Quote:
Originally Posted by Gubei
Let's look at some verses in Philippians.
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Then, let's look at a verse in Romans.
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I will not quote all of your post. I read the verses. They indicate that Paul wrote to or about all the believers in the particular cities. While we can presume that at that particular time all were, in some form or fashion, meeting together at least some of the time, and Phil 1:1 actually mentions the elders, there is nothing about that fact that makes the elders "according to cities." This is an overlay not provided in the scriptures.
It is almost like when my wife used to complain that the fact that a game for our boys resided on the hard drive of our computer was responsible for her email not working right. It is true that the game is on the hard drive. And it is true that her email was having problems. But the game was no more responsible for the email troubles than the email was responsible for the game being present on the hard drive.
There is nothing in the verses mentioned, or in any others that I can find, that dictates elders according to cities. It can only be seen in a couple of places that elders were mentioned as being in a city (descriptive) and not that their office was related to the city. Their office was related to the believers with whom they met. I note that there were never elders appointed in cities where no believers lived and met.
I know you want it to be true, but the scripture just does not support it.