Disciples of Christ

There are different shades of the group so each church may be a little different.

Church gov. is elders and deacons and some, years ago, didn't have full time pastors.

Many used to be Amill. and as to Cal/Armen. I'd guess it goes with the different churches and tending toward Armen. They have prided themselves on individual liberty in the area of belief beyond a few basic beliefs so a wide variety of belief may be the norm. In the early days they rejected original sin, but held all man is sinful by nature.

They, for the most part, believe in baptismal regeneration - have to be baptized to be saved.

 

The Doc is the self professed liberal side of the Restoration Movement.

Alexander/Thomas Campbell and Barton Stone helped spurred it on... The Restoration Movement was a Christian Unity movement based on having "no other creed but the bible" that involved Methodists, Presbytarians and Baptists...

The beginning of the movement was a huge Holy Spirit ourpouring in Cane Ridge, KY in the early 1800s.

By the early 1920s the movement had lost its unity and split three ways... The Church of Christ being the very conservative side of the movement, the Christian Church being more middle of the road and the Disciples of Christ being the more liberal side (once again self-professed).

The Church of Christ generally stands for - Post Millenial, Total Autonomy, Weekly Lord's Supper, non-instrumental, baptism for the remission of sins...

The Christian Church generally stands for semi-autonomy, weekly lords supper, instrumental music, baptism as a response to belief, post millenial

The Discples of Christhave a type of government (kinda like the southern baptist convention), instrumental, weekly lords supper, more orthodox with regard to "clergy" and worship styles, and belive generally that baptism is a response to belief...

Remember all these are generalizations and the history of these movements are much more complex than what I can say in a couple of words.

All are from the same movement yet they hardly communicate. The same wedge that Satan loves to drive between movements within the Baptists is ever present in the Restoration movement... just to a much more powerful degree.... the wedge I'm referring to is the one that tells us "we are not all part of the same Church", that "we can't communicate with those outside of our local group or traditions".

Hope that helps...

 

I would say that amillennial would be a more accurate description, although I was surprised that several Church of Christ preachers had signed a full preterist document -

http://prophecyrefi.org/scroll_m.htm

 

An interesting book on this subject is entitled: "Cane Ridge, America's Pentecost".It It is out of print can be found on ebay , amazon, etc.

 

I said they were post-millenial... I had my terms messed up, yes they are for the most a-millenial.

I know in the CoC congregation I grew up in it was preached that those who had a pre-millenial view were false teachers (if they taught it) and in sin (if they believed it).

I'm thankful I realize that having a post/pre/a millenial view is nothing more than opinion.

Christ led me to Romans 14 to see why I was wrong... Praise the Lord for the freedom of Christ!

 

The Disciples of Christ is headquartered downtown Indianapolis. My family on both sides was in that denomination, and some on my mother's side are buried in their rural cemeteries.

After World War II, they went very liberal. They have no hard and fast doctrine but are fond of saying, "Where the Bible speaks, we speak." Nowadays they ordain women and homosexuals.

All of my family has left that denomination. Most became nothing at all. Some went into Pentecostalism. Some went into other liberal denominations such as Presbyterians USA and Episcopal Church. Some went into the Church of Christ. I am the only one to become a member of the SBC or any other Baptist church.

One of the most lovely things produced by the Disciples of Christ (coincidentally, here in Indianapolis at the Central Avenue Christian Church in downtown Indianapolis} was the hymn Beautiful Isle of Somewhere written by Mrs. Jessie B. Pounds in 1897. It was sung at the funeral of President McKinley, who was assassinated in 1901, as you know. It goes:

Somewhere the sun is shining,
Somewhere the songbirds dwell;
Hush, then, thy sad repining,
God lives, and all is well.

Refrain

Somewhere, somewhere,
Beautiful Isle of Somewhere!
Land of the true, where we live anew,
Beautiful Isle of Somewhere!

And my favorite line, "...Somewhere the load is lifted..."