The body of Christ, composed of all of the called-out ones, has no official denomination or designation. The sacred scriptures employ no exclusive term or brand by which to identify that body. It is variously described, defined and denoted by a number of common nouns. The selection and exaltation of any one of these as the recognized title is sectarian and partisan. It is a work of the flesh. This was clearly understood by the reformers who preceded us. For example, M. C. Kurfees, speaking at the Abilene Christian College Lectureship in 1921, said:
In the present divided state of the church and under the influence of parlance growing out of a denominational environment, it is difficult to avoid being sectarian or denominational in our speech; and hence there is a growing tendency today to sectarianize even the term 'church of Christ' This is invariably the case when it is used, as it frequently is nowadays, to mean merely those people of God who do not work through missionary societies and do not use instrumental music in the worship, and to exclude other children of God who make the mistake of working and worshiping in the said ways. The church of Christ in any city today, using the term in accordance with Biblical usage, includes all the children of God in the said city; and until these principles are observed, the primitive church, in its constitution, its doctrine, its faith, and its practice will never be fully restored. Let us plead for the spread and recognition of these principles and for the complete restoration of the primitive church.
That kind of talk is no longer indulged in the lectureship. The reason is clear. Our brethren had now rather be sectarian than right. They have "withdrawn fellowship" posthumously from Thomas Campbell, Alexander Campbell, Tolbert Fanning, David Lipscomb, J. W. McGarvey and M. C. Kurfees. These "liberals" have been cast out of the synagogue in absentia, and one loyal theologian in Colorado said that if Paul had been a member of his congregation when he allowed James to talk him into going into the temple with the Jewish brethren who were zealous for the law, he would have called him on the carpet to confess his wrongs. If he had refused there would have been one apostle no longer in the foundation of "The Church of Christ." You are not even safe now after you are dead!
One of our notable traits is to search the scriptures to justify what we have already adopted. In no other area is this practice more prevalent than as it relates to "the name of the church." We really put the wire-stretchers to work on this one. One of the favorites is Acts 4:12, where Peter said, "And there is salvation in no one else, for there is no other name under heaven given among men by which we must be saved."
Of course, Peter was not talking about the name of the church. He was talking about the name by which he had healed a lame man. "In the name of Jesus Christ of Nazareth, walk" (Acts 3:6). To the startled multitude, he said, "The God of our fathers glorified Jesus . . . and his name, by faith in his name, has made this man strong whom you see and know" (Acts 3:13, 16). To the belligerent council he said, "By the name of Jesus Christ of Nazareth, whom you crucified, whom God raised from the dead, by him this man is standing before you well."
We are not saved by the church. We are not saved by the name of the church. The church has to be saved. "Christ is the head of the church, his body, and is himself its Savior" (Ephesians 5:23). As Peter said, "There is salvation in no one else." His name is Jesus. He is the Christ. He was from Nazareth. But you just put up a nice neon sign with the insignia"Church of Jesus Christ of Nazareth (Acts 4:12)," and see how many Texas license plates you count in your parking lot.
Did you know that Peter and John were not Christians when they healed the lame man? Do you realize there was not a single Christian in the whole congregation at Jerusalem then? If you had been on a "personally conducted holy land tour" at that time, and had slipped up and asked Peter if he was a member of the Church of Christ, he would have jumped like he would if you told him he was "the first pope." Sectarianism plays funny tricks with men's minds. It also destroys their moral integrity.
I am about convinced that the King James Version is responsible for most of our ludicrous arguments. Actually, the word "church" shouldn't even be in the Bible. It isn't a translation of ekklesia, and never was. Fenton John Anthony Hort, of Hort and Wescott fame recognized this. He gave up trying to find an Anglo-Saxon equivalent as he explains in "The Christian Ecclesia." Alexander Campbell knew it. He never used the word in Living Oracles, always employing "congregation" instead. Perhaps the word "community" as used in The Authentic Version is the best of all. "Convey my regards to one another with a chaste kiss. All the Christian communities send their regards" (Romans 16:16).
When our brethren are confronted with the fact that the term "church of Christ" is not in the Bible, while the expression "church of God" is used repeatedly, they agree that it would be permissible to use that designation. None of them do it though. About a half dozen other parties beat us to that one and staked their claim before we got around to it. Now we cannot use it because someone on the highway might get confused and drop in under the impression that we really were "The Church of God." If we had not come into the census so late in the game, our title would probably be "church of God," and we would be quoting scripture to sustain it. The Gospel Advocate would be a Church of God paper, and Harding College would be a Church of God school, according to common parlance.
We have worked out some pretty good answers. They are shrewd ones if you do not study too seriously or investigate too closely. Take Acts 20:23, for example. "Feed the church of God, which he hath purchased with his own blood." It was Christ who shed his blood, so God is Christ here, and thus Paul meant "church of Christ" when he wrote "church of God." All this, in spite of the fact that just seven verses back, and in the same speech, Paul clearly distinguishes between God, and our Lord Jesus Christ.
There is pretty strong indication that the King James Version may be a wee bit misleading. The Authentic Version has it, "See to it that you tend God's community, which he has acquired with the blood of his own (Son)." J. H. Moulton in a Grammar of New Testament Greek says, "I ventured to cite this as a possible encouragement to those who would translate Acts 20:28, 'the blood of one who was his own.'" The Concordant Literal Version has it, "Shepherding the ecclesia of God, which he procures through the blood of his own."
We used to make quite a play on this verse by using the deed to a piece of property and showing that the one who bought and paid for it would want it recorded in his name. It wasn't a bad illustration, but it would wreck our sectarian playhouse. As I pointed out last month, Christ is the office of Jesus, and not his name. He is Jesus the Christ. If Mr. Brown, the carpenter, had his property recorded as belonging to Mr. Carpenter, his heirs and assigns would be in a real predicament. Even so, in our illustration from the verse, we should have come out with "church of God" like Paul did. But we never did, we always got it adjusted and corrected before the recorder got hold of it.
I must not forget Ephesians 3:14, 15. "For this cause I bow my knees unto the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, of whom the whole family in heaven and earth is named." It was easy to assume that this meant that the entire family bore the name Christ. But this argument is as shaky as a gelatin salad. First off, as pointed out by B. W. Johnson, in that perennial best-seller, People's New Testament With Notes, "The Father is referred to. The words, 'Of our Lord Jesus Christ,' are not found in the best manuscripts, and are omitted in the Revision."
That is a real blow! But there is another. The word translated "family" is in the plural. It should read "every family." The subject under consideration is the universal fatherhood of God, not the name of the one body. Paul bows the knee to the Father because of his sovereignty. He is the origin and source of all fatherhood. There is not a chain of lineal descent on earth, nor an order of beings in the celestial realm which does not owe its beginning to the Father. "There is one God, the Father, from whom are all things and for whom we exist" (1 Cor. 8:6).
The Revised Standard Version has, "For this reason I bow my knees before the Father, from whom every family in heaven and on earth is named" (Eph. 3:14). This is consistent with the language of the apostle and we concur in it. Only those who are hard pressed to justify the existence of an exclusive sect would use this as our brethren have used it in the past. I am not interested in sectarian defence, not even our own. I am opposed to the very spirit of sectarianism.
The same observation needs to be made about the illogical mental gymnastics employed on Hebrews 12:23, where the apostle refers to "the church of the firstborn which is written in heaven." Sermon outline books jump on the word firstborn, and then hie away to Colossians 1:18, where Jesus is referred to as the head of the body, the church. "He is the beginning, the firstborn from the dead." The chain of reasoning is simple. Jesus is the firstborn, the church is the church of the firstborn, therefore, the church is "the church of Christ."
But the word for firstborn in Hebrews 12:23, is plural, the firstborn ones. It cannot refer to Jesus. The writer is addressing Hebrews who knew that under the covenant, the firstborn belonged to God (Exodus 13:12). The church is made up of those who are God's own people. It is "the church of the firstborn ones whose names are enrolled in heaven." The reference is to the constituency, and not to Jesus as the head at all.
There is no official title for the ekklesia of the new covenant. Only common nouns are used to identify it and these are nouns of relationship. In a corporate sense the saints are referred to by such words as church, flock, temple, family and body. But church of God is no more the official name than flock of God or temple of God. The expression "church of Christ" may be employed as a name of the church. It must never be employed as the name of a church!
When I speak of the church in Saint Louis, I am not limiting the term to a special party in the religious realm bearing the designation "Church of Christ." I refer to every child of God, every born-again believer, every member of the new humanity in this teeming metropolitan center. They are not all meeting behind signboards bearing the caption "Church of Christ." God's sheep are still a scattered flock. Some are wandering on sectarian hills. Some are caught in sectarian thickets. Some are feeding at troughs where they must subsist on fodder flavored and seasoned with sectarian salt.
But if they are in his family they are my brothers and sisters. I love them all, not with that cold detached love of the partisan who seeks to love by rote or letter of the law, but with a warmth and compassion which recognizes my own ignorance and regrettable shortcomings. The body of Christ is greater than any of our parties. It is greater than all of them put together. It is greater than any movement of the body or in the body which seeks to reform its constituency. It is more majestic than any restoration movement!
Let me be clear and bold in my declaration. There are those who spend their time going over what I write with a fine tooth comb, seeking for scraps of information with which they can attack me in the minds of prejudiced readers. Allow me to save them the trouble of such meticulous research. I believe that there are Christians in the sects of our day. I believe that these are in the church of God by divine appointment, and in sectarian pastures through personal choice, influenced by tradition, teaching and early training. Our task is not to unite sects, but the Christians within them. We can never accomplish this task by creating another sect. It makes no difference whether such a sect is designated by a term lifted from the scripture or the English dictionary, sectarianism will never be overcome by creating additional sects. It is sectarianism against which I shall test the steel of my swordblade, and if that sectarianism is our own, it too must go!