Another Letter to My Nephew

Dear Nephew: (Bro. Aude’s nephew is a Church of Christ minister)

There are a great number of religious bodies in the U.S. and they all think they are right and have the true interpretation of scripture. But the “Church of Christ” claims to be very distinct from all the others. You rely a lot on the correct name of the church. There is even one group here in Bloomloomin , Indiana which is separated from the main body and emphasizes the definite article “The Church of Christ.” They would no doubt be shocked to discover that “church of Christ” (singular) is not mentioned in the New Testament! In fact, “churches of Christ” (plural) is only found once (Rom. 16:16).

No unique name

The “church of God” is found 10 times, “the sect of the Nazarene’s” once, “church of the firstborns” once (Heb. 12:13). The community of believers is referred to as “brethren” more than 200 times; and to those who can read the Greek, it is referred to as “brethren in Christ” (Chris­tadelphians) once (Col. 1:2). The mere name of the church clearly does not distinguish you from others as being the true church.

No difference in doctrine

If you are different from other groups, the difference would have to be in the doctrines you believe and teach. Yet when we look at your major doctrines, they are the same as other groups. You believe and teach the immortality of the soul — that the conscious, thinking part of man survives the death of the physical body. So do the Catholics, Baptists, Meth­odists, Mormons and Muslims. You believe and teach the doctrine of a supernatural personal devil that perpetuates sin in the world. The Meth­odists, Baptists, Catholics, Mormons and J. W’s. believe the same. You believe in the trinity as do the Baptists, Methodists, Mormons, and Catholics. The church debated the trinity for 100 years until finally announcing it as a compulsory doctrine in the fourth century. It survived the Reformation and was accepted by the Protestants. So you are in fellowship with all of them on that subject. You believe and teach that the church is the kingdom of God. You are in fellowship with all the others on that point, too. Augustine first announced that doctrine in the fourth century; the Roman church acted consistently with the idea as they tried to “break in pieces and consume” all the other kingdom-churches (note Dan. 2:44).

Christadelphians are different

As you know, the doctrines mentioned above are all rejected as false teaching by the Christadelphians. By “rightly dividing the word of truth,” we consider them to be the fulfillment of the corrupting influence that Christ and the apostles predicted would invade the church between the first and second coming of Christ.

Space forbids me making extensive comment on all the doctrines mentioned, but I will make one statement on your doctrine concerning the immortality of the soul. In making the statement, I anticipate your criticism and maybe your humor:

Jesus said that when a man dies, “in that very day his thoughts perish” (Psa. 146:4).

Jesus said: “in death there is no remembrance of thee (God).” In other words, whatever a person could remember while living, he could not do so while dead (Psa. 6:5).

Jesus said: “For the living know that they shall die, but the dead know not anything…also their love, and their hatred, and their envy is now perished” (Eccl. 9:5-6).

Jesus did not say these things himself, but I have stated it this way to impress you with the fact that Jesus did endorse the divine, inspired authority of those who did say it. As he said of the apostles — “He that heareth you heareth me” (Luke 10:16)

— so those who heard the Old Testa­ment heard the words which Jesus endorsed as the words of God.

Old Testament is scripture

Every place the word “scripture” is used in the New Testament, it refers to the Old Testament (with the possible exception of II Peter 3:16). The admonitions of Jesus are there for you to heed: “have ye not read,” “is it not written,” “search the scrip­tures.” All Old Testament scripture is given by the inspiration of God and is “profitable for doctrine” (II Tim. 3:16).

Think it over! I will be interested in your answer.