CrochetOverCoffee
Ask me anything about the church of Christ.
This looks like an interesting place to hang out. I am a member of the church of Christ, and I'm interested in Biblical debates and discussions.
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Howdy! New from Texas
- Thread starter CrochetOverCoffee
- Start date
Hi there, coffee loving atheist here but dont worry, I don't bite... Hope you enjoy yourself at RF, sit back, relax and enjoy the cake.
And i believe @Revoltingest will be along soon with the keys to the staff canteen.
And i believe @Revoltingest will be along soon with the keys to the staff canteen.
Welcome to the RF
Wu Wei
ursus senum severiorum and ex-Bisy Backson
Greetings!
Join us for the afternoon tea (moderated by @Wu Wei, our
resident mauler) for civil & sophisticated religious debates.
The food is great too!
Yes, and welcome to RF @CrochetOverCoffee
exchemist
Veteran Member
What's the Church of Christ? I don't mean this in a hostile way but I'd have thought any Christian church is a church of Christ, by definition.
Daemon Sophic
Avatar in flux
Welcome aboard!
Beware the forum members!
Otherwise, it’s nice and peaceful here.
Beware the forum members!
Otherwise, it’s nice and peaceful here.
CrochetOverCoffee
Ask me anything about the church of Christ.
The church of Christ is a specific religious group not related to Protestant denominationalism or Roman Catholicism. We are also not related to the International Churches of Christ, which is either a cult or a denomination (not sure which, honestly), or the LDS. It is led by those who only follow what is written in the Scriptures, speaking where the Bible speaks and being silent where it is silent. It has no head but Jesus, no creed, confession of faith, or church manual other than the Bible, no leadership outside of the plurality of elders and deacons authorized by the Bible, and no headship of one congregation or group of elders over another congregation or group of elders. It teaches that water baptism of a believing, pentitant adult is a requirement of salvation, that baptism is what puts you into the church, that the church is the kingdom of God is the body of Christ, and that there is one faith, one hope, one baptism, one calling. It meets on the first day of every week to worship God in Jesus's name, that worship consisting of preaching, singing, prayer, giving of our means, and observance of the Lord's supper to memorialize His death on the cross. You will find upon visiting a sound congregation of the church of Christ no instrument of music, no choir stands, no liturgical robes, and no human names to refer to Biblical matters.
This is a quick overview. If you have any further questions, please feel free to ask.
Sgt. Pepper
All you need is love.
Hello, and welcome to RF, CrochetOverCoffee. I hope you enjoy your time on the forum.
exchemist
Veteran Member
OK so it's a fairly extreme sola scriptura Protestant church. I understand. What's the objection to musical instruments?
CrochetOverCoffee
Ask me anything about the church of Christ.
It's not actually a Protestant church. It had nothing to do with the Reformation movement begun by Martin Luther and others. And the objection to instruments of music is that they aren't authorized by the New Testament. Many parts of the Old Law were reinstituted in the kingdom of God, but mechanical instruments was not one of them, just as animal sacrifice was not and stoning of evildoers was not. Therefore the church does not use them.
It is. I have a couple of suggestions to keep your threads easy to manage. We have a lot of people here that are not religious. If you post information in any area that is marked for debate, you should expect all kinds of objections from objections to belief in the existence of God to objections to religious legal freedoms. All kinds of objections are allowed in debate areas except for specially marked ones. That doesn't mean that nobody here is a believer or that nobody here is serious about religion. It just means that you should pick your battles. For example if you specifically wish to debate the meaning of Christian bible scriptures there is an area for that.
On the other hand if you don't want to debate (be corrected by or correct anyone) then there are areas that are strictly for stating your position and for politely asking questions.
exchemist
Veteran Member
Well OK, but from your description it is a fairly extreme sola scriptura church. The stance on musical instruments is a case in point. Nothing in the NT forbids them, yet your church bans them because they are not explicitly authorised in scripture. That's pretty severe sola scriptura.
Sola scriptura was one of Luther's chief founding principles: Sola scriptura - Wikipedia So I can't really see how one can claim it is not a Protestant church. But perhaps what you mean is it does not derive from any of the original Protestant denominations, such as Lutherans, Calvinists etc.
Actually, now that I think about it, Luther was himself a musician and composer and was a great exponent of congregational singing - something he more or less started, I think. Some musicologists attribute the great musical tradition of the Germany to Luther's influence. He certainly seems to have been quite happy with instruments in church. So your church is most definitely not Lutheran!
But if your church allows a cappella singing, then I am a great admirer of that too. I've sung quite a lot of Renaissance a cappella music for the church. I find it very beautiful and rewarding to sing, though also extremely demanding. One of my favourites for Christmastime is Victoria's O Magnum Mysterium. I wonder if you know it:
Welcome aboard.