Yearly Archives: 2014

/2014
23 December

This one little problem with the “One True Church” claim

By |2019-04-30T09:47:57-06:00December 23rd, 2014|Uncategorized|14 Comments

Does the Holy Spirit guide Stanton alone into all truth? Ahh, this is the $64,000 question, isn't it? Wouldn't everyone nod their heads in agreement with Stanton's claims to be the "One True Church" if this could really be proven true? Of course, but it can't. Thankfully, the opposite is actually possible. It is easily provable that this central claim of the church is not true. All we need to do is demonstrate clearly that the Holy Spirit has not, in fact, led either the church or any individual in the church, into all truth. Wouldn't that lay an ax to the root of this tree that has produced such divisive fruit for over four decades now? Of course it would. Which is exactly why [...]

6 December

A Biblical look at so-called withdrawal

By |2019-08-30T09:48:04-06:00December 6th, 2014|Uncategorized|148 Comments

The subject of "withdrawal" is of huge importance within the Stanton churches, because it is so grossly misunderstood, taught, and practiced. In its current form, it is unscriptural, unloving, and unjust, and the fear and dread it brings to those under its threat can silence even the most honest of questions. Some of you reading this have been "withdrawn from" (an unscriptural term, how Stanton uses it) and others have spouses, mothers, fathers, or siblings who have been, thereby creating an intricate web of rules you or they have to live by. Others of you have remained silent about your dissent from official church teachings due to the threat of withdrawal, and the dysfunction it would create in your relationships with your spouse or children. [...]

26 November

Can we call it Thanksgiving, please?

By |2019-04-11T02:09:43-06:00November 26th, 2014|Uncategorized|3 Comments

Why won't anyone call the "November Meeting" the "Thanksgiving Meeting?" Oh, that's right, because Christians don't celebrate "religious holidays." Birthdays...fine. Anniversaries...fine. Nothing spiritual there. But a holiday with a spiritual component to it? We can't have that! Logically and Biblically, this is nothing short of absurd, of course. I'll get to the scriptures in a moment, but think about how silly this rule of men is. We can choose to set aside a time to honor the day God brought a person into the world, or the day God joined a couple together in "holy matrimony" (remember, marriage is not just a social institution, but a religious one created by God). But we can't set aside a time as a nation, as a society, as [...]

9 November

Is There A God? The Moral Argument

By |2019-04-30T09:44:40-06:00November 9th, 2014|Uncategorized|6 Comments

Once a person sees inconsistencies between what Stanton teaches and what the Bible teaches, it can shake their faith to the core. The church has become an idol that stands in the place of God, so when the church is shown to be fallible, it can cause a chain reaction of questions and doubts about God. If God is not who Stanton says he is, can it be that there really isn't a God at all? I happen to believe there are very strong reasons to believe in God, despite the growing ridicule from the secular circles of society. Christians need not cower in fear of being challenged on matters of faith. They just need to wrestle with these questions themselves, and be willing and [...]

23 September

Rethinking and reframing the Bible the way it was intended

By |2019-04-11T02:09:40-06:00September 23rd, 2014|Uncategorized|4 Comments

The Bible is not the confusing document that many claim it to be, once it's understood in its proper context. That's because context is everything. A perfectly true statement by a friend can mean something entirely wrong if taken out of context. So it is with the Bible. For example, when you read the advice in the Book of Job to "curse God and die," that sounds outrageously out of place--until you realize that the Book of Job is simply recording the bad advice that Job's wife gave him. When you read in Proverbs, "I will laugh at your calamity and mock when your fear comes," it's important to know that's not God talking, but Solomon writing creatively as "wisdom" personified. Don't believe me? Look it [...]

16 September

Are you Christian or Christlike?

By |2019-04-11T02:09:39-06:00September 16th, 2014|Uncategorized|3 Comments

As any adult can verify from personal experience, words change meanings over time as their contemporary usage changes. What used to be "groovy" in my older siblings' day became "radical" in mine, then "cool" or "bad," and now "sick" or "tight." As fewer and fewer people use the word "sick" in the way it was used even 5 years ago, so fewer and fewer people use the word "Christian" to simply describe someone who is Christlike. In fact, most of us probably have never considered that the two words should be synonymous. To the English teachers reading this, I know—the former is most often used as a noun, while the latter is an adjective. But think about this for a moment. Wouldn't the term "Christian" [...]

10 September

Procrastinating truth another year

By |2019-04-11T02:09:37-06:00September 10th, 2014|Uncategorized|0 Comments

Truth is timeless. It is unchanging. It maintains its value through the always-evolving marketplace of ideas, like the gold standard in a world of paper currencies. Trends in human thought come and go, and philosophies rise and fall in popularity like fad diets, but truth is like a rock, never succumbing to the pressures of relativistic philosophies or changing "understandings." It is what it is, and what it always has been. The Truth. It also doesn't need to wait another year for us to acknowledge it, either. Or figure it out, or agree upon it, or agree to teach it. Truth just needs to be discovered and immediately taught. This is why Christianity in the first century thrived and turned the world upside down--because people [...]

28 July

After further consideration

By |2019-04-11T02:09:36-06:00July 28th, 2014|Uncategorized|0 Comments

After further consideration, I've decided to remove my "open letter" regarding the aforementioned blog. Even though the author remains completely anonymous to me, and I honestly thought I was vigorously protecting their anonymity, I can see how my letter may have discouraged them or anyone else from communicating privately with me. I also made some assumptions about the author's intentions regarding the blog being private. I had no business doing that, and want to apologize on that count as well. I want to reassure everyone that I will not make this mistake this again. What you email to me remains between you and me unless you give me permission to write about it on these pages. #notperfect #willingtoadmitit

23 June

The need for “Pure Doctrine”

By |2019-04-11T02:09:32-06:00June 23rd, 2014|Uncategorized|0 Comments

Many people can attest to the fact that the church has taught for years that doctrine must be "pure" for it to lead one to salvation. If a person believes impure doctrine, even if it's 99% right, Stanton says they will not be saved. "They can be teaching everything 99% correct, but if salvation is not taught correctly then sin is not forgiven and you are not added to the church of Christ." Source: http://whatisthedoctrineofchrist.blogspot.com/2012/05/church-of-christ.html This is not a straw man that I'm trying to set up in order to smack down easily. This Doctrine of Pure Doctrine is a staple of church teaching, as just about anyone who has spent any time in the group can attest, and it is used to deny that the [...]

16 June

The Suitcase of Books

By |2019-04-11T02:09:31-06:00June 16th, 2014|Uncategorized|17 Comments

One of the best teaching tools the Stanton Church of Christ had going for it in its old Non-Member Classes was the infamous Suitcase of Books. Eventually the inconvenience of passing it around to the next Non-Member Class Teacher, or perhaps the hypocrisy of it, led to its demise. Nevertheless, The Suitcase of Books played a convincing role in many conversions to the sect, because it truly was a unique and effective visual illustration of the confusion caused by the doctrines and traditions of fallible men. I'm not positive the Suitcase of Books has been retired completely, actually. If it hasn't, it most definitely has lost some of its rhetorical power, because alas, the point made by the Teachers using the Suitcase has come back [...]

6 May

Should Christians go to college?

By |2019-04-11T02:09:29-06:00May 6th, 2014|Uncategorized|0 Comments

One of the teachings of the Stanton Church of Christ that goes way back to the early days is that Christians should not send their kids to college. The reasons I've heard in defense of this teaching are more practical than scriptural. A verse like 2 Timothy 2:4 might be thrown around to suggest that going to college is "entangling" oneself with the affairs of the world, but this is a tenuous argument at best. Why is college "entangling," but studying to learn a trade and advance through certifications is not? The most common defense of the anti-college teaching I've heard is that colleges promote a lot of anti-Christian rhetoric, and there is a statistically large number of kids raised in Christian homes who depart [...]

23 April

Matthew 5 – Rules and Regulations For The Church

By |2019-04-11T02:09:27-06:00April 23rd, 2014|Uncategorized|1 Comment

One passage of scripture in Matthew 5 has been substantially misinterpreted by the Stanton churches, in my opinion, and I think it will be useful to provide an alternative point of view here. Matthew 5:23-24 - Therefore, if you are offering your gift at the altar and there remember that your brother or sister has something against you, 24 leave your gift there in front of the altar. First go and be reconciled to them; then come and offer your gift. Stanton teaches that one must "take care of sin" (meaning confess it privately and/or publicly) prior to partaking in the Lord's supper based partly on this passage, and partly on their out-of-context teaching about taking the Lord's supper unworthily. The passage in question was [...]

5 March

The doctrine on doctrine

By |2019-04-11T02:09:23-06:00March 5th, 2014|Uncategorized|14 Comments

March Week 2014 delegates: Reaching what you believe to be wise conclusions on the questions you're considering is great. But don't heap error upon error and proceed to bind your opinions, no matter how wise you think they are, on others. This is no different than the Pharisees "teaching for doctrines the commandments of men." doc·trine: a set of ideas or beliefs that are taught or believed to be true teaching, instruction something that is taught Perhaps it's time to consider the Bible's doctrine on doctrine. Before we can teach anything, we should give thought to what can and can't be taught, right? What the Bible teaches about teaching should be what we teach about teaching, should it not? "Doctrine" as used in the Bible [...]

27 February

The problem with May Week

By |2019-06-15T08:58:03-06:00February 27th, 2014|Uncategorized|48 Comments

The annual May Week (or sometimes March Week, as in 2014) is the third rail of church politics. Touch it, and you are toast. Criticize it, or question its similarity to the Baptist Convention or any other religious body's annual doctrinal meeting, and you'll be promptly corrected, rebuked and/or withdrawn from—and perhaps all three. If your status is high enough in the "brotherhood" upon such an offense, history shows you probably won't even get a chance to defend yourself. You need to be made an example of, quickly and decisively. One would think that May Week, if the attempt is to truly follow the example of Acts 15, should be reserved for weighty subjects of earth-shattering importance to the unity of the brotherhood, i.e. the [...]