Ex-Church of Christ Support Board

1) Instrumental Music
CoC proof text Eph 5:19: "Speaking to yourselves in psalms and hymns and spiritual songs, singing and making melody in your heart to the Lord;"
First, the CoC does not sing Psalms. I don’t recall ever singing one, or hearing one when I visited another congregation. The Coc gets technical with this verse but ignores singing Psalms.
Melody in your heart does not mean no instruments. If it did, then everyone in the old testament who used instruments were not making melody in their heart to the Lord. My proof (there is alot of proof in Psalms, but here are two verses)
Psalm 33: 2-3
"Praise the LORD with harp: sing unto him with the psaltery and an instrument of ten strings."
Psalm 108: 1-2
A song. A psalm of David.
"My heart, O God, is steadfast; I will sing and make music with all my soul. 2 Awake, harp and lyre! I will awaken the dawn."

Nothing wrong with acapella music. To say making melody in your heart means acapella singing, would make the book of Psalms false. If instrumental music is wrong, so are song leaders. So is welches grape juice. There is no mention of song leaders in the New Testament. It’s silent, and therefore must be unauthorized according to CoC logic.

2) Autonomous Churches
The Coc boasts about being autonomous (having the right or power of self-government), but the church in the bible was not autonomous. I see nothing wrong with being autonomous, but the CoC insists to push the issue as if it is a matter of salvation. Paul was in charge of churches, because of the letters he wrote. So Paul was an earthly head of sorts, able to tell churches what to do. Not autonomous. Titus was also in charge Titus was in charge in Crete. “For this reason I left you in Crete, that you should appoint Elders in every city as I commanded you” (Titus 1:5).

3) It’s Founder.
The CoC claims it was founded ad 33 by Jesus himself. The infamous one true church tract http://ex-churchofchrist.com/5acts.htm laid out various denomination and the men that founded them. Jesus did establish his church, but not the CoC as we know it. The CoC got it’s start in the 1800’s with Thomas & Alexander Campbell, Barton W. Stone, and Walter Scott. Alexander Campbell was the clear leader in the movement. Walter Scott is responsible for the CoC “plan of salvation”. Originally called a five finger exercise, it evolved into “the plan”. http://stonedcampbelldisciple.com/2009/ ... er-gospel/
Around 1827, Walter Scott preached “baptism unto remission of sins”. This is where they believe only the CoC baptism is valid, and other are doing it wrong.
Fast forward to 1889. Daniel Sommer’s “Sand Creek Declaration” http://www.trchurchofchrist.com/resourc ... Sommer.PDF gives us the CoC as we know it today. It’s basically a disfellowship letter. This is where Sommer takes the name CoC and splits from the Disciples of Christ & Christian churches. Up to that point, all three names were used within the movement. Sommer is responsible for the stance on instrumental music, which he mentions in his declaration.

4) Creeds
The CoC claims "no creed but Christ" and or "no creed but the Bible". "speak where the Bible speaks, silent where the Bible is silent". These can be considered slogans, but they have come to a point where they are equal to scripture in the CoC. The plan of salvation, said at the end of most sermons in the CoC, is a creed.

5) The Claim "One True Church"/ "The Church you read about in the Bible"
The CoC promotes these statements to be true, but of course they are not. The first century church had the Old Testament, no buildings, song books. They had what mattered, the gospel. The early church used natural bodies of water, not man made baptistries. The CoC tries to distance themselves from their "denominational friends" by pointing out differences. But they are similar on this subject. Mormons, Jehovah's Witness, Seventh Day Adventists, Christadelphians, and even some Catholics (which surprised me a little bit) claim one true church. I asked a Catholic about it and she said they don't believe that so maybe it's a spotty belief. But this guy believes it http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZK3Dx29wCZE. A friend (former Adventist) got a visit from some ladies from his old church. Guess what they told him? We're the true religion. Pushing the gospel aside and preaching rules and regulations is not the early church.

As a summary:
1. The CoC was founded by men
2. Instrumental music will not send you to hell
3. The early church was not autonomous
4. If music is not authorized, neither are song leaders or welchs grape juice
5. The Coc does not sing Psalms as Eph 5:19 says (there may be a few exceptions, but I know of none).
6. The CoC has a creed, it's the "plan of salvation"
7. The CoC is not the one true church. The Bible speaks of a true Gospel, that's what matters
I'd appreciate your thoughts, or any other loopholes you know of.

Edit: added point #5 after reading Ena's post. Added Daniel Sommer is responsible for stance on music to #3

Using Ephesians 5:19 against instrumental music is just plain ridiculous. The verse, like most C o C "proof texts," is yanked completely out of context. One doesn't need a seminary degree to read the entire chapter and realize that it is NOWHERE talking about a worship service. If verse 19 is telling us not to use instruments in the worship service, then the two before it instruct us not to get drunk or to act like fools in the worship service!

Even more ridiculous is the claim of being established in A.D. 33 on Pentecost. If that were so, how come nobody heard about the C o C until the 19th century? C o C will go to crazy lengths to prove its claim, but it is neither historically nor Biblically correct. The C o C bears very little resemblance to the first century church.

C o C is indeed a manmade institution. It may hot have one "founder" as such. However, it has derived much of its teaching from the Campbells, Stone, Scott, etc. C o C doesn't want to admit such because doing so would negate its claims of being "the one true church."

I edited the post to add in creeds

bnot wrote:The CoC claims "no creed but Christ" and or "no creed but the Bible". "speak where the Bible speaks, silent where the Bible is silent". These can be considered slogans, but they have come to a point where they are equal to scripture in the CoC. The plan of salvation, said at the end of most sermons in the CoC, is a creed.

Church creeds are viewed as instruments of the Devil by the CoC, yet the CoC relies more on their own credal data than all the denominational groups combined ... but it's okay, because it's not in a written form.

The CoC is definitely a "slogan" church. Whenever they become exasperated trying to defend their untenable belief system, they invariably toss a slogan or two into the mix.

Edited ~ bad spelling as usual.

Instrumental Music
Eph 5:19: "Speaking to yourselves in psalms and hymns and spiritual songs, singing and making melody in your heart to the Lord;"
Col 3:16 16 Let the word of Christ dwell in you richly in all wisdom; teaching and admonishing one another in psalms and hymns and spiritual songs, singing with grace in your hearts to the Lord. Col 3:16 (KJV)
Psalm 33: 2-3 "Praise the LORD with harp: sing unto him with the psaltery and an instrument of ten strings."
Psalm 108: 1-2 "My heart, O God, is steadfast; I will sing and make music with all my soul. 2 Awake, harp and lyre! I will awaken the dawn."
Psalm 150

I have made melody in my heart while playing piano. Acapella music is fine if that is what you want to do but leave it at that.
To enforce it with an iron fist is not appropriate.

Autonomous Churches
There is no example of completely autonomous Churches. The circumcision question was brought to a council in Jerusalem.
But then the Apostles were still alive. Paul was in charge of his churches and very frustrated by division.

It’s Founder
The AD33 thing is a lie. It is why I am interested in early Christianity. Most Christians stop with the gospels and Acts. Understandng Christian History for the 1st 500 years is critical to understanding Christianity. The early church fathers were not silent. But their writings were the province of the Greek scholar. How many Greek scholars have you known in the CoC. Outside they are more common.

Creeds
Creeds are a part of the early church councils. No creeds no understanding. That's the hole the CoC has dug for itself. RIP.

4) Creeds
The CoC claims "no creed but Christ" and or "no creed but the Bible". "speak where the Bible speaks, silent where the Bible is silent". These can be considered slogans, but they have come to a point where they are equal to scripture in the CoC. The plan of salvation, said at the end of most sermons in the CoC, is a creed.

A creed is nothing more than a statement of what a person or group believes.

C o C is opposed to reciting the historic creeds like the Apostles' and Nicene because the "denominations" use them. Its claim of "speak where the Bible speaks, silent where the Bible is silent" is an utter falsehood. We all know that C o C does many things on which the Bible is silent.

C o C should change that statement to "we make the Bible say what we want it to say."

musicman wrote:

4) Creeds
The CoC claims "no creed but Christ" and or "no creed but the Bible". "speak where the Bible speaks, silent where the Bible is silent". These can be considered slogans, but they have come to a point where they are equal to scripture in the CoC. The plan of salvation, said at the end of most sermons in the CoC, is a creed.

A creed is nothing more than a statement of what a person or group believes.

I understand the fear of the intervention of man. I myself fear the intervention of wrong headed people. I can assure you there are many in the church. Appeal to the Bible circumvents this. Are we told every thing in the Bible? My answer is no. Can you reconstruct the 1st century church? No! Eliminate pews, song books, tear the new testament out of your Bibles and trash it. Meet in an upper room. The problem is creeds have been used for fellowshiping or not.

musicman wrote:Using Ephesians 5:19 against instrumental music is just plain ridiculous. The verse, like most C o C "proof texts," is yanked completely out of context. One doesn't need a seminary degree to read the entire chapter and realize that it is NOWHERE talking about a worship service. If verse 19 is telling us not to use instruments in the worship service, then the two before it instruct us not to get drunk or to act like fools in the worship service!

Exactly. The problem is that the "Eph.5:19 teaches accapella music" has become so ingrained into the institutional culture of the COC that there is virtually no chance that it will ever be reevaluated. Those that come to an alternate understanding will just be dismissed from the core fellowship. It's like 1Cor.11:22 being used to teach, "you can't eat in the church building." Well, of course that's not what it's saying, but in the so-called anti branch of the COC, that's what it means and there is no room for discussion.

To me, the most egregious wrong-doing of the COC is not that their interpretation of scriptures like these differs from what I think is right. That's to be expected. It's that they thing they've got it figured out and have no need to reevaluate. You can't reduce a complex, two-thousand-year-old letter, written from a Roman/Jewish itinerant preacher to a group of Greek-speaking Christians to a trite list of rules like the ones above and consider your job done. If Paul wanted to say, "you have to sing without instruments and no eating in the church building" he had the Greek words to say these things. If he wanted his instructions to be applied to all Christians who would ever come after him, everywhere in the world, he could have said this too.

Lev

ena wrote:

musicman wrote:

4) Creeds
The CoC claims "no creed but Christ" and or "no creed but the Bible". "speak where the Bible speaks, silent where the Bible is silent". These can be considered slogans, but they have come to a point where they are equal to scripture in the CoC. The plan of salvation, said at the end of most sermons in the CoC, is a creed.

A creed is nothing more than a statement of what a person or group believes.

I understand the fear of the intervention of man. I myself fear the intervention of wrong headed people. I can assure you there are many in the church. Appeal to the Bible circumvents this. Are we told every thing in the Bible? My answer is no. Can you reconstruct the 1st century church? No! Eliminate pews, song books, tear the new testament out of your Bibles and trash it. Meet in an upper room. The problem is creeds have been used for fellowshiping or not.

Thanks Ena, good point! Your post triggered me to add #5 to the list. I can't believe I didn't add it before

[quote][/quote] It's like 1Cor.11:22 being used to teach, "you can't eat in the church building." Well, of course that's not what it's saying, but in the so-called anti branch of the COC, that's what it means and there is no room for discussion. [quote]

My mother related a story about this to me. One of our former neighbors was an elder in an "anti" or "non insitutional" C o C. He was chiding my aunt and uncle because they attended a mainline C o C which had a fellowship hall, kitchen, etc.

The elder told my aunt that the Bible didn't give authority for such things in the "church building." She asked this guy if his church building had electric lights, heat, AC., etc..to which he replied "of course."

When my aunt asked him where in the Bible he found authority for those there was silence!