Can someone tell me about the Church of Christ?

[JohnD]

On 4/18/2017 at 8:46 AM, Butterfly.29 said:

Hello everybody:) I am trying to find the right Church for me and I have started to look at the different sections of Christianity. I was wondering if someone who is a member of the Church of Christ could tell me their beliefs and experience in the Church. Thank you!

Edit: Sorry I'm not sure if I'm able to reply directly to anyone (or I don't know how lol) Thank you everyone for the answers they were very helpful:) Would anyone be willing to tell my about their current church and that churches beliefs? I have got a much better understanding from your answers then from research alone. Thanks so much!

 

Welcome to the forums.

Though this is a cybernetic version of the Body of Christ (...in the Cloud... ha ha) in many ways you will find a better fellowship here and a better chance to understand the faith here than you will in a local physical congregation. I know there is a great point circulating today that people are losing their social skills to the electronic revolution... but hear me out.

There is a distinct difference between the Church Organization and the Church Organism.

One of the greatest Bible teachers I have experienced (the late Dr. Walter Martin, founder of the Christian Research Institute and original Bible Answer Man) used to say "We believers ARE the Church, not this Church building, not this denomination or that denomination. After the sermon the Church will all go to have lunch..." This definition must be remembered when reading about the Church being the Body of Christ and how Christ died for the Church and all things are for the edification of the Church... etc.

Whether you are aware of it or not, you are asking us about Church organizations... the Church of Christ being one.

I can tell you plenty. I was baptized by my late father in the Xenia, Ohio Church of Christ in 1970 at age 9. He died 2 years later, and I clung to that connection with my father (the Church of Christ allows any Christian to baptize). Sounds funny to hear me say this... "allows" implying authority no Church organization actually has... like the Baptists and their over emphasis on water baptism (in some cases, insisting you are water baptized every time you join a local Baptist congregation). Some even "vote" if they will accept you as a member.

The point I am getting at is the Church Organization is man centered / humanist. 

The Church of Christ movement (for example) believes they are the one true church and that you must not use musical instruments in worship services for penalty of going to hell.

Many Pentecostal churches teach that if you do not speak in tongues you are not saved.

The Baptists and water baptism I already mentioned... and yep they believe you are hell bound without getting dunked.

The Church Organism was prevalent in the first three centuries after Christ ascended to heaven.

It was persecuted initially by Jews who rejected Jesus as the Messiah. Then the Romans took over with unmatched skill driving the Body of Christ underground. Christians being among the few (some believe only) people who refused to proclaim Cesar a deity (i.e. "Cesar is Lord") made Christianity illegal and Christians enemies of the State. Then along came Emperor Constantine whose empire by that time was unraveling at the seems. A second capital city had to be established and still the empire was crumbling. He found in Christianity a cohesiveness and a devotion his empire and subjects lacked. So he came up with the plan to legalize Christianity and incorporate it into the empire as the state religion. Both he and his mother got very busy on making preparations for the Roman Empire itself to morph into what became the Roman Empire Church (Roman Catholicism).

Cesar ~ Pope

Senate ~ Cardinals

Regional Governors ~ Bishops

etc. right on down the list the exact same governmental structure capital city ~ Rome.

Several branches splintered away from this, the Orthodox (Russian and Greek), Coptic, etc. And then came the Protestant Reformation... none of which reformed or reverted far enough (to the Church Organism of the first three centuries CE).

You asked specifically about the Church of Christ which is a splinter group within the Protestant reformation... originally called Campbellites. Another in the many attempts to restore the Church Organization to the original Church Organism (both in orthodoxy and in cults like the Jehovah's Witness or Mormons who don't even have the deity of God correct and should be avoided like the plague!!!).

My over all point is most are unaware of the distinction between the Church Organism and the Church Organization

~ OR ~

that the Church Organization CANNOT BE FIXED.

That's where well meaning men and women and movements that blast full steam ahead out of the initial starting gate looses steam and then runs out of gas and stumbles and falls in the end into just another version of the Church Organization. I remember the "non-denominational" movement (Calvary Chapels to be specific) seemed hopeful for a few decades. But eventually it all becomes part of the machine... the humanism vehicle that appears to be the mechanism of God but in fact opposed God more than most realize. 

This post is getting much longer than I intended... I'll continue it in another post...

[JohnD]

What you want, and everyone should want is a safe haven of fellowship with other members of the Church Organism / the Body of Christ to grow and to support and to nurture one another in a wholesome, unequivocal environment of like minded and like spirited individuals in humble submission to the Holy Spirit (who is the one to accurately interpret the Bible) ← which we are to verify with the Bible itself as we are instructed in the Bible to do.

If you find a congregation like this in the "real world" you will have found a rare gem indeed.

 

[JohnD]

The Church Organism consists of priests before God. 

Everyone who believes in the Lord Jesus Christ is a priest.

1 Peter 2:3–9 (AV)
3 If so be ye have tasted that the Lord is gracious.
4 To whom coming, as unto a living stone, disallowed indeed of men, but chosen of God, and precious,
5 Ye also, as lively stones, are built up a spiritual house, an holy priesthood, to offer up spiritual sacrifices, acceptable to God by Jesus Christ.
6 Wherefore also it is contained in the scripture, Behold, I lay in Sion a chief corner stone, elect, precious: and he that believeth on him shall not be confounded.
7 Unto you therefore which believe he is precious: but unto them which be disobedient, the stone which the builders disallowed, the same is made the head of the corner,
8 And a stone of stumbling, and a rock of offence, even to them which stumble at the word, being disobedient: whereunto also they were appointed.
9 But ye are a chosen generation, a royal priesthood, an holy nation, a peculiar people; that ye should shew forth the praises of him who hath called you out of darkness into his marvellous light:

Revelation 1:6 (AV)
6 And hath made us kings and priests unto God and his Father; to him be glory and dominion for ever and ever. Amen.

Revelation 5:10 (AV)
10 And hast made us unto our God kings and priests: and we shall reign on the earth.

The division between clergy and laity is an error imposed on the New Covenant (New Testament) that was in effect in the Old Testament (Old Covenant) by the Church Organization to prop up the Organization and keep the Church Organism in submission to it.

In the Old Covenant after the apostasy of Exodus 32 (wherein the people not only made the calf idol, and not only had an orgy, but they were about to return to Egypt to undo everything God had done AND... to assimilate back into pagan culture... undoing everything God had done since the calling out of Abraham). Far more detrimental an ordeal than a superficial reading gives us. This is why God's response was so bloody... and those who came to the aid of God's man Moses became the priests (the Levites) and the rest of Israel from that time til the New Covenant became essentially the laity. 

But God's initial intentions for the whole nation of Israel:

Exodus 19:6 (AV)
6 And ye shall be unto me a kingdom of priests, and an holy nation. These are the words which thou shalt speak unto the children of Israel.