Vol. XXXIX January 5, 2007 No 1
IS THE CHURCH OF CHRIST A DENOMINATION?
by Tom McLemore
“And day by day the Lord added to their number
those who were being saved.” Acts 2:47
Is the church of Christ a denomination? Many people in the denominations say “Yes, and one denomination is as good as another.” Some among us say, “Yes, and it is time we acknowledged it and started seeing ourselves as what we are.” Others say, “Emphatically, NO! The church of Christ is not a denomination.” What is the truth?
Denominations are not the true church, and the church of Christ never has been, and can never become or be a denomination. This is because of the manner in which the church of Christ is constituted/has being. This is why those who have responded to the gospel by faith in Christ, repentance of sins, confession of faith in Christ, and submitting to baptism into Christ for the remission of sins, even though they have joined denominations, are members of the church of Christ.
Furthermore, this is why those who have responded to the gospel by faith in Christ, repentance of sins, confession of faith in Christ, and submitting to baptism into Christ for the remission of sins, even though they thought they were thereby “joining” the church of Christ, did not do so. They were simply added by the Lord to the church of Christ in the process of his saving them. The fact that some in the church of Christ do not understand this, and the fact that they think of themselves in way and proceed in such ways that make them “denominational,” does not make the church of Christ a denomination! It simply indicates that some in the church of Christ have erred.
Often, it has been declared that “church of Christ” is the proper name of the church of Christ. However, careful study of the scriptures shows that the phrase “church of Christ” is one way among many ways in which those who belong to Christ are described. The word translated “church” means “assembly,” and “the church of Christ” is a way of describing the group of people who belong to Christ. It is used of such a group assembled locally and of the entire group assembled by Christ in distinction from those who do not belong to Christ. Since “name” is the fundamental notion contained in the word “denomination,” proclaiming that “church of Christ” is a proper name promotes a denominational view of the church of Christ.
It is sometimes stated that the Lord saves people and then adds them to the church. This way of putting things reflects a misunderstanding of Acts 2:47 and lends itself to confusion with regard to the manner in which the church of Christ is constituted/has being. The church, as we have seen, is simply the number of those whom the Lord has saved. How could the Lord add someone who is already saved to the number of the saved? Being added to the church is not an event independent of being saved, but it is a an event simultaneous with, and identical to, being saved! It is in the process of saving that the Lord adds people to the number of the saved (the church of Christ). Saying that the Lord saves people and then adds them to the church is more akin to “Be saved and then join the church of your choice” than to what is taught in Acts 2! This incorrect way of speaking has potential for encouraging people to think of the church of Christ as a denomination.
In sermons and in private conversations, people are sometimes urged to “become a member of the church of Christ” and asked to consider the question, “Must one be a member of the church of Christ in order to be saved?” Those who thus speak unwittingly promote a denominational view of the church of Christ. It is a denomination that one becomes a member of by one’s own intention and seeking of membership, not the church of Christ. It is the Lord who adds people to the church of Christ, and apart from the Lord’s action, one cannot be a member of the church of Christ at all. Also, there is nothing in addition to the Lord’s action that makes one a member of the church of Christ, since the Lord’s action of saving a person is what results in one’s being numbered among the saved (the church of Christ).
Not a solitary person was ever urged by apostolic preaching to “become a member of the church of Christ!” Neither did any apostle or inspired person on record ever address the question, “Must one be a member of the church of Christ in order to be saved.” Such language is foreign to the New Testament. This is also why no denomination can be the church of Christ, though people who are actually in the church of Christ may have also become members of a denomination. The proper question, in the light of the New Testament, is “Must one be saved in order to be a member of the church of Christ.” And the answer is “Yes,” because there is no other way to be in the church of Christ.
The issue comes down to the manner in which the church of Christ is constituted/has being in contrast to the manner in which denominations are constituted/have being. The church of Christ is constituted by the Lord’s act of saving individuals in Christ, by which they are added to the number of the saved. The number of the saved is the church of Christ. There is no denomination which is constituted in this manner. Every denomination is constituted by the will of human beings (those who have created the denomination and those who have sought and received membership in it) rather than by the Lord. There is no denomination that is constituted by the Lord’s act of saving individuals in Christ. If any members of the church of Christ have become members of a denomination, it was not the Lord who placed them there, but they themselves and those in the denomination who accepted them as members.
While every denomination is composed of people who profess to have been saved in Christ, no one may, or ever has, come to be a member of any denomination simply by having been saved in Christ. If they came to be members of anything simply by having been saved in Christ, that of which they have come to be members is no denomination, but the church of Christ. Becoming a member of a denomination involves something other than, and in addition to, having become a Christian. And many who are members of denominations are not yet Christians, because one is made a disciple of Christ by baptism (Matthew 28:19, 20) and puts on Christ in baptism as a penitent believer (Galatians 3:26, 27; Acts 2:38). People may believe in Christ, and they may have repented of their sins, but either they have not submitted to baptism or the so-called “baptism” to which they submitted (or were submitted to, as in the case of so called “infant baptism”) is not actual baptism (the immersion of penitent, confessing believers).
Though they erroneously may have thought that they had chosen to become a member of the church of Christ, no person who is a member of the church of Christ ever became one by choice. One may chose to respond to the gospel by faith, repentance, confession, and submitting to baptism, but one has no choice to make as to the church to which one will belong as the result of responding to the gospel. Since the church of Christ is constituted/has being by the Lord’s having saved people, all whom the Lord has saved he has added to the church of Christ. As was noted previously, they may choose to join denominations, or they may even adopt denominational ways, but they are members of the church to which the Lord added them by means of saving them in Christ.
What is the true significance of the claims of those who say that the church of Christ is a denomination and that it is time we acknowledged it and start seeing ourselves as what we are? They are not correct, but they have acknowledged something that is all too correct. It is not correct that the church of Christ is a denomination, but it is true that many in the church of Christ have adopted a denominational view of the church of Christ and have become denominational in faith and practice. While this state of affairs is terribly evil, it still does not mean that the church of Christ is a denomination!
It is essential that we discern the precise point at issue. Remember that the issue is what constitutes the church of Christ. The church of Christ can never be a denomination in its essence, but the church of Christ can be (and it must be acknowledged that in some cases in some ways has become) denominational in its existence. By essence, I refer to what constitutes the church of Christ. By existence, I refer to the ways in which the church of Christ, constituted by the Lord, thinks and proceeds in operation (to the extent in which it is true of any congregation or the congregations as a whole).
If the divinely constituted church of Christ erroneously comes to think and proceed in denominational ways, it does not do so on the basis of the word of God. If the divinely constituted church of Christ exists uncorrupted by denominational thinking and procedures, it does so on the basis of believing and practicing the word of God alone. If this is a fair statement of the precise issue, what ought to be the result? Rather than to give up and to give in to the tendencies that have thus corrupted the church of Christ, and rather than to acknowledge a falsehood (that the church of Christ is a denomination), we must recognize what has happened and repent!
True unity (of the type for which Jesus prayed) among professed believers in Christ can never be achieved by capitulating to denominationalism! Jesus prayed, “I ask not only on behalf of these [apostles], but also on behalf of those who will believe in me through their word, that they may all be one. As you, Father, are in me and I am in you, may they also be in us, so that the world may believe that you have sent me” (John 17:20, 21).
The only way to genuine unity is for everyone to be directed by the word of Christ through his apostles and to respond to the good news by faith, repentance, confession, and baptism into Christ for the remission of sins. Then, everyone would have been added to the church of Christ. If that happened, there would be a beautiful correspondence between the experience of all professed believers in Christ and the promise which he made: “And I tell you, you are Peter, and on this rock I will build my church, and the gates of Hades will not prevail against it. I will give you the keys of the kingdom of heaven, and whatever you bind on earth will be bound in heaven, and whatever you loose on earth will be loosed in heaven” (Matthew 16:18, 19, emphasis added). May the Lord help the church of Christ to see and to be what we are. And we are not a denomination.
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