[ZNPaaneah]

My point in this thread is that the church does have a boundary, it is crucial, like the wall in the New Jerusalem, or on a human body it would be the skin. WL teaches it is a trivial boundary designated by the world and changeable. I think if we could see how significant the wall is that would help us see how absurd the “doctrine of dirt” is.

Job 1:10 Hast not thou made a hedge about him, and about his house, and about all that he hath, on every side?

A hedge around a field prevents livestock from coming into the field. It reduces disease spread from one animal to the next. We do something similar at airports, screening for people with a fever to prevent sick travelers into our country. It also provides shelter from the wind which can have a significant impact on survival of new born lambs. It provides shade which can increase milk production. It helps drainage and prevents wind erosion. Also, it provides a habitat for essential species. Pollinators can live in the hedge as well as natural enemies of pests. Predatory insects and birds can live in the hedge year round, and once the fields attract pests they go to work devouring them.

Numbers 14:8If Jehovah delight in us, then he will bring us into this land, and give it unto us; a land which floweth with milk and honey. 9Only rebel not against Jehovah, neither fear ye the people of the land; for they are bread for us: their defence is removed from over them, and Jehovah is with us: fear them not.

The liars, cheats, abominable ones, they are “bread for us”. If our wall is similar to a “hedge” where it is a dwelling place for those that can discern and defeat these cheats it could explain how there are none of them in the New Jerusalem. This is similar to the FBI hiring a former forger to catch forgers, or a former hacker to catch hackers.

This in turn explains

Ps 130:3If thou, Jehovah, shouldest mark iniquities,
O Lord, who could stand?
4 But there is forgiveness with thee,
That thou mayest be feared.

Why is our wall so fearsome? Because we have those forgiven forgers, hackers, cult members, etc. They can discern the false prophets and expose them. Because of them the defense of these scam artists is removed and they become bread for us.

Once again this brings us back to Matthew 18. We deal with sins according to righteousness and mercy, grace and truth. Without mercy we would not have a fearsome wall.