A Brief Background of the Church of Christ

Origin
The church of Christ dates back to the days of the New Testament (Romans 16:16).  In Matthew 16:16, Peter declared Jesus to be "the Christ, the Son of the living God."  Jesus replied by saying that this truth would be the rock (foundation stone) upon which He would build His church (Matthew 16:18).  Referring to His church as "the kingdom" (Matthew 16:19), Jesus then foretells that it would be established during the lifetime of some who were with Him on that occasion (Matthew 16:28).  In Acts 2, Christ's prediction was fulfilled in Jerusalem on the Day of Pentecost, circa 33 AD, just after His ascension back to heaven.  The Apostle Paul would later affirm that Jesus had purchased His church with His own blood (Acts 20:28).  In the years following Acts 2, it rapidly grew to fill Jerusalem, then Judea, Samaria, and finally the whole Roman Empire (Acts 1:8; Colossians 1:23).  Throughout the rest of the New Testament, the church/kingdom of Jesus Christ is referenced as now being in existence.

In the first century, churches of Christ were localized groups of Christians who assembled together to worship God in the manner they were directed by the apostles.  In America, the first churches of Christ were planted in the late 1700's, a movement that began in order to go back to the Bible and do Bible things in Bible ways and call Bible things by Bible names (1 Peter 4:11).  At that time, men of various denominations, independent of each other, began to ask: Why not go back to the simplicity & purity of the first-century church, taking the Bible alone, continuing steadfastly in the apostles' teaching (Acts 2:42), throwing away human creeds of denominationalism, and just follow only the Bible?  This sparked a spirit of restoration - not to reform manmade churches, but to restore the Lord's church.  This did not establish another denomination, but rather a return to the original church.

Emphasis
The church of Christ is noted for its emphasis upon returning to New Testament Christianity and for its enthusiastic desire to unite all Christians into one body with Jesus as our head (1 Corinthians 1:10; Ephesians 4:4; 5:23).  Since God has vested all power & authority in Christ (Matthew 28:18), and since He serves as God's spokesman today (Hebrews 1:1-2), it is our conviction that only Christ has the authority to say what the church is and what we should teach & practice.  Therefore, we believe that the New Testament is the only rule for faith & practice in religious matters (2 Timothy 3:17; 2 Peter 1:3), and that God's word must authorize all that is done in Christian worship (Colossians 3:17; Revelation 22:18-19).  Thus, we try to strictly follow the New Testament as we are guided only by "the faith which was once delivered unto the saints" (Jude 1:3).  We believe that it is possible to have religious unity in a day of division, by simply following the New Testament pattern and putting aside human traditions.

Purpose
The New Testament reveals that the church is to make known the manifold wisdom of God (Ephesians 3:8-11) and is to be active in evangelism (Matthew 28:19-20), benevolence (Galatians 6:10), and edification (Ephesians 4:15-16).  The church of Christ has no denominational affiliation.  We go back beyond all the movements which began the denominations, all the way back to the original pattern, the New Testament, for the blueprint of the church which was established by Christ Himself.  We aspire to restore the New Testament church, realizing that if we plant the same seed of the word of God (Luke 8:11) which produced New Testament Christians & members of the Lord's church in the first century, we should expect the same results today.  The confusion in the religious world today has resulted from movements of mankind which have modified the original church.  We plead for all to build on the original foundation, Jesus Christ, according to the original pattern, the New Testament.  We recognize our own personal shortcomings & weaknesses, and this is all the more reason for wanting to carefully follow the all-sufficient & perfect plan God has for the church.

Designation
The New Testament uses a number of terms with which to designate the early church, such as: "the church" (Acts 2:47), "the church of the firstborn" (Hebrews 12:23), "the church of the Lord/God" (Acts 20:28), and "the church of Christ" (Romans 16:16).  Any of these terms is a scriptural designation of the Lord's church.  However, in order to avoid confusion in today's world and because it is certainly appropriate for the church to wear the name "church of Christ," we have usually used this designation.  This designation is appropriately used because the church was built by Christ (Matthew 16:18), it was purchased by Christ (Acts 20:28), Christ is its head (Colossians 1:18), and the church is His bride (Ephesians 5:25-27,32).  Individual members of the body of Christ are simply called "Christians" (Acts 11:26; 1 Peter 4:16), honoring Christ Himself, to whom Christians are spiritually married (Romans 7:4).  Therefore, the term "church of Christ" is not used as a denominational designation, but rather as a descriptive term indicating that the church belongs to Christ.

To put it simply, the church of Christ is seeking to be the same church one reads about in the New Testament.  We aim to restore its doctrine, its practice, its lifestyle, and its zeal.  We believe that if we do what people did in the first century to please God, as they were under the direction of Christ & His apostles, then we will certainly please God as well.

[Portions of this page were adapted from the writings of Allen Webster, Curtis Cates, & Joe Barnett]