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Originally Posted by Terry
I saw the same. For all we know, that assembly could constitute of 6 brothers and sisters and that's your expression of the church in Rome. Of a city more than 4 million, I doubt that's all the Christians in Rome.
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It's funny how confidently those in the LC can make such claims. Yet, they don't know any better. This is what they believe. Something that I have come to realize is that those in the LC have really devloped different semantics for what the word 'church' means. As an example, in the footnote for Matt 16:18 on the word 'church', the RcV states the following:
Gk. ekklesia, meaning an out-calling. This word is used in reference to a called-out congregation. My church indicates that the church is of the Lord, not of any other person or thing; it is not like the denominations, which are denominated according to some person's name or according to some matter.
So, LCers believe the church to be primary an out-calling, and importantly it seems that this out-calling is supposed to primarily from none other than denominations. It's no wonder that 'church' has become a loaded term to them. They can't view any normal assembly as being part of the church, their assembling only occurs by dividing and separating themselves from other Christians - as an "out-calling" from everything they chose to criticize.
If we replace the word 'church' with assembly, and apply that to their nomenclature, what we get is them saying things like "we are THE assembly in Rome." Their whole one church one city rule works for them because their semantics differ from everyone else. It is obvious that within a city, there are numerous Christian assemblies, and for any one group to claim that they are the only assembly or the most important assembly is both ignorant and prideful.