In Search of the Lord’s Way is presented here every week at this time by churches of Christ in the area of this station. Who are these people? Are they some kind of a "cult-like-sect”? Well, you may have heard that. What do they believe? That is our study today. Stay with us.
Welcome, my friend, to our Bible study program In Search of the Lord's Way to become and to be a Christian. If you were watching "CNN Headline News" on the evening of March the 27th, you may have witnessed a defamation of these churches of Christ that support this program. (Surely it was not an evil intent of the hostess of that segment of the program to smear churches of Christ. I have no way of knowing. God knows.) Whatever were her motives; if what she said was an attempt to learn who we are and what we believe, why would she invite a Baptist preacher to define us? I wondered, as perhaps you did, if she thought a Baptist preacher would know more about who we are and what we believe than one of us would know.
Anyway, the sad result was the Baptist preacher defined churches of Christ as a "cult-like sect," or "a borderline cult" begun about 150 years ago by Alexander Campbell. So???? The church of our Lord has been mistakenly and derogatorily dubbed a sect for almost 2000 years now. And if you doubt what I am saying, get your Bible and read it in Acts chapter 28, verse 22. Some of the leaders of the Jews said to the imprisoned apostle Paul "...We desire to hear from you what you think; for concerning this sect, we know that it is spoken against everywhere." So, that is nothing new. But, to be described as a cult or a "borderline cult" is not only new, it is also absolutely false, my friend.
Because of this program and because it is the most widely received messenger churches of Christ have in America at this time, many of you viewers, and others who don’t have the privilege of seeing the program, have written me requesting that I speak to the matter of who we really are-- and what we really do believe. Though I have been delayed awhile with an attack of laryngitis, I am glad to comply with those requests and suggestions. We plan, the Lord willing, to devote four messages to that this month. Tell your friends and invite them to tune us in, too.
At the end of every month we mail thousands of little booklets containing the texts of the programs for the month. How many thousands depends upon the requests we receive. We will be making a much larger printing this month, but you can help us get an idea of how many more this month if you just simply write us. And if you want a copy or a CD or an audio cassette tape of these lessons titled, Churches of Christ and What We Believe, please mail your request right now-- to In Search of the Lord's Way. P.O. Box 371, Edmond, OK 73083, or by e-mail to searchtv@aol.com. Or, you may access the program (video, audio, printed form) by a visit to our website at.searchtv.org. Please write us today. Will you? They are free. And we want to print enough that you won't miss yours. Join with us now as Ken Helterbrand leads us in singing.
Our Bible reading today is in the book of Acts, chapter two. And this is one of the memorable occasions in all of the Bible. This is when the Lord promised that the Holy Spirit would come upon the apostles and He did come. The apostle Peter preached the first gospel sermon and the people who heard believed and were baptized and we are going to begin reading in verse 42 of this second chapter and see what happened. “And they continued steadfastly in the apostles’ doctrine and fellowship, in the breaking of bread, and in prayers. Then fear came upon every soul, and many wonders and signs were done through the apostles. Now all who believed were together, and had all things in common, and sold their possessions and goods, and divided them among all, as anyone had need. So continuing daily with one accord in the temple, and breaking bread from house to house, they ate their food with gladness and simplicity of heart, praising God and having favor with all the people. And the Lord added to the church daily those who were being saved.” We read through verse 47 and that is the first time that we read about the church in existence in the Bible. That is a great message. Let us pray. Holy Father, we are so thankful that Christianity is in itself a matter of relationships-- our relationship with Jesus, our reconciliation and our relationship with You, and our relationship with all the redeemed in all the world in the church. And that is what the church is all about and we thank You for this relationship we have with the Father, the Son, the Holy Spirit and the saved. In the name of Jesus we thank You. Amen.
My friend, I must begin by telling you that neither I nor any other one person or one congregation or group of persons or a group of congregations or a university or a publication can speak "officially" for all churches of Christ. We are a group of something near 9,000 independent congregations in the United States consisting of about 1,400,000 to 1,500,000 adherents in the United States and its territories. And world-wide, who can say? Well, there may be some that we know nothing about. Several years ago, it was reported by some Americans traveling in India that they came upon some people who taught, believed and worshiped just as we do in churches of Christ here in the United States. Until then, none of us knew anything about them. But certainly the Lord did. Well, we think we know of some 27,000 churches of Christ around the world. That would include those within the United States of course. Those congregations we know about consist of more than two million adherents-- including those within the United States. And just as they were in the days of the New Testament, these churches are completely autonomous. They are truly self-determining. I mean, they are not bound together by acceptance of a common human creed or catechism, or confession of faith-- or by any kind of ecclesiastical hierarchy such as a convention or conference. Yet they share a common faith. They worship alike; they preach the same gospel. Oh yes, there are some divisions among us, as there were in some of the New Testament congregations. For that, we stand rebuked by the New Testament teachings, just as those churches in the New Testament were. Well, we should be striving much harder than we are for greater unity among ourselves. There is no doubt about that. Read Ephesians 4:1 to 6. In spite of those divisions though, we are generally bound together as "churches of Christ," by three important factors: First, is a common love for God and His Son Jesus Christ. God is the Father of us all and Jesus Christ who redeemed all of us is our only and everyone's Savior-- He is also our elder brother. He is "elder brother" to all of us who are redeemed by His blood. Number two, we are drawn together by our love for one another, and three, we have a strong commitment to being Biblical in our faith and work and worship and teaching.
In view of the disbelief and disrespect for anything called "church," that is so common nowadays in our American society, I think it is necessary that I define the word “church” in the beginning of our study. One of the definitions my dictionary has for "church" is "a building for public and especially Christian worship." It gives as a synonym for "church" the word "denomination." Well, we all know our dictionaries of English or American words define words according to their common usage. And, the word translated "church" in most of the English versions of the Bible doesn't mean either a building or a denomination. "Denomination" means to name and to divide. That is to denominate anything. For example, we name and divide our coins into "nickels," and "dimes" and "quarters." The church of Christ in the Bible is not divided into denominations and named accordingly. It doesn't consist of denominations. Neither is it one of many denominations.
What do you think, my friend, that Jesus meant when he said in Matthew 16:18: "I will build my church?" Was He saying, "I will build My denomination?" Do you think when the Bible says in Acts chapter 20, verse 28, "...the church of God which He purchased with His own blood," is it saying, "the denomination which He purchased with His own blood?" N-o-o-o, no, friend, you don't get that idea from the Scripture. Even so, the church belonging to Christ is not a denomination or a blending of man-made denominational churches, each fashioned to conform to some one person's charm-- or opinion. Well, do you think it is possible for a church right here in town, who is dedicated to being Christ's church, just as it is described in the New Testament, can possibly do that? I don't see why they can't. Would that make them a cult? Noooo. Or a sect? Noooo. Well, if these more than two million people around the world are striving to be what they read in their Bibles, can they do it; I say, "Let's you and me do it, too!" Whatta ya say? I can get excited about that! I want to be a part of that! And, if that isn't what the Bible is all about, I don't know what good it is to anybody. That is who and what we are trying hard to be, my friend.
Now, what do churches of Christ believe? Well, one way we can know a person-- or a group of persons, is by knowing what he-- or they-- believe. It is as I explained earlier, I can't speak for all the churches of Christ, but I get around among us all pretty well and the churches with whom I have been associated--and am presently associated-- believe the following things:
First: We believe in One God (I Corinthians 8 and 5), the God of the Bible, manifested in three ways: God, the Father (Matthew 6 and 9); God the Son (John 1:1 to 14) and God the Holy Spirit, and these three are one (I John 5:7). God knew the need and He planned the scheme for human redemption. Christ procured it. And the Holy Spirit revealed it.
Next, we believe that the Bible is the inspired (meaning, the God-breathed) Word of God (2 Timothy 3:16-17). That it is absolutely authoritative, and that it completely supplies the child of God with everything he needs for the direction of his life with God in this world, and to direct him in his work for the Lord, in his worship also, and in his relationships as well-- well, as the Scripture says, it furnishes him to every good work. We believe that any human creed, if it contains more than the Bible, contains too much. If it contains less than the Bible, it contains too little, and if it contains the same as the Bible, it is superfluous, useless and it is dispensable. Not only that, but human creeds are divisive, by whatever form they take, or by whatever name they are called or who wrote them, or whatever good intent that was behind their writing. I don't believe the Bible, and just the Bible, makes a congregation a cult, do you? One of the earmarks of a cult is that it is founded by some charismatic character, who is supposed to have had some special communication from God. He has written that communication in a book which he (or she) claims to be inspired of God, and as authoritative, or even more so than the Bible. Although occasionally one of us comes along and occasionally, and well and acts like he thinks, or she thinks, that they are the one. Churches of Christ have no such person, my friend.
Number 3: We believe that some behavior is sinful. That isn't being judgmental; that is just one of the facts of life. And, because God says it in His Bible (Romans 5:12), we believe that all people who have grown to the state of mental accountability have sinned against God. We don't believe that we were born totally depraved, unable to think a good thought or do a good deed, and guilty of Adam's transgression. We are not held accountable for the sins of our foreparents. Read Ezekiel 18. We went that way soon after we were born (Psalm 58 and 3). Our iniquities have separated us from God and hidden His face from us (Isaiah 59 and 2). And, seeing that a person is unable to save himself by any scheme or plan or work of his own, or any other human, he must appeal to the grace of our God, our offended God for forgiveness of our sins (Ephesians 2:8 to10). We believe God was s-o-o-o gracious that He gave His only begotten Son, Jesus Christ, that through faith in Him, any sinner can be forgiven and reconciled to God (2 Corinthians 5:17-21). Jesus once said, "I am the way, the truth, and the life. No one comes to the Father except through Me" (John 14:6).
Number 4: We believe, because the Bible teaches it, that God requires of the sinner that he believe in His Son in order to be forgiven (John 3:16) It isn't a request or a helpful suggestion; it is an absolutely necessity, a requirement, a command, if you please. So, while He has opened the door wide enough to include, "whosoever will," (Revelation 22:17), He does exclude many, many, many more people who will not believe in Christ as His Son. Is that being cult-like?
Number 5: We also believe, because the Bible quotes Jesus as saying "to those Jews who believed Him” (mind you now, they were believers in Jesus), "if (if, if, if he says) you abide in My word, you are My disciples indeed" (John 8:32). He once asked His apostles: "Why do you call Me Lord, and do not do the things which I say" (Luke 6:46) -- a good question for us today. Therefore, we believe the faith that saves is not the "dead faith" that James describes in James 2:26, but a faith that does what the Lord says. Surely, surely no one seriously thinks that a person, who just will not do what the Lord says, is going to be saved. If so, he needs to read Matthew 16:24 again.
Jesus preached "repentance" more than any other Bible preacher or writer. To some He said, "Unless you repent you will all...perish" (Luke 13:3 and 5). And after His resurrection, He charged His apostles saying, "Repentance and remission of sins should be preached in His name to all nations." That is Luke 24, verses 46 and 47. And He commissioned them to begin that work in Jerusalem, which they did. And when they did-- the very first time one of them preached it-- it was Peter and he said, "Repent, and let every one of you be baptized for the remission of sins; and you shall receive the gift of the Holy Spirit" (Acts 2:38). We in churches of Christ tell people that same thing who want to be saved today. Let us pray. Father, we thank You for your church, the revelation of your will in the Bible. Help us to follow it diligently. In Jesus’ name we pray. Amen.
When those people heard the apostle Peter preach on that day of Pentecost and he told them to repent and be baptized everyone of them in the name of Jesus Christ for the forgiveness of their sins, those who gladly received the word were baptized. And that day about 3,000 souls were added to them (Acts chapter 2 verse 41). And verse 47 says “they were praising God and having favor with all the people and the Lord added to the church daily those who were being saved.” Then just as we said in the beginning the church is the people-- the saved people, they are called people. They are called of God himself out of the world to form the body of the redeemed. The Lord saved them so the Lord knew who to add to the church. Therefore, the church and the saved are the same people. Hey, that clears up this question we create when we say, “I am saved but I don’t want anything to do with the church,” doesn’t it? It isn’t that they had a membership roster kept by one of the apostles or someone chosen by them. But the Lord added their names to the book of life that we read about in the book of Revelation, chapter 3, verse 5. Did that make them a “cult?” Oh, if so must be those people formed the first cult. I don’t believe it, my friend, not for a moment and you don’t either, do you?
The word "church" appears 114 times in the King James New Testament; 77 times in the singular number and 37 times in the plural. Even when it is plural it doesn't mean "denominations." In the plural form it references congregations of the same faith in a general locality such as in Galatians chapter 1, verse 2: "the churches of Galatia." And in Acts 9:31 there is the reference to the "churches throughout Judea, Galilee and Samaria." However, there are times it is used to denote the membership of a church-- "the churches of the Gentiles" (Romans 16:4). In that same chapter (Romans 16:16), the Scripture says, "The churches of Christ greet you," indicating the congregations were the possessions of Christ. He "purchased the church with His own blood,” one soul at a time, and as each one was saved; He added them to the church. Therefore, the church is His blood-purchased possession. Why anybody would not want to be a part of it puzzles me. Well, it is obvious there are a lot of misunderstanding about what the Lord's church is all about, isn't there? That is one reason I am devoting all these programs this month to the subject of the church. It isn't my purpose to be contentious or offensive, but to be helpful and informative. And I hope you take me that way.
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We are here on this station every week with no appeals for money because some churches of Christ in the area are bearing the cost, and we love them for it. We would like for you to worship with them as soon as you possibly can. Be with us again next week, will you? God bless you. We love you. |