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Fixing Labels Part 3

By Jim Eubanks
Minister, Forney Church of Christ

January 5, 2009

By far, most of the religions of the world, with the exception of Buddhism and Islam, claim to be a part of a confederation known as Protestant. Perhaps it is as well known under the term denominationalism. Again, the church of Christ is not to be classified in either of these categories, even though the religious claims we are.

We believe in the same God, we believe in the same Savior, we believe n the same apostles and in the same worthies both in the Old and New Testaments. We believe in the same basic moral principals. We believe in the same Bible. We believe in the Fatherhood of God and the brotherhood of man. We also join in protesting against the un-scriptural practices and doctrines of the Roman Catholic church (thus protestant). We agree that it is an apostate church.

One wonders at times, however, how much of a protest modern protest churches are making against Catholic innovations, for the Roman church’s celebrations of Christmas, Easter, Lent, and other special days are now widely copied in Protestantism. In terms of Christmas, for us, it is a time of giving to others, not a religious holiday. Christians do not celebrate the birth of Christ, rather each first day of the week, we celebrate (remember) the death, burial and resurrection of Christ by partaking of the Lord’s Supper (communion; Acts 20.7)

But here, too, there comes the parting of the ways. God has not approved modification and change in his original new Testament church (2 John 9). We do not believe in the decrees of religious councils, nor in the creeds which men have written (1 Corinthians 3.4). Rather, we believe that the only authorities and dependable guide to heaven is the Bible.

We are attempting to be in truth and in fact just what people were in the New Testament times, Christians, members of the church. If the apostle Paul were here today and someone would ask him if he were a Protestant, he would not understand the question. He refers to himself in 1 Corinthians 4.1 as a “minister of Christ,” and that is a follower of Christ, a Christian.

The church cannot be called Protestant in the ordinary sense of the word because Protestant churches did not exist in the New Testament times, but came into existence through protest over certain religious doctrines and practices of the Catholic church. Neither then nor now is the church a party within a party, built around a powerful personality or built upon one passage of scripture to the neglect of others. Paul states the reason why this could not be the case when he condemns the people of Corinth for their party divisions by saying, “Therefore let no man glory in men. For all things are yours; whether Paul, or Apollos. Or Cephas, or the world, or life, or death, or things present, or things to come; all are yours and you are Christ’s and Christ is God’s (1 Corinthians 3.21-23).

Because of this, the church of Christ does not fit the label of Protestant.

Next week, part four of Fixing Labels.