|
The church of Christ
_____________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________
This article
is about the church of Christ, or more specifically,
“exactly what is the church of Christ?” Usually, in an
article like this, one can expect to see some historical
information that will identify the particular religious
group under consideration as either Catholic or Protestant
or something else. Further, you might expect some mention
of its headquarters, its para-church organizations, and
number of congregations, etc. Unfortunately, you will not
find that kind of information here. And the reason that you
won’t is that we simply don’t define or explain ourselves
like other religious groups explain themselves.
Why the
difference? Well, because our roots are different from
theirs. In fact, our roots are rather unique among religious
groups. They began with a man called Jesus Christ who came
to the earth to build His church (Matthew 16:18). That
church began in Jerusalem during the First Century. We know
this because of Jesus’ command to the apostles that
preaching of “repentance and remission of sins should be
preached in His name, beginning at Jerusalem” (Luke 24:47).
The apostles obeyed this and Acts 2 records this being done.
As a result of this, the church is mentioned in verse 42-47
as being in existence at that time and place. While it
began in Jerusalem, it was never considered the
headquarters. The church was to grow into different parts of
the world as the preaching of Jesus went throughout the
world. (read Acts 1:8)
As a result
of Jesus being the builder of the church (Mt.16:18) and
considering that His blood bought the church (Acts 20:28),
it is proper to call the church, the “church of Christ”.
And that was one of the names or identities that was used in
the New Testament to describe those saved by the blood of
Jesus (Romans 16:16). Other names or descriptive titles used
to refer to the saved are “the church of God” (I Corinthians
1:2), the “body” (Ephesians 1:22,23), the “house of God” (I
Timothy 3:15), and the “kingdom of God” (Matthew
16:18,19). It is important to note that the “church of
Christ” which we are talking about here, is not a
denominational name. Neither are any of the above names
referring to denominational groups, including “the church of
God”. We are talking about the references that Christ made
to His church, His people, as being in existence beginning
in the First Century and not to any group that had its
beginning in the last century whether in Cleveland, TN or
Anderson, IN.
With this
basic understanding of a non-denominational stance, the
church of Christ that meets at Park Road seeks to be just
that church that Jesus built and that spread throughout the
world. It is spread by the teaching of the gospel of Christ
as seen in the parable of the Sower in Luke 8:4-15. Wherever
the gospel (seed) is taught, then what God wanted to grow
from that seed would grow and bear fruit. Jesus warned
against false seeds in another parable, The Parable of the
Wheat and Tares (Mt.13:24-30), and also told the apostles
that even in His day, “Every plant, which my heavenly Father
has not planted shall be rooted up.” (Mt.15:13)
In summary,
the church of Christ is a term that describes the people who
have been saved by the blood of Jesus and this church began
during the First Century in Jerusalem. It is not a new
denomination nor does it believe that denominationalism is
part of God’s will for the church. (Read I Corinthians
1:10-13; 4:17; John 17:20, 21).
(Look for more informative articles on
different aspects of the church of Christ)
|
Park Road church of
Christ
