Posted on 05/28/2005 1:04:07 PM PDT by jer33 3
Does anyone have a personal testimony of how they left the mainline or International/Boston Church of Christ? And are you familiar with the doctrinal teachings?
can you please be more specific? there are lots of "churches of christ."
are you talking about Rev. Ike?
Have you been to rickross.com yet?
He has good info about many "cults" or groups that employ mind control techniques. My husband grew up CoC and I've seen enough of the Boston Movement to be horrified.
I don't have any info on it, but would appreciate knowing something about them. My granddaughter is going with a Church of Christ, and we don't know much about it.
Ones that teach that only those who are baptized in their church are saved. No musical instruments; baptismal regeneration; historyless; mandatory Lord's Supper every Sunday; no missions programs/agencies; no eternal security, etc.
Pepperdine is a CoC school -- biggest bunch of hypocrites I have ever seen in my life.
Since each Church of Christ is "supposedly" autonomous there can be differences in doctrine. Over the years there have splintering in the "denomination" over issues (from what I gather) because they do not have a systematic approach to theology. So there have been conflicts over whether or not they should have sunday school, use one cup only during the Lord's Supper, whether to give to Christian colleges or mission agencies and whether or not it is a sin to use musical instruments in worship services.
How did you husband come out of the COC? Would you mind sharing that with me even by email?
I was raised mainline c of c before converting to the Catholics...what are you wanting to know about it, or are you just counting heads?
Since I don't know which one it is that the boyfriend goes to, I guess I am at a disadvantage. I do know they are required to attend three nights a week....women don't pray in public...and if they get married, she has to consent to raising the children in the church.
This is the truth.
The big splits have revolved around:
whether to use 1 cup at communion or individual cups.
whether Sunday school programs were legitimate
whether churches can support charitable works as churches, or whether it has to be done by individuals only.
There are other splits. They have no way to reconcile differences of opinion except to split.
Someone very dear to me is in this church in the south. His church is works based and the doctrines glorify man versus God. They teach that you are not saved by faith in Jesus Christ and the work at the cross but that you are not saved until you are baptized. Their doctrine of baptism is for the remission of sins not that it is a public display of their faith.
That is definitely a COC doctrine, although they are not a works based church in the way you are thinking of, except for the need for baptism by immersion as an initiation into the body of the saved.
They do believe you are saved by the sacrifice of Christ and the Cross, but you don't enter into the community of the saved until after baptism.
The church does tend to get legalistic.
Interesting site...I will admit, I never told my mother until the day she died that I had converted....
Nothing wrong with no musical instruments. But, some of the other stuff there is odd...
My friend said that his church also teaches that you HAVE to participate in the Lord's Supper too. Which I do believe it is an ordinance. But they believe that it HAS to take place on Sunday of every week.
Also they believe that they can fall away from faith and that they are the only church that worships correctly. As my friend once said that it is better to do things correctly than with sincerity.
From my limited undersatdning of the history, Barton Stone desire that there would be unity among Christians. His intent was that creeds would not damage the relationships between believers. He spoke later in his life that he was concerned about the extreme measure that the movement has taken on since it became exclusive.
How do we find a common point of discussion in striving for unity when they believe they are the only true church?
I do like A Cappella. I had visited this particular church a few times. They take great pride in that they worship with no musical instrument. The first several songs half of the church was not singing but just sitting in the pews. However, there was one song that obviously everyone like and it sounded so beautiful. Of course, we are not singing for each other. We are to praise the Lord. Its a heart thing. Is it the musical instruments or is it our attitude?
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