Are All Christians Members of the Church of Christ?

By Raymond Elliott

Your answer will be determined by how you perceive the church of our Lord. Was the ‘Church of Christ’ be­gun in the early part of the 19^th century by the leadership of men like Alexander Camp­bell, Barton W. Stone and others? If so, then your answer would have to be ‘no’ be­cause the ‘Church of Christ’ would simply be an addition to the already scores of other denominations that have existed for years both in this country and in other parts of the world. Thus to claim to be the ‘only church’ would be the height of religious ar­rogance and bigotry. Only narrow-minded people would make such a claim because the ‘Church of Christ’ would only be a part of the whole body of Christ. Some would even propose that a person could be a Christian without ever ‘joining’ a denomina­tion, including the ‘Church of Christ’. Many of our most influential brethren who claim that the ‘Church of Christ’ is simply a part of the whole, that is, a denomination among others, teach that there are ‘devout and knowledgeable Christians’ in all denomina­tions and based upon the assumption that the ‘Church of Christ’ is merely a product of the Restoration Movement they are abso­lutely correct. What right do we have to as­sert that the ‘Church of Christ’ is better than other religious groups if the church is merely a man-made organization? The au­dacity of a ‘Campbellite’ telling a disciple of Luther or Calvin that ‘my denomination is better than your denomination’. It must be understood that ‘my tribe’ is just one among ‘many tribes’ and that we are all on the ‘same ship’ heading for glory land. Based upon the premise that the church is simply a denomination each believer has the right to choose his/her favorite religious or­ganization to join.

Now let us go back to the question, “Are All Christians Members of The Church of Christ?” and make every effort to answer it according to the teachings of the New Tes­tament of Jesus Christ. Or we might ask, ‘Are all the saved members of the church of Christ?’ Our Lord promised in Matthew 16:13-19 that He would build (establish) His church. And this He did on the day of Pentecost following His ascension (Acts 2). The apostles preached for the first time the gospel of Christ. When many of the hearers believed in what was being preached re­garding Jesus of Nazareth who had been crucified, they cried out and inquired as to what they should do and they were in­structed by Peter to “repent and let every one of you be baptized in the name of Jesus Christ for the remission of sins; and you shall receive the gift of the Holy Spirit” (Acts 2:38). In verse 41 we read that about 3,000 souls were baptized on that day and were added to the number of believers. Then we read in verse 47 that “the Lord added to the church daily those who were being saved.” It must be understood there­fore when an individual, as a penitent be­liever is immersed into Jesus Christ for the remission of sins he/she is added to the church of our Lord. Now if the Lord adds the saved to His church that means all the unsaved remain outside of His spiritual body which is the church of Jesus Christ (Colossians 1:18; Ephesians 1:22, 23). Fur­thermore the apostle Paul wrote in Ephe­sians 4:4 that there is only “one body”. De­nominationalism as we understand it today did not exist when Jesus established His church. It is true that the spirit of sectarian­ism existed in the church in the city of Cor­inth (I Corinthians 1:10-17) but Paul con­demned such and he corrected the unscrip­tural practice of Chris­tians calling them­selves after different men. A major thrust of the Restoration Movement that began in this country in the first part of the 19^th century was to lead believers to be Christians only and to be one in the teaching and practice of the Word of God. The intent of the lead­ers of this movement was not to begin an­other denomination but simply to be the church of our Lord. Also we should under­stand that this was not the only effort to re­store New Testament Christianity be­cause many efforts had been made over the inter­vening centuries to be followers of the Lord and His teachings. In fact there were con­gregations existing in this country be­fore the influence of Thomas and Alexander was ever felt in the religious community. For ex­ample the Rocky Springs congregation near Bridgeport, Alabama was begun in 1803 Thomas Campbell did not come to American until 1807. There were also con­gregations existing in the state of Tennes­see before the Campbells came to America. The truth is that one can be a Christian with­out ever joining a denomination.

Whenever brethren declare that there are “devout, knowledgeable Christians” in the denominations they have a misconception of the teaching of the New Testament re­garding the undenominational nature of the church of Jesus Christ. The fact is when a person who believes in Jesus Christ as being the Son of God, repents of his/her sins and confesses that Jesus is the Son of God and is immersed into Jesus Christ for the remis­sions of sins, that individual is saved by the blood of the Lamb and is added to the body (church) of Jesus Christ. It is the Lord who saves and does the adding of that person to the church. The individual doing the bap­tizing or the place where the baptism takes place are of no significance. The emphasis is on the one being immersed. The real problem exists when the person who has been immersed joins a religious organiza­tion not authorized by the New Testament. He/she should associate with others who have obeyed the commands of the gospel and worship and work with them and not become a member of a denomination. For example when the jailer and his household; Lydia and her household were baptized in Philippi they constituted the church of Jesus Christ in that city (Acts 16:13-16, 30-35). Today when missionaries travel into the re­mote areas of Guyana and teach people of Jesus Christ and immerse the believers in His name for the remission of their sins, the Lord adds them to His church. There is no reason whatsoever for these believers to seek out a denomination to join because they comprise the church of Jesus Christ in their village. In my humble opinion, one of the hardest lessons to be understood in our world and in our time is the undenomina­tional nature of the church of Jesus Christ. This problem exists because a person is born today into a world of religious division with thousands of denominations existing, even in our own country. No wonder a ‘truth seeker’ becomes confused when consider­ing a ‘church’ to join. How wonderful it would be if all believers in Jesus Christ would stand as one and go forth with the gospel of Christ into the entire world with the message of salvation. This is the desire of our Lord as He prayed for such in John 17:20, 21. How sad that some of our own brethren are adding to the confusion when they teach that the church of Jesus Christ is simply a denomination.

It should be the sincere desire of every Christian that men and women from every region of this world would come to the knowledge of the truth and be saved (I Timothy 2:4). Let us make every effort to lead people to Jesus Christ so that they may be saved by His precious blood and the grace of our Heavenly Father (Ephesians 1:7: Revelation 1:5). Let us not grow weary and become discouraged in our efforts (Galatians 6:9) even though the church is being divided by some brethren who are teaching error. May God’s richest blessings be upon all the elders, preachers, teachers and all Christians who are endeavoring to be nothing more or less than a New Testa­ment Christian and the church of our Lord Jesus Christ. & (Via the internet)

A Voice from the Past

There are a few men among us who are trying very hard to 'organize' the thing called 'us as a people,' so as to shut off all investigation and stop all discussion; but they are entirely too narrow in their ideas to fairly represent this refor­mation. They say that if something of this kind is not done very soon, 'our plea' will burst into smithereens, 'our organized mis­sion work' will break all to flinders, and 'we as a people' will go to smash on general principles; but I think not. The shortest route I know to such a crash is to organize us and undertake to compel us all to quit thinking and arguing and accept the conclu­sions and carry out the plans of 'leading men and papers,' without the liberty to con­ceive an idea or express an opinion of our own." - F.D Srygley (1856-1900) & (Via the internet)