Churches of Christ conceive of themselves as the only true church. As Phillips Myers rightly notes, the belief that they alone constituted the one true church was an unchallenged article of faith and had become a cardinal tenet in the unwritten creed-book
290David Steward. 1966. Alexander Campbell and the Churches of Christ. Restoration Quarterly 9. 3:
133-142, catalogues Alexander Campbell‘s major influences on Churches of Christ to include, hermeneutical distinction between the Old and the New Testament, Baptism for remission of sins, dissemination of religious view through the printed pages and establishment Christian liberal arts colleges.
Steward however condemns the penchant for Churches of Christ to provide Campbell‘s answer to questions that are being asked by the contemporary generation.
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of the church.291 The Church of Christ claims to be the church that Christ promised to build in Mathew 16: 18 which came to fulfillment on the Day of Pentecost. By this claim Churches of Christ, according to Allen and Hughes, assume that their roots are entirely sacred and not profane, entirely apostolic and not historical, entirely biblical and not cultural thereby elevating themselves above the level of common humanity and in essence constituting themselves into gods.292 Churches of Christ also set the following marks to identify the true and authentic church that Christ founded:
a) Time of Establishment – this must not be earlier or later than the Day of Pentecost (AD 33) and birth place must be Jerusalem
b) Terms of Admission- believe, repent, confess and baptism by immersion for remission of sins
c) Law and Discipline – teachings of the apostles and other inspired men as documented in the New Testament
d) Name - no group could be true church without wearing a name that was used by the first century church, like ―Church of Christ,‖ ―Church of God,‖ ―Kingdom of God,‖ etc, but not Methodist, Baptist, Anglican, Lutheran, etc.
e) Church Government- absolute sovereignty of the local church with leadership consisting of elders, deacons and evangelist/preacher. There should be no ecclesiastical authority above that of the local church
f) Worship-includes weekly observance of the Lord‘s Supper, teaching, preaching, giving and singing devoid of the use of instruments of music.293
In the understanding of Churches of Christ, a true church is one that meets the above requirements and they are the only one that possessed these identifying marks and are therefore the only one true church.
If Churches of Christ claim that the church has been in existence since Pentecost, one cannot but ask the following pertinent questions: where was the church from the
291P. Myers. 1983. A Historical Study of the Attitude of the Churches of Christ toward other Denominations. Baylor University (PhD Dissertation), 98.
292Allen and Hughes, Discovering Our Roots: The Ancestry of Churches of Christ, 8.
293Myers, A Historical Study of the Attitude of the Churches of Christ Toward other Denominations, 137-143.
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second century until the nineteenth century when she resurfaced? Where was the church in the post apostolic age? Where was the church during the Dark Ages? Where was the church during the sixteenth century Reformation? Where was the church during the 17th and 18th century Evangelical Reawakening?
Historians and leading spokespersons of Churches of Christ over time have attempted to answer some of the above questions by dividing the history of Christianity into four main periods of purity, apostasy, reformation and restoration. J. W. Shepherd294, L. G. Thomas295 and F. W. Mattox296 advocated restoration ecclesiology which was grounded on the fact that the primitive church forsook the pure doctrine and went into apostasy during which the true church was eclipsed by the Roman Catholic Church. The sixteenth century reform agenda of the Reformers were not far reaching enough creating the need for restoration of the ―ancient order of things.‖
Myers observes further that while historians and spokespersons of Churches of Christ agreed that the church was not completely extinct after the apostolic era they did not agree as to the manner of its conservation. While some believed without historical evidence that few congregations of the church did exist in the midst of the apostasy,297 some were of the view that the Church of Christ continue to exist from the time of the apostles to the present time with individuals who faithfully adhered to the New Testament teaching on baptism rather than subscribing to the corrupted patterns of organized churches. Although the true church as a visibly organized body had gone into extinction, it was nevertheless being preserved by those who devotedly held to baptism by immersion for the remission of sins.298 The third group299 which are obviously in the
294J. W. Shepherd. 1958. The Church, the Fallen Away, and the Restoration. Nashville: Gospel Advocate Co.
295L. G. Thomas. 1941. Restoration Handbook: A Study of the Church, the Falling Away, and the Restoration. Nashville: Gospel Advocate Co.
296F. W. Mattox. 1961. The Eternal Kingdom: A History of the Church of Christ, rev. ed. Delight, Arkansas: Gospel Light Pub. Co.
297This school was ably represented by W. B. West, Jr., 1940. The Existence of the Kingdom of Heaven Past, present, and Future. Abilene Christian College Bible Lectures 1940. Austin: Firm Foundation Pub.
House, 24.
298E. M. Borden. 1939. Church History. Austin: Firm Foundation Pub. House, i, 89, 111, shared this view.
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majority held that the true church had been preserved through the ages by ―the seed of the kingdom,‖ the word of God. According to this school, ―the seed of the kingdom‖ that is, the word of God which was supplanted through human innovation was unearthed and replanted in good and honest minds which led to the restoration of the true church. As the pure gospel produced the true church in the first century, the same could also be replicated if it is replanted, they argued. In other words, the true church was preserved in the seed/the New Testament. When the seed was replanted, it produced the pure apostolic church-the Church of Christ.300 It is interesting to know that as brilliant and apologetic as these arguments were they all crumbled under the klieg light of historical scrutiny. To this scrutiny we shall now turn.
It is interesting to note that Churches of Christ surfaced out of specific historical contexts and that their beliefs and practices have been equally shaped by the social, cultural, economic and even religious circumstances of the early American nationhood.
The Restoration Movement that produced Churches of Christ emerged out of the attempt to replicate in the church the concept of Republicanism which was one of cardinal objectives of American War of Independence (1775-1783). With the declaration of Independence on July 4, 1776, Americans were not satisfied with government of the people by the people and for the people, republicanism was extended to the church as people began to demand for the dissolution of priestly hierarchies, installation of ―Bible government‖ and the theology of the people by the people and for the people. The Restoration Movement which produced the Church of Christ was actively involved in the Christian Movement and Churches of Christ are major beneficiary of this heritage as reflected in their hermeneutics and ecclesiology.301
Moreover, it is preposterous for a single church or group to claim to have the only correct understanding and interpretation of the Bible while condemning others to the
299Represented by F. E. Wallace, Jr., 1931. The Church Lost and Found, Gospel Advocate 73 January 1, p.1; J. T. Hinds. 1937. A Commentary on the Book of Revelation. Nashville: Gospel Advocate Co, 186 and N. B. Hardeman. 1923. Hardeman‘s Tabernacle Sermons, vol. 2. Nashville: McQuiddy Printing Co., 196-197.
300Myers, A Historical Study of the Attitude of the Churches of Christ toward other Denominations, 101-109.
301Hatch, The Christian Movement and the Demand for a Theology of the People, 10-43.
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compost of human innovation, and yet, her members were not listed as interpreters of any major versions of the canonical Scripture. Moreover, this study reveals that most hermeneutical suppositions of the church were traceable to Alexander Campbell, a leading member of the church‘s precursor- the American Restoration Movement. It is equally incongruous for a church to set the criteria of establishment, terms of membership, law and discipline, name, church polity and mode of worship and on this basis shut out the gate of salvation to others upon her condition and interpretation of the scripture. The Church of Christ has not offered any tenable historical evidence for their existence between the Pentecost (AD.33) and the 1800s when the Restoration Movement emerged.
Furthermore, the Restoration Movement also variously known as the Disciples, Stone-Campbell Movement, the Christian Movement started as a single entity but later fragmented into three different churches in the Disciples of Christ, Churches of Christ and Independent Churches of Christ. How come a product of a group that later split up into three churches claim to be the only true church? As James DeForest Murch cogently puts it,
There must be admission that the New Testament church has not yet been perfectly restored anywhere within the Restoration movement.
The division into three bodies and the lack of complete unity within each of them are proof that the Disciples have yet much to learn about what it takes to realize the answer to Christ‘s prayer in John 17.302
The claim of the Church of Christ to be the only true church was tested in a research question to her members and the following are the result of the research finding:
Table 7: Church of Christ is the only true church that has her teachings and practices directly traceable to the early church
Research Question Response
Agree Disagree Neutral Total Church of Christ is the only true church that 395 38 37 470
302 James DeForest Murch, Christians Only: A History of the Restoration Movement, 366-367.
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has her teachings and practices directly
traceable to the early church 84% 8.1% 7.9% 100%
Source: Field Survey, 2011
From the table above, 84% of the respondents validate the claim that the Church of Christ is the only true church and that her teachings and practices are directly traceable to the early church; 8.1% of the respondents disagreed, while 7.9 % were neutral. The response of the respondents indicate that majority of the members believe that their church is the only true church.
The above position of the church could not be substantiated from the writings of the early church fathers. There was no historical evidence that the church started on the day of Pentecost and that it is the only true church. There was neither historical nor patristic evidence from the writings of the early church fathers like Clement of Alexandria (A.D. 150-215), Irenaeus (A.D. 130-202), Tertullian (A. D.160-225), Eusebius (A.D.263-339), Jerome A. D. 347-420), amongst others to support the claim to be the only true church. Moreover, there was no historical evidence of the existence of the church from the post Apostolic Age through the Dark Ages to the 16th Century Reformation and beyond. The church was neither Catholic nor Protestant as nothing was heard of it until the 19th century. Unlike Eastern and Western Europe, America from where the church emerged had no strong footing in ecclesiastical history until the eighteenth century. It therefore amounts to historical and ecclesiastical fallacy for a church that emerged in the 19th century to claim to be the only true church thereby discarding other Christian denominations to be products of human imagination and innovation.
As stated earlier, one cannot but reiterate the fact that Churches of Christ emerged out of specific historical, social, cultural, economic and religious circumstances of the early American nationhood. The Restoration Movement that produced Churches of Christ emerged out of the attempt to replicate in the church the concept of Republicanism which was one of the cardinal objectives of American War of Independence (1775-1783). With the declaration of Independence on July 4, 1776, several Americans were bent on replicating the republican ideology in the church. This movement demanded for the
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dissolution of existing priestly hierarchies, installation of ―Bible government,‖ restoration of primitive Christianity and the theology of the people for the people and by the people.
Consequently, the claim to be the only true church is vitiated by the avalanche of historical evidences to the contrary. The claim is also anachronistic to the spirit of ecumenism advanced by Christ for his disciples.