Paula

My understanding of the illustration of branches being grafted in or cut off is to represent Jews (natural) and Gentiles (wild). But I won’t get into a debate here on eternal security. I also don’t take Mt. 18:18 as applicable to the issue of disfellowshipping, but instead to the following discussion about asking God for something. Jesus was talking about an individual sinning against another person, not about teaching falsehood or any other congregation-wide issue.

Also remember that Jesus spoke these things before the Cross. While many things were re-emphasized by the apostles after Pentecost, I don’t believe a church-age believer can be removed from the Body. When Paul told the Corinthians to throw a man out from their fellowship, he stated the purpose: so that the man could be taught not to blaspheme, and we don’t “teach a lesson” to those outside the Body. Later the man was reinstated into the fellowship for repenting. Some may cite this as a case of regained salvation but I don’t.

At any rate, we can see from this thread how difficult it would be for Christians world-wide to agree on who should be disfellowshipped and how they should be reinstated. The best I think we could hope for is that no congregation should accept someone from another congregation without some statement about the person’s standing where they were before.