[zeek]

Originally Posted by Evangelical

I disagree because the early church knew that the whole world needed to be evangelized before Christ returned (Matt 24:14). They were not merely waiting around for Christ to come back.

The early church grew and spread out, to that end. The intention was that the early church would spread across the world.

Before that could happen, the church became institutionalized due to political reasons (the Catholic Church and Constantine). The goal of evangelizing the world was still happening but through the religious-political institution of the Catholic Church. Men such as St Patrick, St Augustine, are known for that. This was God's sovereignty to enable the Gospel to be preached via Catholicism and spread through Europe.

The recovery does not say that all of these things should never happened and then try to re-write history. Rather it recognizes God's Sovereignty and moves through the ages and sees that it's at that time where the church should be preparing for Christ's return and leaving the old institutions which have fulfilled their purpose in history.

The problem is not that these institutions existed or that Christianity became institutionalized, the problem is that people wish to remain in institutionalized Christianity which has served its purpose instead of of moving on.

Even so, the recovery never says that the church will ever or must become the same situation as early Christianity, it is well known that denominations will still be around when Christ returns, it's in the bible.

You're entitled to your opinion. Witness Lee felt otherwise. Matthew 13:31-32 reads as follows

31 Another parable He put forth to them, saying: “The kingdom of heaven is like a mustard seed, which a man took and sowed in his field, 32 which indeed is the least of all the seeds; but when it is grown it is greater than the herbs and becomes a tree, so that the birds of the air come and nest in its branches.”

Here's what the Recovery Version says about it:

The church, which is the embodiment of the kingdom, should be like an herb that produces food. However, its nature and function were changed, so that it became a “tree,” a lodging place for birds. (This is against the law of God’s creation, that is, that every plant must be according to its kind — Gen. 1: 11-12.) This change happened in the first part of the fourth century, when Constantine the Great mixed the church with the world. He brought thousands of false believers into Christianity, making it Christendom, no longer the church. Hence, this third parable corresponds with the third of the seven churches in Rev. 2 and 3, the church in Pergamos (Rev. 2: 12-17 — see note 121 there). The mustard is an annual herb, whereas the tree is a perennial plant. The church, according to its heavenly and spiritual nature, should be like the mustard, sojourning on the earth. But with its nature changed, the church became deeply rooted and settled as a tree in the earth, flourishing with its enterprises as the branches in which many evil persons and things are lodged. This resulted in the formation of the outward organization of the outward appearance of the kingdom of the heavens.
Since the birds in the first parable signify the evil one, Satan (vv. 4, 19), the birds of heaven here must refer to Satan’s evil spirits with the evil persons and things motivated by them. They lodge in the branches of the great tree, that is, in the enterprises of Christendom.