The Churches of Christ and Calvinism

[fons_vitae]

Although the Churches of Christ (“Campbellite”) movement is noted for its rejection of Calvinism’s Five Points, it still conforms to Calvin’s regulative principle of worship, among other things. Moreover, upon reading Hawthorne’s short stories about his Puritan ancestors, I recognize some of my own moral struggles as a young Campbellite :S … Even further, my priest once told me I had made the journey “from Calvinism to Catholicism” when I was on the eve of my conversion.

So… can someone elucidate the connection between these two supposedly opposed Protestantisms, Church-of-Christ-ism and Calvinism?

 

[mackbrislawn]

Although the Churches of Christ (“Campbellite”) movement is noted for its rejection of Calvinism’s Five Points, it still conforms to Calvin’s regulative principle of worship, among other things. Moreover, upon reading Hawthorne’s short stories about his Puritan ancestors, I recognize some of my own moral struggles as a young Campbellite :S … Even further, my priest once told me I had made the journey “from Calvinism to Catholicism” when I was on the eve of my conversion.

So… can someone elucidate the connection between these two supposedly opposed Protestantisms, Church-of-Christ-ism and Calvinism?

I hope somebody can make the connection. I sat in on lessons given by a Church of Christ evangelist and he provided a thorough teaching against Calvinism. I also noticed that the COC’s soteriology, their teaching about salvation and baptism, sounded very Catholic.

 

[loneviking]

The Churches of Christ may be regulative in their worship approach, and that principle may have been first coined by John Calvin, but that doesn’t make the CofC folks Calvinist. Not in any way, shape or form! My dads side of the family is all CofC and I have sat in on hours of their teaching. There is no connection.

 

[fons_vitae]

I hope somebody can make the connection. I sat in on lessons given by a Church of Christ evangelist and he provided a thorough teaching against Calvinism. I also noticed that the COC’s soteriology, their teaching about salvation and baptism, sounded very Catholic.

In retrospect, I think I may just be confusing the rigorous, insular, and iconoclastic nature of the churches of Christ I attended with similar aspects of early Calvinism (Alexander Campbell, at least, was a former Presbyterian). But then again, I could make the same comparisons to other Protestant groups, so it’s probably not that valid.

 

[mackbrislawn]

In retrospect, I think I may just be confusing the rigorous, insular, and iconoclastic nature of the churches of Christ I attended with similar aspects of early Calvinism (Alexander Campbell, at least, was a former Presbyterian). But then again, I could make the same comparisons to other Protestant groups, so it’s probably not that valid.

My understanding is that the founders of the CoC movement, Alexander Campbell et al, deliberately purged from their minds all creeds and confessions, forgot the Augsburg Confession, forgot the Westminster Confession, and so on, and went “back to the bible” without man-made creeds and confessions. Hence, they would not be Calvinist, nor followers of any previous prominent Protestant. In a sense, they were reforming the Reformation!

Interestingly, from a Catholic point of view, by disregarding previous Protestant confessions, they returned to a very Catholic view of baptism and salvation. Not at all like Luther’s or Calvin’s. Just by reading the bible alone!

 

[loneviking]

My understanding is that the founders of the CoC movement, Alexander Campbell et al, deliberately purged from their minds all creeds and confessions, forgot the Augsburg Confession, forgot the Westminster Confession, and so on, and went “back to the bible” without man-made creeds and confessions. Hence, they would not be Calvinist, nor followers of any previous prominent Protestant. In a sense, they were reforming the Reformation!

Interestingly, from a Catholic point of view, by disregarding previous Protestant confessions, they returned to a very Catholic view of baptism and salvation. Not at all like Luther’s or Calvin’s. Just by reading the bible alone!

I’d have to disagree a bit with the idea that the CofC ideas of baptism and salvation are very Catholic and not like Luthers’.

The CofC don’t baptize infants, but they also don’t view baptism as symbolic. So, 1 for and 1 against what Lutherans and Catholics believe.

As for salvation, they agree with both Lutherans and Catholics that ‘you ain’t saved until you’re dead and in heaven!’.

What I find interesting about the CofC is how uneven their theology is. They figured out that Baptism is indeed a washing that regenerates and saves you…not just an empty symbol. But, they never made that leap in logic to the Eucharist. For them, communion is just a symbol, as it is for many Protestants. They will always serve communion from a table with ‘this do in remembrance of me’ on it, but you’d better not call it an altar!

They have a better grasp of the law, and how the Torah was supplanted by something much better–than any other Christian group I’ve found. And so, things that many Fundamentalist have a problem with they don’t. It’s O.K. to go to movies, to have dances and to smoke…but then for some reason I could never understand, most of them teach that it’s wrong to drink alcohol.

They only use vocal music in their worship—no musical instruments. And they will argue up and down about how this is the only worship authorized for the early church. But if you agree and ask them why they don’t chant the Kyrie, they look at you like you came from another planet! If you point out that the appeal to early church use of vocal music would include many chants, and recitations of creeds…then they start waffling and making excuses about this being Roman Catholic.

I really like my CofC relatives, and if it hadn’t been for the CofC I would never have started reading the early fathers to find out what (and how) the early church worshiped. (In turn, that study lead me to swim the Rhine to the LCMS). But it can still be an exercise in frustration trying to get them to apply their theology consistently.