Victims of Our Own Success
by Floyd Chappelear
via Sentry Magazine, Vol. 21, No. 1, March 1995
Nothing is quite so easy to learn as error. One can easily pick up bad habits in nearly any athletic endeavor, but one will find it very difficult to get rid of them. Mistakes are easily learned, but correct procedures are not. If you doubt this, ask any golfer who slices.
In the religious realm, Satan is constantly trying to indoctrinate people with error. He wants people confounded and confused: This is evident when one considers that the Devil wants people tossed to and fro with every wind of doctrine (Ephesians 4:14), so that their hearts are deceived from the truth. What is disturbing to me is that too many people who are apparently devoted to the truth lend their hearts and minds to the Devil’s work (perhaps inadvertently). This is especially true in regard to the “name of the church.”
Let me begin with the truth: God has never given the church a name. I don’t know how else to state it. There is simply no name given in Scripture for the church of our Lord. The only name given to God’s people in His word is “Christian.” (Acts 11:26; 26:28; I Peter 4:16). This term describes individuals, not collectivities.
However, some are convinced that the proper name for the church is “Church of Christ.” This in spite of the fact that the term never appears in the word of God, not once, nada. The closest you can come to the term is the “churches of Christ salute you” of Romans 16. This error has been so successfully disseminated that most Christians do not readily recognize scriptural terminology when they see it or hear it. For instance, if you were to ask the typical Christian, “When was the last time you worshipped with a church of God?” you would be quickly informed that he had never done so! Are we so ignorant that we don’t recognize scriptural terminology when we hear it? Any faithful group of Christians is a church of God (cf. Acts 20:28; I Corinthians 1:1-2; II Corinthians 1:1-2, et. al.). We have become victims of our own success. We have successfully inculcated error to the point that brethren do not recognize the truth!
Furthermore, the almost scriptural “church of Christ” has become the denominational “Church of Christ. ” In fact, so much of what we write and teach is so misleading concerning the nature of the church that it could have been written by almost any denominational preacher. We are inadvertently (I hope) making the Lord’s church into a denomination beginning with its denominational nomenclature. When non-Christians read much of what we say, they will be led to believe that the Church of Christ is as much a denomination as any other. (The non-denominational denomination, perhaps, but a denomination nevertheless.) Brethren, we should stop using terminology that is misleading, and we especially should stop denominationalizing the term “church of Christ.”
This point was recently brought home to me when I saw a brochure from the American Bible Society. In their program to send Bibles to others, they seek contributions from willing participants. When responding, the contributor is to fill out a questionnaire. As you examine the survey, you find that the Church of Christ is listed with Assembly of God, Lutheran, Presbyterian, Baptist, Roman Catholic, and “other” denominations. Now, brethren, you can blame the error on the ABS if you want, but the truth of the matter is that so much of what we teach about the church and its name is incorrect, and those who read what we write will be in error in their conclusions. We often present ourselves denominationally; therefore, it is no wonder that those around us conclude that we are a denomination.
We are victims of our own success.
