Grace Under Fire
When Matthew Winkler was killed, not only did I promise myself I would not blog about it, I was also determined not to talk with others about the details of the case. To me, playing a game of “whodunit” over a case like this is about the most insensitive thing I could do. There are few families outside of my own as dear to me as the Winklers. I would never do anything to dishonor Matthew’s memory.
But it’s not just about Matthew anymore.
On Nancy Grace’s show Monday night, which airs on CNN Headline News, the discourse drifted from murder to theology. As a part of her report on Matthew’s slaying, Ms. Grace invited a Baptist minister, Tom Rukala, to shed some light on the church Matthew served. Already one wonders what journalistic standard dictates getting a Baptist preacher to represent the church of Christ. But as if this wasn’t enough, Rukala began to land a number of slanderous accusations against the churches of Christ, not the least of them being that it is a “borderline cult.” The entire transcript of this sad excuse for a news report is available here.
I’ve been reading the reactions of concerned brethren all day, and while several are encouraging action, few, if any, are responding to the charges. At first I didn’t want to say anything out of respect for the family, but someone needs to correct the error that has been broadcast on national television. There’s no telling how much damage Rukala was able to inflict on the church of Christ in the three minutes he was on air. In the interest of putting a rebuttal on record, I am responding to his charges here, in my little corner of the Internet.
As far as I can tell, Rukala misrepresented the church of Christ in at least four ways:
1. He stated that the “Church of Christ is a relatively new church…started about 150 years ago by Alexander Campbell.” Mr. Rukala knows this is not true. Campbell was one of our most illustrious preachers, but he did not found the church of Christ. His own words refute Rukala’s claim:
We have no system of our own, or of others, to substitute in lieu of the reigning systems. We only aim at substituting the New Testament in lieu of every creed in existence, whether Mohammedan, Pagan, Jewish, or Presbyterian. We wish to call Christians to consider that Jesus Christ has made them kings and priests to God. We neither advocate Calvinism, Arminianism, Socianism, Arianism, Trinitarianism, Unitarianism, Deism nor Sectarianism, but New Testamentism (Christian Baptist, vol. 1, p. 89).
The churches of Christ operate under the restoration principle. Simply put, this principle advocates restoring the first century church using the Bible as its sole guide, as opposed to attempting to form a new denomination shaped by man’s traditions. This being the case, the churches of Christ claim no origin but that which is recorded in Acts 2, where the church was first established by Peter and the apostles in the first century.
2. Rukala also charged that we claim we are the only ones going to heaven. This second error is based on the misconception just discussed. If the church of Christ is a denomination set up in competition with other denominations, then it may be true that we are a narrow-minded “sect” claiming we set the rules for who is going to heaven and who is doomed for hell. But our message is not “our denomination is better than your denomination.” We are not a denomination.
Evidently we have not done a good job getting this message across. And I do not deny that some members of the church of Christ manifest denominational attitudes. But these should not be looked upon as representatives for the whole. Every church has a few misinformed members.
A denomination is nothing but a subdivision of Christianity. When a group takes on a name that sets it off from the rest of the Christian world, like “Presbyterian” for example, it cannot continue to use biblical language. If such a group were to say, “Those in our midst are going to heaven, everyone else is going to hell,” they would be branded as judgmental, and rightly so. For God never said Christ died to save the Presbyterians.
However, saying you must be added to the Lord’s church to be saved is an entirely different matter. The Bible plainly teaches that Jesus saves only those who are in His body; outsiders will be lost (Acts 20:28; Eph. 5:23). The church of Christ can stick to this biblical language because it has not compromised its position by taking on a denominational designation. When we say, “Jesus died to save His church,” we are saying nothing more than, “Jesus died for Christians.” Nothing else is implied. We’re not claiming that a denomination called the Church of Christ comprises the only believers going to heaven. It’s simpler than that. We’re just saying that in order to be saved you must obey the gospel to get into Christ’s body (Gal. 3:26-27). And everyone, without exception, in the Lord’s body will go to heaven. Those outside that body, sadly, are lost.
3. Ms. Grace’s “expert” added insult to injury by accusing the church of Christ of being a “borderline cult.” He went on to explain this is true because of our exclusion of others. We think we’re the only ones going to heaven, the only ones who have the truth, so we’re a cult.
The charge of exclusion has already been handled in the previous point, but since when is it cult-like to claim you are right? Did Jesus not encourage us to know the truth? (Jn. 8:32). Did the Father not tell us the only way to a relationship with Christ is learning? (Jn. 6:45). Was the Bible not given for our understanding? (Eph. 3:2). If so, then what is wrong with claiming to be right? And how does that give a group “cult” status? Mr. Rukala claims he is right. Has he started a cult?
4. Finally, Mr. Rukala claimed we resorted to tactics that are “unbiblical…unethical…and ungracious.” These are methods of “intimidation and pressure,” according to him. One example he cited was the alleged claim that “if you’re not baptized by one of their ministers, that you’re doomed to hell.”
The Bible says nothing about the one who administers the baptismal rite. The important thing is the convert’s heart. When he by faith repents of his sin, confesses the name of Jesus Christ, and is immersed in water for the remission of sins, the Lord adds him to His church (Acts 2:38-47). The convert is the one who is buried with Christ, by baptism, so that he will subsequently walk in “newness of life” (Rom. 6:3-4). That is why both Jesus and Paul focused on preaching and let their assistants do the baptizing (Jn. 4:1-3; 1 Cor. 1:14-16).
We use no other tactics than “preaching the truth in love” (Eph. 4:15) and defending the faith “with gentleness and respect” (1 Pet. 3:15-16). No, we are not perfect. But these are the guidelines we try to follow as we do our work.
When Nancy Grace wanted to learn about the church of Christ she ran into a problem: we have no governing headquarters. Every congregation is autonomous, governed by a group of men called “elders” (Titus 1:5; 1 Pet. 5:1-3). As one former journalist pointed out, when some low-level producer couldn’t find a high profile, church of Christ representative, he “got desperate and went for the first person with a pulpit robe.”
As absurd as it may sound to hardnosed television reporter like Nancy Grace, all she needed to do was turn to the Bible for an understanding of our core beliefs and practices. We are guided by no other creed (2 Tim. 3:16-17), and we have no other head than Christ Himself (Eph. 1:22-23).
The inspired historian Luke once noted that the religious leaders in Rome referred to the church of apostolic times as a “sect” and that it was ridiculed “everywhere” (Acts 28:22). Their choice of words is strikingly similar to the vociferous language used on CNN Monday night. Even though the bad press has no doubt done a lot of damage, it is nice to see that we are in good company.
