Catholic Answers to the church of Christ

The church of Christ can trace its roots back to the first century

The church that this article is concerned with can actually only trace its roots back to the nineteenth century, and the present form of this church is more a product of the twentieth centuries. It is true that some churches as far back as the seventeenth century share some similarities with the church of Christ, especially in England, Ireland, and Scotland, but the church of Christ did not descend form these churches, nor does the church of Christ have any official ties with these churches. The founders of the movement that the church of Christ came from were, however, influenced by these earlier churches. The church of Christ along with a few other churches are the result of the American restoration movement founded by Walter Scott, Barton Stone, and Thomas and Alexander Campbell, all of which came from a Presbyterian background. So if anything, the church of Christ descended from the Presbyterian Church, which descended from John Calvin's branch of the Protestant Reformation, which broke away from the Catholic Church. It was Walter Scott that popularized the term restoration, which means to restore the church of the New Testament, and it is from Barton Stone that the idea of non-denominational came from. Barton Stone believed that Christians could unite in one faith, and do away with denominationalism within Christianity. His attempt to accomplish this failed, and he abandoned all established churches to form a new church simply calling themselves Christian. But it is from Thomas and Alexander Campbell that majority of this movement's doctrine was established. Thomas Campbell was a clergyman of a Presbyterian Church in northern Ireland. In 1807 he settled in western Pennsylvania, where his teachings were censured by the Presbyterian Church. He began to form a new church based on his interpretations of the New Testament, and in 1810 was joined by his son, Alexander Campbell, who left a Presbyterian Church in Scotland. Alexander Campbell expanded upon his fathers ideas, such as the autonomy and independence of each congregation, the abolishment of creeds and clerical titles, and that baptism must be by immersion and only of adults. The leaders of the church of Christ, which emerged from this restoration movement, were more conservative than the leader of the other churches that emerged. They demanded strict adherence to their interpretation of the New Testament. Their congregations could not join any intercongregational organizations, and musical instruments were forbidden in worship. The church of Christ with its present doctrine cannot be found beyond the twentieth century. The church of Christ can only claim to trace its roots back to the first century in the fact that if it roots are traced back to the sixteenth century, they came from the Catholic Church, which can trace its roots back to the first century, as this article as confirms.

Around the year 200 AD, Tertullian wrote of a test which proves the authenticity of a church's doctrine. The test is to historically trace the origins of a doctrine back to the Apostles, without any lapses in time. Tertullian explains:

Moreover, if there be any [heresies] bold enough to plant themselves in the midst of the apostolic age, so that they might seem to have been handed down by the Apostles because they were from the time of Apostles, we can say to them: let them show the origins of their Churches, let them unroll the order of their bishops, running down in succession from the beginning, so that their first bishop shall have for author and predecessor some one of the Apostles or of the apostolic men who continued steadfast with the Apostles... Therefore, they will be challenged to meet this test even by those Churches which are of much later date - for they are being established daily - and whose founder is not from among the Apostles nor from among the apostolic men; for those which agree in the same faith are reckoned as apostolic on account of the blood ties in their doctrine. Then let all heresies prove how they regard themselves as apostolic, when they are challenged by our Churches to meet either test. But in fact they are not apostolic, nor can they prove themselves to be what they are not. Neither are they received in peace and communion by the Churches which are in any way apostolic, since on account of their diverse belief they are in no way apostolic.

The church of Christ cannot trace their non-Catholic doctrines back to the Apostles. Most church of Christ doctrines cannot even be found beyond the last thousand years, and many of these cannot be found beyond the last five hundred years. But even these older doctrines did not directly come to the church of Christ, and there are lapses of years and even centuries. Obviously, the church of Christ is not the apostolic Church, and their doctrines are not the doctrines of the Apostles. The church of Christ is a heretical church.

Many heretic groups were actually the church of Christ, persecuted by the Catholic Church

Many of the members of the church of Christ do not know the history of their church and believe that it is the Church that Christ established in the first century. Some members, that do know their history, believe that Christ's Church died in the forth century, and was reestablished in the nineteenth century. This is not the prevailing belief though, and most deny that the church of Christ originated out of the nineteenth century, and believe that it has existed since Christ established it in the first century. They believe that the churches that influenced their founders in England, Ireland, and Scotland, were actually the church of Christ, and that their founders merely brought this church to America. They also believe that these churches in the United Kingdom were the result of church of Christ members arriving from continental Europe and evangelizing. And so the belief is that the church of Christ was established by Christ in the first century, slowly moved throughout the world, include the United Kingdom, and eventually was brought to America by Walter Scott, Barton Stone, and Thomas and Alexander Campbell. To add credibility to this believe, they maintain that the church of Christ remained in hiding to avoid persecution from the Catholic Church, which resulted in the creation of very little historical evidence of its existence. Different heretic groups are identified as being members of the church of Christ, which were persecuted by the Catholic Church. Two of these groups are the Wycliffites and the Hussites, which were led by John Wyclif and John Hus respectively. Wyclif received a Degree of Doctor of Theology around 1372, but by 1380 he was in open opposition with the Catholic Church. John Hus was a Catholic priest, but was greatly influenced by the writings of Wyclif, and in 1411 was excommunicated for spreading the Wycliffite heresy. The followers of these men denied the authority of the Pope, viewed the Bible as the only authority of Christian teaching, and denied the doctrine of Transubstantiation. Some denied the legitimacy of infant baptism, and still others retained it. Some followers abolished confession, the teaching of purgatory, praying to saints, and the celebration of all feasts and fasts, although some instituted a feast of the Holy Martyr Hus on July 6. Some went so far as to abolished churches, altars, vestments, sacred vessels, chants, and ceremonies. These heretics did hold some teachings similar to the church of Christ; however, many of their teachings would not be accepted by the church of Christ. The Wycliffites and the Hussites were not Catholics that renounced Catholic doctrine in favour of the doctrine of a supposed church of Christ, but Catholics that claimed to remain Catholic while rebelling against Catholic doctrine. The Anabaptists are often identified as part of the church of Christ; however, they were a movement, much like the American restoration movement, that claimed to restore Christ's Church. The two teachings that the church of Christ and the Anabaptist share are the rejection of infant baptism, and the absolute supremacy and sole sufficiency of the canonical Scriptures as a norm of faith, but still, the Anabaptist did not resemble the church of Christ in all teachings. The rejection of infant baptism is one of teaching that the church of Christ tries to use to draw a connection between themselves and various heretic groups, even though the rejection of infant baptism did not appear until the eleventh century. Walter Scott, Barton Stone, and Thomas and Alexander Campbell did not leave the Presbyterian Church to join the church of Christ, but left the Presbyterian Church to form new churches. The churches they created are similar to the ones in the United Kingdom that influenced them, but there are still doctrinal differences. The church of Christ, with all its present doctrine, does not even exactly resemble the church that Walter Scott, Barton Stone, and Thomas and Alexander Campbell created. In the end, the church of Christ is a church of the twentieth century, and there is no historical evidence of it existence before this time.

Sometime between the years 220 and 230 AD, Origen wrote of a simple way to tell if a church is apostolic or heretical. "Although there are many who believe that they themselves hold to the teachings of Christ, there are yet some among them who think differently from their predecessors. The teaching of the Church has indeed been handed down through an order of succession from the Apostles, and remains in the Churches even to the present time. That alone is to be believed as the truth which is in no way at variance with ecclesiastical and apostolic tradition." The doctrine of the church of Christ in the twentieth century differs from the doctrine of their predecessors in the nineteenth century, and differs even more from their earlier predecessors. Since the doctrine of the church of Christ has not even remained unchanged in the last two centuries, it is obviously not the doctrine of the Apostles. Since they are not apostolic, the church of Christ is a heretic church.

The restoration of the church of Christ can be likened to learning to play baseball from a rule book

church of Christ member that do accept the Restoration Movement as their origins often explain how the Church of Christ died out and was later restored through a number of hypothetical allegories. While the specific entity used in these allegories varies, the basic story is always the same. This is one such allegory: Suppose the sport of baseball dies out and everyone forgets how to play it. Eventually, someone finds a baseball rule book and learns how to play it again. He teaches others how to play it, thereby restoring the sport of baseball. Now since the restored version of baseball follows the rule book of the original version of baseball exactly, it is not a new sport, but a continuation of the original sport. Supposedly the same thing happened to the Church of Christ. It died out, and no Christians were left. Eventually, someone took the Christian rule book, the New Testament, and learned how to be a Christian again. He taught this to others, thereby restoring the Church of Christ. Since the restored version of the Church of Christ follows the New Testament exactly, it is not a new church, but a continuation of the original Church.

There are two major faults with this allegory: the Church of Christ did not die out; and the New Testament is not a Christian rule book. This would be a more accurate allegory: Supposed someone who does not know very much about baseball finds the sports section of a news paper that has some articles about Major League Baseball. Some of these articles describe the highlights of a few baseball games, some are interviews with people involved in the sport, and others are just generally about the game of baseball. Although some of rules of baseball are mentioned in these articles, they are not a complete source of baseball rules. From these articles, this person constructs what he believes is the sport of baseball, and teaches it to others. Not only do these people believe that this incomplete and distorted version of baseball is authentic baseball, they believe they are the Major Leagues. In addition to this, they believe that real Major League Baseball is not baseball at all. This is the same way that the church of Christ came about. A number of people took the New Testament, a collection of Catholic literature that is not a complete source of Christian doctrine, and constructed from it an incomplete and distorted version of Christianity. Not only do these people proclaim themselves as authentic Christianity, they reject the true Church of Christ as not being Christian whatsoever. The Catholic Church is the true Church of Christ, and the church of Christ is only a shallow imitation of the Catholic Church.