrinal distinctives that it holds to as opposed to others. And underneath it is a core of belief that we all agree on.
Stop thinking of yourselves more highly than you ought.