Quote:
Originally Posted by Igzy
Now you are tap dancing on very thin ice. First you said the Bible did not reference any church except by city. I gave you four examples that proved that claim was false, so you try to change the focus.
It is not any more true to say the church in the house is the same as the church in the city as it is to say the church in the city is the same as the universal church. Yes, they are the same in nature, but they are different.
The Bible plainly allows church in houses. Given that there are usually more than one house per city this make it reasonable to claim that there can be more than one church in a city. (Don't get me wrong, there is still the church in the city, but there is also the church in the house and they are not made up of exactly the same group of people.)
House churches place reasonable doubt on your claims. To insist on locality in the light of them show you to be in the realm of fanaticism.
As for your weird and unbiblical obsession with names, whatever. Grow up. Get a life. Do something that shows you have some sense.
You've been shown twice tonight to not know what your talking about. Maybe you should take a break.
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Of course the bible allows house churches.
We, meet in houses, to an outsider, we are sometimes considered a "house church". But we do not let the house define us, but the locality. Just like Paul never writes a letter to "all the house churches in Corinth", but to the "church in Corinth". We see ourselves as one church. You are focusing on the nitty gritty about house churches to ignore the greater obvious - churches are defined by locality.
It is not correct to say they are different, and rather illogical. For example, take this verse:
Col 4:15 Salute the brothers which are in Laodicea, and Nymphas, and the church which is in his house.
You seem to be read this as though the church in Laodicea and the church in Nymphas's house are different churches.
But Ellicott's commentary says "He is obviously a man of importance, a centre of Church life, in the Christian community at Laodicea."
So the church in Nymphas's house is part of the church in Laodicea. We should not count them as two churches, but the one and same church in Laodicea.
Going to Revelation, we see the church in Laodicea mentioned.
Revelation 3 "To the Church in Laodicea " Is the church in Nymphas's house mentioned? Not at all. Revelation is silent about house churches.