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International Churches of Christ vs. the Bible
One of the most common questions from current International Churches of Christ (ICC) members is, “Can you show me anything this church is doing that isn’t ‘biblical?’” The answer is a clear “yes” – many ICC practices either run counter to the Bible – or are unsupported by it. Here we will look at a few:
The International Churches of Christ (ICC) expects its members to give 10% of their weekly income – a “tithe” – and enforces collection. While some other Christian groups may ask their members to anonymously tithe, the ICC's tithing practices can be something entirely different and unbiblical.
To see how, consider that Corinthian church members in the Bible were asked to decide their contribution amounts individually, without "compulsion:"
Each man should give what he has decided in his heart to give, not reluctantly or under compulsion, for God loves a cheerful giver. (II Corinthians 9:7)
What is “compulsion?”(1) The word compel means “to cause to do or occur by overwhelming pressure.”(2) The ICC’s contribution system makes instances of compulsion inevitable.
One source of ICC financial compusion comes from giving contributions in “discipleship groups,” with members in the same small ministry sitting together, often handing their contributions to their Bible Talk leader. The pressure factor is obvious in this description by ICC founder Kip McKean:
“…we do the contribution in discipleship group [in the Los Angeles Church of Christ]. You say, ‘Well, won't everybody see what's happening?’ Um-hm. Um-hm. And we make sure they give their tithe. You say, ‘Why do you do that?’ Because the Bible says in Malachi 3 if you don't tithe, you're robbing God, and we don't want anybody to go to hell because didn’t – they robbed God. You say, ‘That's awful hard-line’ – you bet your booties it's hard-line. Someone doesn't give, we ask why. We know who didn't give, by the end of discipleship group. Questions are asked. We have almost 100% giving in our church. Someone doesn't give, they've got some attitudes.”
Kip McKean (World Missions Evangelist), The Dream: Super Churches, Part 1, DPI Archive Cassette Series, Tape # 7762, 1992.
As a result, ICC members may feel pressured to give even if they have reservations about giving or are short on resources. ICC leaders typically ask members for checks instead of cash, which helps to keep track of who's giving what.
Los Angeles elder Bruce Williams told an elders’ class how to handle members’ concerns about pressured giving:
“…Kip, you know, talked about, in the discipleship groups we take up the contribution. ‘What if they don’t like that kind of, you know, feeling pressured and stuff.' Say, ‘Hey…there’s some basic fundamental convictions of every disciple. Standards.’ And if a brother is not giving regularly every week, he’s not living the life of a disciple, he is robbing God, and he needs to repent. And you need to stay after him until he does repent, or he’s feeling so much pressure he does leave [the church]. Now you don’t want him to leave, you want him to repent. But you’re not going to let up until he does one or the other.”
Bruce Williams (Los Angeles Elder), Becoming Shepherds of the Flock, Part 1, Boston, DPI Archive Cassette Series, Tapes # 7767, 1992.
Other ICC methods for enforcing contribution may include asking new members to show a pay stub to their discipleship partners, verifying their pay rate and the amount of a 10% (of gross) tithe. Contribution amounts are also tracked. A document obtained from a LA campus zone of the church lists all missed contributions for the zone, showing each member’s “offering vow” in one column, and amount “still missing” in another(3). The report sorts members’ names by discipleship group leader, presumably to make it easier to collect the money. Such enforcement devices inevitably create pressure to give.
ICC leadership has implied that the New Testament supports tithing, but it does not. (A notable exception: ICC Kingdom Teacher Doug Jacoby admits that “the entire tithing system” in the Bible is about agriculture rather than money.(4)) In fact, the word “tithe” does not even appear in the New Testament, and all mentions of “giving a tenth” are in reference to the Pharisees, portrayed as legalistic observers of the Old Covenant. Kip McKean misquoted one of these verses about the Pharisees in an attempt to mandate tithing:
“…we’ve got to talk about this business of tithing. A few years ago, we started to institute in our churches the challenge to tithe when someone gets baptized. I think that’s great. Jesus even referred to tithing in Matthew chapter 23. He says, ‘Don’t neglect tithing,’ to the Pharisees. So, Jesus himself, he’s behind tithing. Amen?”
Kip McKean, Malachi: God’s Radical Demand for Remaining Radical, Manila, DPI Archive Cassette Series, Tape # 9104, 1994.
Far from supporting the ICC’s practice of 10% financial contributions, this verse McKean quoted is about Pharisees giving a tenth of their spices, not finances:
Woe to you, teachers of the law and Pharisees, you hypocrites! You give a tenth of your spices – mint, dill and cummin. But you have neglected the more important matters of the law – justice, mercy and faithfulness. You should have practiced the latter [justice, mercy and faithfulness], without neglecting the former [giving a tenth of spices]. (Matthew 23:23)
The Pharisees gave 10% of their grown spices out of obligation to Mosaic law (Leviticus 27:30). ICC leadership rejects practically every other element of Mosaic law, yet conveniently enforces monetary tithing. There is simply no New Testament precedent for leaders specifying a ratio or amount of giving.
Just as ICC tithing practices are on shaky theological ground, so is its practice of Special Contribution. Although the New Testament shows examples of churches supporting other churches, it contains no evidence of structured, mandatory contributions for missions.
ICC members are expected once a year to give a lump sum, usually 15 or more times their regular weekly contribution. Goals for Special Contribution are handed down from ICC leadership to each local church. ICC leadership sets the “multiplier” for each city:
“January, with 154 disciples, I had to go the [Los Angeles] church and say, ‘Let’s give a 25-times contribution.’ We wanted to start a Latin ministry that may, we had to give a 3-times contribution. That Fall we had to give a 20-times contribution to Manila. The people that were there Janurary 1 of 1990 – that year in special contributions alone had to give a 48-times contribution.”
Kip McKean, Malachi…, 1994.
Inevitably, ICC Special Contribution puts entire churches in the bind of giving by compulsion to raise a specific amount.
Many members sell belongings or take other drastic financial measures to meet the Special Contribution goals set by leadership. The American Commonwealth Sector suggested 22 ways for members to reach their Special Contribution goals for 1998, including the following ones:
“Ask a relative for a contribution…
Liquidate stocks or bonds…
Dip into your savings account…
If your birthday is near, suggest ‘cash‘ as a great gift!…
Give plasma.”
American Commonwealth Region, 22 Practical Ideas, 1998 ACR Special Missions Contribution, brochure, 1998.
Leaders may put a great deal of pressure on members during collection of Special Contribution. Members of the Ventura Sector of the Los Angeles church, for example, were pressed to increase their Special Contribution amounts at mid-week services in 1999:
May 5, 1999:
“And you know what’s really awesome is, the Ventura Sector, we’ve always made Special Contribution every year, amen? …But honestly guys, this year the way it falls out, our pledges are under where they need to be… But, we’re not unified, guys, with what we’re trying to accomplish here as a church. We are not all on the same page, we are all not committed to working with all of our heart to make it work…
“You think well, you know, they never gave 20 times in the Bible, I don’t see that in the Bible. That’s true. They probably gave a lot more if we really got into it. But guys, whenever we start questioning the Bible, and ‘Well, show me specifically where it says this?’ or ‘Show me specifically where it says that?’ we’ve lost perspective… It is an issue of the heart, and I think, guys, we’re sacrificing why? To change the world, amen? …We’ve got a month left before Special. The Liebermans raised almost a thousand dollars in a couple of weeks, door-knocking.
“…And when we break up in our D-groups tonight, you know, I really want to challenge you, if you didn’t commit to a 20 times, that you commit to at least giving a 20 times contribution. That is the need of the hour, if we’re going to change the world, amen…”
John Unzueta (Sector Leader), Ephesians Study IV, Ventura (CA) Sector, audiotape, May 5, 1999.
One week later, Unzueta laid on the guilt again:
May 12, 1999 (one week later):
“You know, guys, last week we talked about the Special. And you know, we just laid it out, that we were $22,000 short of …our 20 times pledge. $22,000 short, collectively. And we laid it on out there, and the contribution went up 4,800 bucks. Now, maybe a lot of decisions were made from last Sunday to now, amen. But I’m just saying, guys, you’ve got to check your heart. Are you struggling with greed?”
John Unzueta, Ephesians Study V, Ventura (CA) Sector, audiotape, May 12, 1999
Local ICC leaders may place pressure on individuals who aren’t doing their part to reach arbitrary ICC contribution goals. Members can be “caught between a rock and a hard place,” being compelled to give on one hand, while being simultaneously told not to feel compelled. ICC leadership incorrectly makes compulsion an issue of the perception of members rather than the pressure exerted by leaders.
Mandatory, Assigned One-Over-One Discipling
International Churches of Christ leadership requires that every member has a “discipling partner” or “discipler” – a person to go to for “advice”, confession, and guidance toward spiritual growth.
Many churches besides the ICC have used some form of discipling or “shepherding”. The ICC practices mandatory, assigned one-over-one discipling – mandatory because every member is required to have one, assigned because leadership chooses who disciples whom, one-over-one because disciplers are “over” members “in the Lord,” with authority inherent in the relationship. Each discipler is a link in a hierarchical chain leading from the bottom rung of membership to the top leader. Quotes from ICC founder Kip McKean show how central discipling is to the movement:
“To not have a discipleship partner is to be rebellious to God, and to the leadership of this congregation.”
Kip McKean, Discipleship Partners, DPI Archive Cassette Series, Tape # 4007, 1987.
“Discipling is a perfect institution made by God. . . . Discipling is God’s plan. It’s not a choice, you don’t get to vote on it.”
Kip McKean, Indianapolis message, audiotape, March 17, 1994.
There is simply no precedent for ICC-style discipling partners in the Bible. In spite of claims made by ICC leaders that “God discipled Jesus,” “Barnabus discipled Paul” or “Paul discipled Timothy,” some New Testament conversion stories cast doubt on the presence of an ICC-style discipling chain in Bible:
With such evidence against the presence of ICC-style discipling partners in the Bible, it is puzzling that ICC leadership requires them. The burden of proof lies with any ICC leader who claims that these relationships existed in the New Testament.
Not only is there no precedent for ICC-style discipling partners in the Bible, there seems to be no authorization for them. Most ICC leaders take the position that ICC-style discipling partners are not specifically commanded by the Bible but also are not prohibited – and that therefore they are an acceptable method of carrying out various biblical commands:
“As we look at these one-another commands, we would never argue that one-on-one discipling relationships are the only way to observe these instructions.”
Gordon Ferguson, Discipling: God’s Plan to Train and Transform His People, DPI, Woburn, MA, 1997, p. 32.
Instead, Ferguson teaches that discipling in general “is a matter of absolute necessity,”(8) even though a specific vehicle for discipling is never prescribed in the Bible. ICC-style discipling partners are viewed to be an option left open by the Bible. But the idea of discipling partners as an option creates several questions for the International Churches of Christ:
Even if one-over-one discipling was an option allowed by the Bible, it is not an option in the International Churches of Christ:
“If we are not disciples, if we try to belittle discipling or cheapen discipling or say ‘I don’t want to be discipled’ or ‘I don’t want to disciple somebody’ then we have adulterated the word of God.”
Steve Johnson (World Sector Leader), The Kingdom of God, audiotape, (n.d.).
ICC leadership has made mandatory what was supposedly “optional.” Moreover, it problematically teaches that submitting to assigned discipleship partners is submitting to God:
“Our submission in discipling relationships is not really submission to the authority of the discipler; it is submission to the authority of God, who has chosen to work in our lives through human tools.”
Gordon Ferguson, Discipling… p. 40.
Ferguson’s words elsewhere seem contradictory: if the Bible didn’t prescribe the specific tool of mandatory, one-over-one discipling, then how could he possibly conclude that these arbitrary relationships represent the authority of God? Ferguson concedes that one-over-one discipling is not the only way to follow the Bible,(9) but yet he asserts in the same book that God personally “puts us with” assigned discipleship partners(10) – in other words, that God actively chooses individual discipling pairs by working supernaturally through ICC leaders. But if the Bible does not mandate the ICC’s discipling methodology, then how can he be so sure God is assigning the partners? This assumption is unfounded.
In fact, the Bible seems to actually prohibit the exercise of hierarchical authority as practiced by the ICC. Jesus specifically told the apostles not to exercise authority over their followers (Greek: katexousiazo), as political rulers did over their citizens:
You know that the rulers of the Gentiles lord it over them, and their high officials exercise authority over them. Not so with you… (Matthew 20: 25-26)
According to one commentary, Matthew 20: 25-26 forbids hierarchical authority entirely:
The full meaning appears when the pyramidal quality of Gentile government is observed.
Their Great Ones
The Rulers of the Gentiles
The Gentiles
There are three ranks, or tiers of authority. Thus the rulers of the Gentiles lord it over the Gentiles, and their great ones exercise authority upon the rulers of the Gentils [Gentiles]. Christ categorically denied any such pyramidal system of government any place whatsoever in his kingdom.(11)
So it seems that not only are ICC-style discipling partners not commanded or documented in the Bible, they are not permissible in the authoritarian, hierarchical form used by the ICC. Yet a pyramidal system of government is exactly what the ICC has instituted via its discipling partners. The ICC “pyramid” is based upon one member discipled by another, who’s discipled by another. Kip McKean acknowledged this:
“We have a vertical authority. We do have a hierarchy. Now I'm sick and tired, ‘We don't have a hierarchy, we don't – ‘ We do. And so does every other religious group that I know of. . . . We have lines of authority. I don't apologize for that…”
Kip McKean, The Dream: Super Churches, Part 1…, 1992.
Atop the movement’s discipling pyramid for many years sat McKean himself, holding ultimate authority over the International Churches of Christ.
ICC leadership requires and enforces attendance at its events, claiming that its attendance rules are biblically based. Actually, the ICC has stretched this verse from Hebrews to support its attendance policy:
Do not give up meeting together, as some are in the habit of doing… (Hebrews 10:25)
ICC leadership has applied this verse to a legalistic extreme:
“Well, right here, we find in verse 25 that little phrase: ‘Let us not give up meeting together.’ Do not miss church – and of course, look at, look at what the writer of Hebrews says – ‘as some are in the habit of doing.’ How well does he sometimes know us. The Bible emphatically teaches, do not miss the gathering of yourselves together – do not miss church.”
Kip McKean, First Principles: The Church, DPI Archive Cassette Series, Tape # 10072, (recorded circa mid-80s).
The ICC has blown this verse out of proportion. The Greek word translated “give up” in the NIV, enkataleipo, is most frequently translated “abandoned” (2 times), “deserted” (2 times) and “forsaken” (2 times). This passage does not forbid missing any particular meeting – it asks the Hebrews not to give up (quit) meeting together.
In the ICC, however, even an occasional missed service is seen as a sign of grave spiritual danger:
“The Christian who decides to miss the occasional service is much like Francois [West African who became infected by a parasitic worm] drinking the contaminated water. Spiritual disaster awaits him.”
Mike Taliaferro (Geographic Sector Leader), The Killer Within: An African Look at Disease, Sin and Keeping Yourself Saved, DPI, Woburn, MA, 1987, p. 114.
Besides Hebrews 10:25, ICC leaders may try to use passages like Matthew 6:33 (“seek first his kingdom”) or Hebrews 3:3 (“encourage one another daily”) to support the ICC’s attendance policy. These verses, though, fall far short of commanding members to attend every service.
The ICC stacks up a full schedule of events – some of which even cost money – and expects attendance to all of them:
“Explain meetings of the body and their purposes fully: Sunday services, midweek services, discipleship groups, devotionals, Bible Jubilees, Bible Talks, retreats, seminars, conferences.”
Randy McKean (World Sector Leader), Ed., “Lordship”, “Additional Studies for Making Disciples”, The Disciple’s Handbook, DPI, Woburn, MA, 1997, p. 45.
ICC members may have several required meetings per week. With additional informal meetings, one-on-one Bible studies and time spent with discipleship partners, members’ actual time commitment to the ICC can dwarf its official estimates of “about six hours of meetings per week.”(12) Leaders may have good intentions for requiring and enforcing attendance – but the policy itself is unbiblical.
ICC leadership requires members to confess their sins to other people – usually to discipling partners. While the Roman Catholic Church also uses oral confession (to priests), it does so out of traditional practice. The ICC, by contrast, claims no traditions outside of the Bible, instead requiring confession on the basis of a scripture it takes out of context:
“Well here it is, James 5:16, I do believe in it. James 5:16: ‘Therefore confess your sins to each other and pray for each other so that you may healed. The prayer of a righteous man is powerful and effective,’ and I believe that passage with all of my heart. I am not going to apologize for James 5:16. The Bible clearly says, confess your sins to one another.”
Kip McKean – Follow-Up Study 3: Best Friends for All Time, DPI Archive Cassette Series, Tape #10078, recorded circa 1989.
However, just as no other Bible passage commands confession of all sins to others,(13) James 5:16 is not a universal command, either. Let's back up two verses and read James 5:16 in context, starting with verse 14, to see that the context is about the physically sick:
Is any one of you sick? He should call the elders of the church to pray over him and anoint him with oil in the name of the Lord. And the prayer offered in faith will make the sick person well; the Lord will raise him up. If he has sinned, he will be forgiven. Therefore confess your sins to each other and pray for each other so that you may be healed. The prayer of a righteous man is powerful and effective. (James 5:14-16, emphasis added)
ICC Kingdom Teacher Gordon Ferguson has acknowledged that the context is about sick people, saying, “In context, a sick person is told to send for the elders of the church, who can anoint him with oil and pray over him.”(14) Oddly, Ferguson then concludes that James 5:16 is about spiritual rather than physical healing, saying, “healing the soul comes from this whole process of confessing and praying with other people.”(15) (emphasis added) But if the context of James 5:16 is physical sickness, then the verse is probably about physical rather than spiritual healing, making flawed the ICC’s assumption that spiritual healing can’t occur without oral confession of sins.
What’s more, the ICC goes way beyond the Bible in its practice of confession:
“Be quick to confess your sin (James 5:16) and your temptations as well. Don’t let critical thoughts or attitudes linger in your heart; immediately get them out.”
Andy and Staci Yeatman (Evangelist, Women’s Ministry Leader), “A Two-by-Four in the Cornea”, First…the Kingdom, Ed. Thomas and Sheila Jones, DPI, Woburn, 1994, p. 91.
“We’ve got to deal with these bad attitudes, you’ve got to confess them. You need to confess the ugliest thing that you thought, the worst thing.”
Cynthia Powell (Women’s Ministry Leader), Humility, Women’s D-Group, Southern Connecticut Church of Christ Tape Ministry, February 7, 1999.
The result is a spiritual bulimia in which members are expected to purge themselves of not just sins but thoughts detrimental to the movement – such as this directive from Kip McKean after a critical report about the ICC on ABC’s 20/20 television program:
“I challenge you, any qualm, quiet reservation, question you have about God’s movement, God’s church, God’s leaders, you get them out tonight, and you leave here with your heart totally cleansed, totally clear.”
Kip McKean, Believe it or Else, New York City, audiotape, November 5, 1993.
The Bible shows no precedent for requiring Christians to confess temptations, attitudes or thoughts. To an intrusive, legalistic extreme, ICC leadership also trains disciplers to probe and make sure disciples are confessing everything:
“And the Bible teaches explicitly, confess our sins to one another. And you just may simply say to the young Christian, ‘Are there any sins that you’ve not confessed with me this week?’ And he should be open.”
Kip McKean – Follow-Up Study 3…, recorded circa 1989.
ICC leadership’s requirements of confession lack any sound biblical support.
ICC leadership has “marked” many of its most vocal critics and former members, forbidding members to speak to them on the supposed basis of scripture:
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“Paul went so far as to mark those who’d become dangerous, ferocious, wolves that preyed on the sheep of the flock...See, Paul marked dangerous men – he did not want Christians to get faked out by wolves in sheeps' clothing. Tonight, I publicly mark as dangerous wolves to the flock of Jesus Christ: [anti-cult counselor] Steve Hassan, [former Boston Church of Christ leader] Jerry Jones, [mainline Church of Christ leader] Buddy Martin. We are to pray for them. But you’re to stay away from them.”
Kip McKean, They Hated the Dreamer, Boston World Missions Seminar, DPI Archive Cassette Series, Tape # 6353, August 25, 1989. (about audio clips)
The ICC’s practice of shunning its critics is “off the mark." First, there is no consistent biblical support for using the term “mark” to begin with. The term "mark" originates with the King James translation of Romans 16:17:
Now I beseech you, brethren, mark [Greek: skopeo] them which cause divisions and offences contrary to the doctrine which ye have learned; and avoid them.(16)
The Greek word skopeo in this verse is translated “watch out for” in the Bible’s New International Version (NIV). The other five appearances of skopeo in the NIV are translated “fix eyes on”, “look to”, “see to it”, “take note of” and “watch”. Note that these passages have an entirely different tone, having nothing to do with shunning critics:
So we fix [skopeo] our eyes not on what is seen, but on what is unseen... (II Corinthians 4:18)
Each of you should look [skopeo] not only to your own interests, but also to the interest of others. (Philippians 2:4)
See to it [skopeo], brothers, that none of you has a sinful, unbelieving heart… Hebrews 3:12
Join with others in following my example, brothers, and take note of [skopeo] those who live according to the pattern we gave you. (Philippians 3:17)
…But watch [skopeo] yourself, or you also may be tempted. (Galatians 6:1)
From seeing these other uses of skopeo, it’s obvious that the term “mark” is a fluke of the King James translation of Romans 16:17. Clearly, skopeo does not mean to shun, or Paul would not have instructed believers to “mark” themselves (Galatians 6:1) – or to “mark” Paul’s own way of life (Philippians 3:17)! At the very least, the ICC’s terminology in using the term “mark” is incorrect.
In addition, there is no biblical support for ICC leadership’s policy that leaders can speak to a “marked” person, but members can’t – as World Sector Leader Al Baird indicated in a television interview:
Interviewer: “Scott [Deal, former evangelist] says that he’s marked, and you can’t talk to him anyway.”
Al Baird: “I can talk to Scott. Leaders can talk to Scott.”
Interviewer: “But the – members can’t.”
Al Baird: “Not according to the Bible.”
“A Matter of Control”, 5th Estate, Canadian Broadcasting Corporation, December 1993.
The Bible supports no clergy/laity double standard about talking to “marked” people. Yet ICC leaders have threatened to mark its members just for speaking to a marked person. Consider these severe examples:
"…and if you violate the command of God and speak to someone who has been marked, then you too will [be] marked. Mark that."
Byron Parson (Geographic Sector Leader), Chicago Midweek Service, North Shore Region, audiotape, October 6, 1999.
"…you need to obey the marking. You are to have no contact with Ed Powers [former ICC evangelist of the breakaway Indianapolis Church of Christ], or his staff, or anybody that has decided to be at that other church in opposition to this church. If you disobey the marking, then we’ll be forced to warn you if stay in our fellowship, and if you leave, then you will be marked. You are divisive. I’m very serious. It is an issue of salvation."
Kip McKean, Indianapolis message, audiotape, March 17, 1994.
Besides “marking” prominent critics, the ICC also “disfellowships” (kicks out) troublesome members or simply asks them to leave. Another leadership tactic is to brand as "divisive" members who diasgree with ICC leaders, teachings or policies by misapplying Titus 3:9-11. (17)
Disturbingly, since ICC “markings” are made at the sole discretion of leadership, ICC leaders are able to prevent their members from hearing alternative viewpoints about the church.
(1) The Greek word for compulsion in II Corinthians 9:7, ananke, in the NIV translation is most frequently translated “necessary” (3 times), “compulsion” (2 times including II Corinthians 9:7 and I Corinthians 7:37), “distress” (2 times), “hardships” (2 times), and “must” (2 times).
(2) Webster’s New Collegiate Dictionary, G. & C. Merriam Company, Springfield, MA, 1981.
(3) Offering Missed Report, Los Angeles International Church of Christ, April 4, 1998.
(4) Doug Jacoby (Kingdom Teacher), ACES Online e-mail #369, ACES World Sector, March 12, 2001.
(5)Gordon Ferguson, Discipling: God’s Plan to Train and Transform His People, DPI, Woburn, MA, 1997, p. 36.
(6) The earliest verifiable interaction between Paul and Barnabas is the trip to Jerusalem in Acts 9:26-27, which may have occurred fourteen years after Paul’s conversion. This could be the same trip mentioned in Galatians 2: 1-9, which took place fourteen years after Paul’s conversion (vs. 1). During this trip, Paul and Barnabas see the apostles James, Peter and John (vs. 9) and perhaps others. During Paul’s earlier visit to Jerusalem portrayed in Galatians 1:18-24, Paul did not meet any apostles besides Peter and James (vs. 19) and Barnabas is not mentioned. This earlier visit occurred three years after Paul’s conversion (vs. 18).
(7) Kip McKean once said that Paul was directly discipled for three years by Jesus. [Kip McKean, Book of Acts Overview: Chapters 9-18, DPI, Tape # 10074, 1995 (1985).]
(8) Gordon Ferguson, Discipling…, p. 48.
(9) Ibid., p. 32.
(10) Ibid., p. 118, 119, 126, 127.
(11) James Burton Coffman, Commentary on the Gospel of Matthew, Firm Foundation Publishing House, Austin, TX, p. 313.
(12) “Frequently Asked Questions About the International Churches of Christ”, The Disciple’s Handbook, Thomas Jones, Ed., DPI, Woburn, MA, 1997, p. 123.
(13) In Matthew 3:6 and Mark 5:1, people are portrayed confessing their sins and being baptized by John the Baptist in the Jordan River. These passages don’t tell us whether these people confessed their sins to God or to John the Baptist or his followers. Even if we made the considerable assumption that people confessed orally before being baptized by John, there would still be no evidence to suggest they continued to confess to people after baptism.
(14) Gordon Ferguson, Discipling…, p. 37.
(15) Ibid.
(16) The Interlinear KJV-NIV, Zondervan, Grand Rapids, MI, 1975.
(17) We should first consult Titus 1: 10-14 to understand Biblical "divisiveness" in the context of the book of Titus. In Titus 1:10, we learn that members of the "circumcision group" were causing particular problems for Titus on the island of Crete. Circumcision issues were a cause of much controversy and division, as Paul relates in Galatians 2: 11-16, 5: 1-15, and 6: 12-14, and it is possible that the "divisive" people on Paul's mind in Titus 3 were the same "circumcision group" mentioned in Titus 1.
Copyright © 2001 Dave Anderson. All rights reserved.
