The churches of Christ are not a cult
The case of Mary Winkler, who shot her husband Matthew in the back with a shotgun, has now garnered national attention. Since Matthew Winkler was the pulpit minister for the Fourth Street Church of Christ in Selmer, Tennessee, the Churches of Christ have also been vaulted onto the national stage, with quite a bit of misinformation being dumped into the national media.
On CNN Headline News, Nancy Grace’s show focused on the Winkler case on March 27 and March 29. During the March 29 show, according to the transcript, the following exchange took place:
GRACE: A well-respected and much beloved minister in the Church of Christ, Selmer, Tennessee, gunned down in his own home. His wife, according to many reports, has confessed to police. They say whodunnit is not the issue, it’s why she did it. That is the question.I want to go to pastor Tom Rukala, joining us tonight, a special guest, a Baptist minister. I’ve been researching the Church of Christ. I don’t know that much about it. What can you tell me?
PASTOR TOM RUKALA, BAPTIST PASTOR: Well, the Church of Christ is a relatively new church. It was started about 150 years ago by Alexander Campbell (ph). And it’s, unfortunately, a very legalistic sect, and they tend to use methods of intimidation and pressure tactics. They claim that they are the only ones going to heaven, and all other people are condemned to hell. So in case…
GRACE: Uh-oh, I’m in trouble. But I already knew that.
(LAUGHTER)
GRACE: Now, wait a minute. What more can you tell me?
RUKALA: Well, they claim that if you’re not baptized by one of their ministers, that you’re doomed to hell, even if you’re a believer in Jesus Christ, which, of course, breaks completely from the traditional Christian view that all those who call upon the name of the Lord Jesus Christ will be saved because we’re saved by grace through faith in Jesus Christ, who died for our sins and rose again. For the Church of Christ folks, that’s not enough. You have to be a member of their narrow sect. It’s a very exclusive group. And if you’re not a member of their sect, you’re condemned.
GRACE: You know, Pastor, you keep saying “sect.” “Sect.” You make it sound like a cult.
RUKALA: It kind of is a borderline cult, unfortunately. I don’t want to make it out to be some kind of Hare Krishna group, but it has cult-like characteristics and…
GRACE: In what sense?
RUKALA: Well, in the sense of the exclusivism, the attitude that they are the only ones who know the truth. The tactics that they use are sometimes just — not only un-biblical but unethical, and they can be very ungracious, unfortunately.
As a lifelong member of the Churches of Christ, I find this exchange bizarre and distressing. To begin with, why is a Baptist pastor—not a scholar with a specialty in American church history, but some random Baptist pastor—trotted out as an expert on the Churches of Christ? Surely a well-known Church of Christ minister would have been a better choice than a little-known Baptist pastor. Somebody like, I don’t know, Max Lucado?
In any event, Grace turned to this Rukala character, and he managed to trot out just about every negative stereotype possible. Let’s break it down.
“The Church of Christ is a relatively new church.” So far, so good. The Churches of Christ do in fact trace their immediate heritage to the “Restoration Movement” or, as its earliest leaders preferred to call it, “Reformation” (Jim West must be laughing right now). Among the early leaders of that movement were Alexander Campbell, his father Thomas Campbell, and Barton W. Stone. Alexander Campbell certainly has outshone the others in lasting influence among Churches of Christ. And Rukala is correct to date the beginnings of the Churches of Christ as an American religious movement to the mid-1800s. Of course, Baptists are also “a relatively new church,” existing as an American religious movement only since the early seventeenth century (according to the Baptist History & Heritage Society). Interestingly, some of the early leaders of Churches of Christ were Baptists before joining up with the new movement. And what the Baptist History & Heritage Society says of the 17th-century Baptists perfectly describes the 19th-century Churches of Christ:
Some of these earnest people read the Bible in their own language, believed it, and sought to live by it. They formed separate congregations which accepted only believers into their membership, and they baptized converts upon their profession of faith.
“It’s, unfortunately, a very legalistic sect.” A Baptist calling Churches of Christ legalistic—is this CNN or Comedy Central? The truth is that Churches of Christ do have a strong legalistic streak in our history, but so do Baptists, Catholics, and many other denominations. Legalism in one form or another has been around for millennia as a perennial problem within Christianity, and Churches of Christ have not been immune.
“They tend to use methods of intimidation and pressure tactics.” I suppose this is true, if you happen to find altar calls featuring sixteen iterations of “Just as I am, without one plea …” an instance of “intimidation and pressure tactics.” Some of the evangelistic “tactics” that Churches of Christ have historically used include overseas missionaries, door-to-door solicitation of Bible studies, “revivals” (though we call them “gospel meetings”), tracts, television programs, radio programs, filmstrips and videos, neighborhood Vacation Bible Schools, and the aforementioned altar calls (we call them “invitations”). I seem to recall my Baptist friends doing all of these as well, never mind the Lutherans and the Church of God … well, practically everybody except the Unitarian Universalists (I’ve never heard of a UU VBS, but maybe they happen). On the other hand, maybe Rukala is talking about pressures exerted within Churches of Christ toward internal conformity. That kind of stuff certainly does go on, sometimes degenerating into name-calling, especially among the more dogmatic segments of Churches of Christ. But the same sort of stuff goes on in the Southern Baptist Convention year after year, and nobody calls the SBC a “cult.”
“They claim that they are the only ones going to heaven, and all other people are condemned to hell. … [T]hey claim that if you’re not baptized by one of their ministers, that you’re doomed to hell …” To be fair, there have indeed been a very large number of members of Churches of Christ who have adopted this attitude. This was not the attitude of people like Alexander Campbell and Barton W. Stone in the first generation of the Restoration Movement, and very many Church of Christ members today abhor such an attitude. In fact, if pressed, probably no member of the Church of Christ would actually say that you have to be signed up on the roll sheet of a specific Church of Christ congregation in order to go to heaven. Even those who are most strident on this point would probably put it in terms like “Only those who have been baptized in the name of Father, Son, and Holy Spirit for the remission of sins, and who then live a life consistent with that baptism, will be saved.”
“It kind of is a borderline cult, unfortunately. I don’t want to make it out to be some kind of Hare Krishna group, but it has cult-like characteristics … in the sense of the exclusivism, the attitude that they are the only ones who know the truth.” Oh come on. Rukala is describing arrogance, not cultishness. And the Churches of Christ have absolutely exhibited more than our fair share of arrogance … but no more so than Baptists. Should I even mention that Pat Robertson and Jerry Falwell hold Southern Baptist ordination? Arrogance is not the exclusive province of the Churches of Christ.
In fact, the loose structure of the Churches of Christ inherently means that Churches of Christ lack, and can never possibly have, one of the defining marks of a “cult”: a charismatic, authoritarian leader.
Fortunately, Nancy Grace’s March 29 show actually featured a Church of Christ minister talking about Churches of Christ. They tried to get Mike Cope, but couldn’t accomplish this technically from Abilene, where Mike preaches. So they got Rubel Shelly instead. Here’s how it went (please note that the transcript consistently misspells Rubel’s name):
GRACE: Is the Church of Christ a cult? Is it cult-like? Did that play into this murder in any way?With us, Dr. Ruble Shelly, professor of philosophy and religion at Rochester College. He’s a Church of Christ minister. He knows the Winkler family. Let’s take a look.
Single leader, cult-like qualities, trying to isolate members, members happy and enthusiastic — I don’t think that’s a bad thing — experimental rather than logical, hide what they teach, say they’re the only true group.
Dr. Shelly, response?
DR. RUBLE SHELLY, CHURCH OF CHRIST, PROFESSOR OF PSYCHOLOGY: It certainly doesn’t fit the criteria you just gave. We certainly have never created those charismatic personalities. We’re a network of independent, local churches.
And your guests so far, I’m the only one who has to plead guilty to being a member of the Church of Christ. And Churches of Christ certainly are not cultic in any of that classic sense.
We’re a conservative, religious group in the Christian tradition. You’d ask one of our members, and we’d say we jump right off the pages of the New Testament. Historically, we come out of what’s called the American Restoration movement, but the cultic label — I can’t imagine anyone sticking that label.
GRACE: Dr. Shelly, what is the role of women in the Church of Christ?
SHELLY: Well, we believe that God created the human race male and female in his image and that Paul said there is no male or female in Christ. There are some male leadership options, in terms of elders of churches, and most preaching ministries that are reserved to males, but that’s not a cultic fact.
GRACE: Why? Why?
SHELLY: Well, that’s because of a biblical interpretation issue that Southern Baptists and many other groups share in common with Churches of Christ about male leadership in local churches. Churches of Christ are a conservative religious group.
GRACE: OK, wait, wait, wait. Dr. Shelly, no offense, by why, why only male leadership? Does anybody remember Mary Magdalene, ding ding?
SHELLY: Well, Mary Magdalene was not an apostle. All of the apostles were, in fact…
GRACE: Well, Judas was, and that certainly isn’t saying very much.
SHELLY: Well, we don’t want to quarrel with gender issues, with regard to salvation. And probably, I’m more broad-minded and a bit more liberal in terms of things that I would affirm that women have a right to do in church leadership than some of the people in our churches, but generally…
GRACE: OK. Dr. Shelly, let me move on, because I agree with you.
SHELLY: No, you asked the question as to where it came from.
GRACE: Yes, and I’d love an answer.
SHELLY: First, Timothy 2:11 and 2:12 talks about male leadership in churches. And that text has a great deal hung on it by religious conservatives to say that fathers in homes and elders in churches as male leadership, protective leadership, not abusive leadership.
GRACE: Dr. Shelly, do members of the Church of Christ church believe that that is the only way to heaven?
SHELLY: No. Churches of Christ began in an historical movement whose slogan was, “Christians only, not the only Christians”…
(CROSSTALK)
GRACE: No, no, no, wait, wait, wait, wait, don’t need a history lesson, as much as I appreciate it. We’re only an hour long. Do you believe that Jews and Muslims…
SHELLY: Well, you asked the question. The answer is no, because our slogan is…
GRACE: … will also go to heaven?
SHELLY: Christians only, not the only Christians. We don’t believe we’re the only Christians or the only ones going to heaven.
GRACE: OK, now, you know…
SHELLY: There may be individuals who do.
GRACE: You have got a great sense of career as a lawyer.
SHELLY: Churches of Christ are a loose network of independent churches. And I suspect you could find someone who believes most anything on your scale.
GRACE: Reverend, yes, no, do you believes that Jews or Muslims can go to heaven?
SHELLY: I believe that Jews and Muslims are to be shared the gospel of Christ. Now, that’s a much larger issue.
GRACE: Gotcha, OK. All right. I get it.
SHELLY: I do believe that Jesus is the only path to heaven, of course. Conservative Christians believe that.
GRACE: Deepak Chopra, response?
CHOPRA: You know, when I listen to these debates, I can’t help but think that religion has become divisive, quarrelsome, and sometimes even idiotic.
I don’t even know where to begin to express my feelings about this exchange. Nancy Grace didn’t even give Rubel a chance to finish a sentence, and then she gives Deepak Chopra, of all people, the final word on Rubel’s attempts at a levelheaded description of the Churches of Christ! Ridiculous! Compare this to how long she let Bob Jones—yes, that Bob Jones—go on during the same program:
GRACE: OK. I want to go very quickly now to a very special guest, Bob Jones, chancellor of Bob Jones University. Welcome, Reverend. A couple of questions. This case has highlighted a very serious concern, and that is, when you look to your religious leader, in this case the pastor of their church, people look to them and their family for religious guidance. They are somewhat examples to the members of the flock.How serious is this? How serious a blow is this to this church’s flock? And also, many people have suggested the Church of Christ is a cult. Now, they deny that. What do you think?
BOB JONES, CHANCELLOR, BOB JONES UNIVERSITY: Well, Nancy, it’s obvious that when your Christian leader, be it pastor or whatever he may call himself, falls into sin, it’s a terrible — it’s a terrible blow. And in this case, the pastor’s wife has obviously disappointed her Lord and her congregation. And just like all over the world, there are very disillusioned Catholics whose priests were revealed as pedophiles, and when that all got revealed, it just shattered everybody’s confidence. And so yes, it is very disconcerting.
The Church of Christ is a legitimate national denomination. Their beliefs about salvation, in particular, would be one of the things I would have vast differences with them with personally because I think, you know, it’s very clear from the scripture that we’re redeemed to Christ through the blood of the cross, not by the baptismal waters. But I could not personally call it a cult in any way. It’s just a denomination who has doctrines that I personally don’t subscribe to because they aren’t biblical.
Well, at least Bob Jones recognizes that the Churches of Christ are not a cult. But even Bob Jones seems undereducated about the Churches of Christ. If there is anyone in Churches of Christ who believes that it’s actually the baptismal water that “redeems” a person, they believe that on the basis of 1 Peter 3:18-22, which precisely says “baptism … now saves you.” But honestly, when pressed, I think most members of Churches of Christ would agree with Bob Jones that we are saved by the blood of Christ—and that is in our baptismal participation in the death, burial, and resurrection of Jesus that we avail ourselves of the gracious gift of that redeeming blood. We sing “Washed in the Blood,” not “Washed in the Baptistry.”
I could rant on, but I’d better not, right at the moment. I’m just so angry at the way Churches of Christ have been bashed as a “cult” on CNN. I appeal to you, dear reader, whoever you may be, not to be taken in by this hooey. The Churches of Christ are, as Rubel Shelly said, a loosely organized network of autonomous Christian churches who cluster on the conservative end of the American Christian spectrum. We are by no means a “cult.”
10 comments Christopher Heard | religion
I think it’s a sad thing when leaders of other churches feel it is their place to judge the churches of Christ. I’m glad Rubel did not stoop to bashing other religions. I teach at a church of Christ school. We have Muslim students, Catholic students, Messianic Jews, and many Christian denominations represented in the student body. We teach the way we preach…directly from scripture. I imagine these parents would never pay to send their students to a school that practiced the kinds of things mentioned in this interview when their are other private school options all over our city. It is sad when ones church is slandered in the media, but to be expected.
I believe the Church of Christ is the church God’s son Jesus died for. If anyone would sit down and research the early church you would discover there was only one church. The book of Acts in the bible gives the complete history of the beginning of the Lord’s Church. In 1Corinthians the word of God explains His objection to different denominations. Did a man die for us or did Jesus Christ die for us? All of the denominations were founded by a man and not ordained by God!. The Church of the bible was founded on the day of Pentacost ,please refer to Acts chapter two. We all must put our personal opinions and philosophies aside and accept the truth of God’s word the bible! Jesus died and rose again for the Church and He bought the Church with His own blood. Therefore He Deserves to have the Church named for him the Churchn of Christ! Amen
Does the church of Christ teach they are the only ones going to Heaven?
I was not raised up attending the church of Christ, but I obeyed the Gospel according to what the Bible teaches, and I now serve as a minister for the church of Christ. The question, which is the heading for this article, has been posed to me on many occasions since becoming a member of the church, usually by members of denominational churches.
I must say that I have never heard this statement made by anyone in the church. I have heard jokes like the one that describes the apostle Peter escorting a person who was a member of a well known denomination through Heaven. They reached a certain section and Peter told the man to be very quiet. When the man asked why, then Peter explained that the people in this section were members of the church of Christ, and they think they are the only ones here.
The Bible clearly teaches that some will go to Heaven and some will go to Hell. In Matthew 25:46 Jesus said, “And these will go away into everlasting punishment, but the righteous into eternal life.” No one should be fond of the idea of eternal punishment.
It would be nice to believe that everyone is going to Heaven, and that no one is going Hell. However, the verse above, and many others like it, tell us this line of thinking is not the way it will be. Perhaps the question being asked should be, “who will go to Heaven, and who will go to Hell”?
The Bible describes many elements that involve whether a person is going to Heaven or Hell. In order to be granted entry into Heaven a person will have to be judged righteous by the things set forth in God’s Word. Through the inspiration of almighty God, Paul said,
“For I am not ashamed of the gospel of Christ: for it is the power of God unto salvation to every one that believeth; to the Jew first, and also to the Greek. For therein is the righteousness of God revealed from faith to faith: as it is written. The just shall live by faith. For the wrath of God is revealed from heaven against all ungodliness and unrighteousness of men, who hold the truth in unrighteousness;” (Rom. 1:16-18).
From that passage alone one can see the importance Paul placed upon the Gospel, because as he says, in it “the righteousness of God is revealed.” Paul also states that God’s wrath will be revealed against those who “hold the truth in unrighteousness.” This implies that some will think and teach that they have the truth, but actually they do not have it. Jesus said, “Not everyone who says to Me, Lord, Lord, shall enter the Kingdom of Heaven, but he who does the will of My Father in Heaven” (Matt. 7:21).
The pattern that produced Christians in the New Testament is the only means still authorized for conversion in this age. It was the will of God then, and it is the will of God now. Ultimately the decision of who will and will not go to Heaven belongs to God. Since no man can stand justified before God, without the grace of God, it will be entirely up to God as to who this grace is applied. God’s Word teaches that His grace will be applied to those who “obey the gospel.”
This is implied by the fact that Jesus will return “In flaming fire taking vengeance on them that know not God, and that obey not the gospel of our Lord Jesus Christ: Who shall be punished with everlasting destruction from the presence of the Lord, and from the glory of his power; (2Thess. 1:8-9).” The church of Christ does not teach that they are the only ones going to Heaven. God’s Word teaches that those who are saved will go to Heaven!
Those who obey the Gospel, and remain faithful to God, are the saved. God’s Word shows us the pattern by which New Testament converts became Christians, and that same pattern is what the church of Christ teaches as necessity to salvation. It is not for man to say who will and will not go to Heaven. It is up to man to seek the will of God, obey it, and teach it. We do not apologize for saying, “We must follow God and not man.”
Why in America do we make such a great attempt to be all inclusive when it comes to Christianity?
Jesus made this statement in John 14:6, “I am the WAY the TRUTH and the LIFE and no man can come to the FATHER but by me.” In this staement Jesus stated directly that no one will come to the Father except they come through him ( Jesus). How hard is this to understand.
My next question then would become how do I come to the Father though Jesus? We enter into a relationship with Jesus and thus the Father through baptism. Romans 6:2-11 says,By no means! How can we who died to sin still live in it? Do you not know that all of us who have been baptized into Christ Jesus were baptized into his death? We were buried therefore with him by baptism into death, so that as Christ was raised from the dead by the glory of the Father, we too might walk in newness of life. For if we have been united with him in a death like his, we shall certainly be united with him in a resurrection like his. We know that our old self was crucified with him so that the sinful body might be destroyed, and we might no longer be enslaved to sin. For he who has died is freed from sin. But if we who have died with Christ, we believe that that we shall also live with him. For we know that christ being raised from the dead will never die again;death no longer has dominion over him. the death he died he died to sin, once for all, but the life he lives he lives to God. so you might also must consider yourself dead to sin and alive to God in christ Jesus.
Also in 1 Peter 3:18-21 For Christ also died for sins once for all, the righteous and for the unrighteous, that he might bring us to God, being put to death in the flesh but made alive in spirit; in which he went and preached to the spirits in prison who formely did not obey, when God’s patience waited in the days of Noah during the building of the ark, in which a few, that is, eight persons, were saved through water. Baptism, which corresponds to this; now saves you, not the removal of dirt but an appeal to God for a clear conscience, through the resurrection of Jesus Christ.
We then enter into Jesus by our death, burial and resurrection. Which is accomplished through baptism. Why do we find it hard in this day and age to see what is written and why then when a person is willing to stand up and say that it is through Jesus that a person may acheive salvation is that person labled an elitist and possible a member of a cult. I so much wish Nancy Gracy had allowed Rubel Shelly to fully naswer her as it would have been an opportunity to get the Gospel message on national television. Hopefully though through this forum some will read about the true stance of the church of Christ and be lead to Jesus and through him to the Father
The bible teaches painly that whoever that doesnt ibide in the doctrine of Christ must not have fellowship with Christians includind christ
Three myths that requires exposing is that Alexander Campbell with others in the 1800s started the church of Christ. Bro. Campbell was at pains to point out that churches of Christ in Great Britain started separately from the American Restoration Movement. The other myth is that the churches of Christ are a consequence of the Reformation. In Europe churches of Christ pre-existed the Reformation. The last myth is that of the various Baptist Church denominations, for they came out of apostate churches of Christ in England in the mid 1600s. This shocking revelation about the Baptist Church is largely unknown. The Baptists make much of their history but forget to tell that they once used the identity ‘church of Christ’, baptised for remission of sins, rejected Calvinism and original sin and held to falling away. Baptists who reject the Lord’s Church need to look further into their own history, to a time when they were the church of Christ!
Keith Sisman
preacher, Ramsey church of Christ, Cambridgeshire, England
The Baptist minister got it right – the C of C has many cult-like qualities, and as a “demomination” are a clear example of what it means to have a “sectarian spirit” – the Sadducees and Pharisees would be right at home there.
When all is said and done we don’t know much more than before the article. The Churches of Christ are not responsible for this minister’s wife killing her husband. That is for sure. It is evasive and toned down for the answer to be given about Jews and Moslems that was given in the interview. Wouldn’t it have been better to say that God is our final judge?
If the coC is known for either not having music or for being the only ones going to heaven instead of loving each other (as Jesus said is the actual mark of his disciples), then shame on us.
I am a member of the Church of Christ and have been asked the question, do you guys think only members of the Church of Christ will be saved? My answer is usually “yes…every Christian IS a member of the Church of Christ in the Biblical sense”. They may or may not worship at a congregation that wears that name or even that functions in perfect conformity to God’s will (and no congregation whatever its name meets that requirement). To compare the church in the NT with human organizations is an apples/oranges comparison. Striving to practice simple NT Christianity in a worthy goal and I think “we” should keep at it and strive to live the love of Christ in its fullness. Judging others is not so worthy a goal. I wish Nancy Grace had lived up to the name she wears just a little more!! Thanks to Dr. Shelly for his good efforts in that pressure-cooker situation!