Quote:
Originally Posted by Drake
Sorry brother. I do not mean to ignore you, it’s just I can’t follow your logic most of the time.Drake
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Simple point, Evangelical was very frank in saying what was not a church.
I feel that if you can say what isn't a church then surely you can tell us what is a church.
Evangelical said that it is "all the Christians in a city" and used numerous verses from the NT where this can be inferred. Therefore he has delineated the "boundary" of the church as being equal to the city boundary. Hence the question for this thread "What is the boundary of the local church?"
The goal has been to find the black and white verse that gives us this "boundary". Without that you cannot answer the most basic question, what is a church?
I feel that this verse in Matt 18 --
wherever two or three meet in the Lord's name refers to that bare minimum requirement for a "gathering of the called out ones".
Evangelical said no, it has to be more than 2 or 3, and then revealed that the magic number is 12 because there were 12 apostles. I reject that explanation. He said you can't have a church unless you have elders, yet the verses he quoted to support this position clearly said they appointed elders in every church, hence the gatherings were considered to be a church prior to the elders being appointed. Steel said that this forum cannot be a considered a gathering of the called out ones because we are not verifying that every person on the forum is a born again believer. Again, I reject that because in 1Cor 14 Paul makes it very clear that unbelievers can come into the midst of a church meeting.
Therefore the only verse that has been suggested as "the boundary" that can pass scrutiny is this verse in Matt 18. That would mean the boundary between a gathering that is the church and a gathering that is not the church is "to meet into the name of Jesus". That would include every Christian gathering I have ever been in.
That is the logic behind my question: "how can you know if a Christian gathering is in the name of Jesus?"