LSM's Sacrament - the "Ground of the Local Church" NIGEL TOMES

[Cal]

Originally Posted by ZNPaaneah

However, the strife and division can be directly linked to various sins (Daystar, PL, etc). So to prove that those sins were part and parcel with this teaching you would have to argue that WL taught this with the intention of establishing a sect. Therefore that would make this teaching the first sin, just as James says.

I don't think it's necessary to link those particular things with the fact that requiring the local ground leads to sectarianism. A group can be sectarian without having any other sins, though they likely will have other sins.

A "moral hazard"* is established by claiming to be the only legitimate place to meet in a city. Once you teach your group that it is THE group then tolerance of leadership sins by members is a requirement, since the members are expected to believe there is no where else to go.


* I borrow the term "moral hazard" from economics. It is the concept that incentives to take undue risks are established if the negative consequences of those risks are removed from the party taking the risks and passed to another, usually naive, party.