Posted on 08/17/2007 11:11:00 AM PDT by Alex Murphy
Q:My grandson is marrying a lovely young lady of a different faith. She did not want a wedding in her church because instrumental music was not allowed. She also did not want to get married in our church. She wanted a backyard wedding.
Would you please enlighten us on the beliefs of the Church of Christ?
Elaine, Piedmont
A:Each Church of Christ traces its heritage to the Restoration Movement that swept the new American nation in the late 1700s and early 1800s.
Baptists in New England, Methodists along the Middle Atlantic Coast and Presbyterians in the Appalachian Mountains, among others, grew distressed by what they saw as too much highlighting of denominational beliefs and not enough emphasis on what Christ taught and the earliest Christian church practiced.
Led predominantly by transplanted Scotsman Alexander Campbell and Presbyterian clergyman Barton Stone, some worshippers withdrew from their denominations and established individual, self-governing churches that sought to restore Christianity to ancient practices and biblical teachings. They threw out all creeds, such as the Westminster Confession of Faith and the Apostles' Creed, and announced they had only one creed, the Bible.
They saw no reason to name themselves in any way other than as believers in Jesus Christ. Individual congregations, therefore, were called churches of Christ, disciples of Christ or Christian churches. In the beginning, these groups found it important to use lower case rather than capital letters when referring to themselves, to avoid the appearance of denominationalism.
They opposed any organization that was not at the local church level alone. For example, the Restoration Movement believed the New Testament showed that ancient churches engaged in mission work individually and did not form umbrella organizations for that purpose. The movement, therefore, eschewed mission societies in which various churches pooled their efforts for evangelism, charity or any other work.
In 1906 and 1968, divisions occurred in the Restoration Movement, leading to three groups: Christian Church (Disciples of Christ), the most liberal, which has become a denomination in the traditional sense; Christian Church/Churches of Christ, the centrist group, which retains complete local church autonomy, and the Churches of Christ, the most conservative of the groups and the one about which you asked.
Using the Bible — and giving great weight to the New Testament — each Church of Christ decides for itself what it believes and teaches. Despite this autonomy, there is a surprising degree of similarity among churches in practice and doctrine.
As your future daughter-in-law mentioned, Churches of Christ typically prohibit the use of musical instruments in worship. Members tend to read the Bible literally and to allow in church only those things that the New Testament specifically authorizes. They find direction for singing in Ephesians 5:19, "Speak to one another with psalms, hymns and spiritual songs. Sing and make music in your heart to the Lord ... .”
While the Old Testament mentions the use of musical instruments, the New Testament does not, so Churches of Christ practice only a cappella singing during services.
Adherents often point out that instrumental music was not used in Christian churches until the 600s, and the term "a cappella,” meaning to sing without instrumental accompaniment, is Italian for "as in the chapel.”
Churches of Christ tend to teach that each person has free will to accept or reject saving grace offered by God. In keeping with this teaching, they believe that predestination is limited to God ordaining that those who are righteous will be saved while those who are not righteous will be damned.
A person accepts God's offer of grace by being baptized, according to most Churches of Christ; therefore, only a person who has reached the age of accountability and can make such a decision may be baptized. Baptism is by immersion because it is believed that John the Baptist submerged Jesus when baptizing him and because the New Testament Greek root of "baptize” means to dip, plunge or immerse.
While some Christian denominations believe "once saved, always saved,” Churches of Christ typically teach that a person may lose or reject the salvation he or she once accepted.
Churches of Christ do not consider themselves as Protestants, nor do they count themselves as Orthodox or Roman Catholic. They do, however, celebrate Holy Communion every week, using grape juice instead of wine.
Churches of Christ interpret literally I Timothy 2:11, which says, "I do not permit a woman to teach or to have authority over a man; she must be silent.” Therefore, the congregations are led by male elders.
Yet, I do not respect the religion for the following reasons:
-It installs one man on earth as above all other men. I do not find that in “my” Bible.
-It handles its masses in Latin - knowing that the people do not understand.
-It creates saints that the members pray to. I only pray to God.
-It creates Mary as a sacred being worthy of being prayed to. I find nothing in my Bible that tells us to pray to saints or Mary.
-It appears immersed in a love of wealth, pageantry, with the power in the hands of exalted men ruling over the lives of the ordinary. This emphasis on opulence and wealth is foreign to me when trying to follow Jesus. I did not see Jesus involved in any obsession of wealth.
I do not deny that there are some wonderful people in the history and members. And there are many decisions and statements that I respect. Overall, I feel the people are praying to idols, praying to men as “saints” and seeking forgiveness for their sins from men - not God.
So many things that I cannot overlook as I do not find a basis for the practices in the Bible.
AMEN BROTHER!!!
Why not? You asked some very interesting questions, to which I graciously provided answers. The answers may or may not be to your liking (I cannot know, as I cannot read your mind), but the answers are nevertheless true. Questions posed on a public discussion forum will invariably provoke discussion.
secret documents
are not sold for six bucks on Amazon dot com, nor are they given away for FREE on the internet.
Wha..? Aw heck, are you telling me that I'm out six bucks?
Yep ... The really sad part is those six dollar New American Bibles are printed on really crummy paper. I've got one from the '80s (back then, it was more like two bucks) and the paper is about the same colour as a paper grocery bag. Pathetic. I've another, from the '70s, that was printed on acid free paper ... well worn, but the paper isn't decomposing.
Jesus made wine. St. Paul advises that a little wine is good for the stomach. No reference is made to grape juice. This is a non-biblical phobia with its roots in made up Scripture interpretation by laymen. This error was specificly condemned by St. Peter IN Scripture.
The assumption that every mention of wine in Scripture refers to fermented grape juice is the error. sinatorhellary’s post states this very well.
This belief has no roots in Scripture or history.
BOGUS, just like the whole Sola Scriptura nonsense.
Are you denying that the word “wine” is used for all 3 types of grape juice that was mentioned in post 159? If you are going to blast someone else’s position, then please offer up something more than just blindly dismissing it.
Catholic as in universal, as in the body of believers in Christ, yes.
What do you think 'new wine' is?
Received? Received from whom?
From those taught and trained in the Gospels of Our Lord. Which, of course the CoC prides itself in not having. That is why the baptism was not in the name of the Trinity. It is ludicrous to presume that every Tom Dick and alcoholic Harry can teach the Gospel of Christ in an accurate manner.
Further, that is why you do not believe that the Holy Spirit is transferred by men of God. That’s because you don’t have any. You have theological children playing at being adults. Who do you think is authorized to teach? Your untrained children?
The Church is the Bride of Christ. The Pope is the head on Earth. The Steward. The one who holds the keys until the Master returns.
Stop playing at theology and come back to God.
On thin theological ice, are we?
The Roman Catholic Church is not the One Holy Catholic and Apostolic Church of Jesus Christ. It is one of them.
Do I detect some theological panic?
Then you may be looking with scales over your eyes.
As I have (and those theologically greater than I) have indicated, you have a children’s theology and a hayseed’s doctrine.
The Campbells and Stone were on a power trip; no different from the televangelists today. The folks in Abilene may not live in opulence, but they’re damn sure trying.
The Campbells and Stone, along with Rigdon, wrote your theology.
Don’t you really want to know the reasons behind the oddity of some of your beliefs?
The Church universal is spiritual (”My kingdom is not of this world”). Earthly institutions are NOT the Church.
Try the Bible. John 20:21-23. Matt 18:18. And a handful of others.
Are you people not bible based? What say you to this?
Boy, you really don’t get out much.
If you would, check out the legacy of Martin Luther and the hatchet job he did. And you yokels just fell in with it. You really don’t know your history, do you?
Aww, they’re so cute.
Jesus had wine at the Last Supper.
The wedding at Cana had Jesus creating the very best of wine.
See you CoC down at the liquor store pretending that you’re somebody else.
That’s why we say that the one institution that Jesus set up is.
Splitters and quitters don’t get to make the rules.
You folks are the fourth or fifth generation.
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