Quote:
Originally Posted by leastofthese
The local church understanding? Which local church?
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That is actually an interesting question! A
local church should be
local, right? A brother and I had fellowship over lunch yesterday and we were talking about what the primitive ekklesia had. Basically there were two main things:
1. No centralized authority - each locality is autonomous and under the Lord's leading
2. A focus on scripture alone - nothing added in a way of ultimate authority or practice
In Broadbent's seminal book, "The Pilgrim Church," he clearly shows how getting away from these two things was the big error of the Roman Church, and how the primitive (aka pilgrim) ekklesia always avoided these two errors.
But the natural tendency of humans is to take control, and not adhering to these two points then opens the door for all kinds of things, systems, errors, etc. & etc.
Sounds simple, eh?!