Church of Christ / Is it a Cult?

Hello, in this video we're going to be looking at the Church of Christ or the Churches of Christ.

We're not talking about the denomination, Church of Christ UCC, that Barack Obama is supposedly a member of.

Not talking about that group, we're talking about the group that came out of the 1800s. So the

Churches of Christ, the most famous members of the Church of Christ today.

If you've heard anything about them, you've probably heard about the Church of Christ in relation to the clan from the hit

TV show Duck Dynasty. So Phil Robertson and family, they are probably the most famous members of the movement.

But where did this group start? So the Church of Christ or Churches of Christ, they are a

Restorationist group that was founded in the 19th century, so 1800s, and they developed out of a group known as the

Campbellites. The whole idea of the Restorationist movement was that true

Christianity was being restored to the earth. Incidentally, this is what

Joseph Smith of the Mormons claimed about his church, the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter -day

Saints. This is what Ellen White of the Seventh -day Adventists claimed, that we, the

Seventh -day Adventists, we are the true church, the true remnant church of the end times.

Also, the Jehovah's Witnesses, even though they don't like using the word church or Christianity, they do claim to be the authentic version of Christianity.

And these are all groups that started up around the same time, the 1800s, and there are some connections.

And the big question with the Church of Christ is, are they a cult? Because without question, the

Mormons and the Jehovah's Witnesses, historically, they have been considered cults.

That is standard Protestant evangelical doctrine. That's not my opinion.

They've been considered cults from the beginning. So the question is about the

Church of Christ, are they a cult? Many would say they are. Many would say they're not.

And we'll get into their doctrinal distinctives in a moment. Now one thing about the Church of Christ, they're big on this idea that you need to be a disciple.

So if you say, I'm a Christian, they might come back and respond, well, are you a disciple?

Because they'll look around, and this is what happened in the 1800s, these Restorationist groups, they looked around at the

Presbyterians and the Congregationalists and the Methodists and they thought, these people are not real

Christians. Many of them go to church on Sunday and they're not committed.

Some of them don't even go to church and they're not real Christians. But we are, and the word they've sort of latched onto is disciple.

So are you a disciple? And what they're asking is, are you actively involved? Are you truly committed to Christ?

And let's face it, there's a lot of people that aren't all that committed. Some professing Christians don't even go to church.

So that's a whole other subject that we're not going to get into, but many find this to be a powerful argument.

So if you say, I'm a Christian, and somebody responds, yeah, but are you a disciple? That may be an indication they are part of the

Church of Christ. I used to work with a guy who was part of this movement, because there's different branches, the

International Church of Christ, and trust me, he was big on that. So if somebody said they were a

Christian, they're not going to take your word for it. You need to kind of prove it to them.

That's been my experience. So I mentioned that in passing, but whether or not they're a cult, because you could say there's some legitimacy to that argument.

Some Protestants would say that's true. But as far as this idea, are they a cult,

I think the restorationist movement, anytime somebody says we are the true church, or you have to be part of our movement in order to be saved, that's cult -like behavior.

With the Mormons and Jehovah's Witnesses, that's what they said, though Jehovah's Witnesses still teach that.

Some Mormons don't anymore, but the early Mormons seem to, that we are the true

Christians. So that type of attitude where you say you must be a member of our group, again, to be fair, some

Churches of Christ members would say that's true, some would probably not say that. But anytime you say that you have to be part of our group in order to be a true

Christian, that is a sectarian attitude condemned by Christ in Luke 9, verses 49 and 50.

My position, I believe the biblical position, because denominations didn't exist in Bible times.

And again, that's a whole other subject of the different denominations, but I personally believe that there are saved people in pretty much all the different denominations.

Because salvation, it's not a matter of are you part of our church or are you part of our movement, it's whether or not do you believe the

Gospel. And this is a problem with the Church of Christ that some would claim that they add to the

Gospel. So let's finish the video by talking about some of the doctrinal distinctives.

The first doctrinal distinctive of the Church of Christ is they believe in baptismal regeneration.

So you're not saved by faith alone. You need to have faith and be baptized.

So they believe that the water literally washes away your sin. So if you have not been baptized, you are not saved.

So baptismal regeneration, that's number one. Number two, another thing they're very well known for, they forbid musical instruments in church.

So their worship services, it's acapella only. The third doctrinal distinctive is they reject creeds.

So they would resist and reject the historic creeds of Christianity, including the

Apostles' Creed and Nicene Creed. They say you should just study the

Bible, which a lot of people would probably be sympathetic to that viewpoint.

So we're not saying that they're wrong in all these different areas, but there are some problems baptismal regeneration probably being the biggest issue.

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