[Cal]

Originally Posted by OBW

I both enjoy and despise this discussion.

I enjoy it because it puts the spotlight on those who claim to be “the” ones with “the” elders. This is an excellent way to cast a cloud over the very teachings that the LC promotes, most notably one church in one city under one set of elders. When there is a group who has that position then some splinter away and then try to wrestle the title away from the others, the foolishness is put on display.

Amen, OBW. Amen.

What a joke. This is the height or arrogance ─ or is it ignorance. Probably both. I agree that the tactic of framing the “one city one church” doctrine debacle in terms of a disagreement between two groups as to which one it should be points to the emptiness of their claims. But I can only barely stomach it because it starts by presuming that such a non-biblical teaching is actually correct.

I totally understand you revulsion, OBW. But often the best way to disprove a point is to start by assuming it is true and then show that if it is true it must be false, in other words that it is self-contradicting. This is what I have attempted to do and I believe I have succeeded.

It seemed to me this might be one way to jostle the thoughts of the hard-core local grounders, and get them to think outside their box for a change. If they are honest they have to come to grips with the fact that they cannot tell me how to determine for sure who the elders over a city are, and so they have to consider that perhaps their model is really just a nice theory which has no enduring practical application.

In the meantime we should all consider getting back to the business of cooperating with any and all Christians we encounter to spread the truth of the Lord to a lost world. We all should stop making the good the enemy of what we think is the best.