By Mike Riley

As I was walking my little Dachshund dog this afternoon, I noticed a young man in his teens smoking a cigarette while standing alongside a concrete fence. Looking at him smoking reminded me of my high school years, when my peers wanted me to succumb to the idea of “lighting up” simply because they thought it was “cool.”

If I had allowed myself to follow my peers because of their hateful barbs, I would have more than likely acquired the nicotine “fix” that so many young people have acquired through the years. But I decided to be a leader instead of a follower, and as a result, I’m still “smoke free” today. Like my grandmother, I often wondered what “thrill” young people received from putting fire and smoke down their throat and lungs, and I’m still wondering the same thing today.

Young people, I can personally testify to the fact that it’s not easy being a leader. It takes great moral courage and dedication to live above the crowd, not partaking of their worldly lifestyles. You will more than likely be rejected by your peers because you’ve chosen a “different” road.

But know this. You and God make up the majority. In the Old Testament, young Joseph had a difficult decision to make when he decided to reject the advances of a married woman, but He made his decision with God in mind, and you must do the same.

Joseph told Potiphar‘s wife, “There is no one greater in this house than I, nor has he kept back anything from me but you, because you are his wife. How then can I do this great wickedness, and sin against God?” (Genesis 39:9; cf. Proverbs 6:29, 32).

A word to the wise — be a leader! Just because “everyone is doing it” doesn’t mean it’s good for you to “do it.” Allow God to be your Friend, Mentor and Guide (Proverbs 3:5-6; cf. Psalm 37:5), for He will never lead you astray nor into activities that are harmful to your mind or body (Deuteronomy 6:24-25; Deuteronomy 10:12-13).

Read, study and make application of the spiritual principles found in God’s word (Ephesians 3:1-4; 2 Timothy 2:15 KJV; Hebrews 5:13-14) in your daily living. You’ll never regret it, and that’s a guarantee from one who has “walked the walk” (since January, 1960) and is still doing so. Do I have many friends? No, but I do have one Friend (Hebrews 2:23; cf. 2 Chronicles 20:7) who has never forsaken me nor ever will (Genesis 28:15; Matthew 28:20; Hebrews 13:5), and that is indeed a great blessing!

May the promises and blessings of God be yours (2 Corinthians 6:14-18, 7:1; Ephesians 1:3) as you “walk” with Him (Genesis 5:24;        Hebrews 11:5).

By Kevin Cauley

The word “doctrine” in the Bible simply means “teaching.” Today we generally use the word “doctrine” to refer to a precise teaching or set of teachings while the word “teaching” itself refers more loosely to overall general concepts. Too, doctrine seems to have a religious connotation while teaching may connote the religious or secular. So while in our modern day language “teaching” and “doctrine” have distinct nuances, there is only one word in the language in which the apostles wrote and both English words “doctrine” and “teaching” are translated from it. So when we speak about the doctrine of the Bible we are speaking about the teaching of the Bible. Why is teaching so important?

Bible doctrine is important because Jesus thought it was important. Jesus said in John 7:17, “If any man will do his will, he shall know of the doctrine, whether it be of God, or whether I speak of myself.” In this context Jesus is saying that the one who truly seeks after God will come to an understanding that Jesus’ teaching is from God and that it is important to understand this because that is the way to life. Notice also John 8:31, 32 “Then said Jesus to those Jews which believed on him, If ye continue in my word, then are ye my disciples indeed; And ye shall know the truth, and the truth shall make you free.” The words that Jesus taught are often used to represent within the scriptures the whole of Jesus teaching. The words in which Jesus was instructing others to abide is His teaching–His doctrine.

Bible doctrine is important because faith is based upon hearing doctrine. Romans 10:17 states, “So then faith cometh by hearing, and hearing by the word of God.” Our very faith, the things that we believe, are the result of hearing the word of God which is the source of all of our teaching. The teaching, the doctrine, is that in which we place our direct faith and our trust because it is through the words that are taught that we come to know about our relationship with God. No man can come to know God under the New Covenant without having been taught and without having learned. John 6:45 states, “It is written in the prophets, And they shall be all taught of God. Every man therefore that hath heard, and hath learned of the Father, cometh unto me.” We come to the Father through the teaching, through the doctrine.

Bible doctrine is important because we must believe the right doctrine. The Bible teaches that to believe the wrong doctrine will lead one astray. In 2 Thessalonians 2:10-12 we read, “And with all deceivableness of unrighteousness in them that perish; because they received not the love of the truth, that they might be saved. And for this cause God shall send them strong delusion, that they should believe a lie: That they all might be damned who believed not the truth, but had pleasure in unrighteousness.” When we believe a doctrinal lie, it will lead to the condemnation of our soul if we don’t recognize that lie and correct it. Someone once said, “Jesus did not come to this earth to make people religious; He came to make people religiously right!” We must believe the right doctrine if we are going to have hope for salvation.

Bible doctrine is important because ultimately the decisions that we make and the actions that we perform will be based upon what we believe. When it all boils down to it, we act based upon how we believe. Jesus said, “But those things which proceed out of the mouth come forth from the heart; and they defile the man. For out of the heart proceed evil thoughts, murders, adulteries, fornications, thefts, false witness, blasphemies: These are the things which defile a man?.” Jesus said it is based upon what is in our heart that we act, whether for good or evil. There is not a single action that we do that was not first conceived within the mind. And it is within the mind–the heart–where faith resides. Based upon the things that we believe we make decisions in our life every day. And so it is with confidence that when others act inappropriately, we can confidently say that their beliefs are inappropriate as well. So we preach the doctrine of Christ in an effort to get all who are in sin to repent and to fashion their minds anew around the blessed freedom that results in believing the truth.

What do you believe, dear friend? Do you believe the words of the Bible or do you believe the opinions and traditions of men. Believing a lie will lead you astray. But believing the truth and acting thereon will bring one to eternity. “For God so loved the world, that he gave his only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in him should not perish, but have everlasting life” (John 3:16). 

By Mike Riley

As Christians, associating ourselves with a congregation of the Lord’s people is not a difficult task. Unfortunately, some Christians want to be considered a part of the congregation, but they do not desire to be involved in the Lord’s work.

The whole purpose of the church is to act in concert, fulfilling God’s will…Matthew 7:21 “Not everyone who says to Me, ‘Lord, Lord,’ will enter the kingdom of heaven, but the one who does the will of My Father who is in heaven will enter;

Luke 6:46-49 ⁴⁶ “Now why do you call Me, ‘Lord, Lord,’ and do not do what I say? ⁴⁷ Everyone who comes to Me and hears My words and acts on them, I will show you whom he is like: ⁴⁸ He is like a man building a house, who dug deep and laid a foundation on the rock; and when there was a flood, the river burst against that house and yet it could not shake it, because it had been well built. ⁴⁹ But the one who has heard and has not acted accordingly is like a man who built a house on the ground without a foundation; and the river burst against it and it immediately collapsed, and the ruin of that house was great.”;

Ephesians 4:11-16 ¹¹ And He gave some as apostles, some as prophets, some as evangelists, some as ^]pastors and teachers, ¹² for the equipping of the saints for the work of ministry, for the building up of the body of Christ; ¹³ until we all attain to the unity of the faith, and of the knowledge of the Son of God, to a mature man, to the measure of the stature which belongs to the fullness of Christ. ¹⁴ As a result, we are no longer to be children, tossed here and there by waves and carried about by every wind of doctrine, by the trickery of people, by craftiness in deceitful scheming; ¹⁵ but speaking the truth in love, we are to grow up in all aspects into Him who is the head, that is, Christ, ¹⁶ from whom the whole body, being fitted and held together by what every joint supplies, according to the proper working of each individual part, causes the growth of the body for the building up of itself in love.

However, in order to complete this requirement, members must know what to “do” (James 1:22). Unfortunately, there are members of the Lord’s church who know what to “do” but seemingly “do” their utmost to avoid contact with the church leadership, lest they be given a responsibility of completing a task or tasks associated with spiritual service (Romans 12:1 NASB).

While congregations should always work to incorporate the entire membership into a plan of work in the Lord’s kingdom, it is indeed necessary that every member be willing to step forward and demonstrate their eagerness to participate in that work.

If we are willing participants in the Lord’s work, we will soon understand that serving the Lord is one of the most enjoyable experiences of a Christian’s life. We learn to become a part of something larger than ourselves (Romans 14:7-8; cf. Gal. 2:20), plus we get to enjoy the company of folks who share our spiritual values (Hebrews 10:23-25), ultimately improving our focus on spiritual things rather than on worldly things (Colossians 3:1-2).

Therefore, let us heed Paul’s admonition to the Corinthian brethren in 1 Corinthians 15:58, to “be steadfast, immovable, always abounding in the work of the Lord, knowing that your labor is not in vain in the Lord.”

If we’re not already involved, let’s get involved doing the Lord’s work!

By Kevin Cauley

This past Wednesday night in the high school class, one of our astute and observant high school students asked me why some are calling us a cult. After the death of Matthew Winkler, there were several in the media who were seeking to “analyze” the situation. One Nancy Grace on CNN invited a Baptist “pastor” to come and answer some questions. During this interview, the “pastor” said that the church of Christ was a cult like religion. While he didn’t come out and call us an outright cult, there are others who do. Why do some refer to the churches of Christ as a cult?

First, there has been some confusion between the churches of Christ and the International Churches of Christ which is the former Boston Movement, a.k.a. Crossroads Movement. While the ICOC had its origins among churches of Christ, their practices were not consistent with what we practice and they rapidly became identified as a separate religions group. Some of their practices included a one man leader type system in a hierarchical pyramid style organization. They also held to the practice of “prayer partners” where one would confess sins to a “higher” Christian. These confessions would then be used to manipulate the “lower” Christian into the “correct” behavior. With such mind manipulation techniques and a single charismatic leader many correctly identified them as a cult. Unfortunately, the distinction between the ICOC and the “mainline” churches of Christ was not so clear in the minds of observers. One government document in the 90s identified the “Church of Christ” as the most rapidly growing cult in the United States. In that same document there was a footnote that identified “churches of Christ” as the ICOC or Boston Movement, but this was not commonly understood. This failure to understand the difference between these two bodies has contributed largely to the confusion that many today have.

Second, many in the denominational world consider us a cult because of our teaching regarding the one nature of the church. The Bible clearly teaches that there is one body (Ephesians 4:4) and that that one body is the church (Ephesians 1:22-23). The denominational world identifies this body as all of the denominations. However, this is not how the Bible identifies Christ’s body. 

The Bible teaches that the one body of Christ isn’t divided into denominations (1 Corinthians 1:10-13), but united under a single doctrine (Ephesians 4:1-6) and that Christ expects his church to have unity based upon this doctrine (John 17:20-23). That’s not the picture of the church that we find in the denominational world today. Denominationalism teaches that one may believe any of various different doctrines so long as one doesn’t condemn any other denomination. Such a picture of the church is foreign to the teaching of scripture which demands like-mindedness in doctrinal matters (Philippians 2:2). Thus, because churches of Christ teach that denominationalism is sinful, divisive, and aberrant to the New Testament’s teaching regarding the nature of the church, denominationalists can only respond with the accusation that we must be a cult regardless of what our practices are. In essence, what they have done is defined the word “cult” to mean anything other than acceptance of the denominational world, a definition of convenience at best.

Finally, because the churches of Christ teach the necessity of baptism prior to salvation, denominationalists level the accusation of “cult” against us. It doesn’t matter to them that the Bible itself teaches the necessity of baptism prior to salvation in such passages as Mark 16:15, Acts 2:38, Acts 22:16, Romans 6:1-11, Galatians 3:27-29, Colossians 2:11-13 and 1 Peter 3:21. So in essence, this is the classical logical fallacy of argumentum ad hominem (attack the man or in this case, the church). In essence the argument is, “Don’t believe that baptism is necessary for salvation because they are a cult and cults can’t be believed!” There is no effort to deal with the actual issue of what the Bible plainly teaches. In essence, they label us a cult because they can’t refute what is plainly taught in the scriptures and what we believe.

It is sad that denominational leaders and people outside of the church will blindly accept such accusations and criticisms without investigation, but that is exactly what occurs. The Lord’s church has experienced such criticism since its inception (Acts 24:5, 28:22). Even Jesus was accused unjustly (Matthew 9:34). We, however, as the church, ought not to let such unwarranted criticisms move us away from the truth of the scriptures; we have truth and it sets us free from the shackles of denominational teaching and practices, which practices are rapidly leading the denominations into the acceptance of immorality in our day and age. The church of Christ is not a cult regardless what others say. Let us continue to hold fast to the truths of scripture regarding the nature of the church, the plan of salvation, and religious practices that are pleasing to God and not man (Galatians 1:10).