Quote:
Originally Posted by aron
Multiple ekklesia meant perforce multiplication, not division. Like the LSM-affiliated churches with Meeting Hall One and Meeting Hall Two.
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That's a good point, the LCs like to play with semantics, claiming that they can still uphold the one city-one church idea while splitting into "districts". Just because they use the terms "locality" and "district", they are still functionally identical to what other denominations would call, for example, dioceses, parishes and chapels. Do they really think God is going to get tricked by terminology and not be able to see the true nature of something?
Also, I want to clarify a point -- the universal body of Christ, and one Church, consists of all those who receive Jesus Christ as their Lord and Savior. If Christians from a given city don't all meet together in the same room, they are still one church. If some believers preach heretical statements when they meet, they are still the church. If some believers meet in a building with the name of a canonized saint on the door, or the name of a particular street or neighborhood rather than a city, they are still the church.
Therefore, the Catholic church is truly the church. Protestant churches are truly the church. Episcopal churches are truly the church. Followers of Witness Lee are truly the church, Seventh Day Adventists are truly the church, Baptists are truly the church, anabaptists are truly the church, pentacostals are truly the church--I would even go so far as to say that even nontrinitarian churches, while certainly committing grievous heresies, could in most cases still be the church. The LCs are correct when they claim that all Christians in a given city are members of the church in that city, but they are incorrect when they claim that the LC is the only legitimate expression of the church, and any Christians who don't meet with them are being sinful. Christ is the sole mediator, through him we are redeemed, and by the holy spirit we are sanctified. Through prayer we have a direct connection to God, and all man-made structures fall by the wayside.
My point here, is that the church is not limited to one particular meeting of believers, the church is everywhere that believers come together and pray in Jesus' name, and the fact that various different buildings may exist in a different cities with various different banners on the door, different hierarchical structures and different styles of prayer, doesn't detract from the oneness of the Church. Every time believers fellowship, they partake in and multiply the oneness, they don't detract from it.
It may be true that some particular organization, like the Roman Catholics, preach ideas that are probably heretical (although many learned and Christ-loving men think otherwise, so I have no authority to make that assertion). It can be true that the priests in that case are doing a disservice to their congregants by giving them false ideas about God, but it is equally true that the believers who gather within the Catholic Church are partaking in the oneness of the body of Christ, and despite their surroundings and physical boundaries that separate them from other Christians, they are still spiritually together with all other Christians.
It's hard to find the right words to express my ideas, I'm no theologian, but I hope I've conveyed it clearly enough.