Testing Tradition

Note: The following is part of an email that I recently wrote to a brother from Y Community Church (mentioned below) in an email conversation we were having discussing the nature of the local church.  In it I make reference to the teaching of Watchman Nee on the local church in chapter 4 of his book The Normal Christian Church Life .  You can find a free online version here .  I've modified the names of the actual churches mentioned since the conversation isn't mainly about those specific churches but rather it's about the larger way we traditionally have come to think about the local church in our generation. The city of Ephesus in the first century had ~300,000 people.  The number of believers that composed this church initially when they repented of their magic arts and brought their books to be burned was big enough to bring the worth of that aggregation of books to the equivalent of ~$5.5 million today on the lower end and ~$1.5 billion on the upper end (Acts 19:18-20)

And you were dead in the trespasses and sins in which you once walked, following the course of this world, following the prince of the power of the air, the spirit that is now at work in the sons of disobedience—among whom we all once lived in the passions of our flesh, carrying out the desires of the body and the mind, and were by nature children of wrath , like the rest of mankind. Ephesians 2:1–3 ( emphasis added ) Let no one deceive you with empty words, for because of these things the wrath of God comes upon the sons of disobedience. Therefore do not become partners with them; for at one time you were darkness, but now you are light in the Lord. Walk as children of light Ephesians 5:6-8 ( emphasis added ) I've recently been reflecting on Paul's use of the phrase "children of wrath" in Ephesians 2:3. For years, I've understood it to mean that we are (as some translations put it) objects of God's wrath. In other words, the wrath being described in thi

Do not marvel at this, for an hour is coming when all who are in the tombs will hear his voice and come out, those who have done good to the resurrection of life, and those who have done evil to the resurrection of judgment. John 5:28–29 He will render to each one according to his works: to those who by patience in well-doing seek for glory and honor and immortality, he will give eternal life; but for those who are self-seeking and do not obey the truth, but obey unrighteousness, there will be wrath and fury. Romans 2:6–8   [Beginning at 3:30] Any theology that makes Paul contradict Jesus is BAD theology.