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Goodbye Jesus

Church Of Christ?


kolaida

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Church of Christ's have VBS's? I know that the Assemblies of God and and Methodists did. Apparently VBS's are universal amongst protestant churches.

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Church of Christ's have VBS's? I know that the Assemblies of God and and Methodists did. Apparently VBS's are universal amongst protestant churches.

Yes we had VBS.  They had good cookies!  Back then it was held during the day.  We would walk to church for the VBS.  To me it was much better than Sunday School.  And we got a prize for memorizing a scripture.   But, church was all I knew as entertainment and  I was a kid so there wasn't too much pressure.  Of course all that changed when I got older.

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It is amazing how this batshit crazy transcends oceans. Pretty much what is described here I saw in my old hometown Bulawayo. The only reason I went (once) was for the sake of a then GF. A buddy and I were both trying to get in her pants, he actually converted and got lucky :) Shit and all I had to do was take a bath LoL.

She ended getting knocked up by a dude in her church and that must have been a rapid romance and wedding as the kid was born 7 months after they married. And she is divorced now.

Back to the service, that was like 4 gruelling hours. I had run into these woos at high school who got together and prayed in tongues. It was pretty easy to fake. After ditching my dad's religion I guess I was looking for a replacement esp. if they had hot babes. My dad's church they were all 6-7 years younger than me so at 16 (when I stopped going) they were like 9 and 10 years old and would have had to wait till 21 before they became legal. Some of them did blossom nice but by then I was satan's 2IC so no chance any of their dad's would agree to letting them go out with me unless I happened to crawl back as a repentant sinner. Back then many girls left school at 16 as they were anyway gonna be moms soon so no point wasting money on an education, quick typists course of 6 weeks, diploma, job, meet boy, marry and get pregnant (not necessarily in that order).

Yeah, apart from that one service, my memories are somewhat different. :)

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I was raised in the CoC until I was 14 when my parents joined the Baptist church.  The difference was night and day to me.  The Baptist church was like Vegas compared to the doctrine of the CoC.

 

Another of the strange COC beliefs was that we are not supposed to revel.  I did not know what the word meant back then.  I found out that, according to my Sunday School teacher, it meant we were not suppose to clap our hands or tap our feet to music.

 

Now this was odd to me because my grandmother who was a member of the CoC as well, would take me on Fridays nights to an AoG church where there was, well music, for one, and a group of people clapping and tapping their feet to the music, including my grandmother.  There were also speaking in tongues which freaked me out.

 

I don't remember much of the doctrine of the CoC, just that it was very sombre and no one could carry a tune without any music.

 

I don't remember anything there that would keep me from using them as a day care, other than the constant invites to church.  But I wouldn't keep my child in one of their day cares after the age of 4, before a child starts believing all that crap about burning in hell.

If the day care is anything like the Vacation Bible school I rememberat the CoC, it would be nothing to be too concerned about.

 

 

Yep, No hand clapping. Actually the hard line c of C congregations don't want any public display of emotions. No raising of hands in the worship service either. Old ladies might faint if that happened. David may have danced naked in the streets, but that was the OT and the NT don't allow none of that emotional nonsense. Sit up straight with a stern expression is what God wants cause the bible says so, or at least doesn't give permission for any other way of worshipping.

 

The inclusion of Praise Teams has been the latest problem created by the liberal change agents. Some congregations actually allow microphones to be placed in the hands of some of the better singers, including women folk, and you know God can't be happy about that. Even worse some congregations allow members of the Praise Team to sit down front on the first row. The worst offenders are congregations that actually allow members of the Praise Team to go on the stage facing the worshippers!!!!! Is nothing sacred to these heathens?

 

That only proves that once heresy and false teaching gets a hold on a congregation with unsound Elders it spreads like a plague infecting the faithful and turning them down the path that leads directly to hell. The faithful must always be on the alert for wolves in sheep’s clothing teaching unsound false doctrine that will eventually lead all of them directly to the gates of hell and eternal damnation.

 

Praise God for the Word and for sound doctrine and for those that know their place and keep in silence and reverence for the Word and Worship the Bible because they actually believe it is God in written form. Praise God brethren and will somebody pass the collection plate!?

 

 

 

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Boy, the behavior within these cults is simply stunning.  Indoctrination, brainwashing, coercion and peer pressure seem to have immense impact, at least on some people.  It all is quite shallow, and pathetic.

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  • 5 weeks later...

Resurrecting an old thread, I know.

 

One thing nobody has mentioned is what churches of Christ do NOT believe:

  • They do not believe that miracles occur today. God only acts through natural means.
  • They do not believe that spiritual gifts (prophecy, tongue speaking, etc.) happen today (ended when the apostles were gone)
  • They do not believe in a literal indwelling of the holy spirit. The holy spirit's work was to reveal the word, and now that the bible is complete, I suppose the spirit doesn't have anything else to do.
  • They do not believe in "once saved, always saved". If you quit going to church, you're going to hell.
  • They do not believe in predestination. Goes along with the holy spirit thing. That means God didn't decide ahead of time who was going to be saved. All you have to do is learn their system of "logic" and you can be saved by "obeying the gospel". (Hear, believe, repent, confess, be baptized (saved at this point), and remain faithful.)
  • They do not believe that Jesus failed to establish his kingdom in the 1st century; his kingdom is "not of this world". Theoretically, this would mean that church of Christ members would not support Israel, but most don't understand that support for Israel is a result of premillennialism so they go along with popular evangelicalism on this. Anyway, the teaching is that when Jesus returns, that's the end. There won't be a literal 1000 year reign.

 

I'm not convinced that most people in churches of Christ believe that prayer does anything. I've actually heard the argument that the verse that says to call for the elders and have them pray for a sick person means that they will be spiritually healed, even though the passage is clearly talking about physical illness. This used to bug me, and I thought that perhaps some of our members died because we didn't believe that prayer would work. Of course, the reason they don't believe in prayer is obvious: They've never seen it work!

 

They're so logical sometimes! It almost makes me think that they'd be good candidates for deconversion. The biggest problem is that they don't expect to see any physical manifestation of god, so there isn't much to disprove for them. It's all about following the rules and eventually ending up in heaven.

 

The biggest rules are:

  • Don't touch alcohol
  • Don't dance
  • Be there every Sunday morning, Sunday night, and Wednesday night.
  • If it's the week of a "gospel meeting" (church of Christ code for "revival"), you must be there on Friday instead of at your high school football game, even if you're on the team or in the band. Also, no Little League games the week of the gospel meeting, unless it's before or after church. Lots of kids wear their uniforms to church for this reason.
  • When on vacation, find a church to attend on Sunday morning, Sunday night, and Wednesday night.
  • Make up your contribution when you're out of town by doubling up the week before or after vacation

If you do these things, and if you were baptized for the "right reason" (that is, you understood beforehand that you were saved at the point of baptism, not the point of faith), then you're a shoe-in for Heaven! Unless, of course, you said a curse word before right before you died. Then all bets are off.

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Church of Christs' have revivals too. Ick.

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Church of Christs' have revivals too. Ick.

 

Yes, but without the long, drawn out altar calls and without people giving their witness. A simple "invitation" at the end of the sermon and three verses of a four verse "invitation song".

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Still, three hours of boring church services a week for the rest of your life is torture enough. Having to go on Monday, Tuesday and Thursday too?

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Resurrecting an old thread, I know.

 

One thing nobody has mentioned is what churches of Christ do NOT believe:

  • They do not believe that miracles occur today. God only acts through natural means.
  • They do not believe that spiritual gifts (prophecy, tongue speaking, etc.) happen today (ended when the apostles were gone)
  • They do not believe in a literal indwelling of the holy spirit. The holy spirit's work was to reveal the word, and now that the bible is complete, I suppose the spirit doesn't have anything else to do.
  • They do not believe in "once saved, always saved". If you quit going to church, you're going to hell.
  • They do not believe in predestination. Goes along with the holy spirit thing. That means God didn't decide ahead of time who was going to be saved. All you have to do is learn their system of "logic" and you can be saved by "obeying the gospel". (Hear, believe, repent, confess, be baptized (saved at this point), and remain faithful.)
  • They do not believe that Jesus failed to establish his kingdom in the 1st century; his kingdom is "not of this world". Theoretically, this would mean that church of Christ members would not support Israel, but most don't understand that support for Israel is a result of premillennialism so they go along with popular evangelicalism on this. Anyway, the teaching is that when Jesus returns, that's the end. There won't be a literal 1000 year reign.

 

I'm not convinced that most people in churches of Christ believe that prayer does anything. I've actually heard the argument that the verse that says to call for the elders and have them pray for a sick person means that they will be spiritually healed, even though the passage is clearly talking about physical illness. This used to bug me, and I thought that perhaps some of our members died because we didn't believe that prayer would work. Of course, the reason they don't believe in prayer is obvious: They've never seen it work!

 

They're so logical sometimes! It almost makes me think that they'd be good candidates for deconversion. The biggest problem is that they don't expect to see any physical manifestation of god, so there isn't much to disprove for them. It's all about following the rules and eventually ending up in heaven.

 

The biggest rules are:

  • Don't touch alcohol
  • Don't dance
  • Be there every Sunday morning, Sunday night, and Wednesday night.
  • If it's the week of a "gospel meeting" (church of Christ code for "revival"), you must be there on Friday instead of at your high school football game, even if you're on the team or in the band. Also, no Little League games the week of the gospel meeting, unless it's before or after church. Lots of kids wear their uniforms to church for this reason.
  • When on vacation, find a church to attend on Sunday morning, Sunday night, and Wednesday night.
  • Make up your contribution when you're out of town by doubling up the week before or after vacation

If you do these things, and if you were baptized for the "right reason" (that is, you understood beforehand that you were saved at the point of baptism, not the point of faith), then you're a shoe-in for Heaven! Unless, of course, you said a curse word before right before you died. Then all bets are off.

 

You're right, the fact that they assert that all the miraculous stuff happened long ago and nowadays it's really just about the belief in Jesus and the "holding to the pattern of good teaching" (in other words: doing church right) made it easier for me to stay in. We would look down our noses at charismatic denominations as being the deluded ones or the charlatans, our faith was modern and rational. Also the prophesies in Revelation had already happened, they were talking about the fall of Rome and the destruction of the temple in Jerusalem so all the 666, mark of the beast, antichrist stuff that other denominations talked about was superstitious nonsense not meant for today. The Holy Spirit was a little helper that made our prayers more coherent when we didn't know what to say and who nudged us in the right direction, kind of like a christian Jiminy Cricket. As for the Rapture and the Tribulation and all that! Well we could laugh up our sleeves at how ridiculous all that stuff was, we didn't believe all that crazy shit.

 

I almost wish I'd been raised in a more charismatic, end times preaching version of christianity, maybe I would have walked long long ago rather than feeling all smug in my "rationality".

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Don't dance

What form of dancing? Is even ballroom/folk dances considered sinful?

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Don't dance

 

What form of dancing? Is even ballroom/folk dances considered sinful?

They don't really say. When I was in elementary school, we were having square dancing in combined PE/Music class, so I mentioned it to my mother to see what she would say. Her reply was "Oh, that sounds like fun!", so obviously she didn't think it was a problem, but one friend whose dad was a church of Christ preacher had to sit out.

 

Usually, the extreme case is taken. If some kinds of dancing produce lust, then dancing is just bad, or at least they never qualify it n the sermons.

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Don't dance

What form of dancing? Is even ballroom/folk dances considered sinful?

 

 

The saying was "A praying knee and a dancing foot don't belong on the same leg."

 

I spent some time as a missionary in Mexico and coming from a European version of the church that didn't have the same no dancing rules, I was happy to go and learn how to do the salsa and other traditional dances with my Mexican friends. The trouble I brought down on myself for this was unreal! The crazy thing was, they knew I wasn't doing anything lustful, they knew I was just enjoying some Mexican culture, but they were worried that it might "cause someone to stumble". Who this mystery person was or exactly how they would "stumble" was never clear but they sure liked throwing that excuse around.

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I should probably clarify, the they that I'm talking about are my American mission group leaders, the Mexicans were fine with it and were as baffled by the reaction as I was.

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The Church of Christ dogma is based on something called Restoration Theology. In its simplest form that means they are attempting to restore the original church based on their belief that the church came into existence on the Day of Pentecost. It is not uncommon to see “Founded in AD 33” on church signs outside their buildings.

 

In theory they follow scripture as literally as possible as their way of "restoring" the original church. If scripture doesn’t authorize it they don’t do it. Bible things are called by bible names. As has been noted before the c of C doesn’t use instrumental music because NT scripture doesn’t specifically authorize it; but it doesn’t prohibit it either.  They rationalize away, or simply ignore, conundrums like that.

 

Church of Christ dogma can come from specific scripture that authorizes the practice or by example. The Lords Supper is observed every Sunday based on the books of Acts where it notes on the first day of the week the “church” met. They worshiped, were edified, sang hymns, and ate the Lords Supper.

 

Acts 2:38 is a focal scripture in the Church of Christ. They believe the forgiveness of sin and thus salvation is obtained by water baptism. This is another illustration of an example being interpreted as a command.

 

The Church of Christ, IMO, is an excellent example of Bibliolatry. This is defined as worshiping the Bible and is a form of idolatry. IMO, based on my lengthy association with the c of C, they worship the Bible, Paul, Jesus, and God and pretty much in that order. They would, of course, deny that but their traditions pretty much confirm that’s really what they are doing.

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The single nuttiest thing about the CofC is that they think it's WRONG to have instrumental music.  Yep, that's right; acapella music only. Weird, but true. After that, they are a pretty typicel, southern flavored, hyper conservative cult. Creationism, patriarchal, blah, blah.

 

 

the music thing is what they do to separate themselves from the rest of Christianity. The other thing they do is you have to be water baptized 100 percent or you are going to hell. 

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