I do and will defend my faith in the Lord Jesus Christ even unto death. My local organization's building, not so much. I guess the disconnect is when one believes his "organization" is the church. It isn't. All those who are Christ's body are the church. They/we are members of the called-out assembly (ekklesia), which is translated as "church". Here is the Strong's concordance definition of the word:
In a Christian sense
1) an assembly of Christians gathered for worship in a religious meeting
2) a company of Christian, or of those who, hoping for eternal salvation through Jesus Christ, observe their own religious rites, hold their own religious meetings, and manage their own affairs, according to regulations prescribed for the body for order's sake
3) those who anywhere, in a city, village, constitute such a company and are united into one body
4) the whole body of Christians scattered throughout the earth
5) the assembly of faithful Christians already dead and received into heaven
What kind of Christians hides the church he/she is a member of during a debate on a religious forum? Maybe if you belonged to the "Church of the Folks Living in the Red House in the 600 Block of Maple Street in Cleveland, Ohio, 94567."
Again, I think anyone who is comfortable with disclosing their local church affiliation is fine and those do not wish to do so are fine, too. I have yet to see anyone on these forums for any length of time who has not said what they believe about the issue being discussed. Else, why even join the thread? I still don't think it is necessary that the denomination MUST be mentioned, and certainly not when certain people DEMAND such information. I think you and I both have seen what some will do with that information and go off on tangents with recriminations that have nothing whatsoever to do with the Freeper poster. Even when some people have given their views on doctrine or their denomination it is never enough for some unless they get a response at the snap of their fingers. People get tired of bullies.
I honestly can't believe the question has gotten this far and so far afield and off topic when a simple " I belong to a LCMS Lutheran Church" or "I'm a Unitarian Universalist" or whatever would suffice.
I hope I have explained this to you in a way that you can now understand. I think that for some bullies, there is no simple "I belong to...". It SHOULD suffice to discuss the specific issue and not let the extraneous stuff get in the way.
Good grief, BB.
You have an invisible Church but no visible Church. You lack an important part. Where do you go to "take it to the Church"?
Can you read Acts and the Epistles and entertain the thought that there is no authority in Christ's Church? No one with authority to say "this is the Christian Faith" and "not this."
What is the true Christian faith, BB? Where do you find that? Not in competing exegesis of Holy Scripture with each individual his own authority.
This fails in practice, obviously and massively. Jesus did not establish the Church as you see for this reason at least. It is not One. The Church, the Body of Christ *cannot* be One with your view of "church."
The evidence is all around us. If your view of church is true, Jesus was wrong - and it failed.
Q.E.D.
We’ve pretty well exhausted the original topic.
I’m off to bed. Thanks for your discussion.