Evanescence:
Hi,
I have a few friends who are from Church of Christ.
I just want to know what the differences are between Church of Christ and Catholic
Also If I ever get into a discussion about “the true religion” with them what would their arguments against the catholic church would they raise and how would I rebut them?
SO far the differences I’ve noticed is they don’t have priests they have ministers.
And they have baptism in a huge bath!
and they also don’t agree with baptising infants. I had one of my Church of christ friends raise that but I couldn’t say much in responce. I didn’t want to get in an argument and my friend happens to know more than me and is quite religious I think shes a “minister” i’m not sure.
Evanescence
Evanescence: In the 1700’s a movement sprang up among Protestants, along the Eastern American seaboard, known as the ‘Christian Connection’. It was an attempt to unify Protestants around the principle that only the New Testament could be wholly relied upon as a basis for Christian belief or practice and that Christians should accept as binding only such things as are clearly set forth in the NT. (Remember that at the time–although nearly all Protestants taught the doctrine of Sola Scriptura–Lutherans and Episcopalians depended to one degree or another upon patristic tradition to interpret Scripture, Methodists and Congregationalists were wont to look to the Old Testament for clarification of the New Testament, etcetera).
Three of the leading lights of the ‘Christian Connection’ were Thomas and Alexander Campbell–father and son–and Barton Stone. Although they were seeking to establish a basis for unity among Protestants, what eventually emerged from the ‘Christian Connection’ was an independent denomination. Churches established by the Campbells tended to call themselves ‘Disciples of Christ’ or ‘Christian Church of_______’, while congregations formed under Stone’s influence tended to call themselves Church of Christ. It is worth noting that Stone also stayed mainly in the American South, whilst the Campbells evangelised in the East and Midwest. Stone tended to be minimalist–he favored the idea that anything not explcitly authorized by Scripture would be best avoided in Christian practice–while the Campbells tended to be more ‘broad-spirited’, feeling that anything not explicitly contrary to the New Testament or detrimental to Christian faith might be acceptable. Many of the Stone-established churches were non-instrumental, for example, because no specific New Testament passage authorizes the use of musical accompaniment to congregational singing. The Campellite-built congregations felt this was being far too scrupulous and divisive, an their congregations usually do use organs, pianos, or other musical instruments to accompany their hymns. Despite divisions of this sort, the movement spread and grew for several decades without serious problems.
Following the Civil War, the movement attempted to create a national network of Bible colleges, missionary societies, and a governing/co-ordinating body. Rifts between the Southern congregations and those north of the Mason-Dixon line deepened, especially since many of those spearheading the move towards centralized power tended to give aid and comfort to what Catholics would call ‘modernism’. The Churches of Christ officially hived off from the rest of the ‘Christian Connection’ congregations, denouncing the move towards centralized authority as reminiscent of what happened to the ‘Romish Church’. The Churches of Christ were first recognized as an independent denomination in the 1906(?) census. In the 1950’s the Disciples of Christ and Christian Churches split from one another over similar issues–liberal theology, centralization of authority–so that there are now three separate denominations–the Churches of Christ, the Independent Christian Churches, and the Disciples of Christ. They have similar practices (adult baptism of believers promptly following a simple public profession of faith; weekly communion; emphasis upon the New Testament as the ‘rule of faith’). The Churches of Christ are nearly always non-instrumental. None of these groups are especially anti-Catholic, although Alexander Campbell engaged a Roman Catholic priest in a rather famous series of debates in the 1800’s. That debate, by the way, is available on-line. I would have to look it up for you but a google search would turn it up readily. They DO tend to think they are ‘the’ Church that Christ founded, particularly the Independents and the Church of Christers. They would generally advocate a ‘trail of blood’ schema of how the Church survived throughout the Middle Ages. Typically they are no longer very ecumenical, depsite their roots as a denomination which sought to unify Protestants.
Hope this helps!
