r/churchofchrist

Many people think the Church of Christ is a cult and we are the only ones going to heaven. In reality many people in the CoC will not make it to heaven. The true church is stated in the Bible in Romans 16:16 as when Paul wrote the Book of Romans. As much as people would like to think otherwise. We cannot add or remove scripture. It's that plain and simple. There are no other churches stated in the Bible besides the Church of God which can be interchangeable which is the COG split in their own denomination.

A lot of people think the CoC started in the American Restoration Movement from the work of Barton W. Stone (1772-1844) and the two Campbells, Thomas (1763-1854) and Alexander (1788-1866) father and son in the early 1800s.

The Church of Christ started on the first day of Pentecost on 33AD when in the Books of Acts when Peter preached to the masses when he told them what to do to be truly saved in Acts 2:38 and added 3000 souls to the church through obeying the gospel through baptism that day.

The CoC based their teachings on the New Testament teachings of the apostles and Jesus Christ. Many denominational churches put their twist on the scripture by men by starting denomination that is not found in the Bible anywhere.

There is only one church that Christ built and it is repeatedly told in the Bible especially in Ephesians 4:4-6 There is one body and one Spirit, just as you were called to the one hope that belongs to your call, one Lord, one faith, one baptism, one God and Father of us all, who is above all and through all and in all.

Also Jesus spoke of his church as he gave Peter the authority to build his one and only church in Matthew 16:18 NKJV

[18] And I also say to you that you are Peter, and on this rock I will build My church, and the gates of Hades shall not prevail against it.

When it comes to how to achieve salvation. People think the Plan of Salvation is a man made plan that the CoC made up. Which is totally wrong. The plan of salvation is not a human invention—it is a restoration of the New Testament pattern.

The Church of Christ today teaches the plan of salvation as a sequence of scriptural steps:

Hearing the Gospel (Romans 10:17) – Salvation starts with knowing Christ.

Believing in Jesus (John 8:24) – Faith in Him as Savior.

Repenting of sins (Acts 17:30) – Turning away from sin.

Confessing Christ (Romans 10:9–10) – Publicly acknowledging Him.

Baptism by immersion (Mark 16:16/Acts 2:38) – For the forgiveness of sins and entry into the church. Living faithfully – Obedience continues after baptism

(Revelation 2:10, 2 Peter 1:5–10). This sequence has always been scripturally based in the Church of Christ.

Principle: Bible as the Sole Authority Leaders of the Restoration Movement, like Alexander Campbell and Barton Stone, believed the Bible alone is God’s authority for faith and practice. They rejected creeds, traditions, and denominational interpretations.

The goal was: “What does the Bible say about how a person is saved?”

2. Method: Reading the New Testament Literally They focused on a few key methods: Looking at all passages about salvation Every verse in the New Testament that mentions being saved, forgiveness of sins, entering the kingdom of God, or baptism was considered. Contextual understanding

They read verses in their context (who was speaking, to whom, and why). Example: Peter in Acts 2:38—speaking to the Jews on Pentecost—commands repentance and baptism for the forgiveness of sins.

Consistency across passages They looked for common themes repeated in multiple passages.

Example: Faith: John 3:16, Hebrews 11:6 Repentance: Acts 17:30, Luke 13:3 Confession: Romans 10:9–10 Baptism: Acts 2:38, Mark 16:16 Obedience included in salvation

They noticed that the New Testament never separates faith from obedience (James 2:17). Baptism is commanded in multiple passages, not optional or merely symbolic.

3. Historical Practice Alexander Campbell made lists of all verses mentioning: Faith Repentance Confession Baptism

He compared them to the early church in Acts 2, Acts 8, Acts 22, Romans 6 to see what the apostles actually required for salvation.

Barton Stone emphasized simplicity and obedience, aligning his selection of verses with Campbell’s.

4. Result: The Plan of Salvation By using all relevant passages, they created a sequence that reflected the New Testament pattern: Hear the Gospel – Romans 10:17 Believe in Jesus – John 8:24 Repent of Sins – Acts 17:30 Confess Christ – Romans 10:9–10 Be Baptized for Forgiveness – Acts 2:38; Mark 16:16 Live Faithfully – Revelation 2:10; 2 Peter 1:5–10

Every step is supported by multiple verses, not just one isolated text.

They didn’t pick verses arbitrarily; they aimed to fully represent what the apostles practiced. Key Takeaway

The verses were chosen based on pattern, repetition, and apostolic practice. The Church of Christ’s plan of salvation is a careful synthesis of all relevant New Testament passages, not just a random selection or tradition-based list.

In conclusion. I by no means think one church is going to heaven. People truly are lost and unsaved by following false doctrine and man made rules. I love all of you as I worry about people's souls. I think people that truly follow the plan of salvation and been baptized for the remission of the sins and live faithfully are saved. Thank you for reading my post. Always in Christian love. John.

I want to use an example of the sermon that was preached last Sunday at my congregation (a CoC) and then form a broader point from it. I am struggling with whether I should stay at this congregation, go to another CoC, or go to another church entirely. I'm willing to stay, but I need advice on how to handle my current situation.

(This post is not meant to be a bash of the CoC but I had to explain some of the issues I've been facing; I do not mean my brethren any disrespect.)

For context, I have been raised in the CoC and have been attending for more than 2 decades. I've gradually begun to see patterns in attitudes, and more, at least at my local congregation, which were concerning to me. Upon bringing them up, I encountered pretty sharp pushback, and nothing really changed. Not sure what to do now.

Before I get into my example, I just want to say that I don't disagree with some of the content of what's preached; but I disagree with the attitude with which it is preached, the pressured environment, a fear-based atmosphere, the gaslighting and emotional manipulation, and the lack of validation of my struggles and concerns.

To start giving you an idea of the things that have happened and how I've begun to feel about it, let me describe a few singular examples of the many times these things have happened:

Gaslighting: I told a brother that I forgave him for a wrong he did to me. Immediately he responded along the lines of, "I'm going to question that. I think you're not being sincere." It was irritating to have to bear with this because I was being sincere, but he didn't believe me - in fact, he wanted me doubt my own sincerity, my own forgiveness.

Lack of validation: I try to explain to a brother my frustrations in being single and never having had a girlfriend at my age (29) and what I can do about it. He says "I completely validate that" but then he starts talking about how I need to focus on finding fulfillment in God instead of trying to find fulfillment in a wife, which I found invalidating. To be clear, I believe that fulfillment can be found in God, but I also believe that God allows us to have spouses in an actual God-approved marriage for sexual fulfillment, which was what I was talking about. He then uses an analogy: "If I am a dad and I don't give cotton candy to my daughter, and my daughter thinks I don't care about her because I didn't give her cotton candy, does that mean I don't care about her? No!" I found this analogy unhelpful and irritating, especially because it compared a wife to cotton candy: it's overly reductive.

Another example of lack of validation: I explain to a brother that I feel uncomfortable, pressured, afraid, and I disagree with a lot of what's said or how it's said during the sermons. He responds by saying "It's a very short amount of time you have to spend every week listening to one sermon. You have the rest of the week to yourself." That much is technically true, but it doesn't fix my issue.

Emotional manipulation: I was told that I could not stay on a brother's Discord server unless I showed up to church Sunday night and at Wednesday bible class. I would be kicked off if I did not attend.

I was also told that if I left the church to join another (non-CoC), I was abandoning my brethren and thus sinning.

Fear-based environment: To me, the sermons seem to be designed to make the audience feel guilty, afraid, and like we have to continually do more and more in order to be saved.

Controlled environment: I was kicked off an online bible study with the brethren because the views I expressed were different than the teacher's. I wanted him to emphasize mercy and grace more, and I said as much. He called me after the study and said I could not join that bible study anymore. I remember him saying something like "What if the attendees see a conflict between you and me? That doesn't look good on us."

It feels like I'm not allowed to express what I believe.

I'm not trying to revile or badmouth anyone, but I'm just literally being honest in my experience over the years here at my congregation. I really need to know if anyone else can relate to my struggles or am I the only one who feels like this. It feels crushing to believe that I'm the only one who struggles with this in my congregation. It's gotten to the point where I feel like no one else amongst my congregation will understand if I try to explain it to them - like it's in one ear and out the other, or like I'm speaking a foreign language to them. It feels like they just don't get it.

Anecdote:

So last Sunday the preacher did a sermon on why gambling is a sin.

He literally said "If you are addicted to gambling, you're sinning and going to hell!" and "If you gamble and you don't repent, you're going to hell!" and it wasn't just that he said it, it was the way he said it. It sounded condemnatory.

For clarity, I'm against gambling at casinos, and I am aware that covetousness is a sin. I just think that it's not my place to sit in the judgment seat and say that someone is going to hell for gambling.

To be clear, I know the Bible does make some clear statements such as "You will not inherit the kingdom of God" if you practice obviously sinful activities like murder, idolatry, porn, rape, homosexuality, greed, swindling, drunkenness, reviling (see 1 cor 5).

Yes, God says through Paul that you won't go to heaven if you are guilty of greed. So why do I have an issue with what was preached? Because to me, I think in some ways I disagree less about the actual takeaways of the sermons that are preached, and more about how the preacher was presenting the material.

The funny thing was that he said "I'm not talking about gambling for a pack of gummy bears with your grandpa over backgammon." But in the sermon he never clearly drew the line between gambling for small rewards at your house, like for a pack a gummy bears, and gambling at a casino. I.e. instead of gummy bear, what if my grandpa and I played for $25. What if we betted for $100. What if we both put down $500, etc. That's why I think that the line should be drawn not necessarily on whether you participate at a casino, but whether you are being covetous in general. And I think this is what the bible says. Please do correct me if I am wrong.

This is why I think that the sin of greed/covetousness comes from within and affects your actions, rather than being merely an external action.

There are definitely some sins that are sins because they are external actions. Like murder, rape, homosexuality. But I think other sins like pride and covetousness might be less easy to define by simple external actions, because they are 'attitudes' or 'desires' that come from within us. Even murder comes from hate, rape comes from lust and lack of self-control, homosexuality comes from depravity. Again, please correct me if my line of thinking is inaccurate.

Having been a member of the CoC for decades, I have come to feel disturbed that my brethren and I, yes, myself included, have kind of just let the attitude of condemnation go on without doing anything about it; this kind of rhetoric is actually approved.

There are many, many, many other examples I could say, but I'm hoping that I've given a picture, even if it's a limited picture, of the kind of atmosphere that I feel every time I go there into the church building on Sunday. I'm looking for advice on what I should do. Am I being too hard on them? I don't want to leave my friend group, but because of what feels like stuffy or constrictive attitudes, it's difficult to get along sometimes.

In this post, I haven't mentioned a lot of the good things that I have experienced through the coc where I go. There have been a lot of positive, fruitful and helpful things. I don't want to make light of that. Also, for any wrongs that I have endured in the past, I forgive them. I'm not bringing these things up to recount wrongdoing; I'm bringing these things up because I want to know what to do now, and I had to give context and examples to provide an idea of what has happened. I do forgive any wrongs I've endured, but that doesn't stop these sorts of things from continuing to happen. The reason I'm talking so much about the negative things is because I feel like it shouldn't be ignored or suppressed anymore. I'm just not sure what direction I should go. I want to ask a question for a purpose: Can you relate to my experiences at all? Is your congregation, for lack of a better term, more "understanding"? By the use of that term I don't mean "allowing sin," but I mean something like "allows for an atmosphere of hope and comfort to thrive in the church, based on scriptures, rather than always pushing fear and gaining control of other people"? Should I consider going to other churches of Christ? Would I get a different experience there? I hate to use the following term, as it's been overused, but I can't think of another to describe as accurately as I can what I've been seeing - are they all this "legalistic"? If I do choose to stay (which I'd like to), how can I handle the attitudes I've encountered? Should I try bringing my concerns up to the elders?

Thank you!

[DISCLAIMER: I do NOT believe you must call yourself the Church of Christ to go to heaven, only you must be immersed in water for the forgiveness of your sins, and you know what sin is.]

Everyone seems to go in one of 3 groups in the Church:

1. "Everyone else goes to hell, let them die."

2. "Eh, it's fine, they'll go to heaven, let them be."

3. "This place sucks, I'm leaving."

Why can't we get 1 (majority position) without the apathy? If we're meant to be the early Church, shouldn't we want to get EVERYONE to heaven? Has nobody actually considered this? I feel like I'm going crazy!

We have 2 million people across the world. If we just get the 1 million and America, and start with re-uniting the DOC and the COC (the only difference is instruments, is it that big of a deal, people?) then we move on to the smaller congregations of Baptists (who are by far the closest low-church denomonation of Christianity to us), we could build up to tackling the larger deals.

Even though the Church of Christ could never possibly re-unite with the Catholics (unless the grace of God is with us, then I suppose it'd be possible), if we just managed to snatch a few congregations of the Baptists, that'd be a huge win!

I have a Muslim friend with two wives, one in the US and one in Djibouti. He has children with both women. If he were to convert to Christianity, would he have to get rid of one of his wives? I know some denominations would allow him to keep the wives he has but not marry more. What is the COC position? I'm sure missionaries frequently run into this issue but I have never heard one speak on it.

Hi yall,

I joined a non institutional church not too long ago. The elders interviewed me as a requirement to join my local NI church. I heard that there have been some rather strict requirements to join the NI churches from a mainline Church of Christ.

I have heard that sadly some NI churches require new members from the mainline churches to confess the " sin" of being in a mainline Church of Christ in order to join their NI church. I disagree strongly with that NI practice....Have any of yall heard of something similar or even stricter? Luckily me and my family didnt run into those strict requirements.

Over the last few months, there has been a rise of the TikTok preacher discussing baptism, the work of the Holy Spirit, and general apologetics.

Some of these men, with a few women, are doing a good job. Others? They’re making us look like bumbling fools.

I watched a “live” of one of these men, and he was busy cleaning his floor while arguing over baptism. But hey, nice overalls!

There is a right way to plant seeds, and I hope these people are successful, I truly do.

It’s important to remember that we are not “apostles to the Internet”, but to be salt and light to our local bodies and communities.

If you’re on there teaching and talking, do it well. Represent us in a way that represents our Savior appropriately.

I’m curious on some of your opinions on Foy E Wallace Jr. in the church of Christ community, and what are some interesting teachings some of you have heard or read about from him?

Most congregations I've been to the only time we've really gotten together is just Sunday Bible Study/worship, Wednesday night/mid-week Bible Study or whenever there was an event. The scripture says and we say "the church is the people" and not the building and I'd like to see more of an example of that. I'm curious to know and hear about experiences from people who've worshipped with other Christians that they have spent a lot of time outside of the scheduled events and building with?

I'm wondering if you all have any favorite CoC preachers you can recommend who have videos online to watch.

I know there are several preachers who view this forum. This is for you.

Please, continue to preach and teach the Word, but consider what you’re preaching.

Are you preaching meat? Or milk?

I listen to several podcasts of sermons each week, and there is a “pattern”. Most of the teaching is topical built around common themes of “why we should study the Bible” or “a six-week series on baptism”.

While those are good, and needed, those “milk” sermons stunt growth.

Consider what you preach. Is it what the congregation actually needs?