Is the church of Christ a cult? What do you think?

Christiangirl0909 said:

As most of you know, I am a member of the church of Christ. I was talking to someone, and they mentioned that some people believe that the church of Christ not only teaches a false doctrine, but is a cult. I was really curious, because this was a new notion to me, I had never heard it before. While researching these claims, I came across the following sites:

http://www.rmsbibleengineering.com/Page3/Page3_4.html

www.chocd.org

What are your thoughts on this? I posted this in Religious Debates, because I wasn't sure eif there would be controversey on the subject or not....

Click to expand...

No way.

I actually looked up the word 'Cult' in the dictionary, because I am aware that it is a pejorative term. You could call any religion a 'Cult' in the true meaning of the word, but because the word has been associated with certain 'nasties' in the past, I think it is best left to its now accepted meaning.

To me, a Cult is a movement (and it doesn't have to be religious) that indoctrinates followers into believing a specific agenda and never to question it.

Normally those who become involved in cults have their access to the outside world taken away from them, and are persuaded to give up any association with their family.

Don't worry, I know others have put you right before I did, but the Church of Christ is not a cult.

michel said:

To me, a Cult is a movement (and it doesn't have to be religious) that indoctrinates followers into believing a specific agenda and never to question it.

Click to expand...

Hmmm....

michel said:

To me, a Cult is a movement (and it doesn't have to be religious) that indoctrinates followers into believing a specific agenda and never to question it.

Click to expand...

Funny enough, people call my Church a cult, but our leaders tell us constantly to question and find out for ourselves. *Sigh*. Anywho, like I said before, I don't believe yours is a cult.
:flower: :flower:

You must understand that if you are a member of another church, you beleive that all other churches teach wrong, often biggotted doctorines; and for the most part these notions are conseived previous to scrutinizing the doctorines of their own church. Many churches are considered cults to some churches. Did you ask what his or her definition of a cult is? It may well have been an other church aside from their own. I myself consider all churches that have one or more Gods cults. Infact I beleive that the Sub-Genius church the only non-cult church in existance.

Maxist said:

You must understand that if you are a member of another church, you beleive that all other churches teach wrong, often biggotted doctorines; and for the most part these notions are conseived previous to scrutinizing the doctorines of their own church. Many churches are considered cults to some churches. Did you ask what his or her definition of a cult is? It may well have been an other church aside from their own. I myself consider all churches that have one or more Gods cults. Infact I beleive that the Sub-Genius church the only non-cult church in existance.

Click to expand...

Not necessarily. The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints claims to have the full-gospel, yet it teaches that other Churches have part of the gospel and aren't entirely wrong. We believe any Church that brings you to the Lamb of God is a Church of God, any Church that leads you astray is the Church of the Devil.

:flower: :flower:

Victor said:

And that note Turk, I'd note that some people have a difficult time seperating the Church from individuals.

Click to expand...

And I will also note that some people have pointed out that very same idea many times before but were having a very hard time putting his thoughts into visible words that day. Thanks for the observation, Victor. And yes, you are right as well.

II Timothy 3:12 In fact, everyone who wants to live a godly life in Christ Jesus will be persecuted, 13 while evil men and impostors will go from bad to worse, deceiving and being deceived. NIV

If they misunderstood Jesus, why do you think they won't misunderstand you?

I too belong to the cofC and have found many who would like to make us out to be a cult. There are some variants that are close (Kip McKean and the ICOC), but for the most part people just don't understand primitive Christianity and why we follow it.

Unlike most "denominations", the churches of Christ traditionally do not have a central synod or governing body. Each church is independent of ALL OTHER churches of Christ. Beliefs, traditions and rules vary between the various churches as the understanding of the scripture varies.

They trace their roots here in America from Alexander Campbell around 1810. It was determined that the church in America did not need to be "reformed", but rather "restored" to it's original primitive condition found in the book of Acts. Probably it's biggest claim to fame is it's insistence on a cappella music. While there is no real prohibition found in scriptures for instrumental music, many of the church insist that since there is no record of instruments in the primitive church, than we should not use them either.

The refusal to capitalise the word "church" comes from the insistence that we are NOT a denomination, but just another church. Denominations have names: we don't.

Maxist said:

You must understand that if you are a member of another church, you beleive that all other churches teach wrong, often biggotted doctorines; and for the most part these notions are conseived previous to scrutinizing the doctorines of their own church.

Click to expand...

Sometimes a sentence cries out for attention ...

It seems this would apply to ALL belief systems Jay... not just Christian ones. Bigotry is a personal decision and is no respecter of ideology.

NetDoc said:

It seems this would apply to ALL belief systems Jay... not just Christian ones. Bigotry is a personal decision and is no respecter of ideology.

Click to expand...

Actually, my point was somewhat different. It just seems to me that anyone so obviously intent on impressing others with convoluted sentences should endeavor to minimize spelling errors.

As for the UCOC, I've seen nothing about them not to respect.

The UCOC is a denomination... they have a governing body, and like yourself I am impressed with their inclusivity. They are far more open than the traditional churches of Christ which have no legal ties to any other church.

The International Churches of Christ are yet another denomination and are considered by MANY former members to be a cult. They were featured on 60 minutes for their in your face style of evangelism and the way they DEMAND that every member demonstrate complete loyalty and obeidience to their "discipler". Disciplers are assigned by the church and the lead church (which used to be the Boston ICOC) would assign discipler churches to younger churches. They imploded a few years ago and have since tried to restructure themselves and become more like the traditional churches of Christ. Information from the ICOC can be found at www.icocinfo.org while those wishing to expose them can be found at www.reveal.org.