THE UNIQUE ONENESS OF THE CHURCH—
THE PROPER GROUND OF THE CHURCH
We also need a vision of the unity of the church, a vision of the unique oneness of the church. When we speak here of the unity of the church, we speak of the unique unity, the only unity. In the Presbyterian denomination there may be a unity, and in the Methodist denomination there may also be a unity. But neither of these unities is the unique unity, the only unity. Rather, the unity of the Presbyterian denomination and the unity of the Methodist denomination are each a unity among many unities. What we need to see is the unique unity, not the unity among unities.
The unique unity, the unique oneness, of the church involves what we call the ground of the church. In ancient times the people of Israel had a unique unity in the good land of Canaan, with Jerusalem as its center. At that time the people of Israel were one. With them there was not more than one unity—there was the unique unity. The situation changed when the people of Israel were carried away into captivity. Most of them were carried away to Babylon, but some were carried away to Assyria and to Arabia. The people were scattered, and as a result they lost their unique unity. Suppose some of those in Babylon had said, "As the people of God, we have to be one. Let us come together to practice unity." They would have had a unity, but it would have been not the unique unity but the unity in Babylon. Suppose those who had been carried away to Assyria and to Arabia had done the same thing. Then in addition to the unity in Babylon there would have been the unity in Assyria and the unity in Arabia. Each group would have had its own unity, but none of these unities would have been the genuine, unique unity. After seventy years some faithful ones, who stood with the Lord and took His word, went back to Jerusalem, and there they started to practice, to recover, the lost unity. The unity they practiced was the unique unity, the only unity. Thus, after the dispersion of the people of Israel and the return of the faithful ones, there were many unities, but only the unity in Jerusalem was the unique unity. The others were not the real unity; they were unities as divisions. Actually, those so-called unities were divisions. Only the unity in Jerusalem was the unique, the only, unity.
From this we see that there is only one ground for unity. If we have more than this one ground, the unity will be broken. The only ground for unity is the proper ground of unity. The proper ground of the unity of the church, therefore, is the ground of the unique unity. This is not the unity of the various denominations or groups; it is simply the unity of the church expressed in the places, the localities, where the saints are.
When we say that the church is expressed in the place where the saints are, we need to define what we mean by place. What is the limit of this place? The limit is not a house nor a street. In the New Testament there are no street churches or avenue churches. Today, however, so-called churches are designated by a street or an avenue. Some might say, "In the Bible there are no street churches, but there are house churches." Concerning house churches or home churches we need to be careful. Yes, the New Testament does mention the church in the house of certain saints (Rom. 16:5a; Col. 4:15-16). If we read the New Testament carefully, we will see that in these cases the church in the house was the same in limit as the church in the city. In other words, the limit of the house church was equal to the city. The church in that house was the church in that locality, in that city. Therefore, we cannot have a street church, nor an avenue church, nor a church on a college campus, nor a church in a house that is not also the church in the city. According to the New Testament we can have only a city church, that is, the church in the city where we are.
(The Heavenly Vision, Chapter 2, by Witness Lee)
