Church of Christ- Not Protestant ?

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RC_Deacon08

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Hi,
Anyone have much contact with members of the Protestant sect
called “Church of Christ” ? (This is not connected with the cult called Church of Christ of Boston). Whats been your experience? These are local Churches of Christ and often tag on the name of the town/city where they are located, e.g., Church of Christ of Florence. It holds a set of Protestant beliefs, but claims not to be Protestant. It simply is the Church of Christ founded by Jesus Christ. They have no Church government beyond each individual congregation.

I work with a number of co-workers who belong to this denomination. Most all of them are strongly anti-Catholic.I recently attended a funeral service connected to my job at a Church of Christ and the pastor just about put me to sleep.
Another Church of Christ in our area had a former Catholic going
around the country giving a mission weekend based of course on the anti-Catholic theme.

Any thoughts, comments?
 
As a fairly new member of my local Church of Christ, I thought I could provide some insight for you on this topic. There are four types of ‘Churches of Christ’:

*The United Church of Christ-a very, very, very liberal organization. You can read about some of their beliefs here ucc.org/aboutus/whatis.htm. One might call it a free-to-be-me church…😉

*The Church of Christ, Scientist-Founded by Mary Baker Eddy. Also known as Church of Christ of Boston, like you mentioned.
Basic ideas include: God is divine Love, Father-Mother, supreme. The true nature of each individual as a child of God is spiritual. God’s infinite goodness, realized in prayer, heals.
*Church of Christ of (insert city name here), as far as I hear, they are cults.

*And last, just plain Church of Christ. I attend the Pitman Church of Christ. They hold very conservative beliefs. Everything is biblically based. I wouldn’t call myself a Protestant, probably more evangelical. I don’t hold many of the beliefs of the Catholic Church, but have not found my church to be anti-Catholic in any way. We do not have a governing Church body, just a very strong community of other Churches of Christ around the country. I have been to pretty much every denomination of Christian churches, and never have I seen such fellowship between congregations. It is really inspiring. Another fact that might interest you about the Church of Christ is that we do not use instruments in worship. All singing is acapella, and just beautiful. My family used to joke that you had to audition to join the church because the sound coming from the auditorium on Sunday is heavenly!

From I can gather from your post, your coworkers probably belong to the Church of Christ of (City). I can see a very anti-RCC sentiment being present in that setting…

Hope this helps 🙂
 
RC: I grew up in the so-called “Church of Christ” (talk about false advertising)!
What are your questions about it?
 
I also grew up in the Church of Christ similar to Darwindidn’t know’s description. My experience is also that they were very anti-catholic. Quite frankly they were against everyone who was not a member of the Church of Christ.

I was always taught that this church was biblically based and the only one that was the true church. I love history and actually have a degree in it and as I grew older I began to have problem’s with the Church of Christ doctrine and claims.

Two main areas which were problematic to me were:

1)The claimed start date of the Church of Christ

I was told that the church had started on the day of pentecost as recorded in the bible. Only the Church of Christ could be the true church because it was the only one who originated on this day. Okay, so if the Church of Christ started on this day and lasted until present where is the historical evidence to show this. There is none at all. Historically, the Church of Christ began in the mid 1800’s as a restoration movement. This movement sought to restore the original church following the bible. I was told that the original church fell in to apostasy around 300 AD (this date can vary depending on the author). Well, I read several documents before and around that time such as writings of Origen, Irenaeus, Justin Martyr, and Ignatious of Antioch. The beliefs stated in these were very Catholic such as belief in the real prescence and infant baptism. The Bible says that the gates of hades shall not prevail against the church. I definately agree with this that God’s true church shall never fail.

2)The origin of the Bible

I was taught that the Bible was written with God directing the words of the writers. I always was left with the impression that the Bible was created as a singlular work. I do agree with this(inspiration), but I don’t believe that the Bible was created as a Christianity how to manual. The Bible as we know it today was not compiled until 382 AD at the Synod of Rome. The cannon was affirmed at the subsequent councils of Hippo and Carthage. These councils were Catholic. Other denominations accept the cannon compiled by Catholics, but disagree with them on other matters. Even though the Bible cannon was agreed upon, access to the written word was very difficult. Much of the teachings were handed down orally. Even the Bible states that not everything Jesus did or said is written down. Also, oral teaching were to be honored as well as those in writting. I agree that the writings of the Bible are a source of inspiration and are written so that other may believe, but never do they claim to be the only source of Christian teaching and doctrine.

In fact, apart from the gospels most of the other books of the New Testament followed by the Church of Christ are letters addressing specific problems of the early Church. I don’t want to dismiss their improtance or inspiration; however, I do not think they were written as a manual of Christian doctrine. I think these writings were to be followed along with the oral teachings transmitted by Christ and the Apostles to complete each other.

There were other issues that I had problems with, but these two seriously got me thinking.

There is a book addressing Church of Chist concerns over Catholic doctrine called We’re Just Searching for the Truth by Paul Garcia a convert. You might find it helpful.

If you have more specific doctrinal questions about the Church, feel free to ask 🙂 .
 
I agree - but, please, lets put “Church of Christ” in quotation marks…
 
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RC_Deacon08:
Hi,
Anyone have much contact with members of the Protestant sect
called “Church of Christ” ? (This is not connected with the cult called Church of Christ of Boston). Whats been your experience? These are local Churches of Christ and often tag on the name of the town/city where they are located, e.g., Church of Christ of Florence. It holds a set of Protestant beliefs, but claims not to be Protestant. It simply is the Church of Christ founded by Jesus Christ. They have no Church government beyond each individual congregation.

Well, this sort of varies. I would consider myself to be a “Protestant” in that I am not Catholic, but the Church of Christ is something of a Protestant-against-the-Protestants situation. We really have more in common with the Catholic Church than most Protestants. In fact, many fundamentalist Protestants will not even accept us as Christian because of this! For example, like the Catholic Church, we recognize that baptism is for the forgiveness of sins, as taught by Peter in Acts 2:38. Protestants who believe in “faith only” will often reject us and even act abusively toward us because of this. I’m sure many of you can relate. :confused:

**Yes; in the same way that the Catholic Church believes itself to be THE church founded by the Lord, we believe the same thing about ourselves. The difference is that while the Catholic Church believes in an unbroken chain of successors to the apostles, we do not recognize any reference to apostolic succession in the tradition of the apostles, and believe that we (or anyone) can be the Lord’s church simply by virtue of following the recorded traditions of the apostles unmodified.

Again, lots of Protestants bash us for this. But you guys know the Lord founded only one church, not the disheartening plethora of denominations we see today!

We could be described as “non-denominational.” But so many people today use this term to mean “inter-denominational,” meaning “we accept people from all denominations.” I would use it to mean “anti-denominational,” meaning I recognize that the apostles forbade denominations.**

I work with a number of co-workers who belong to this denomination. Most all of them are strongly anti-Catholic.I recently attended a funeral service connected to my job at a Church of Christ and the pastor just about put me to sleep.
Another Church of Christ in our area had a former Catholic going
around the country giving a mission weekend based of course on the anti-Catholic theme.

**Unfortunately, a lot of standard American and Protestant beliefs pervade some churches. There are bigots to be found in all bodies. But as for myself, I am no more “anti-Catholic” than you guys are “anti-Baptist.” That is, most of you (I presume) would not agree with the teaching of the Baptist church, but wouldn’t harbor any personal animosity toward a Baptist friend or acquaintance. In the same way, I don’t agree with the teaching of the Roman See, but I don’t mistreat people of any religious tradition. And I try to make sure that my understanding of other religions is informed, rather than based on assumption or hearsay. Many, but not all, members of the Church of Christ probably know far more about the Catholic Church than most Protestants. But I’m sure there’s plenty who do not.

I’m sorry if you encountered someone of our church who acted hurtfully.**

Any thoughts, comments?
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**Again, this may have been “anti-Catholic” in the sense of personal animosity, but it is also possible that all that was expressed was the belief that the Catholic Church is not the Church established by the Lord. We express the same thing about the Baptist, Methodist, Mormon, and Episcopalian churches. (And all the others.) **
 
I’ll have to say that I’ve never heard any negative thing said out of the United Church of Christ. Quite a few of our politicians belong to it, and it seems to be a very gentle non-judgemental religion.

Amy
 
a_cermak said:
I’ll have to say that I’ve never heard any negative thing said out of the United Church of Christ. Quite a few of our politicians belong to it, and it seems to be a very gentle non-judgemental religion.

Amy
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Helly, dear Amy. Most churches that call themselves “United” are quite non-judgemental. They are also quite non-committal, as well, and very liberal, wishy-washy. Whatever you want to believe, goes.
That has been my observance over 25 or so yrs.

If “United” is in front of it, it is not the same as the original. “United” Methodist isn’t the same as Wesley’s Methodism, and “United Presbyterian” isn’t the same as John Calvin’s Presbyterianism.
 
RC_Deacon08 said:
Hi,
Anyone have much contact with members of the Protestant sect
called “Church of Christ” ? (This is not connected with the cult called Church of Christ of Boston). Whats been your experience? These are local Churches of Christ and often tag on the name of the town/city where they are located, e.g., Church of Christ of Florence. It holds a set of Protestant beliefs, but claims not to be Protestant. It simply is the Church of Christ founded by Jesus Christ. They have no Church government beyond each individual congregation.

I work with a number of co-workers who belong to this denomination. Most all of them are strongly anti-Catholic.I recently attended a funeral service connected to my job at a Church of Christ and the pastor just about put me to sleep.
Another Church of Christ in our area had a former Catholic going
around the country giving a mission weekend based of course on the anti-Catholic theme.

Any thoughts, comments?
Click to expand...
CoC are protestants, all the people I have talked to about them, say they believe that only members of their sect, will make it to heaven.
 
I am involved in a debate on a Topix forum. Normally, I wouldn’t have done this, but this forum is being run by a Church of Christ preacher who has been slandering the Catholic Faith for a long time. He has gone so far as to accuse Catholics of worshiping Mary, worshiping the Pope, and dunking our babies during infant baptism. He has even said that Pope John Paul is being “humbled” now, for having the title of Pope.

This has angered me to no end. I would like to walk away from the debate, but this is a VERY small town and I am the ONLY Catholic! While no one from any other religion has said a negative thing about the Catholic Church, he continues. I feel that as a Catholic, it is my duty to uphold the truth of the church, but I’ll admit I’m having problems.

There has been a time or two when my replies to him weren’t very “loving”. I guess I’m looking for advice on how to handle this preacher, while still defending the church, and upholding my moral values of living in forgiveness and love.

Help?? 😦
 
I have known folks in the conservative Church of Christ and the liberal United Church of Christ including pastors of both and never found the ones I’ve known to be anti Catholic as being described in this thread. But stop and think a min. I can see where some Catholics insistence on being the one and only true church could make some other Christians defensive. They don’t see any true attempt at reconcilliation when one side is always going around saying only they have the whole truth and everyone else has to come entirely their way.
 
a_cermak said:
I’ll have to say that I’ve never heard any negative thing said out of the United Church of Christ. Quite a few of our politicians belong to it, and it seems to be a very gentle non-judgemental religion.

Amy
Click to expand...
Amy, it is and the Disciples of Christ are similar and actually the 2 are in communion with each other. They both profess Christ but otherwise are basically tolerant and celebrate diversity which makes them not so judgmental.
 
RC_Deacon08 said:
Hi,
Anyone have much contact with members of the Protestant sect
called “Church of Christ” ? (This is not connected with the cult called Church of Christ of Boston). Whats been your experience? These are local Churches of Christ and often tag on the name of the town/city where they are located, e.g., Church of Christ of Florence. It holds a set of Protestant beliefs, but claims not to be Protestant. It simply is the Church of Christ founded by Jesus Christ. They have no Church government beyond each individual congregation.

I work with a number of co-workers who belong to this denomination. Most all of them are strongly anti-Catholic.I recently attended a funeral service connected to my job at a Church of Christ and the pastor just about put me to sleep.
Another Church of Christ in our area had a former Catholic going
around the country giving a mission weekend based of course on the anti-Catholic theme.

Any thoughts, comments?
Click to expand...
My dad and his side of the family are CofC, and I’ve been a member of a CofC congregation, so I know a bit about these folks. Being congregational, each group is a law unto themself. Some local churches are very Evangelical; others such as the ones you have found are very cultic and anti-Catholic; then there are CofC that are so strongly Pre-eterist that I wouldn’t even include them in the Christian faith as their doctrine is just so far out of line with anything historical.

So, the bottom line is that when someone says that they are a member of a local ‘CofC’, you have some digging to do to figure out where they are coming from. But, the regular ‘main-line’ CofC are protestant. A couple of interesting items of their beliefs are baptismal regeneration and the use of vocal music only—which I always have fun teasing them about as they don’t use ‘chants’, which IS what the early church used. They use the ‘shape-note’ system and hymns, but it is a beautiful thing to hear a CofC congregation that knows how to sing!
 
My husband grew up in the COC and now considers them to be a cult. He was basically guilted and stalked by members for leaving. His parents treat him like he is a drug pusher and shame him (people outside the coc cannot understand why a good man, never go so much as a school detention growing up, who went to college on a scholarship, worked hard, never disobeyed his parents and is now a dream husband is being shunned by his parents). They are similar to Mormon and J&Ws in their cult-like behavior.
They have an absurd view of history and deny being established by Alexander Campbell here in the United States in the 1800’s. Very anti-Catholic and many lies from the preachers. Music, dancing, drinking a sip of wine all send you to hell in their eyes. They claim the 33ad establishment yet can provide no historical proof of ever existing. People are leaving by the droves, they are basically self-imploding as a denomination and probably will not exist in 20 years. There is so much emotional absue and manipulation in the coc, it has a bigger place in their theology than Jesus. Church splits happen daily over minor issues and gossip.
A good place to learn more is the ex-churchofchrist message board. There is also a great board called coc to Catholic.

Hugs to any ex-cocers on this board, I understand the frustration these people put you through.
 
loneviking said:
My dad and his side of the family are CofC, and I’ve been a member of a CofC congregation, so I know a bit about these folks. Being congregational, each group is a law unto themself. Some local churches are very Evangelical; others such as the ones you have found are very cultic and anti-Catholic; then there are CofC that are so strongly Pre-eterist that I wouldn’t even include them in the Christian faith as their doctrine is just so far out of line with anything historical.

So, the bottom line is that when someone says that they are a member of a local ‘CofC’, you have some digging to do to figure out where they are coming from. But, the regular ‘main-line’ CofC are protestant. A couple of interesting items of their beliefs are baptismal regeneration and the use of vocal music only—which I always have fun teasing them about as they don’t use ‘chants’, which IS what the early church used. They use the ‘shape-note’ system and hymns, but it is a beautiful thing to hear a CofC congregation that knows how to sing!
Click to expand...
My dad’s mom was Church of Christ. Her meeting didn’t use musical instruments either. She was raised in the Holiness church…my great uncle, her brother, was a Holiness minister. She walked every Sunday to church and loved the simplicity of the Church of Christ.

My former employer was Church of Christ…we became good friends…but he was “fit to be tied” and warned me often of my need for “water baptism”. I can’t tell you how many times I would have dinner with he and his family and he wanted to take me in the back yard and dunk me in the pool to make me a “real Christian”.🙂
 
MercyMia said:
My husband grew up in the COC and now considers them to be a cult. He was basically guilted and stalked by members for leaving. His parents treat him like he is a drug pusher and shame him (people outside the coc cannot understand why a good man, never go so much as a school detention growing up, who went to college on a scholarship, worked hard, never disobeyed his parents and is now a dream husband is being shunned by his parents). They are similar to Mormon and J&Ws in their cult-like behavior.
They have an absurd view of history and deny being established by Alexander Campbell here in the United States in the 1800’s. Very anti-Catholic and many lies from the preachers. Music, dancing, drinking a sip of wine all send you to hell in their eyes. They claim the 33ad establishment yet can provide no historical proof of ever existing. People are leaving by the droves, they are basically self-imploding as a denomination and probably will not exist in 20 years. There is so much emotional absue and manipulation in the coc, it has a bigger place in their theology than Jesus. Church splits happen daily over minor issues and gossip.
A good place to learn more is the ex-churchofchrist message board. There is also a great board called coc to Catholic.

Hugs to any ex-cocers on this board, I understand the frustration these people put you through.
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And Catholics aren’t guilted? 🤷 I’ve been told right here on CAF I am a heretic in a state of severe mortal sin and my eternal salvation is in grave jeopardy.
 
Of course there are Catholics who guilt people, I do not think there is a group in existance that doesn’t have some element of this - especially in families.
However, the church of Christ has an element of systematic spiritual abuse that often times trumps any sort of biblial principle or worship of God. It is hard for people who have never been exposed to this group to understand how toxic it is. I know many people in person and for such a small group, there is a vast online presense of ex-members speaking out about their experiences. Even present members are now realizing that something is terribly wrong and they either need to rethink their approach or they probably won’t be around much longer. Even in the same town, two churches will be against each other over small issues, and if you talk to the people from the other church of Christ you can be kicked out. You can be ex-communicated for your children attending their prom (dancing forbidden). Seriously. Once you decide to leave, you are subject to elders showing up at your place of work, home, or other public places to shame you into coming back. Many times, getting a lawyer in necessary in order to fully get them off your back. They practice shunning for ex-members (not always, but frequently) and let me tell you, it can really tear families apart.

A great book resource for anybody trapped in the coc: We’re Just Searching for the Truth. It is a series of conversion stories and essays from Coc to Catholic.
 
LorenaMarie said:
I am involved in a debate on a Topix forum. Normally, I wouldn’t have done this, but this forum is being run by a Church of Christ preacher who has been slandering the Catholic Faith for a long time. He has gone so far as to accuse Catholics of worshiping Mary, worshiping the Pope, and dunking our babies during infant baptism. He has even said that Pope John Paul is being “humbled” now, for having the title of Pope.

This has angered me to no end. I would like to walk away from the debate, but this is a VERY small town and I am the ONLY Catholic! While no one from any other religion has said a negative thing about the Catholic Church, he continues. I feel that as a Catholic, it is my duty to uphold the truth of the church, but I’ll admit I’m having problems.

There has been a time or two when my replies to him weren’t very “loving”. I guess I’m looking for advice on how to handle this preacher, while still defending the church, and upholding my moral values of living in forgiveness and love.

Help?? 😦
Click to expand...
Hello, LorenaMarie, and welcome to the forums! 👋

I would like to recommend for you the audio talks you will find at

biblechristiansociety.com/download

This is a Catholic website. Especially pay attention to the first talk, entitled “Apologetics for the Scripturally-Challenged” which discusses strategy and techniques to use when discussing our Catholic faith with non-Catholic Christians.

You can download these talks for free or go to the home page there to order free CDs or cassettes.
 
Thank you! Your link actually helped me ALOT!

While this “debate” has definitely been frustrating to me, I cannot condemn the experience. I must admit, I am a 43 year old who walked away from the church about 20 years ago. I don’t think I ever “renounced” the church, because whenever asked I would always tell people I am Catholic. I have wanted to return to the church on many occasions, however it is difficult when the only catholic church near you either (1) gives mass in spanish, which I do not speak or (2) the only english mass is filled with mostly elderly members and there are no childrens services (I have 5 children!)

We moved to a new town, and there is no Catholic Church nearby. As I stated in my original post, I am the ONLY Catholic in town. I firmly believe God, in his great wisdom, brought me to the Topix forum so that I could see what was being written. My passion and love for the church was still strong, I was SO angered by what I saw. I know that the Church of Christ’s preacher was trying to win converts, he even tried convincing me, but all he served to do was to strengthen my faith in the Catholic church.

I have had to research everything he’s accused the church of in order to defend it. I’ve gotten quite an education! (all those years of CCD didn’t stick with me). I have a renewed faith, love and awe in the Catholic Church, and for that I have to thank the COC preacher.

It feels GREAT to be back!:knight1:
 
LorenaMarie - Praise God you have returned to His Church.
We are here for you.
 
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