Let your light so shine before men, that they may see your good works, and glorify your Father which is in heaven.
- Jesus of Nazareth (Matthew 5:15, KJV)
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Broken Eyeglasses
 By Ken Parks, March 14, 2007

 

I had hit upon a Parachurch web site that offered free literature. Being in the investigative mood, I subscribed for the writings with the understanding that the hardcopies would arrive via e-mail via the U.S. postal service. Within a few hours and unexpectedly, I received a phone call from an evangelist who identified himself with the nickname “Brownie.” He invited me to breakfast for the next day. I was hesitant but accepted his offer. I wondered what his reasoning and purpose behind this encounter.

Brownie and I met at the local IHOP the next day. He launched into the reason for meeting me and wanted to know what I though about baptism. He asked, “Do you know the very moment you considered yourself saved?” It was a question outside of the normal realm and I figured it had something to do with his belief system. I told him that my initial point of salvation was based upon truly repenting and believing in Jesus Christ with all my heart.

Brownie flinched at my answer and wanted to hear something else that aligned to his methods of belief. After I explained that I had Pastor Schneider come to my house on a cold wintry evening and that is when I realized that I was now part of God’s family, saved by grace through faith. This all seemed easy for me to understand, but Brownie rolled his eyes and went on a confused discourse which included hand drawn time charts and several Scripture references, pointing to Mark 16:15-16, Acts 2:38, and Acts 22:16 along with several others passages. His distorted discourse went on for nearly an hour, trying to convince me that I was wrong and that salvation begins only upon baptism.

I interrupted and mentioned that the Apostles received the Holy Spirit without baptism. Brownie snickered, “Their salvation was an exception.” I thought for a microsecond, “For someone who believes in the teachings and only the teachings of the early church, his explanation did not give me any warm fuzzies. This aroused the aura of a cult type organization, granting exceptions for this and another exception for that.

This breakfast conversation revealed the aberrant teachings of this so-called “evangelist.” I immediately recognized Brownie’s doctrine of works, control, and misinterpretations of Scripture. His concentration on baptism as being the device for one to be considered saved led me to believe that there are other forms of works or jumping through the hoops in so much that one must maintain their salvation.

Brownie gave away his contempt for other denominations and the belief that his church organization was the only true church by the way he acted and how he presented his argument. The facial expressions, the rolling of the eyes, and the sardonic statements reminded me of my X-wife’s “profit of God”, Calvin Simmons.

Since that breakfast engagement, Brownie sent me a few more e-mails trying to convince me of his misguided teachings and even offering me to attend his small “friendly” congregation, which meets at his house. I declined the offer, and I was eventually told that my baptism some 30 plus years ago at Pleasant Valley Baptist Church was viewed as ineffective. His only true church is where one must be baptized and then considered truly “saved.” Through his broken eyeglasses, I’m still a heathen, unsaved, and headed down the road to destruction. My belief in Jesus Christ is considered void and of no effect. The Lord’s gift of salvation by grace through faith is worthless. If this were the case, then Ephesians 2:8 must be discarded from my Bible along with over 100 other passages concerning belief and grace.

From this encounter, one can easily see that it is imperative to be sound in the Word and test the spirits to view whether the message comes from the father of lies or from the gates of Heaven. If anyone comes along and tries to teach another gospel, another belief system, one of which is contradictory to the Gospel of Jesus Christ, then they are as the Apostle Paul wrote, “eternally condemned.”

In His Majesty’s Service,
Ken Parks

Research into the Church of Christ

The research into the Church of Christ led me to examine their tactics.

1. Change the subject and/or attempt to steer the discussion in their favor.
2. Take Scripture out of context.
3. Employ straw man arguments
4. Ad hominem attacks (attacking you as opposed to the issue at hand). I've experienced this first hand.

There are several ways to define a cult or a religious organization that puts on the facade of Christianity.

1. Claim to be the only true Christians; exclusive to any other church
2. Leaders lying about their history and doctrine. Often they claim their roots to the day of Pentecost in the second chapter of Acts. They also mislead people about some of their doctrines, by not telling prospective members what they really believe up front (Billy Graham is not a true Christian).
3. Claim to be the only Way to God. They are the one and only true "Body of Christ." No one goes to the Father outside of their denomination.
4. Salvation through the works doctrine such as baptism. Their salvation occurs the moment they "DO" their part and get baptized. And you must recognize that it is the baptism that remits your sins, or it is of no effect.

Quotes from Ex-Members of Internationsl Church of Christ (ICC)

The following is a few excerpts of those who have come out of the ICC.

1. I quit the church one month into my so-called membership, and the day ended by my callthe the cops at midnight to get one of their members off my front porch. The day after, I had to disconnect my phone line and ordered call-block from my phone company. About a month after I left ICC, I ran into some members at a football game. They wouldn't look at me. I had no idea what was going through their minds, but I knew it had something to do with "mind control."

2. I must admit, the ICC is a very strong church. I quit after two months of membership and the people who used to be my "friends and family" no longer wished to speak to me as I am now in "a church that is not ordained by God," i.e. a non-ICC church. Please stay away from this group; they are very controlling group. Before you realize it, they have taken over yur life, and the longer you stay, the harder it becomes to quit.

3. Let me start by saying I think for the most part the doctrine of ICC is great. I learned a lot and the discipleship was very intense and insightful. However, they are cult-likein their practices. But if other churches followed similar (not exact) practices, the church as a whole would be a lot better off. I was part ICC for a few months, but decided to leave for several reasons.

4. ICC put my friend out of the church because they said she would not submit to her husband and reconcile with him after they separated. They told her that she couldn't enjoy the benefits of the Kingdom as others did and remain unsubmitted and at ICC. They would not allow her to be baptized unless she reconcile with her husband and confessed her sins to him. They also told her that they hoped Satan would have his way with her so that she would self destruct.

5. I disagreed with then that a woman could not teach in a mixed congregation. Men and women had to be separated whenever a woman taught.

6. ICC leaders were heavily involved in the lives of others... I think this was extreme.

7. Regardless of being previously baptized, you could not become a member unless you were baptized in their church.

8. I had an issue with the situation occurring with my disciple partner and her family. They needed financial help such as food. ICC leaders told her that they could not help her and her faimily because of sin that caused them to be in that financial predicament. They had committed no sin to get into that situation. They had been financially struggling, were low income people, and they had no food. They could barely keep the lights on. Consequently, they had to seek help from another church denomination who gladly came to their aid.

Dialogue Discontinued

Without so much as getting into an e-mail quarrel with someone who was so indwelled in this aberrant doctrine, I terminated the so-called "dialogue." We were so diametrically opposed in the understanding of Scripture, I saw no reason to continue a debate. Brownie's e-mails were loaded with so many eisegesis, that trying to reason with someone whose tactics included omission, convolusion, and exception was beyond Scriptural acumen.

Brownie sent me another e-mail after I announced an end to our discussions. He basically claimed that I was unsaved and had not been properly baptized. "Ken, I pray that somehow, someway, you might open your heart to accept the conditions by which we come into a saving relationship with Christ. He really hasn't asked very much of us. Being baptized again for the right purpose certainly has N.T. precedent."

As far as Brownie was concerned, I was never saved under his "conditions." The wintry night in 1975, whereby I surrendered my heart and soul to the Son of the Living God, Jesus Christ as my Lord and my Savior, was all for naught through the broken eyeglasses of Brownie and his Church of Christ.
It's through broken eyeglasses that one has a distorted view of the church, sometimes believing that their denomination is the only true church. This is the case of Brownie's religious views.
After more than thirty years of Biblical studies and experience with cult type organizations, those that put on the facade of Christianity, it was not at all difficult to discern Brownie's maligned belief system.
I could discern that Brownie's belief system involved control of members, legalism, and imposed guilt when necessary. This was the exact same practice and doctrine of cult leader and "profit" of God, Calvin Simmons.
Brownie's business card has himself entitled as "Evangelist" with the Church of Christ (CoC). Research led me to several sources on the Internet concerning CoC and its core belief system.
It's no wonder Brownie rolled his eyes whenever I mentioned the Holy Spirit and Pentecost. It turns out that some factions of CoC deny the power of the Holy Spirit . And, in some cases, completely deny the existance of the Holy Spirit. Therefore, my statement went over like a lead balloon.
The CoC seem to be hung up on Acts 2:38 and stop reading beyond that. They claim that there were only two instances of the baptism of the Holy Spirit and that this is where it ended. The next verse clearly states that this baptism of the Holy Spirit is for everyone, not just for the Apostles or for the people who were hearing his words.
There is so much disparity and aberrant teachings of the CoC that it leads one to believe that they are a cult or have cult tendencies. It is my recommendation to stay away from this group.
I realize that some people may differ on my opinions about this group; they may consider this simply another Christian denomination with a different set of aberrations. When a group of people and the leaders of this organization have a negative impact along with several aberrations that conflict with the teachings of Jesus Christ, then I hold that organization suspect of being a cult or has cult tendencies.
Brownie's exclusive teachings became apparent in that when someone is baptized in a denomination, then they are not really accepted by God as being cleansed from sin and are still considered to be "unsaved." Only by being baptized in the Church of Christ is one exclusively saved.