@divegeester
Bad mouthing the church has been running for two thousand years or so.
The eloquence kind of grows. But the basic opposition is the same in nature pretty much.
As I said, Paul expected his work to receive evil report and good report.
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Your church is not THE church
Brent Barber, if I recall, had criticisms of the local church in Huston Texas.
The church in Huston is not the universal church. It is the local expression of the universal church.
Like the church in Ephesus in the New Testament. The relationship of the church in Ephesus to the church universal was that they TOO were being built up into the universal house of God.
"Being built upon the foundation of the apostles and prophets, Christ Jesus Himself being the cornerstone;
In whom all the building, being fitted together is growing into a holy temple in the Lord;
In whom you also [YOU ALSO in the locality of Ephesus] are being built together into a dwelling place of God in spirit." (Eph. 2:20-22)
What I mean is that the accusations against the local churches, the "you also" is accusation against the church universally. And condemnation of the universal church has occurred for centuries.
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Bad mouthing the church has been running for two thousand years or so.
Saul of Tarsus was breathing out threats against the church in Jerusalem. In doing so he was bad mouthing the local expression of the universal church.
You are not Jesus
Part of every Christian IS Jesus.
"He who is joined to the Lord is one spirit." (1 Cor. 6:17)
Since every Christian is a member of the Body of Christ having the Spirit of Christ and His life within, and being "one spirit" with Jesus Christ, we are Him in His mystical Body.
Notice that when Paul was arresting the Christians and assenting to their death and being thrown into jail, Jesus said to him -
"Saul, Saul why do you persecute Me?" (Acts 9:4; 22:7)
He did not say "Why do you persecute My church?"
He did not say "Why do you persecute My people?"
He did not just even say "Why do you persecute My Body?"
He said " Why do you persecute ME?" .
Paul the Apostle never forgot this revelation. The expression of the church on earth was the great "Me" of Jesus Christ.
If I hit you on your arm hard and you said "Don't hit me !" I could not say "But Divegeester, I didn't hit YOU. I just hit your arm."
You would probably inform me that to hit your arm was to hit YOU. So I should not hit YOU by hitting your body.
The church is the Body of Christ - "He is the Head over all things to the church, which is His Body ..." (See Eph. 1:22,23)
Being a member of the Body of Christ, the church, in God's eyes all believers are Christ.
Brent, if he is a Christian, is then not only badmouthing other members but himself as well. Self - destructive, and elequently so.
Witness Lee is not Paul.
But Brother Witness Lee was doing the same work as what Paul did - establish and build up local churches.
And he and his team expected to receive from people good reports and bad reports. All good reports would be suspect. And all bad reports would be unrealistic.
Even the seven local churches in Revelation 2 and 3 were not total utopias without any problems. But to Christ the High Priest in their midst caring for them, they were all seven golden shinning lampstands.
Christ, in spite of problems here and there, saw them as divine in nature and filled with the Spirit and shinning out the testimony of Jesus in the dark of night.
Seven golden lamstands were the seven local churches.