What religion is someone who goes to a Church of Christ? What are their beliefs vs. Catholics?

Question

I've been told that they are presbyterian but I'm not sure how accurate that is. I would also like to know the basic differences between the Church of Christ and the Catholic church.

Answer 1

This would be a difficult question to answer in detail because of the nature of the Church of Christ being protestant. What I mean by this is that there are several different churches bearing that name, but it doesn't necessarily mean each church teaches the same things. It's the same as asking what do the Baptists believe. In general, I could answer that they believe in the life, death and resurrection of Christ, like most all of mainstream Christianity, but if someone would want detail, I could go no further, since each baptist church is separate and different from the other. This is a typical characteristic of Protestantism, that simply put - if one guy doesn't like that way something is taught, he leaves and starts his own church. This is a cycle that can repeat itself endlessly, as we see in the thousands of different protestant denominations. Where, then, does this leave someone who is honestly searching for the truth of Jesus Christ?

I myself was on this journey, and found the unity of faith and truth when I converted to the Catholic Church. I can go to Mass at any parish any place in the world and receive the same teaching that I would at home. This is the beauty of our Catholic Faith.

Check out www.catholic.org and www.catholic.com.

God bless and take care.

Answer 2

It depends upon which Church of Christ you're talking about. There are at least two to choose from. The United Church of Christ is far more liberal theologically than the Church of Christ denomination that's prevalent in the Southern United States. There are miles of differences between these two groups. For instance, the United Church of Christ ordains women, while the other Church of Christ is extremely conservative, refusing to ordain women (or even to use musical instruments in their worship services). However, they are both Protestant, which means that they reject the authority of the Roman Catholic Pope, do not venerate the Blessed Virgin Mary, and do not believe in the true presence of Christ in the Eucharist, just for starters.

Answer 3

As I understand it (my wife is Church of Christ) the Church of Christ has no centralized doctrine like a lot of other denominations. It could vary from place to place. One of the big identifiers is the lack of instruments in hymns during service. People harp on that. As far as I can see they are pretty much like any other church with small differences. Catholics and Chruch of Christ........I wouldn't even begin here. Go to wikipedia or something.

Answer 4

The “church of Christ” is neither Catholic, nor Protestant. The church of Christ is not a denomination. The church of Christ identifies itself by name as a church that is trying to follow the “doctrine of Christ” (2 John 9). The “church of Christ” identifies itself by name as a church that belongs to Christ. The name points to the owner and builder. The name points to the one who purchased the church. (Matthew 16:18, Acts 20: 28)

In contrast to this the name of many denominations point to the name of a man, a particular practice, or the way they are organized. A member of a denomination identifies himself by name as one who submits to the authority of that denomination and tries to follow the doctrine (teaching) of that denomination. Why not just follow the doctrine and authority of Christ?

The church of the Bible is compared to a bride, with Christ being the groom. A bride honors the groom when she agrees to wear his name. But many churches today wear man made names.

Suppose, for example, Mr. Smith asks his girlfriend to marry him. She agrees, but says, “Our friend Mr. Jones is a good man, so when we get married, instead of being called Mrs. Smith, I want to be called Mrs. Jones.” Would Mr. Smith have a reason to question her loyalty to him? Would he feel honored? Why would a bride wear another man’s name? Why would a church want to wear a man-made name? The “church of Christ” wears a name found in scripture (Romans 16: 16).


The church of Christ wishes to restore the church to the teaching that was established and authorized by Christ and his apostles. We wish to have Biblical authority for everything we practice and teach. (Col. 3:17)

The Bible teaches that Jesus is the head of the church and the church is his body. (Eph. 1:22-23) The church of Christ recognizes this, and therefore there is no “headquarters” on earth. Each congregation is independent and goes directly to the Bible to learn what should be taught and how we should worship. We believe the Bible is sufficient and we need no other authority or creed books. (2 Timothy 3:16-17, 2 Peter 1:3) Christ has “all authority” and we wish to follow this authority by following the things He taught. (Matt 28:18-20) We don’t want to add any man-made doctrine. (If we follow the authority or teaching of men, then Christ does not have “all authority” in our spiritual lives.) If we teach as doctrine the commandments of men, this makes our worship vain! (Matthew 15:9)

Please do not confuse the church of Christ with the “United Church of Christ”, the “International Church of Christ”, the “Church of Christ Scientists”, or the “Church of Jesus Christ of Later-Day Saints (Mormons)”. These groups are not the same and they teach drastically different things!

If you wish to know more about those who simply want to be New Testament Christians (nothing more, nothing less, nothing else), I invite you to investigate the church of Christ by comparison to the Scriptures! I have included a few web sites below that you might wish to visit, or you can e-mail me with any additional questions.

Answer 5

I do not know a lot about Catholicism, but I can tell you about the church of Christ.

Differences that I know of...church leadership/government; mode of baptism (sprinkling vs. immersion & child vs. adult); Catholics must go to confessional to be forgiven, but not church of Christ; Catholics view of Mary is different from ours; The observance of communion is different from what I have heard. (We do it EVERY first day of the week.)

The church of Christ is non-demoninational. Each congregation is autotonomous & we believe in adhering to only the Bible & not the teachings of man.

The church of Christ dates back to the days of the New Testament (Romans 16:16). It was founded by Christ on the Day of Pentecost (Acts 2), just ten days after He ascended back to heaven. In the years that followed it rapidly grew to fill Jerusalem, then Judea, Samaria, and finally the whole world (Acts 1:8; Colossians 1:23). It was first established in America in the late 1700s.

We believe the Bible teaches that sinners are saved by grace through faith (Ephesians 2:8-9), which includes belief in Christ, repentance, confession, and baptism (John 3:16; Mark 16:16; Acts 2:38; Romans 10:9-10; Titus 3:5-7). The church of Christ is organized with elders, deacons, preachers, and members as in New Testament times (Philippians 1:1). We believe Jesus is the Son of God (John 20:30-31), the Bible is inspired of God (2 Timothy 3:16-17), and that Jesus will return to take His kingdom (church) home to God (1 Corinthians 15:24). We emphasize sincere worship in accordance with God's Word (Matthew 15:8-9; John 4:24), every-member evangelism (Acts 8:4), godly living (Titus 2:11-12), love for one other (John 13:33-34), and helping those in need (James 1:27). We believe religious unity is possible in a day of division by simply following the New Testament pattern and putting aside human creeds and traditions (John 17:17-21).

The church of Christ is not a denomination. A denomination is a group larger than the local church, yet smaller than the church universal. The Bible never speaks of the church as a denomination, neither does it mention any denominational concept of the church. In fact, the Bible condemns religious division throughout the New Testament.

Jesus prayed for the unity of all believers in John 17:20-23. In that prayer, He prayed for this unity to imitate the unity between the Father and Himself. Obviously, Jesus and His Father are unified in matters of doctrine, for Jesus cited His Father as the source of His message in John 12:48-50.

Paul condemned religious in 1 Corinthians 1:10 and Romans 16:17. Writing to the Corinthians, Paul said "Now I beseech you, brethren, by the name of our Lord Jesus Christ, that ye all speak the same thing, and that there be no divisions among you; but that ye be perfectly joined together in the same mind and in the same judgment."

Writing to Romans, Paul said "Now I beseech you, brethren, mark them which cause divisions and offences contrary to the doctrine which ye have learned; and avoid them."

Any teaching about the nature of the church that accepts a denominational concept of Christianity is to be avoided at all costs: "Is Christ divided?" (1 Cor 1:13). Christ is the head of the body, the church (Col 1:18; cf Eph 1:22-23). Note the singularity in this verse -- one head, one body = one church.

Consider also Ephesians 5:23-32. There are at least a dozen references to the church, all of them singular. When the apostles wrote "to the churches" (cf 1 Cor 16:1), they were not writing to different denominations, but instead to different congregations of the same church residing in the same region.

The denominational concept of Christianity was unknown in the days of the apostles. The one church established by Jesus was sufficient to meet the needs of all men of that day. The essence of man is unchanged from the beginning. Man’s need for remission of sins and reconciliation to God remain the same. Thus, since one church was all that was needed (and authorized) in the first century, then there is only a need for one church today.

Here are some good sites to learn more about the church of Christ:
http://www.housetohouse.com/hth/topic/index.htm
http://www.meridianvillechurchofchrist.org/What%20We%20Believe.htm
http://www.mpcofc.org/bstudies/studying_to_know_gods_word/studying_to_know_gods_word.htm
http://www.apologeticspress.org/
http://church-of-christ.org/

Answer 6

Church of Christ” redirects here. For other uses, see Church of Christ (disambiguation).
The Churches of Christ discussed in this article are not part of the United Church of Christ; the Disciples of Christ; the International Churches of Christ; the Church of Christ, Scientist (Christian Science); the Church of Christ (Latter Day Saints) or any other denomination within the Latter Day Saint movement; the Churches of Christ in Australia; the Fellowship of Churches of Christ in the United Kingdom; the Associated Churches of Christ in New Zealand; or the Philippines-based Iglesia ni Cristo.
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The Churches of Christ are non-denominational, autonomous Christian congregations. These churches comprise about 2,000,000 members in over 15,000 individual congregations worldwide.[1]

Churches of Christ generally emphasize their intent to simply be part of the original church established by Jesus Christ in his death, burial, and resurrection, which became evident on the Day of Pentecost as described in the New Testament in Acts 2. Churches of Christ emphasize the use of only the New Testament to find doctrine, ecclesiastical structure, and moral beliefs, while maintaining that the Old Testament is also the inspired Word of God, is historically accurate, and that its principles remain true and beneficial (although its laws are not binding under the new covenant in Christ unless otherwise taught in the New Testament).

Churches of Christ in the United States are historically connected to the Restoration Movement championed by American preachers/theologians of the late 18th and early 19th centuries, most notably Thomas Campbell and his son Alexander Campbell, Walter Scott, and Barton W. Stone. These and other leaders from various denominations were seeking original Christianity as they were independently finding several beliefs, practices, and restrictive dogmas in their respective church traditions to no longer be acceptable or biblical to them.

Members of the Church of Christ point out that throughout church history many have sought a return to the simple original Christianity that is "pre-denominational" and unbound by the decisions of councils or denominational hierarchies. Rather than basing doctrine on the interpretations of post-first century church fathers, ecclesiastical councils, or more modern denominational synods or conventions, they use only the Bible as their official source of doctrine. This also allows for the Bible to be open for continual examination and interpretation from congregation to congregation and from Christian to Christian. They do not believe it necessary to trace an unbroken humanly recorded lineage back to the church of the first century in order to be the timeless and continual church that was established by Christ. This is based on the ideology that the church is a spiritual body, therefore differing from secular or political notions of ecclesiastical lineage. Furthermore, that God demonstrates in the New Testament how a person may become a Christian, thus a part of the church, and how Christians may collectively organize and carry out the purposes of the church which Christ established. Also realized is that Christians can do this without any prior knowledge of other Churches of Christ as different groups practicing this form of Christianity have discovered one another without any prior connection (e.g., different segments of what became known as the Restoration Movement; early, ante-Nicene churches).

Today, Churches of Christ usually have the following distinctive traits: the refusal to hold to any creeds other than the Bible itself (i.e., sola scriptura); the practice of repentance and believer's baptism in Christ's name as the response to receive remission of sins and the Holy Spirit (e.g., Mark 16:16; Acts 2:38; Acts 22:16); autonomous, non-denominational congregational church organization, with congregations overseen by a plurality of male elders; the weekly observance of communion/eucharist (i.e., the Lord's Supper); and the practice by most congregations of a cappella worship singing (although several related congregations use instruments while keeping these other practices - also known as Christian Churches).


As a Christian ecclesiastical term, Catholic - from the Greek adjective καθολικός, meaning "general" or "universal"[1] - is described in the Oxford English Dictionary as follows:

~Church, (originally) whole body of Christians; ~, belonging to or in accord with (a) this, (b) the church before separation into Greek or Eastern and Latin or Western, (c) the Latin Church after that separation, (d) the part of the Latin Church that remained under the Roman obedience after the Reformation, (e) any church (as the Anglican) claiming continuity with (b)." [1]
Leaving aside the historical meanings indicated under (b) and (c) above, the Oxford English Dictionary thus associates present-day Catholicism with:

(a) "the whole body of Christians". The actual extension of Catholicism in this sense varies with the different understandings of what it means to be a Christian.
(d) "the part of the Latin Church that remained under the Roman obedience after the Reformation", i.e. the Catholic or Roman Catholic Church. This definition of Catholicism should be expanded to cover the Eastern particular Churches that are in full communion with the Bishop of Rome, and that the Church in question sees as no less part of Catholicism than the Latin particular Church.
(e) "any church (as the Anglican) claiming continuity with the church before separation into Greek or Eastern and Latin or Western". Churches that make this claim of continuity include not only those of the Anglican Communion, but, among others, the Roman Catholic Church, the Eastern Orthodox Church, Oriental Orthodoxy, the Assyrian Church of the East. The claim of continuity may be based on apostolic succession, especially in conjunction with adherence to the Nicene Creed. Some interpret Catholicism as adherence to the traditional beliefs that Protestant Reformers denied (see, for example, the Oxford Movement).