Most (not all) congregations of the Church of Christ denomination claim that they can trace their roots back to the original New Testament church, in the same way that the Catholic Church claims that they can trace the papacy back to the Apostle Peter

Most (not all) congregations of the Church of Christ denomination claim that they can trace their roots back to the original New Testament church, in the same way that the Catholic Church claims that they can trace the papacy back to the Apostle Peter. No we do not trace our roots back but rather we go back to the beginning and build on what is written in the bible. Both claims are equally spurious. The reality is: in 1906 the Church of Christ denomination broke away from the Christian Church which was established in the mid 1800s by Alexander Campbell during the so-called Restoration Movement. Alexander Campbell was not the beginning. I personally know of a congregation in Ricon, Georgia that trace it’s roots back to some coming here form Holland. This congregation started before Alexander Campbell’s time. Many of those early congregations called them selves Disciples of Christ, Christian Church, and Church of Christ. They practiced basically the same things. As you said earlier, it is not the name but what it does. However, the name is important also.

Here is a link about the restoration:

Restoration Movement http://www.therestorationmovement.com/)

(We get numerous e-mails everyday claiming that our historical information about the Church of Christ denomination is inaccurate. We now include the link below from the University of Virginia to document the Church of Christ denomination historical information) Just because it was done by a college does not mean that they have all or complete information.

http://religiousmovements.lib.virginia.edu/nrms/restor2.html

But right off the bat, this is where we get into one of their greatest controversies. They claim that they are not a denomination, but rather they are the TRUE Body of Christ! To justify this outlandish claim, they rest very heavily on the notion that they have the only biblically correct name of any church. They look down on other denominations for naming themselves after a man (Lutherans) or a doctrine (Baptists) or forms of church government (Presbyterian) and claim that the only scriptural name given to the church is the name that they bear. No so. We just think that one should use a name given by our Lord and is found in the scripture. Such as Church of God, Church of the Firstborn, The Church, Church of Christ, or Church of “any location”. (Heb. 12:23, Acts 20:28, 2 Timothy 4:22, Rom. 16:16) Since the word Christ simply means "messiah", that translates into The Church of the Messiah. But which Messiah? A better name would be The Church of Jesus Christ, which would also be a scriptural name.

As would: "The Church of God" (I Cor. 1:2) "The Church of the Faithful in Christ Jesus" (Eph. 1:1) "The Church of the Saints in Christ Jesus" (Phil. 1:1) "The Church of the Holy and Faithful Brothers in Christ" (Col. 1:2) "The Church In God Our Father and the Lord Jesus" (II Thess 1:1) "The Church of God's Elect" (I Peter 1:1) "The Children of God" (I John 3:1) Etc...Etc...Etc...All of these would be good names, provided they organized it according the Bible pattern.

So we see that the Church of Christ denomination does not have a corner on scriptural names for the body of Christ, which brings up our next dilemma, which division of the Church of Christ denomination are we talking about? For there are at least three different branches of the Church of Christ denomination that have the exact same name, but believe different doctrines, and often each considers the other to be virtual heretics. One of the dilemmas in dealing with this topic is that each Church of Christ denomination congregation is autonomous (independent). Even though there does seem to be some light at the end of the tunnel, most Church of Christ denomination still adhere to the same doctrines that they have taught for the last 100 years. I would hope that the same doctorine for the last 2,000 years. One shining exception is Max Lucado. Max is a prolific author and rarely gets into the divisive teaching of the Church of Christ denomination, even though he is a Church of Christ denomination pastor/preacher. With this in mind, let's look at the three predominant Church of Christ denominations.

The first group, most commonly known as the "One Cup Brethren" has no musical instruments in their worship service and one single shared cup for communion. The second group known as the "Cups Brethren" has no musical instruments but has multiple cups for their communion service. Then the third group known as the "Instrumental Brethren" has multiple cups and musical instruments. The "One Cup" branch commonly refers to the "Cups Brethren" as the "Digressive Church of Christ" and calls the "Musical Instrument Brethren" the "Liberal Church of Christ". Since each congregation is independent, there will be variations. You have not covered all of them. Each congregation is like an individual person with its differences and attitudes. They all answer to God as well as you will. Many have adopted doctrine and practices form the world of denominations like you and many have went down the wrong road. An example of this is Max Lucado. We all need to read our Bible more and realize that this is God speaking to us, and beware of teachings of men. Study the example that we have in the O.T. Bible ( 1 Samuel 13:1-29) concerning the old prophet and the young prophet of God. Then lastly (as if this wasn't confusing enough) we have a branch of the CHOCD that has actually changed it's name to the International Church of Christ. The other three branches have branded this group (sociologically and theologically) to be a full blown cult! But this leads us to our first major point, is the Church of Christ denomination a denomination? One of the things that keeps us from being a denomination is the fact there is no organization beyond the local congregation. Another is the fact that we do not have any creed or council that directs how the church is to operate. There were differences in the congregations in the bible like those at Corinth and Rome. Paul wrote his letters trying to correct these differences. But in the scripture there was no denominations only different congregations.