[Gubei]

The following is my analysis of the situation of Toronto in light of my belief on the ground of locality (5 sets of elders is my assumption for the convenience of explaining.)

I begin with a question which is intended to embarrass anyone who believes the ground of locality.

Q : One set of elders have not been confirmed by all the saints in Toronto. There are 5 sets of elders in Toronto for now. Among those 5 sets, only 2 sets are for the ground of locality – one set is LSM-affiliated and the other set is in Nigel Tomes' camp. Which set of elders should we follow?

The purpose of this kind of question is to generate a dilemma. If anyone believes the ground of locality, he is supposed to follow those elders who also follow the ground of locality. However, in case of Toronto, there are two sets of elders who follow the ground of locality – LSM-affiliated camp and Nigel Tomes' camp. And, to my understanding, each camp is not accepting other. This situation seems to give us the impression that the ground of locality does not stand even among those who follow the truth. Yes, this is a dilemma if we accept the assumption of the question.

However, if we scrutinize the underlying assumption of the question and clarify what "one-set of elders" means, the dilemma can be solved. The assumption of the question is that there should be "one" set of elders who God confirmed among those 5 sets of elders. Let me call those 5 sets of elders A set, B set, C set, D set, and E set, respectively. A set is the LSM-affiliated, B set is of Nigel Tomes, and C, D, E are from other denominations. The key to understanding the solution of this question is as follows. As I already explained in the previous post, "one set of elders who God confirmed in Toronto" is not necessarily one among those 5 sets. On the contrary, I believe "one set of elders who God confirmed" are those who may consist of subset of each 5 sets and even other brothers who are not officially recognized as elder but functioning as such. From the viewpoint of God, there has always been one set of elders in Toronto whether they are in the same Christian group or not. This understanding requires us to broaden our definition of a local church. Because one set of elders may not belong to the same Christian group, we cannot insist that only my group is THE group in Toronto. Thus, the church in Toronto is in a sense more of "universal" than "local," meaning the church in Toronto is an "invisible one-set of elders and saints system."

Of course, the phase 2 of the ground of locality is to seek after a visible one-set of elders in Toronto. The ideal state is when the invisible one-set of elders are equivalent to the visible one-set of elders. This is quite difficult to achieve given the divisiveness of even mature Christians. But just because it is difficult, that does not follow that we can give it up. The ideal state is a kind of target which all Christians should struggle to achieve, just as the perfect sanctification is also a target of all individual Christians.

In conclusion, forcing saints to choose any one-set of elders in Toronto is a non-sense.

Gubei