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Originally Posted by Evangelical
ZNP is wrong about this, that telling the church is informative, because the verse says "if he neglect to hear the church", indicating that the church has something to say. And if the church has something to say about it, then it is clearly not just informative.
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You are correct. However, Aron is also correct. The two or three pass judgement. When they tell the church then this assembly also has the authority to check into it. For example, the Blendeds passed judgement on Titus Chu and then informed the church. However, we also have the ability to investigate this.
Quote:
Originally Posted by Evangelical
I can easily show that ZNP is wrong on this matter by presenting some scholarly resources. ZNP stresses the importance of the two or three but then ignores the matter of the church in the next verse, saying that telling the church is merely informative.
In ZNP's world, only two or three need to gather together in the name of Jesus and can decide about anything, even without elders. Not only was this not practiced in the early church (unless those two or three were apostles, of course), but even today it is impractical, and leads to the situation of denominationalism.
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You can stop referring to this as "ZNP's world". I quoted Paul in 1Cor who practiced this, so you can call this Paul's world, or the NT.
I have already agreed that unlike the LC and LSM would have you believe the believers are not mindless automatons who must do whatever they are told. When the Blendeds wrote a letter excommunicating Titus Chu we all had the ability to read it and determine for ourselves the merit. Had they been in Christ according to Matthew 18 it would have stood up to all scrutiny and the what they bound on Earth would have been bound in Heaven. But as it was it was biased, unscriptural, and hypocritical. So they can tell us and we can reject it.
Just because two or three or in the case of the Blendeds sixty or seventy agree on anything it does not mean that what they bind will be bound unless they are gathering in the name (person and work) of Jesus Christ.
This forum has acted according to what you have quoted in examining the charges and deciding they lack merit. I doubt any "church" in the LC did the same.