"However, at the risk of becoming decidedly unpopular, I would like to suggest that the organization currently denominated "The Church of Christ" is not actually a restoration of the first century church at all but is a twentieth century party growing out of the abuse of a nineteenth century restoration movement."1
"...The Church of Christ' is not a restoration of the primitive congregation of the saints, but has degenerated into a twentieth century sect, employing all the means and methods of any other sect."2 "The restoration movement begun by noble men who were members of the Presbyterian, Methodist and Baptist parties, a century and a half ago, is already advanced far on the road to sec-tism..." "The church existed before Alexander Campbell was born. It lived in the days of John Wycliffe, John Huss, John Calvin and John Wesley. There was no separate party in their day known as "The Church of Christ" but the church of Christ was on earth. There never has been a time when Jesus was a shepherd without a sheep, a king without a subject, or a head without a body."3 "Unconsciously, those who voice a fear the church will lose its identity under the impact of our discussions on fellowship, reveal that they are really members of a sect..." "The truth is that our brethren have confused the party to which they are attached with the church of God. They are frightened by the thought that all of God's children may become one, and thus put an end to their party as well as all other factions. Since they look upon their faction as the church that would be equivalent to the church losing its identity."4 "Those who are presently members of one of the twenty-five factions denominating themselves "The Church of Christ" are generally good people. They are not inclined by nature to be vindictive or hateful. But they have been conditioned to believe that the particular 'Church of Christ' with which they are affiliated is identical with the church of God mentioned in the new covenant scriptures. Since each faction has its own test of fellowship in an unwritten legalistic code or creed it is obvious that one who does not subscribe to it is not a child of God."5 "It is thought by affixing the label The Church of Christ' over the gate and by denying that any others are the people of God, this will make them exclusively 'the Lord's church'... Occasionally some naive and partisan soul refers to 'the Lord's church' as having some two million adherents in the United States, forgetting that the Lord's church cannot be numbered by man and anything that can be is probably not the Lord's church."6 "The 'Church of Christ' today occupies the same relationship to the church of God as did the 'Christ party' in Corinth (I Cor. 11:12). While others were saying, 1 am of Paul' or 1 am of Apollos' or 1 follow Cephas', a member of this party would say, 1 am Christ's .'(But he did it for the same reason that the others said they belonged to various men, to draw a line of demarkation between his party and others in the church of God."7 "...as a people, we have lost our original reason for existence. We have ceased to be a movement in history and have become a monument to it. We praise pioneers whom we would not allow to preach from our pulpits if they were present. We parrot party slogans which we make little pretense of practicing."8 "I do not recognize 'The Church of Christ' as being the church of God in its fulness. God has children outside of the restoration movement. I have brethren who are not in either 'The Church of Christ' or 'The Christian Church'. I will give them brotherly recognition also."9 "There are more than eighteen separate and distinct groups among the non-instrument churches, and each one of these claims to be 'the loyal church' or 'the faithful church' with but few exceptions. Each regards all of the others as being in various stages of departure or apostasy."10 "As it now exists, rent, torn, and divided The Church of Christ' can never unite the world. It will complicate rather than solve the problems of a divided Christendom."11 "Every person on this earth, motivated by faith in Jesus as the Messiah, the Son of God, who has turned away from sin, and submitted to immersion of his body in water on the basis of that belief, is a member of God's family, and is my brother. I'm not sure that when we use the expression 'The Church of Christ' that we use it in that sense. It is possible that we use it as a designation for a small and exclusive segment of believers who agree with our position on various points of teaching. Thus we would imply that thousands of immersed believers in the Christ were not added to the family of God. This is, of course, a sectarian usage of the term."12 "Will The Church of Christ' repent and return to the original pattern? All history testifies to the contrary! She is now in the grasp of big business men, great promoters, and mercenaries. She will continue to digress farther and farther from the pattern, growing ever more sectarian in concept, developing an attitude of exclusiveness and bigotry, until God's people will have to come out of her that they be not partaker of her sins."13 "To denominate simply means to name. To choose a title such as 'The Church of Christ' makes of those doing so a denomination as certainly as such terms as The Baptist Church' or The Methodist Church' designate denominations. Any religious group wearing a specific name is a denomination in the true meaning of that term."14 "1. It is scriptural to designate the community of saints by any term employed by the Holy Spirit in the sacred writings.| 1May 1964, p. 73 | 10Nov. 1959, p. 2 | ||
| 2Oct. 1957, p. 11 | 11Dec. 1959, p. 1 | ||
| 3Oct. 1960, pp. 3, 4 | 12Feb. 1957, p. 3 | ||
| 4April 1961, p 12 | 13Oct. 1957, p. 11 | ||
| 5June 1961, p. 9 | 14Oct. 1960, p. 2 | ||
| 6Dec. 1962, p. 2 | 15Oct. 1960, p. 10 | ||
| 7July 1962, p. 11 | 16Oct. 1960, p. 9 | ||
| 8Aug. 1964, p. 114 | 17Nov. 1976, p. 162 | ||
| 9Feb. 1963, p. 24 |