Regarding the Ground of Locality - David Canfield

[Ohio]

Originally Posted by Elden1971

Amen! I hope everyone reads this post.

Agreed! This anon post is an excellent study of the so-called "ground of oneness," well worth printing out for further study.

Several years ago I concluded, based on growing up in the Catholic church and studying Brethren history, that distorted oneness was the most manipulative and destructive force in church history. All manners of evil have been done by church people governed by a corrupted sense of oneness. Distorted oneness has been an open door for evil spirits to enter the church and damage the minds of God's children.

Nee's and Lee's ground of locality doctrine was developed as a backlash to the foreign missionary boards in China of the overseas denominations. Instead of thanking God for all those missionaries who sacrificed their lives for the gospel (think Boxer rebellion), young and gifted nationalistic Chinese decided they had found something missing, long hidden in the scriptures, and thus prove that they alone were the true church, the true testimony of Jesus on the earth.

The Bible tells us to "test all things, hold fast to what is good." (I Thess 5.21) Unfortunately the teaching of the ground of oneness was not properly tested, and "rightly divided" according to the scriptures. It was accepted by virtue of the MOTA, the senior of "the work." The Bible also tells us that we will "know by the fruit," and unfortunately it often took decades to actually witness the fruit of this doctrine -- divisions, quarantines, lawsuits, and more divisions, quarantines, and lawsuits.