International Bible Teaching Ministries
Name
Question 1: What name is given to the church that Jesus built?
ANSWER:Christ said in Matthew 16:18, "I will build my church." Christ died for the church (Ephesians 5:25)! Christ paid the purchase price of His blood for the church (Acts 20:28)! Christ is said to be the husband; His church is the bride (II Corinthians 11:2; Ephesians 5:27). In I Corinthians 1:10-13, we learn that to call ourselves after other than Christ is to cause sinful division, and in I Corinthians 3:3-4, we learn that those who do so are said to be carnal, or of the earth! Paul, in Philippians 2:9, writes: “Wherefore God also hath given Him a name which is above every name.”
With the above passages in mind, we can now understand why the apostle Paul would, by inspiration, refer to the various congregations of the Lord's church as "the churches of Christ" (Romans 16:16). We must do no less!
Question 2: What if a church has been established that is not using the name “Church of Christ,” but they are scriptural in organization, work, worship, and doctrine? Is this wrong?
ANSWER:First of all, permit me to say, I know of no such church and do not believe that it exists, for the probability of a group of people being so familiar with the scripture to be right in all other things, yet wrong in “name,” is very near zero! Neither do I believe that any group so familiar with scripture would want to cause division in the church by using a name different from that of the rest of the body! Therefore, I further believe that if such a learned group would establish such a congregation that, upon realizing the “name” difference, it would comply with the rest of the body to assure the unity that Christ demands of His people (John 17:21-23; I Corinthians 1:12-13).
There are, however, other biblical descriptions (besides Church of Christ – Romans 16:16) that also indicate the “ownership” and “relationship” of Christ, which if applied to all congregations within the body would be appropriate. Some are, Church of God (I Corinthians 1:2), Body of Christ (Ephesians 4:12), Church of the Living God (I Timothy 3:15), and Church of the Firstborn Ones (Hebrews 12:23).
Nonetheless, that the Church of Christ might be undivided before the world (John 17:21) and perfectly (completely) joined together in the same mind and the same judgment (I Corinthians 1:10) it is required and necessary that every congregation within the body be designated and recognized in the same way.
Such “names” as Baptist, Methodist, Presbyterian, Catholic, ECWA, SDA, Jehovah’s Witnesses, Mormons, Episcopal, Pentecostal, and such like, are unscriptural, divisive, and sinful! They rob Christ of the glory and honor due Him and give it to another or another thing! Besides sinning in description, none of these comply doctrinally with the Scriptures and are, therefore, to be avoided, because in none of them has Christ placed salvation. Outside of His church, the Church of Christ, all will be lost!
Question 3: We believe that the name of the church should not be “The Church of Christ,” a name that merely shows ownership. We believe that it should simply be called “The Christians” in light of Isaiah 62:2, Acts 11:26, Acts 26:28, and I Peter 4:11. Why not?
ANSWER:The passage (Acts 11:26) that you mention does indeed indicate that the disciples who made up the church were, for the first time, divinely called (chremtizo) Christians. However, your logic for determining that all of these passages authorize the use of the name of “The Christians” to define and describe the church collectively is faulty! You state in your letter that I Corinthians 11:2 implies that Paul is marrying “us” to Christ! However, we must note that Paul is not writing to an individual, but rather he is writing to the church (II Corinthians 1:1). Therefore when he in II Corinthians uses the word “you,” he is referring to the church that is to be espoused to Him, as His bride and a chaste virgin of Christ. This is the precise concept of Ephesians 5:23-32 where Paul concludes the discussion by saying, “but I speak concerning Christ and the church.” In other words, in both II Corinthians 11:2 and Ephesians 5:23-32, Christ is the bridegroom and the church is His bride. Individual Christians make up the church, which is His bride. In Ephesians 5:27 Paul discusses the fact that church, as His bride, is to be holy, without spot, wrinkle, or blemish. In II Corinthians 11:2, he is saying the same thing about the same institution, i.e., “ a chaste (pure/holy) virgin to Christ! Clearly, it is the church that is the bride of Christ, the church that is made up collectively of Christians. As you state, “The bride is to be called after the bridegroom.” The bride, however, is the church and Christ is the bridegroom; therefore the designation “Church of Christ.” You use the example that if I own a book, I can simply say “the book of Mr. Amos,” but that is not the title of the book. The example uses a premise that is not valid for our purposes. If I own a house (which more correctly represents the case at hand) and I assign a name to the house, it must be assigned to the one who purchased and owns the house. In this case, the “house of Mr. Amos.” In the case of Christ and the house He purchased and owns, the Church of Christ is the appropriate response (Romans 16:16). By using the name, “The Christians,” you are by implication saying that “The Christians” purchased and own the church! You are saying to the world, “The Church of the Christians.” You thereby are giving the glory of purchase and ownership to those who make up the church, rather than He who died for it. The fact that the name of Christ is incorporated in the name “Christians” does not negate or do away with this truth. We are Christians, which denotes that we are followers of Christ. We, as Christians, constitute collectively the church or body of Christ. We, as individual members, make up the body of Christ (I Corinthians 12:12) which is His church (Ephesians 1:22-23) or the body of Christ (Ephesians 4:12), or the Church of Christ. There is not one place in all of the Bible where the church or body of Christ is called or referred to as “The Christians,” or for that matter, as the “Christian Church.” The church was not built by “the Christians (Matthew 16:18)!” It was not paid for by “the Christians.” Christians, individually or collectively, did not die to pay the required price. Christ built it! He paid for it! He died for it! He is the Head of it! He is her Bridegroom! Therefore it should bear His name directly, not indirectly through the name that was given to individual church members, thereby giving, at the very least, partial glory to those who make up the church rather than to Him who deserves “all” of the glory (I Corinthians 10:31). We are not to glorify ourselves to any degree as being the followers of Jesus Christ, but, rather, we are to glorify the Christ whom we follow, because of the cross on which He died (Galatians 6:14).