If by that, you mean that they are big on collecting money.... Most CoC's I've been involved with take up a collection that is considerably smaller than most other churches. CoC people have never been known for giving a lot of money.
Is Church of Christ A Cult?
- Thread starter Rollo Tamasi
- Start date
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Desire to be a vessel of honor unto the Lord Jesus Christ?
Join For His Glory for a discussion on how
https://christianforums.net/threads/a-vessel-of-honor.110278/
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Taking the time to pray? Christ is the answer in times of need
https://christianforums.net/threads/psalm-70-1-save-me-o-god-lord-help-me-now.108509/
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By anti I meant what your father-in-law is. Some are anti giving to a non-Christian out of the church treasury (although they do give liberally to such personally). Some of them do not give to orphan homes from the treasury (although they do liberally personally). Some have no fellowship halls, they rent a site when needed. This is so they may have more for mission work and spread of the gospel. Some use one cup in the communion, and I am not opposed to that providing I am the first to drink from the cup. I have worship with them and can so long as they do not bind on me one of their anti notions. As a rule they are sincere, kind and loving Christians. One thing is absolutely certain, no liberalism will be found among them as in denominations and that is greatly appreciated by me.
As for their giving I have not found them wanting. One may think they do not give much and perhaps the greatest reason why is one may think that is because they do not beg for money as do denominations. They have no car washes, bake sales etc., etc., etc., to raise money. We all believe the Lord's church should be supported by her members and do not expect the visitor to contribute. We give only on the first day of the week as that is the scripture example. Every congregation I have been associated with gives in excess to their budget.
I've made this brief and can enlarge. I appreciate those "of like precious faith" and do feel offended when the uneducated call them a cult.
God bless,
w
Rom.16:16
I tend to be slow with the title, Cult, but like Obidiah, I find the Crossroads movement extremely cult like but then the stock legalism in the Church of Christ is in place in spite of the placement of importance on a never quite understandable scale. I say this because it is recorded three times in the Bible about being cursed for either adding or dismissing any word or words from what God has written.
As a result it is and always has been my view, as led by the Spirit that all scripture carries the same weight. With that view of scripture there are zero conflicts, anywhere, in scripture and when they appear to be conflicting we must submit our wills to that of God, Jesus and the Holy Spirit, pray and then listen. I have found that when folks fail in the last step, legalism abounds. From my personal experience the legalism in some of their churches does not abound in all of their Churches. Some will stand fast on their legalism and oppose and even condemn others in spite of Paul's instruction that everything is possible for the Christ follower and ignore the teaching of Jesus in Matthew 7 to judge righteously.
I have heard so many times that I am going to Hell because on being a member of a Baptist Church until I just ignore and no longer seek to teach the stiff necked people. All any of us can do is to pray for them along with our stiff necked Baptists.
May God bless.
Not sure why you added your comments to your quote of my comments, but if you're not trying to quarel with me, why don't you just go and read my statement where I said that after others pointed out that the web site in question was not the same Church of Christ I dropped the subject. What exactly is it you want me to do? Should I flog myself mercilessly in repentance of mistakenly thinking a web site that identified itself as the official Church of Christ web site was actually a different Church of Christ than the Church of Christ being talked about here? Should the rest of us that made that same mistake do so as well? Perhaps I should have just refused to acknowledge it was a different site in the first place? I'm just not sure what it is that you are expecting me to say to you.
I have never met any of the Crossroad group. However from what I have heard of them from reputable witnesses I agree they are cultish. As I have stated in a previous post we have no fellowship with them. They went out from us. As the apostle of Christ wrote: ''THEY WENT OUT FROM US, BUT THEY WERE NOT OF US; FOR IF THEY HAD BEEN OF US, THEY WOULD NO DOUBT HAVE CONTINUED WITH US: BUT THEY WENT OUT, THAT THEY MIGHT BE MADE MANIFEST THAT THEY WERE NOT ALL OF US" 1Jn. 2:19.
BTW, I appreciate your military service. I'm a combat veteran of the United States Marine Corps, Korean vintage.
God bless,
w
Rom.16:16
As I said I have no desire to quarrel with you. If I misunderstood you I apologize. I do stand ready to discuss any doctrinal subject with you which you feel we disagree on.
God bless,
w
Rom.16:16
This looks like one of those threads that ends up in the well you know.. today i found this a yes or no answer is all that's required.. it has to do with water baptism in order to be saved
Some other denominations and if they believe water baptism is needed for salvation:
Wesleyans: not needed
Church of Christ: needed
Free/United Methodists: not needed (I’m not 100%sure, but confident)
Catholics: needed
tob
*edit: this is from Yahoo answers..
https://answers.yahoo.com/question/index?qid=20110328214523AAfDSFe
Some other denominations and if they believe water baptism is needed for salvation:
Wesleyans: not needed
Church of Christ: needed
Free/United Methodists: not needed (I’m not 100%sure, but confident)
Catholics: needed
tob
*edit: this is from Yahoo answers..
https://answers.yahoo.com/question/index?qid=20110328214523AAfDSFe
maybe i missed it i was looking for yes or no.. is water baptism necessary for salvation there are a list of denominations that say yes or no and all i see is:
I failed to hit the right key to show that the bottom of the above post was mine, beginning with the list of scriptures. Sorry for the mistake.
God bless,
w
Rom.16:16
tob
*edit:wrong thread
I failed to hit the right key to show that the bottom of the above post was mine, beginning with the list of scriptures. Sorry for the mistake.
God bless,
w
Rom.16:16
tob
*edit:wrong thread
Last edited:
Hi TOB
I listed several passages from the NT teaching the essentiality of baptism such as Mk.16:15,16; Acts 2:39; Acts 22:18; Rom.6:1-about 19; Gal.3:26,27 and I Pet. 3:21.
God bless,
w
Rom.16:16
I attended the church of Christ for about 5 years, many years ago. Since all congregations are autonomous, and there is no central headquarters, some congregations may differ from others. The one I attended did believe that adult baptism by immersion is necessary for the remission of sins, based on the scriptures quoted by Webb. So yes, this is a difference to what most mainstream denominations believe.
Other than that, there is no great difference in beliefs between them and any other church I have attended.
They were good people and I have happy memories of them and their simple faith. I would definitely not class them as a cult.
It is unfortunate that one of the Mormon churches has chosen to give themselves the same name and post a prominent website, as this is very misleading.
Someone asked how you would know whether a particular congregation is or is not Mormon. Very simple. Ask them if they accept the book of Mormon. The church of Christ as I knew it would answer with a definite No!
Other than that, there is no great difference in beliefs between them and any other church I have attended.
They were good people and I have happy memories of them and their simple faith. I would definitely not class them as a cult.
It is unfortunate that one of the Mormon churches has chosen to give themselves the same name and post a prominent website, as this is very misleading.
Someone asked how you would know whether a particular congregation is or is not Mormon. Very simple. Ask them if they accept the book of Mormon. The church of Christ as I knew it would answer with a definite No!
I think I once was told that baptism is supposed to be done before a person can be saved in the coC? Not sure though?
some of these denominations I would hesitate to call cults but would call them pharisaical legalists from some of the descriptions in this thread. Cults use the same techniques of intimidation, information and emotional control and leader worship. If there is intimidation applied if we disagree with the church leadership or want to leave and leaders have control over the people's everyday lives and families, then it is a cult
Webb
Brother, your doing a fantastic job representing the churches of Christ.
GrannyJ , thank you for your wonderful post.
My wife has roots dating back to her great grandfather who was a preacher for the church of Christ, as was her grandfather. While Webb will do a better job than I, what I can say is that one of the things that I enjoy the most about being a member is that each church is autonomous, which means each church can meet the specific physical and spiritual needs of the local community and congregation. Another thing that I love would be how many of our members actually study their bibles.
I've argued right here on this forum and have been called a member of a cult, and honestly it doesn't feel very good. But what I can say for those who think we are a cult, you highly misunderstand us or put words into our mouths and then insist that we've said them, much in the same manner JLB kept insisting that a mormon site was our site even after repeated attempts to assure him that it wasn't.
There are some push button topics that everyone seems to target, mainly the absence of musical instruments in our worship and baptism. I know that the absence of musical instruments really sounds odd for some, but it's not wrong not to have them. Actually, it's even refreshing. One of the driving factors to support the non-use of musical instruments in our worship derives from the absence of musical instruments in the New Testament. I know members who will argue this point to division. I am not one of them. However, I would never advocate for them either and I do feel that not using them in worship lends to a purer form of worship.
The second big issue most have a hard time with is our view on baptism. John Mark Hicks, professor of theology at Lipscomb University wrote an excellent book on the topic specifically for the churches of Christ, and I ascribe to his views.
http://www.amazon.com/Down-River-Pray-Revisioning-Transforming/dp/0972842535
Here is his outline:
http://johnmarkhicks.faithsite.com/content.asp?CID=53318
Brother, your doing a fantastic job representing the churches of Christ.
GrannyJ , thank you for your wonderful post.
My wife has roots dating back to her great grandfather who was a preacher for the church of Christ, as was her grandfather. While Webb will do a better job than I, what I can say is that one of the things that I enjoy the most about being a member is that each church is autonomous, which means each church can meet the specific physical and spiritual needs of the local community and congregation. Another thing that I love would be how many of our members actually study their bibles.
I've argued right here on this forum and have been called a member of a cult, and honestly it doesn't feel very good. But what I can say for those who think we are a cult, you highly misunderstand us or put words into our mouths and then insist that we've said them, much in the same manner JLB kept insisting that a mormon site was our site even after repeated attempts to assure him that it wasn't.
There are some push button topics that everyone seems to target, mainly the absence of musical instruments in our worship and baptism. I know that the absence of musical instruments really sounds odd for some, but it's not wrong not to have them. Actually, it's even refreshing. One of the driving factors to support the non-use of musical instruments in our worship derives from the absence of musical instruments in the New Testament. I know members who will argue this point to division. I am not one of them. However, I would never advocate for them either and I do feel that not using them in worship lends to a purer form of worship.
The second big issue most have a hard time with is our view on baptism. John Mark Hicks, professor of theology at Lipscomb University wrote an excellent book on the topic specifically for the churches of Christ, and I ascribe to his views.
http://www.amazon.com/Down-River-Pray-Revisioning-Transforming/dp/0972842535
Here is his outline:
http://johnmarkhicks.faithsite.com/content.asp?CID=53318
yes, that is so. the one world church is very much that way, but usually either denies it if confronted, or justifies it using their own authority to back it up, instead of obeying Scripture. oh, they (all?) claim to believe in Jesus, with their lips.... but anyone actually serving Jesus as Lord is told they are out of order and better submit.(to the one world church rules).