Is the Church of Christ a denomination??

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#1. Why is a denomination a bad thing?

#2. The definition of a denomination according to dictionary.com: "a religious group, usually including many local churches, often larger than a sect: the Lutheran denomination."

I think that a case could be made, according to the above definition, that the CoC is a denomination. I do not see what point this would prove though, because I do not see a problem with a religious group that is usually made up of local churches.

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I think this arguments is about as important as the argument about Young-Earth Creationism vs. Old-Earth Creationism, which is to say, a mute point. If we can agree that the God described in the Bible created the heavens and the earth and everything in them at some point before we are born, we should all be happy. Yes, we can share our theories, but let's not get wedded to them. We are supposed to be the bride of Christ; if we wed ourselves to a set of facts instead of the Son of God, I'd say we're committing a sort of spiritual adultery.

"Pure and undefiled religion in the sight of our God and Father is this: to visit orphans and widows in their distress, and to keep oneself unstained by the world (James 1:27)."

There is nothing in the above passage that hints that we are to visit only believing orphans and believing widows in their distress, is there? I know some people adore James because they feel like it's some sort of spiritual cudgel. For much of my walk in the Way, I disliked it for the same reason. But here's the thing I've learned recently: the whole book of James is a sort of love manual for the Body to operate by in the world. Who cares about Greek words and the proper doctrine. James lays out proper doctrine in no uncertain words. We are to really, actually serve in a real, actual way, like Christ did. How can you take the name of Jesus as your banner and fly it proudly without following through on his precepts?

This is all a jumble, but maybe there might be more...

JoshBrainard wrote:I do think denominations are bad for Christianity and I assume they do too being that they deny their denominational status so much. I think this is what Paul is talking about when he says he wished he never baptized anyone so they wouldnt say i am from paul or i am from appollos. In Canby's case, they have condemned every oother church in the area and isolated themselves to just a few churches and it is sad to me to see the church there being so stupid. Also, it limits how much others points of view are listened to. This makes it so nobody in the denomination (Canby Specifically) understands the others point of view. Every one at Canby thinks Jerry is just so smart when he talks about logic. He was using every type of logical fallacy i can think of in his talk about other denominations false teachings, mostly straw man...ridiculous. When he brought up John Locke, he said "most of you probably dont know about him."

I was talking to dad about it last night and he said it is not a denomination because it is the only church Chirst instituted. That means they are assuming every Christian comes from the Church of Christ. At the end of the service, he came up to me and wanted my email... proly to get in a little email war which I am not sure if I should or not.

Regardless, in order to decide whether or not something is "a denomination" would require first defining the word. Unless there is a better standard to use than a dictionary, I think a dictionary is a good place to find the definition of a word.