I’m speaking of a hand (member) that leaves the Church (Body of Christ.)
The person is where Gos IS. In each of US. Not in an organization or a building. The Bride of Christ is the church which is it’s people, which is us.
Today that equation is upside down. Today the ‘church’ is it’s leadership and what that leadership says it is.
Can a biblical argument be made that the bride of Christ is a building? A handful of people in bright robes? No. It cannot. Those things are material. The church is in the heart, not the building nor robe.
The people in that building and in those robes have taken power they have no right to and taken positions that 2000 years of doctrine cannot support.
If you get on a cruise ship and end up on Gilligan’s island for the rest of your life, separated from those men in that building, is your soul suddenly in jeopardy because you cannot tithe or attend service of those men in that building?
No? I would agree.
But In fact, Catholics across the world are very much on that island now because the men in the building put up a sign saying ‘Under OUR management. If you think the new boss is the same as the old boss when the new boss has a doctrine running counter to the previous, there’s not a lot for us to discuss. WE are still very much the people before the new boss took over. And without their management, our relationship with god has improved, not declined.
The bride of Christ is doing just fine. Just not in the way that the guys with the building want her to do. There’s no money or power in it.