By Ronald Bartanen Via Bulletin Gold
Congregations usually identified by the term “churches
of Christ” consists of a people who want to be known
individually as Christians, in honor of Christ. We have no
earthly headquarters, and take as our one rule of faith and
practice the New Testament seriptures. We endeavor to be
neither more nor less than believers in Christ were from the
beginning. We believe that, as New Testament believers,
when we believed Jesus to be the Christ, the Son of God
who died for our sins and was raised from the dead (1 Cor.
15:1-4), repented of our sins, confessed our faith and were
baptized (immersed) in the name of the Lord Jesus for the
remission of sins, the Lord added us to His church (Acts
2:36-38, 41, 47). We have not desired to join a denomination,
all of which were unknown to the apostles Christians.
What we do “in word or in deed” is not dictated by
and early denominational councils, but is to be “in the name of (by
authority of) the Lord” (Col. 3:17). Our plea is for
restoration of simple New Testament Christianity as
established by Christ and taught by the apostles, with
Christ as our creed, and the inspired word as our infallible
guide. This alone can be a sufficient ground for the unity
of be lievers, for which Jesus prayed prior to His crucifixion.
(John 17:21).
A plea that we have commonly heard and voiced has
ben “Let us call Bible things by Bible names, and let
us do Bible things in Bible ways. Let us speak where
the Bible speaks and be silent where the Bible is silent.”