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.<\/p>\n
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.”<\/p>\n
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.<\/p>\n
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<\/em>” 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!<\/p>\n 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.”<\/p>\n 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.<\/p>\n We are victims of our own success.<\/p>\n\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" by Floyd Chappelear via\u00a0Sentry 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…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"advanced_seo_description":"","jetpack_seo_html_title":"","jetpack_seo_noindex":false,"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[27],"tags":[1277],"class_list":["post-95390","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-article","tag-denominationalism"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_likes_enabled":true,"jetpack-related-posts":[{"id":31874,"url":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/do-you-support-conscientious-objection\/","url_meta":{"origin":95390,"position":0},"title":"Do you support conscientious objection?","author":"Jeffrey Hamilton","date":"February 19, 2012","format":false,"excerpt":"Question: Do you or your church support selective conscientious objection and conscientious objection? Answer: Registering for the draft is a government law that does not violate any teaching of God. \"Let every soul be subject to the governing authorities. For there is no authority except from God, and the authorities\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Answer"","block_context":{"text":"Answer","link":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/category\/answer\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":1296,"url":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/why-are-boy-girl-relationships-not-advisable-at-a-young-age\/","url_meta":{"origin":95390,"position":1},"title":"Why are boy-girl relationships not advisable at a young age?","author":"Jeffrey Hamilton","date":"April 3, 2004","format":false,"excerpt":"Question: Why are boy-girl relationships not advisable at a young age Answer: Youth is a time of impatient desires. They want the things available to adults, but adulthood seems so far away. The typical teenage boy enters puberty around the age of 11. The typical teenage girl enters puberty around\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Answer"","block_context":{"text":"Answer","link":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/category\/answer\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":37138,"url":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/we-lost-the-surprise-somewhere\/","url_meta":{"origin":95390,"position":2},"title":"We Lost the Surprise Somewhere","author":"Jeffrey Hamilton","date":"February 10, 2013","format":false,"excerpt":"by Jeffrey W. Hamilton I remember watching Mayberry RFD and related shows most of my childhood. Poor ignorant Gomer Pyle who worked as an auto mechanic was a notable character. But I can still recall my shock when I found out that Jim Nabors, who played Gomer, could sing --\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Article"","block_context":{"text":"Article","link":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/category\/article\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/08\/Gomer.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]},{"id":32196,"url":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/is-it-a-sin-to-take-out-insurance\/","url_meta":{"origin":95390,"position":3},"title":"Is it a sin to take out insurance?","author":"Jeffrey Hamilton","date":"March 20, 2012","format":false,"excerpt":"Question: Is it a sin to take out medical insurance or legal insurance? Are we rather expected to put our faith in the Lord to take care of those things? Answer: We were taught to pray, \"Give us this day our daily bread\" (Matthew 6:11), but God still commands us\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Answer"","block_context":{"text":"Answer","link":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/category\/answer\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":61889,"url":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/the-book-of-my-life\/","url_meta":{"origin":95390,"position":4},"title":"The Book of My Life","author":"Jeffrey Hamilton","date":"September 23, 2012","format":false,"excerpt":"by Jeffrey W. Hamilton Text: Job 19:23-27 \u00a0 I.\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0Each week the paper publishes its list of top selling books \u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0A.\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0Sometimes the books are biographies, fictional stories, or fiction placed in historical settings. \u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0B.\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0They hope that others will also purchase the books, if for no other reason than curiosity. \u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0C.\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0Many author\u2019s\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Audio"","block_context":{"text":"Audio","link":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/category\/audio\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":6988,"url":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/are-there-passages-that-refer-to-the-lords-supper\/","url_meta":{"origin":95390,"position":5},"title":"Are there passages that refer to THE Lord’s Supper?","author":"Jeffrey Hamilton","date":"August 2, 2006","format":false,"excerpt":"Question: We have been studying the Lord's supper issues and one of our main concerns is about a second offering in which only a few partake, for the reasons you listed in your article (not doing it together). We have been questioning the idea of everyone taking it a second\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Answer"","block_context":{"text":"Answer","link":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/category\/answer\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]}],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/95390","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=95390"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/95390\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":95393,"href":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/95390\/revisions\/95393"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=95390"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=95390"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=95390"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}