Is the Church of Christ a cult? Part 2

My last post, Is the Church of Christ a cult?, garnered a lot of attention.  That may be putting it lightly, actually the post was HUGE!  I was taken aback by the response it received.  From a numbers point of view it was far and away my most read post ever.  During the month of September I set a personal best for hits on my blog, due to the response to this post I broke that record on October 18th.  Even more amazing, the traffic count for the first first three days the post was up (October 17 – 19) exceeded the traffic count of the months of April, May, and June.  When the end of this month arrives Saturday I will have experienced a 50% increase in visitors over the previous record setting month!

I’m glad that so many people read this post. However, I’m humbled by the response people have had to it’s content.  Starting on the Saturday I posted the article up until today I have received well over 100 responses from my readers.  A few of you posted directly on the blog, others did so publicly on facebook, however, the majority of the response came in the form of emails, phone calls, and personal conversations.  If you read the post, and I encourage you to do so if you have not, you know that I was shocked as well as discouraged by the accusations being levied against the congregation I call home.

As soon as I had expressed my discouragement in words, God moved in to replace my discouragement with encouragement!  I was truly a recipient of the promise of Paul in Romans 8:28, “And we know that in all things God works for the good of those who love him, who have been called according to his purpose.”  You see, what I saw as a horrible setback in the Christian community, what I viewed as an opportunity for Satan to gain a foothold, God took and used it for his great purpose.  What could have been an occasion for more division, God used as a call toward unity.

My purpose in speaking out against this outrageous claim was not to “get back” at the source, if that was the case I would have named names and pointed fingers.  No, I purposefully refrained from naming the source because to do so would only foster divisiveness.  We all make mistakes and do things that, in hindsight, we wish we could take back.  My prayer is that by shining a light on the issue more people will be inspired to do as a dear friend remarked concerning this whole ordeal; “Let’s make the main thing the main thing!”

As I said earlier, I am humbled by the response I received to the article.  Your kind words were uplifting, your advice was invaluable, yet your show of friendship was priceless.

“Let us therefore make every effort to do what leads to peace and to mutual edification.”  Romans 14:19

Mitchell