What Causes Churches of Christ to Split?
by Dylan Stewart
via The Good News of God
This article is not intended to address the reasons for all religious divisions, such as denominationalism. This article aims to specifically address the reasons why divisions exist within churches of Christ and why many local congregations split. This is by no means an exhaustive list, but here are some primary factors contributing to divisions throughout local congregations of the Lord’s people.
A Lack of Desire to Work Through Differences
While most denominational people are so committed to unity that they compromise God's Word to attain what they perceive as unity, a great number of Christians are so committed to what they believe is biblical unity (which is often only a façade of unity) that they refuse to discuss differences. If we desire unity as we ought, it must be unity in the truth (John 17), not in something that creates a false image of unity. True unity is only achieved when we all remember there is only one truth, and we make it our aim to remain faithful to it. This means we must continually abide in God’s word and stand for the truth on every Bible topic to be set free from sin (John 8:31-32), not just the topics in which we are already unified. This requires us to discuss and not ignore the differences we may have among brethren. After all, when our brother/sister believes or says something about a Bible matter that we disagree with and we do not speak up, then it is rather difficult to "be perfectly joined together in the same mind and in the same judgment" (I Corinthians 1:10), isn't it?
Over the years, I have personally witnessed brethren, rather than take time to discuss with a fellow Christian why they disagree on a particular point, leave the congregation altogether. Perhaps the problem is that many Christians would rather have fake unity than put in the effort to achieve genuine unity? Whatever the case, we should want to openly discuss our differences with our brethren. Personally, that is why I enjoy verse-by-verse Bible classes so much – it allows us to work through our different understandings of a text to hopefully arrive at the truth. Division may still occur even after we discuss our differences, but at least we put in the effort to achieve genuine unity rather than settle for superficial unity, which also leads to division.
A Lack of Respect for Bible Authority
One thing that churches of Christ are especially known for is our demand for book, chapter, and verse for any religious practice. The Bible certainly teaches this attitude. If the Lord and His apostles did not authorize something, we have no right to engage in it (Colossians 3:17). Yet, countless Christians are very lax in their approach to Bible authority. Such attitudes played a direct role in the major splits in churches of Christ throughout the 20th century. Divisions over institutionalism, instrumental music in worship, the roles of women in the church, etc. all could be avoided if brethren would take the following passage seriously: "For I testify to everyone who hears the words of the prophecy of this book: If anyone adds to these things, God will add to him the plagues that are written in this book; and if anyone takes away from the words of the book of this prophecy, God shall take away his part from the Book of Life, from the holy city, and from the things which are written in this book" (Revelation 22:18-19). When brethren lack proper respect for biblical authority, churches are bound to split.
Refusing to Acknowledge Wrong
We humans can be a stubbornly prideful people, even to the point that when we are wrong, we refuse to acknowledge our errors and turn from them. Pride can prevent otherwise good and strong Christians from admitting when they transgress God’s law. When a Christian sins and refuses to acknowledge his wrongs, he puts his brethren in a difficult situation. They have a responsibility to warn their brother of his wrongs and try to get him to repent (II Thessalonians 3:5). We always wish the process stops at this point with the person acknowledging his mistakes and repenting (James 5:19-20), but, sadly, what sometimes causes division is when a Christian is caught up in sin and refuses to repent. That person puts the church in a difficult position, forcing it to withdraw from him if he remains unrepentant (I Corinthians 5:1-5). When a withdrawal occurs, brethren may believe the withdrawal is not needed (many churches of Christ today outright refuse to withdraw from anyone anymore, or only do so for the most extreme cases of sin), they may think people are not being patient enough with the erring Christian, or they may even begin to support the sinning Christian / get caught up in the sins of that person (I Corinthians 5:6-8). In other words, division is on the horizon, all of which could have been avoided if the sinning Christian had simply admitted his faults and repented.
Loving Friends or Family More than Christ
Building on the previous point, many splits within churches of Christ occur because brethren choose to side with their family or friends in the congregation rather than with the truth. These people forget the clear and simple words of Jesus: “He who loves father or mother more than Me is not worthy of Me. And he who loves son or daughter more than Me is not worthy of Me” (Matthew 10:37). Love for family or friends can blind people to the truth of a situation and cause them to lose their souls by committing the sin of favoritism (James 2:1). We see this happen in congregations when a member sins and a family member refuses to acknowledge their relative’s responsibility to seek restitution with those he has wronged (Luke 19:8; II Corinthians 7:11). Likewise, how many times have you heard of a Christian parent overlooking or justifying their children’s unscriptural relationship or immodest apparel? How can we possibly tell denominational people not to love their family so much by staying in a false church, yet here we are justifying the sins of our own family? If standing for the truth means we lose friends and family, Jesus promises our sacrifices will be more than worth it: “Everyone who has left houses or brothers or sisters or father or mother or wife or children or lands, for My name’s sake, shall receive a hundredfold, and inherit eternal life” (Matthew 19:29). Brethren, let's not miss out on eternal rest because we split churches by choosing family or friends over Christ.
Hypocrisy
Matthew 7:1-5 reads, “Judge not, that you be not judged. For with what judgment you judge, you will be judged; and with the measure you use, it will be measured back to you. And why do you look at the speck in your brother’s eye, but do not consider the plank in your own eye? Or how can you say to your brother, 'Let me remove the speck from your eye;' and look, a plank is in your own eye? Hypocrite! First remove the plank from your own eye, and then you will see clearly to remove the speck from your brother’s eye.” Have you ever noticed that members of the church of Christ are excellent at correcting denominational people who misapply Matthew 7:1-5? Still, many of these same people have an incredibly difficult time applying the truth of this passage to their own lives. We all probably realize how hypocrisy will destroy a local church. When Christians refuse to acknowledge their own sins but choose to point out the sins of their brethren, nothing good will come from it. Few things cause more damage to a local church than when its own members are caught up in hypocrisy and refuse to cease this terrible sin. More often than not, otherwise faithful people will eventually become entangled in hypocrisy as well (Galatians 2:11-13), and the body is destroyed in the process.
A Lack of Love for the Truth
I think a lot of Christians do not feel comfortable admitting it, but the church of Christ is no different than denominational churches in the sense that we have many people sitting in our pews each week who do not actually love the truth. Sure, all of God’s people love parts of the truth, but they do not love the entirety of God’s truth (Psalms 119:159-160). Therefore, they do not feel compelled to obey all of it (John 14:15), nor do they feel compelled to contend for it (Jude 3). We have many brothers and sisters in Christ who have no desire to grow past the first principles of the truth. They are perfectly content with staying exactly where they currently are in their faith because they lack love for the truth. We all are familiar with Paul’s charge to Timothy in II Timothy 4:1-2. Still, I think many have forgotten that II Timothy 4:3-4 are written in direct reference to brethren (i.e. members of the Lord’s church) having a lack of love for truth, such as what I am describing: “For the time will come when they will not endure sound doctrine, but according to their own desires, because they have itching ears, they will heap up for themselves teachers; and they will turn their ears away from the truth, and be turned aside to fables.” Divisions in churches of Christ occur frequently because many Christians do not love the truth. Thankfully, God always recognizes those who truly love the truth, even when divisions occur (I Corinthians 11:19).
A Lack of Preparation for Divisive Situations
Lastly, one of the biggest reasons churches of Christ split is because we have too many preachers in the brotherhood who are not preparing brethren for difficult situations such as the ones described above. If full-time preachers are not preaching the “whole counsel of God” wherever they labor (Acts 20:27), then these congregations will be completely unprepared to handle people who lack respect for Biblical authority, Christians who refuse to acknowledge their wrongs, hypocritical brethren, and circumstances necessitating withdrawal, among other challenges. For example, how many churches have you heard of over the years that have split because a member believed they had a scriptural right to divorce/marry/remarry when they actually did not have that right? Or how many churches have you heard of that split because they were overcome by brethren upholding some false doctrine? Do you think it is possible that if the full-time preachers in those congregations did a better job preparing members beforehand to “give an answer” (I Peter 3:15) by regularly preaching on various doctrinally divisive issues, those splits could have potentially been avoided?
In Acts 20:17-37, we find Paul’s farewell to the Ephesian elders. In Acts 20:20, Paul stated he “kept back nothing that was helpful” to the Ephesians during his three years laboring with them. Paul preached like this because he knew the following would eventually happen after left Ephesus: “After my departure savage wolves will come in among you, not sparing the flock. Also from among yourselves men will rise up, speaking perverse things, to draw away the disciples after themselves” (Acts 20:29-30). Churches constantly face the battle of people (both from within and without the congregation) trying to draw them away from Christ. For a church to be ready for those battles, the regular preacher (as well as the Bible class teachers, elders, etc.) must be busy preaching on things of substance and not just the first fruits of the gospel. To any gospel preacher who is reading this – remember, if you are not preparing brethren to fight these spiritual battles and they fall victim to Satan, you will have blood on your hands (Acts 20:26). Part of the job of being a preacher is preparing brethren for divisive situations (Ephesians 4:12-16). Therefore, we have to prepare our brethren to contend against the Devil and his ministers!
Conclusion
Division is sinful (I Corinthians 1:10), and it can be avoided if every Christian within a local body does their part and honestly examines themselves against the truth (II Corinthians 13:5). No one enjoys division, so we each ought to be working very diligently to keep our churches from splitting any further than has already taken place.
