CoC idiosyncrasies

[Lerk]

Move it up to the 1900's actually - I believe the first time the a capella CoC was listed separately as a (sorry folks) denomination was around 1910.

Good point. The CoC and Christian Churches were all considered the same denomination until that time. Didn't the split over instrumental music happen quite a few years earlier, though? Campbell was writing about it in the 1850s. It does take quite awhile to get to new demarcation points in such loosely organized groups.

[agricola]

Instrument/non-instrument was roughly around the time of the Civil War - a lot of denominations split along partisan political lines in the 1850's - that's when you started to get 'Southern Baptists' vs 'Northern Baptists'. Most non-instrumental CoC's were in the South and most instrumental ones were in the North and the name 'Christian Church' (vs CoC) was also more common in the North.

anyway - it's been too long -

movement started (really) ca 1805 - 1830 ish - rural 'frontier' of Kentucky etc.

There was a split around 1840 over, I think, 'institutions' (coordinating congregational support of missionaries and stuff like that) but I think it was also influenced by the division between slave and free states - likely.

Then one branch of THAT divided ca. 1910, which is the first time the 'Church of Christ' makes it on the radar as a separate denomination - was that the musical instruments/no musical instrumetns split? I think so.

Then the no instruments group split AGAIN ca. 1950 over institutions AGAIN (hey , they are darned useful! No wonder they keep coming up again and again).

the 'Fundamentals of the Christian Faith' (booklets) were published in the early 1900's and the CoC fell upon them with cries of great joy and jubilation - figuratively speaking.

Wiki says this -
the 12-volume study The Fundamentals, published 1910–1915.[21] Sponsors subsidized the free distribution of over three million individual volumes to clergy, laymen and libraries. It[22] stressed several core beliefs, including:

The inerrancy of the Bible
The literal nature of the biblical accounts, especially regarding Christ's miracles and the Creation account in Genesis
The virgin birth of Christ
The bodily resurrection and physical return of Christ
The substitutionary atonement of Christ on the cross
Like Princeton Theology, The Fundamentals reflected growing opposition among many evangelical Christians towards higher criticism of the Bible and modernism



Which I am sure we will recognize as the topic of about 75% of all CoC sermons everywhere, with a healthy serving of the apostle Paul says on the side.

Note that there is nothing in that list about living as a Christian or much about anything Jesus actually SAID.

[SolaDude]

Note that there is nothing in that list about living as a Christian or much about anything Jesus actually SAID.

Nope, those would only be nice things that Jesus said. What really counts is what Paul said about conducting church services. Only after you get the church service right can you start to throw in some words of Jesus, and even maybe look at how he lived and conducted himself in the midst of everyone else. Maybe.

[ena]

Note that there is nothing in that list about living as a Christian or much about anything Jesus actually SAID.

Nope, those would only be nice things that Jesus said. What really counts is what Paul said about conducting church services. Only after you get the church service right can you start to throw in some words of Jesus, and even maybe look at how he lived and conducted himself in the midst of everyone else. Maybe.

Paul did not know Jesus in the flesh. He was brought in to bring in the Gentiles because that thrust needed to be made as the apostles were concerned with bringing in Jews and leaving out Gentiles. Paul was clobbered with a 2X4 to get his attention. The Lord wanted his piety and perseverance. He was beheaded under Nero. Nero died in 68CE and Rome burned in 64CE. Christians were blamed by Nero and Christians blamed Nero. Paul died between 64 and 68CE as did Peter. I doubt that Peter thought of himself as the first Pope. Christianity was on the run in that era and was not as organized as under Constantine around 317CE. Church service was probably an outgrowth of synagogue worship. Converted Jews may have met on Shabbat at synagogue. Christians were eventually not welcome at synagogue. Things tend to morph.