International Church of Christ- Boston movement

[Guest emtmedgrl]

International Church of Christ

Hopefully I am allowed to post about the ICOC. I am not doing a post to attack the church members. I'm doing it more because I am having a battle with this. This is going to be LOOONG!

One of my closest friends is a member of the ICOC. She has been at the church for almost 10 years. One weekend she called me and asked if I would like to come do a bible study with her. I was SUPER excited because I didn't have any Christian friends in the area (because I had recently moved). Not knowing anything about the ICOC I went to the bible study thinking that we were both going to open our Bibles and do a good old fashion study. Well, when I arrived at her house she had brought two of her friends for the ICOC. I was a little weirded out at first because my friend had not mentioned anyone else coming along but then I figured the more the merrier. Over the course of the next few weeks they did this study with me out of Bible study ICOC books, not the Bible and started going over it with me explaining why I am not a Christian. I am a Christian, but they were able to tell me otherwise because I didn't share their point of view. They also told me that my mother (who died from cancer not too long ago) was probably not with God because she didn't believe that baptism was necessary for salvation. My mother was baptized, but she didn't believe that was what saved her when she became a Christian. She did it out of obedience to God. By the time I left I was almost done I was practically in tears. I know that I am a Christian, but I struggled for a while with making sure that what I believed was right. I did lots of studying and researching to make sure that I didn't miss anything. I agreed to do the remaining studies with them because my friend pleaded for me to. I figure if I have a better understanding of their beliefs than that could help me in the future to explain why I believe differently. The recruitment over the next few weeks started to become pretty fierce. They were calling me morning noon and night trying to get me to convert and to dump my boyfriend because he was "un-Godly" for not believing baptism saves you. After the study I told them I had many questions and I had been doing some reseach on the subject and asked if they would take a look at what I had written down and they agreed. Well, 20 pages later I handed it over to my Bible study partners. They were unable to answer any questions I had regarding why they believed they were the only church that would make it to heaven. They told me they were going to give it to their pastor and have him talk to me. Since then, I haven't heard a word and that was about 5 months ago. I even seen her pastor one day at a house warming party for a mutual friend and the man didn't even come around me to greet me. Before, when I was occasionally going to their church with my friend people would practically rush to talk to me and "fellowship" with me... now I was treated as an outsider. The friendship with my friend dropped off for a long time after I had disagreed with their church beliefs. It's almost like they had told her not to talk to me or something. We were close friends who talked daily and then we weren't.

Anyway, I have had lots of experience with the Church of Christ and I am really bothered by alot of things about the church. I have met some wonderful people at her church but I worry that maybe they aren't Christians. When you believe that you have to Work to make it a heaven, doesn't that kinda change grace? They believe that you have to do all these other things to get to heaven. You have to attend church every week, you have to confess your sins to other church members, you have to recruit a certain amount of new christians, you have to tithe and if you don't for some reason one week they will pull you aside and ask why you didn't tithe for the week, you have to put a certain amount of time aside for quiet time (which they decide when and how long it should be done), they discourage associating with people who have chosen not to become members of the ICOC, they believe that the singles should only date the singles in their church. No other domination is acceptable. They have weekly singles events and they even advise as to who the singles should date and how frequently. Some of the ICOC churches are not this hardcore, others are even worse. Is something wrong with this picture? I love the freedom I have in Christ to choose my own christian partner, do quiet times daily because I love the Lord, not because someone told me to do so, and attend the church and give to the church without someone telling me how much I should give. I think that when man takes over and starts making rules for the congregation this takes Christ out of it. Me and my boyfriend have talked alot about this. My boyfriend is friends with my friend Donna's husband. Should I be concerned? Should I try talking to them more about this? I don't know.. I'm really confused. I know everyone on this forum is from different back grounds so I welcome everyones comments about what they think. I haven't really talked much more to Donna about this because I didn't want to push her in any way. I believe that we all make our own decisions. I have also agreed to disagree with her. I refuse to argue with her about it even though I'm told quite often that I am in danger of going to hell because I turned away from the true church. Sorry if this post is kinda choppy. I'm not the best writer. Please give me some feedback. Thanks,

In him-

Amanda

[Trinity]

Oh No!!!! man iv been praying against Cults such as this one, my friend is also in a cult... it is very hard all you Got to to is

1. Know your bible!!!

2. Also use the bible to prove.

3. Never Get angry.

4. Pray, even when your about to talk to him.

5. Do not force the subject.

6. Encourage him to go to church with you.

7. Be a good example.

8. Study the bible hard.

9. Remember you are dealing with Satan.

10. Remember you are dealing with someone who was fed lies

[Guest emtmedgrl]

Thanks so much. I'm glad someone kinda understands where I coming from. After I started their Bible studies I got very convicted because I knew what they were saying was wrong, but I couldn't point them directly to the passage that I was trying to say. The one good thing to come out of this was realizing that I needed to be able even more obedient in learning the Bible more.

Do you think people in cults could be saved?

[Trinity]

yeah... its going to be hard... ill keep you in prayers

[stevehut]

Amanda,

I was a member of the Los Angeles congregation for several years. I must say that what you describe was not my experience. For example, you say that your friends taught you from ICOC books apart from the Bible? I'd be interested to know what they were, because I don't recall that during my studies. I can only recall that they used a booklet that contained the outlines of the studies.

[Khristeeanos]

Hey Steve,

Is the ICOC a branch of the Restoration Movement?

[Guest The Chief]

A couple of the things you mentioned caught my eye. One, the term "Bible Studies" where the group's publications take precedence over the Holy Bible, and second, the fact that they could not support their "belief system" with Scripture. Boston is the home of the Christian Scientist cult, but some of what has been written by you leans heavily towards Jehovahs Witnesses (Brooklyn, NY based). A book that I would highly recommend you read concerning cults in general is "Kingdom of the Cults," edited by Hank Hanegraff. This book contains some excellent background on cult history,activities, and basic theology, as well as notes on evangelizing cult members.

Trinity has made some excellent suggestions....one thing I might add to their list is agree on Biblical definitions of terms (salvation, the Trinity, Jesus, etc) before you begin your discussion, because most cults have their own unique definitions that do not agree with mainstream Christianity.

[wordsower]

I have found that prayer is about the only resource you have in dealing with cults. They will not listen to you, they are too brainwashed into thinking everyone is out to deceive them.

God can get through to them if they want truth, otherwise there is really nothing you can do.

Your life and how you have joy in Christ is a good example, cult members do not have joy, they live under the legalistic rules of their denomination. They are also very arrogant in their beleifs, they think they are right and everyone else is wrong.

It is sad, but really, arguing does no good and there are too many people out there that need to hear the gospel to waste time with those that have heard adn refuse to believe.

I was raised in a cult, all first hand experience and advice.

[stevehut]

Is the ICOC a branch of the Restoration Movement?

Sort of, indirectly.

Some of the early leaders if ICOC came from a Chuch of Christ background, and some were converted and/or trained at Crossroads.

[Khristeeanos]

Is the ICOC a branch of the Restoration Movement?

Sort of, indirectly.

Some of the early leaders if ICOC came from a Chuch of Christ background, and some were converted and/or trained at Crossroads.

That makes me sick to think that a church group was started specifically to be unified with all believers by 6 different people at the exact same time completely without knoweldge of each other and it has turned out into at least a 4 way split.