Church of Christ

1) And I disagree with the practice of closed communion. I think it is unBiblical to exclude a blood-bought believer from the Lord's table.

2) Amen.

Praise be unto God for salvation through the finished work of Christ Jesus. \o/

 

a. Paul specifically forbids us from taking the Lord's supper with a man who is called a "brother" who is living in an unrepentently immoral way.

b. When you strip away the veneer, a "confession of faith" in Campbellism is nothing more than an acknowledgement that Jesus is God's Son and an intention to obey His commandments.

It does not imply a confession of trusting in Christ to regenerate and save the soul, for they do not believe Christ regenerates or saves the soul. It doesn't even imply a trusting in Christ to forgive sin, because they don't believe sin is forgiven until they "obey the gospel" by which they mean baptism.

How contrary is this to the teaching of the true Christ that,

"whosoever believeth in him shall not perish but have everlasting life."

The words of Paul definately apply here:

"But I fear, lest by any means, as the serpent beguiled Eve through his subtilty, so your minds should be corrupted from the simplicity that is in Christ. For if he that cometh preacheth another Jesus, whom we have not preached, or if ye receive another spirit, which ye have not received, or another gospel, which ye have not accepted, ye might well bear with him."

And,

"For such are false apostles, deceitful workers, transforming themselves into the apostles of Christ. And no marvel, for Satan himself is transformed as an angel of light. Therefore it is no great thing if his ministers also be transformed as the ministers of righteousness; whose end shall be according to their works."

Now tell me, do you think Satan is so stupid as to send his minister professing that "Jesus is not the Son of God"? Is merely saying "Jesus is the Son of God" enough to bring one into the pail of Christian respectability? Does not every Roman Catholic, Mormon, Russelite, Adventist, Modernist, and Unitarian confess that "Jesus is the Son of God"?

c. The very fact that the Campbellite movement had it's genesis when their preachers went in among Baptists professing to restore the gospel ought to tell you that they aren't a 32nd cousin to a Baptist.

d. Another heresy taught by the Campbellites, and one most appealing to the pride of man, is the heresy that man is not totally depraved nor inherently or inheritedly wicked.

Mark Osgatharp

 

>>>>b. When you strip away the veneer, a "confession of faith" in Campbellism is nothing more than an acknowledgement that Jesus is God's Son and an intention to obey His commandments.<<<<<<

But Church of Christ people do not have and do not use a "confession of faith" in Campbellism. So your criticism is misplaced.

[ October 18, 2003, 04:49 PM: Message edited by: Tanker ]

 

Tanker,

I'm not talking about a confession of faith in the sense of a doctrinal statement. I'm talking about a confession of faith in the sense of a profession of faith in Christ. The Campbellites do require a confession of faith that "Jesus is the Son of God" before they will administer baptism.

As a matter of fact, this is one of their steps to salvation (or rather should I say forgiveness of past sins, for they really don't believe you are saved until you have held out faithful till the end). In Campbellism it is believe, repent, confess, obey the gospel (be baptized).

They lay great stress on the fact that faith precedes repentance, even though the Bible always puts repentance prior to faith. This is reflective of the fact that they do not view faith as anything more than an intellectual assent.

By the way, the fact that you note they supposedly do not have confessions of faith reminds me of something quite ammusing. I once read a book written by a Campbellite the title of which was something to the effect of "Why I Am A Church Of Christ". One of the reasons he gave was that they do not have "creeds" like all the other denominations.

Mark Osgatharp

 

Mark,

What percentage of Baptists agree with all of your ideas on theology? I suspect it is a very small percentage.

 

That's not really a fair statement. I would suspect that that would be true for nearly everyone, including you and me.

 

a. What difference does it make? Paul said that all the Christians in Asia, the very churches he had founded, had forsaken him. But he was still the one who was right. So the issue is not how many people agree with me but whether or not I am right.

b. What does my theology or how many people agree with it have to do with Baptist history or the Campbellite churches? If you want to discuss "Mark's theology" then start a thread on that subject.

Mark Osgatharp