[OBW]

OK,

Denominate is to give a name. Please identify the problem with a name besides the possibility of some group with a name actually being in error on something. Is the name itself an error?

Denominations have a headquarters. Please identify the problem with a headquarters other than the fact that it can be abused. Is the denomination itself an error?

I believe that to the extent that some actual error can occur in an assembly with a name and/or with a headquarters you will find that in a community in which there is only one actual Christian assembly with no name and only local elders, essentially every error laid at the feet of a denomination, or a free group with a name on a sign can be duplicated with little effort.

Denominations are, as a rule, red herrings. There may be errors in any particular denomination, or in any particular single church with or without a name. There is more error in Lee’s diatribes against them than there is definitional error (if any) of being a denomination. If an independent assembly or a denomination with a headquarters is in error on something, discuss that. Don’t generalize that it has a system of teachings and practices. Even a single assembly eventually has that. Are those teachings in error? Do the practices distract from, or point to God? Does the headquarters of a denomination definitionally lead its group into error? Or is it that when there are a lot of assemblies actually practicing the same error it is obvious that they are unified in their error? Did the hierarchy do it? Did the fact of a headquarters do it? Or did men, with or without such trappings go into error?

I sense that our starting point has tended to be with the position we learned in the LC. Question it all. Don’t start with that assumption. While I realize that the scientific method is not a relevant discussion in this context, it is noteworthy that a good “experiment” seeks to prove that a thing is false and only concludes that it is true when it that assumption cannot be proven. It seems (to me) that we are starting with an assumption of correctness about the way things were analyzed and labeled in the LC.

Jerusalem was a headquarters of sorts. They even sent out an edict telling their emissaries to quit putting OT rules on the gentile churches, but also told those gentiles that they should refrain from certain practices. No. They clearly did not put a manual full of rules onto the other churches, but they felt they had authority to make such edicts.

(I hear the quacking of some sort of headquarters.)

The error of a name is if it is a boundary for “in” and “out” or if it is exalted above that of Christ. In Corinth, the issue wasn’t so much the names, but the exaltation of those names as a way to be superior to others and take sides. It was an attitude of the heart that argued they were following the best teacher. (Seems that even without adding Lee’s name to the LC, the heart of the LC is that they are following the best teacher and that all others are poor.) The error in a denomination is not that there is a hierarchy or a headquarters, but in actual errors that may be added even where no denomination exists.