Ground of Locality and Generality

[Freedom]

Originally Posted by OBW

The Seventh Day Adventist position, though very different, is effectively like that of the LCM.

But the position of the Baptist, even though spelled-out in their name, is not one that condemns other believers but rather identifies the thing(s) that the hold to. The big difference is that they do not dismiss all others nor consider them to be "mourned in hell."

Of course the LCM does not really think that others are going to hell, therefore they are better than the Seventh Day Adventists. But their disdain for, and near absolute separation from any that are not meeting in their halls is not far from the same result. They say the others are saved, but on the other side of their mouth call them the whore of Babylon or one of her daughters.

There is really no getting rid of distinctions, they are a fact of life. No one is immune to developing their own distinctions, so perhaps the most suspect of any group is one who claims to carry no distinctions. As I see it, distinctions should be evaluated on a relative scale.

The LC argument about "taking names" in reference to Baptist, Presbyterian, Methodist, etc, is not completely without merit. After all, some of these names do seem to be a bit silly, if nothing else. At the same time a name like Baptist is distinction about a specific practice, but in reality, most Christians already practice baptism by immersion, so the distinction itself bears very little significance. In other words, the distinction is not a deal killer. Some of these distinctions found in "Christianity" pale in comparison to those like the concept of there being a MOTA.

As a kid, I had some non-LC Christian friends. Believe it or not, I attended a VBS at a friends church. I also attended an Awana group with another friend, and I participated in a few events held at several churches in my hometown. Even as a kid, it did not escape notice that with these groups like Awana, people came from various churches to attend. On the outside, the denominations hosting these events had their "names" and distinctions, but the actual practice was that of inclusiveness. When did the LC ever invite anyone outside the LC to use their facilities? Never. This is why I wouldn't take distinction to mean everything.

Distinctions like "one publication" and "MOTA" are by their very definition, exclusive distinctions. There is absolutely no room for any inclusiveness when such things are practiced. The willingness of LC leaders to sacrifice a whole region of the country over such matters attests to that. A name is just a name. If there is no division, then it is benign. On the other hand, if a distinction results in exclusivity, such as the SDA teaching that Indiana mentioned, then it needs to be dropped, as do various LC practices.