Quote:
Originally Posted by Ohio
After being indoctrinated with Nee/Lee teachings, we all face this dilemma. I personally no longer consider a denomination to be a church with a "name." All the churches in the Bible have different "names."
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Here is Romans 16(KJV), with some "church names".
"the church which is at Cenchrea" in v.1.
"all the churches of the Gentiles" in v. 4.
"the church that is in their [Priscilla and Aquila's] house" in v. 5.
"them which are of Aristobulus' household" in v. 10.
"them that be of the household of Narcissus, which are in the Lord" in v. 11.
"Rufus chosen in the Lord, and his mother and mine" in 13.
"Asyncritus, Phlegon, Hermas, Patrobas, Hermes, and the brethren which are with them" in 14.
"Philologus, and Julia, Nereus, and his sister, and Olympas, and all the saints which are with them" in 15.
"churches of Christ" in v. 16.
Finally, "the whole church" in v. 23.
You have all these assemblages, all these groupings. All these are characterized to differentiate them, via Paul's use of names and descriptions. This is no different, to me, than the local churches saying "Meeting Hall 3" or "the Tuesday night prayer meeting at Sister Smith's house", or "the Saturday night college meeting". You have to give some details and describe what assembly you are referring to. This usually involves some place names, or even "gasp" the names of some of the people! Or even the names of ethnic groups! Horrors! Paul! How could you!
"The churches of the Gentiles?!?!" No, Paul! No!
All this, to me, is easily explained by simply looking at the common useage of the word 'ekklesia'. It was already extant in the Greek OT (Septuagint) for several hundred years before Christ. See for example Psalm 22:22. How could the Psalmist write of the 'church'?!? Because the word didn't carry the same meaning that does today. So we shouldn't put our cultural baggage on the text and force it to mean what we think it should mean. Watchman Nee did this, and founded a whole movement based on this (mis)understanding.
For typical usage, look at Acts 17. "And with these words, he (the magistrate) dismissed the 'ekklesia' (v. 41)". We traditionally translate the Greek word here, not as 'church', but 'assembly', because of the context.
But that is what the word meant back then. It meant assembly. You could and did have multiple assemblies, or groupings, existing simultaneously, without people worrying about "divisions", because it was not the same thing as it typically means to us today.
A division is a matter of the heart, and in this regard the local churches are as guilty as anyone, and perhaps moreso, because their whole existence is arguably based on on being critical of and separated from other Christians; and this on poorly thought out premises, to boot.