Quote:
Originally Posted by Drake
there is a shape of the local churches,
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What is the shape of the local churches? Does the footnote help us? Does the scriptural text?
How can we tell if the local churches have exactly identical shape? If we can't tell, then how does this footnote help us?
It reminds me of the various abstractions that can be interpreted any old way one wants. Lee, naturally, got to pick the "proper" meaning.
Quote:
Originally Posted by Drake
Revelation 1:20 footnote 1 (concerning the nature, shape, and purpose of the lampstands). The Recovery Version of the Bible
"The churches, signified by the seven golden lampstands, are the testimony of Jesus (vv. 2, 9) in the divine nature, shining in the dark night locally yet collectively. The churches should be of the divine nature — golden. They should be the stands, even the lampstands, that bear the lamp with the oil (Christ as the life-giving Spirit) and shine in the darkness individually and collectively. They are individual lampstands locally, yet at the same time they are a group, a collection, of lampstands universally. They not only are shining locally but also are bearing universally the same testimony both to the localities and to the universe. They are of the same nature and in the same shape. They bear the same lamp for the same purpose and are fully identified with one another, not having any individual distinctiveness. The differences among the seven churches recorded in chs. 2 and 3 are all of a negative nature, not a positive one. Negatively, in their failures, the churches are different and separate from one another; but positively, in their nature, shape, and purpose, they are absolutely identical and are connected to one another."
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