Russell's Reasoning's — West Douglas Church Of Christ

Now we know, based on what we discussed last time, that the Church belongs to JESUS. There are other Scriptures which bear this out. Let’s look at this passage in Romans 16:16 “Greet one another with a holy kiss. All the churches of CHRIST greet you.” In my early days of being a Christian, this passage was constantly being used as a proof text. I was told that this verse teaches that Christians should only call their meeting places as, The Church of Christ. I believe that this claim was a mistaken interpretation. If we believe we should not add to the WORD of GOD, then claiming that Paul was telling us that The Church of CHRIST was the only name allowed on our buildings is an addition to the WORD. First, the word ‘churches’ is NOT a proper name. It is a plural noun of the word church which also means assembly. Second, Paul was sending greetings from several churches. Here is where the word church can be used as a local congregation, part of the whole. So literally, this passage could be correctly translated as, ‘the assemblies of CHRIST’ or ‘the congregations of CHRIST’. It could also be correctly translated as ‘the gatherings of CHRIST. Church, assembly, congregation would not be proper names so should not be capitalized. The word CHRIST is in the Genitive and thus shows ownership. Is it wrong to put the words, “Church of CHRIST” on the meeting house? I don’t think so. The point is, Paul was specifying who these assemblies, churches, congregations, or gatherings belonged to. There were many types of assemblies. There were political assemblies, theater assemblies, synagogue assemblies, celebration assemblies, guild assemblies, and so on. But there was and is only ONE type of assembly or assemblies which were owned by CHRIST- the MY CHURCH of JESUS’ prophecy to Peter. I’m not discussing the various doctrines which had divided the church over the centuries right now. I am only pointing out that before we become aligned with a group who gathers for spiritual purposes, we first determine what that spiritual purpose is before we align ourselves with it. Is it a CHRIST centered church?

Russell Ashby