Orange County Churches Review & Guide

http://www.motifs.com/firstchurch/

Church Review
Scriptural View: 0/5
Beliefs: 0/5
Community: 1/5

Website Review
Site Usabilility: 1/5
Site Design: 0/5
Site Content: 0/5

Summary:“Christian Science” is a cult started in the 1800’s by Mary Baker Eddy. They use the words ‘christian’ and ’scientist’. They are neither Christian nor scientists. I recommend you visit the Christian Apologetics and Research Ministry (CARM) to study this cult.

Not only does it deny the essential doctrines of Christianity, but it has completely reinterpreted the Bible. It drastically redefines the Bible’s culture and terminology and rips thousands of scriptures out of their historical and biblical contexts. The result is a non-Christian mixture of metaphysical and philosophical thoughts. Christian Science is so foreign to the Bible that, if it didn’t use words like Jesus, Trinity, Love, Grace, Sin, etc., you’d never suspect it had anything to do with the Bible at all. Additionally, the book Science and Health with Key to the Scriptures, which is the Christian Scientist’s mainstay of spiritual knowledge, reads with a rhythm of pseudo logical statements that has the tendency to dull the senses when read long enough. Is Christian Science Christian? Definitely not.

Above quote from CARM.

Christian Scientist churches are part of a cult. Their churches and reading rooms are not places of true worship and study of the Bible. I strongly recommend you avoid them.

http://www.ocuuc.org

Church Review
Scriptural View: 0/5
Beliefs: 0/5
Community: 2/5
Preaching: Topical
Worship: Hymns
Service times: 9:15 & 11:00 AM

Website Review
Site Usability: 4/5
Site Design: 2/5
Site Content: 4/5

Review: I attended a service in January of 2005. The service began with the singing of a number of songs out of a hymn book, led by a woman playing the piano. After the time of song there was a ceremony where a chalice was lit and everyone spoke out a phrase together which was printed in the bulletin. The chalice is intended to symbolize openess to all according to reason, justice, and compassion and the flame lit inside its bowl is intended to symbolize love. There was also a time of giving money. When the plates were passed around to put money in, everyone turned to each other and sang, “From you I receive, to you I give; Together we share, and from this we live.” After the offering there was a time of meditation. During this time, perhaps two or three minutes, most of the people closed their eyes and repeated the act of taking long breathes of air in and then exhaling.

The woman leader and minister of the church, Karen Stoyanoff. She was speaking about Martin Luther King Jr. Her sermon was titled “The Three Dimensions of a Complete Life.” The three dimensions were, one: love yourself, two: love your neighbor, three: love the cosmos or life itself. She used excerpts of King’s sermons to illustrate each point but when she came to the third she said that King believed in God, but those of here do not accept the notion of a traditional “God” so she said what we need to do is love the cosmos. She defined the cosmos as that which unites us all to gather in an interconnected web of life.

WARNING! I recommend that you avoid any Unitarian Universalist church. They are a cult. The reject the existence of God, the deity of Christ, the authority of the Bible and a host of other things. (To read more about Universalists see Christian Apolgetics Research Ministry )

http://www.laicc.net/Content/Regions/OC/index.htm

Scriptural View: 0/5
Beliefs: 0/5
Community: 2/5
Preaching: Topical
Worship: Choir
Service times: 10:00 am

Website Review
Site Usability: 3/5
Site Design: 3/5
Site Content: 1/5

Review: The Los Angeles Church of Christ Orange County Region is part of the larger movement known as the International Church of Christ (www.icoc.org). The International Church of Christ demands “total commitment” from its members, called “disciples.” They originally came from an American religious movement of the early 1800s called the “Restoration Movement”, and represent a conservative wing of that movement. The independent “Christian Church” and “Disciples of Christ” are two church denominations that came out of the Restoration Movement along with the Church of Jesus Christ of the Latter Day Saints, (Mormons). Though their name is similar, The International Church of Christ should not be confused with the United Church of Christ, which came from a different branch of the Protestant Reformation and holds very different beliefs than the Churches of Christ or Restoration movement as a whole. ICC believes the church has apostasized and sees itself as God’s movement to restore true “New Testament Christianity.”

ICC believes in following the Bible only and no “creeds of men.” Is that a creed? Any religious practice not specifically commanded in the Bible is termed “unbiblical” and is rejected by the International Church of Christ. A common saying among them is that, “We speak where the Bible speaks, and keep silent where it is silent.” Yet interestingly, Kip McKean, the World Missions Evangelist and head of the ICC, is the ultimate authority and source for ICC doctrine. Nothing any other ICC minister writes is published by the ICC or used without his approval. He alone claims to have the correct interpretation of Scripture, and anyone disagreeing is dismissed (see reveal.org for several testimonies).

ICC embraces a belief that one must be water baptized by immersion in one of their churches in order to be saved. They believe that the act of baptism actually saves a repentant believer and refer to Acts 2:38 as support for such a belief. The ICC holds that denominations and sects are sinful and not of God and that all non-ICC churches are not true churches. Because of this, there are never two ICC-affiliated churches in a single city or town and in order for one to be saved they must be a member of an ICC church and be baptized in their church. I spoke with Anthony, a member of the L.A. Church of Christ who said that they frequently re-baptize people who were baptized as Christians in Protestant churches.

ICC rejects the use of musical instruments during worship as deeming them unbiblical. Passages in the Bible describing the use of musical instruments in worship are ignored because they are descriptions and not commands.

ICC does not emphasize theological issues in its preaching or teaching; it has a utilitarian, results-oriented approach. The ICC tends to view serious theological study as a waste of time for most of its members. Gordon Ferguson, an ICC leader states, “Any religious group who strongly emphasizes doctrinal accuracy runs a risk of losing perspective and losing God. (Progressive RevelationBoston Bulletin, May 1988).”

Based also on Matthew 28:18-20, the ICC also believes in a system of discipling, which means that every member is assigned another member as a mentor, to whom he/she reports, confesses sin, and which he/she is expected to obey and emulate. In turn, each disciple is to actively be evangelizing, which means finding people for them to disciple. This activity is very important for making other disciples also contributes to the aquiring of your own salvation along with baptism and ICC church membership.

WARNING! I recommend that you avoid any International Church of Christ Church! They are extremely cultic. ICC sounds Christian but they severly distort the gospel of Jesus Christ.