Introduction:
The Church in general has been referred to in the bible as the Church of Christ, and we as believers are all members of the Church of Christ at large. What I'm speaking about however is the Church of Christ denomination (COC), and not the church at large.
According to Matt Slick, a researcher and writer for C.A.R.M. which stands for Christian Apologetics & Research Ministry:
According to Matt Slick, a researcher and writer for C.A.R.M. which stands for Christian Apologetics & Research Ministry:
The International Church of Christ (ICC) is a break-off of the Church of Christ denomination. The ICC is Christian in its basic theology but has some aberrant practices.
The ICC was influenced by the discipling movement on the 1950's. Its roots can be traced back to 1967 to the Crossroads Church of Christ, in Gainesville, Florida. The Crossroads Church had a program on discipling which became known as the Crossroads Movement. It is out of this Crossroads connection that the present leader of the ICC, Kip McKeen, received his start. He and Roger Lamb were fired from the Houston, Texas, Church of Christ. Kip McKeen then found a Church in Boston MA, was asked to come on board and began what has come to be known as the Boston movement. The Boston Church grew by leaps and bounds due to its heavy discipling program. Soon other churches were being planted in the United States and then in England.
The ICC did not become known as the "International Church of Christ" until 1993 and its headquarters moved to Los Angeles, California. The ICC considers Christian denominations to be sinful. They will cite biblical passages that speak of the apostles establishing one Church per city, and claim that there should only be one Church in each city. Of course, the one Church should be an ICC Church. As of the year 2001, the ICC claims to have over 400 churches with a membership of 130,000 worldwide in over 150 countries.
The International Church of Christ considers itself to be "a family of Christian churches whose members are committed to living their lives in accordance with the teachings of Jesus Christ as found in the Bible." This commitment to biblical living includes a very strong emphasis on discipling. In fact, it is this overly-strong emphasis on discipling that has drawn as much criticism from outside the church as inside - from those who were once members
The ICC is Orthodox, affirms the Trinity, salvation by grace, Jesus' virgin birth, and physical resurrection, His deity, the personhood of the Holy Spirit, heaven and hell, and much more. But, it deviates from orthodoxy in both its requirement of baptism as a necessary element for salvation and its heavy requirement of discipleship.
According to the ICC, baptism must be done in their church with the person being baptized having an understand that baptism saves. Combined with this, the ICC method of discipleship includes strong accountability to other members of the church as a necessary element to be considered a Christian. According to the ICC, one cannot be a Christian if he is not a true disciple, and being a disciple must precede baptism. Therefore, the International Church of Christ tends to be very legalistic and controlling.
Many of its former members attest to requirements that they confess their sins to their disciple leaders, that they submit to the decisions of their disciple "leaders" regarding dating, frequency of sexual relations for married couples, jobs to take, places to move, and so on.
This discipling operation within the ICC has drawn much criticism for its intrusive practices and has been labeled as a form of brainwashing and psychological and emotional manipulation. There are numerous web sites on the Internet devoted to ex-members of the International Church of Christ who warn people not to be involved with the movement. There are also support groups to help those who have left to find healing and, hopefully, true Grace in Christ instead of legalism and bondage.
What I have wanted to do for quite some time now, as delicately and lovingly as possible, is present the truth of God's word and lay out some of the doctrines the COC practices and examine them next to scripture. This isn't to create a disturbance or even open a floor for debate. I'm simply presenting the COC doctrine and scripture that would refute some of their practices. The same could be done in any other denomination just as easily, and I may later do if I feel God's leading, but the COC has some extreme beliefs that really need addressing and many good people whom I love, and most of all, God loves are being mislead.
This blog will not be posted on my Facebook page, for it is not a short blog to read. This blog will be a multi-part series that can be found exclusively on The Kingdom Pathway, my blog site. I will be using my own personal experiences and notes in this study, but also will be resourcing various websites and using quotations from them, so some of this content will not be my own intellectual property, but I will present the source each time.
Before we start I also would like to add that I've not seen these doctrines to be so extreme that a person belonging to the COC denomination cannot become born again. I believe there are plenty of Christians (genuinely born again) that attend and follow this denomination. The biggest thing I've seen is that this denomination tends to not play well with others, and that they is an elitist mentality that seems to be prevalent in most of the COC churches I've visited.
In 2003 my family and I moved to Buchanan County, Virginia. The U.S. Census Bureau, according to the data taken in 2000, Buchanan County had a population of around 25,000 residents. Out of these residents, 10% of them considered themselves COC, the Baptists were second, then the Pentecostals, and then others. Altogether, 20% of the residents in Buchanan County were affiliated with a Church.
I'm sharing this however so that you, the reader can see that half of the Christians I know here where I live are members of the ICC, and I love them dearly. This is why I felt it so necessary to share the truth with them - not to save their souls, for they are already saved as they have trusted in Christ as their Savior. They do need to see some of the errors of the ICC however before they continue to reach others. They certainly are reaching others too as they are the fastest growing denomination in our area just as the article from C.A.R.M. has also indicated. Let's dig in and examine some of their doctrines now.
Go to Part 2
