The Churches of Christ, also commonly known as the Church of Christ, is a loose association of autonomous Christian congregations located around the world. Typically, their distinguishing beliefs are the necessity of baptism for salvation and the prohibition of musical instruments in worship. Many such congregations identify themselves as being nondenominational. The Churches of Christ arose in the United States from the Restoration Movement of 19th-century Christians, who declared independence from denominations and traditional creeds. They sought "the unification of all Christians in a single body patterned after the original church described in the New Testament."
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👉 Churches of Christ in the context of Elder (Christianity)
In Christianity, an elder is a person who is valued for wisdom and holds a position of responsibility and authority in a Christian group. In some Christian traditions (e.g., Eastern Orthodoxy, Catholicism, Anglicanism, Methodism) an elder is an ordained person who serves a local church or churches and who has been ordained to a ministry of word, sacrament and order, filling the preaching and pastoral offices. In other Christian traditions (e.g., Presbyterianism, Churches of Christ, Plymouth Brethren), an elder may be a lay person serving as an administrator in a local congregation, or be ordained and serving in preaching (teaching during church gatherings) or pastoral roles. There is a distinction between ordained elders and lay elders. The two concepts may be conflated in everyday conversation (for example, a lay elder in the Baptist tradition may be referred to as "clergy", especially in America). In non-Christian world cultures the term elder refers to age and experience, and the Christian sense of elder is partly related to this.
In this Dossier
- ⭐ Core Definition: Churches of Christ
- 👉 Churches of Christ in the context of Elder (Christianity)
- Churches of Christ in the context of Ordinance (Christianity)
- Churches of Christ in the context of Arianism
- Churches of Christ in the context of Believer's baptism
- Churches of Christ in the context of Arian Christianity
- Churches of Christ in the context of Christians (Stone Movement)
Churches of Christ in the context of Ordinance (Christianity)
An ordinance is a term used by certain Christian denominations for a religious ritual that was instituted by Jesus for Christians to observe.
Examples of ordinances include baptism and the Lord's Supper, both of which are practiced in denominations including the Anabaptist, Baptist, Churches of Christ, and Pentecostal denominations. Some churches, including those of the Anabaptists, include headcovering and footwashing as ordinances.
Churches of Christ in the context of Arianism
Arianism (Koine Greek: Ἀρειανισμός, Areianismós) is a Christological doctrine that rejects the traditional notion of the Trinity, teaching that Jesus was created by God and is therefore distinct from God. It is named after its proponent Arius (250 or 256 – 336) and is regarded as heretical by most modern mainstream branches of Christianity. Arianism is held by a minority of modern denominations, although some of these groups espouse related doctrines such as Socinianism, and others avoid the term "Arian" because of its historically negative connotations. Modern denominations sometimes associated with the teaching include Jehovah's Witnesses, some churches within the Churches of Christ (among them the movement's founder, Barton W. Stone), and certain Hebrew Roots Christians and Messianic Jews, although many Messianic Jews adhere to Nicene Christianity. The Arian view is also held by The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints, although the theology is more distinct in key ways.
It is first attributed to Arius, a Christian presbyter who preached and studied in Alexandria, Egypt, although it developed out of various preexisting strands of Christianity which differed from later Nicene Christianity in their view of Christology. Arian theology holds that Jesus Christ is the Son of God, who was begotten by God the Father with the difference that the Son of God did not always exist but was begotten/made before time by God the Father; therefore, Jesus was not coeternal with God the Father, but nonetheless Jesus began to exist outside time.
Churches of Christ in the context of Believer's baptism
Believer's baptism (also called credobaptism, from the Latin word credo meaning "I believe") is the practice of baptizing those who are able to make a conscious profession of faith, as contrasted to the practice of baptizing infants. Credobaptists believe that infants incapable of consciously believing should not be baptized.
The mode of believer's baptism depends on the Christian denomination, and is done either by pouring (the normative method in Mennonite, Amish, and Hutterite churches) or by immersion (the normative method practiced by Schwarzenau Brethren, River Brethren, Baptists, and the Churches of Christ, among others). Among those denominations that practice immersion, the way that it is practiced depends on the Church; the Schwarzenau Brethren and the River Brethren for example teach "trine immersion, that is, dipping three times forward in the name of the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit."
Churches of Christ in the context of Arian Christianity
Arianism (Koine Greek: Ἀρειανισμός, Areianismós) is a Christological doctrine that rejects the traditional notion of the Trinity, teaching that Jesus was created by God and is therefore distinct from God. It is named after its proponent Arius (250 or 256 – 336) and is regarded as heretical by most modern mainstream branches of Christianity. Arianism is held by a minority of modern denominations, although some of these groups espouse related doctrines such as Socinianism, and others avoid the term "Arian" because of its historically negative connotations. Modern denominations sometimes associated with the teaching include Jehovah's Witnesses, some churches within the Churches of Christ (among them the movement's founder, Barton W. Stone), and certain Hebrew Roots Christians and Messianic Jews, although many Messianic Jews adhere to Nicene Christianity. The Arian view is also held by The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, although the theology is more distinct in key ways.
It is first attributed to Arius, a Christian presbyter who preached and studied in Alexandria, Egypt, although it developed out of various preexisting strands of Christianity which differed from later Nicene Christianity in their view of Christology. Arian theology holds that Jesus Christ is the Son of God, who was begotten by God the Father with the difference that the Son of God did not always exist but was begotten/made before time by God the Father; therefore, Jesus was not coeternal with God the Father, but nonetheless Jesus began to exist outside time.
Churches of Christ in the context of Christians (Stone Movement)
The Christians (Stone Movement) were a group arising during the Second Great Awakening of the early 19th century. The most prominent leader was Barton W. Stone. The group was committed to restoring primitive Christianity. It merged with the Disciples of Christ (Campbell Movement) in 1832 to form what is now described as the American Restoration Movement (also known as the Stone–Campbell Restoration Movement.)
The tradition today is represented in the Churches of Christ and the Christian Church (Disciples of Christ).