The Building and a Bride in the Bible

[PeterG]

Originally Posted by Cal

Indiana,

Although I'm all for unity, I do not see that the Bible teaches that the house of God should be build on the "proper ground" and that ground is unity. The Bible teaches that dwelling together in unity is "good and pleasant" and receives a blessing of the Spirit. But the idea that unity is the ground on which the church is built, I do not see that teaching in the Word.

Please point me to the verses that teach this.

If you google "ground of the church" you will only find references to it from either Lee or his followers. I don't see any other significant Christian teacher that teaches this idea. This should be a red flag. After fifty years in this country, no one has picked it up. Yet, there is a strong movement for genuine unity among Christians now, even in cities. Our pastor has taught on this. But he doesn't teach "the proper ground of oneness," and with good reason. It's an open invitation to another "we have the right stand, you don't" movement.

A few years ago I felt I got a strong speaking from the Lord. I wondered, as I've been doing aloud again recently, why the LC got such a blessing if they were wrong. I felt the Lord said to me, "The desire for genuine oneness pleased me. But they went about it wrong."

Hello Cal, Indiana and of course the Others,

may I pick up this one, even though this great debate is older? Because the last sentence captures what I feel myself.

There can be no stable “ground of oneness” as long as our human oneness needs it’s own ground. Would you agree? Indiana may be mistaken above in attributing the term to Watchman Nee, it's certainly not in „Rethinking our Work“ from 1937. It's probably more of a typical case where Lee, who uses the term, goes beyond Nee and things start to loose balance. (I personally believe that Nee valued Lee less for his theological talent than for his organizational one).

However, I do wonder: if there is a „proper gound“, which is Christ, if the proper ground is the gospel, the gospel of reconciliation and of restoration of our unity with God - is it then possible that we have no unity and still stand on proper ground?? Maybe self-deception is the problem?

I also agree with Cal’s: „Trying to use locality to enforce oneness is like trying to use a rooster to make the sun rise.“ And that any group with the attitude “we have the right stand, you don't” is not solving the problem of lack of unity, but rather makes it worse.

But how about we say, “As long as we live apart from each other, we ALL miss the right stand.” In Watchman Nee’s very last message from 1951 we find thoughts along these lines. And I quote him from 1934: „Due to the outward ruinous appearance of the Church today, however, the division among God’s people is so serious that no group of believers — including ourselves — can freely call itself the local assembly.”