"This survey is an account of those Christians who throughout time chose to serve the Lord and not to follow after the traditions of man. Through the writers and historians of the Catholic church we can read of the charges made against these Christians and the penalties meted out to them. This account is not a history of the church in general, nor a defence of the New Testament church, other excellent books are easily available and are listed for this in the endnotes. This survey should therefore be regarded as an addition to other widely available works."
The author of the website, Keith Sisman, makes a rather persuasive argument that the church has existed in Europe without a central hierarchy for a very long time, despite persecution from organized religion.
He states one of the accusations made against them:
"4/ Rejection of church buildings and altars, their defence was that any place was a suitable place of Worship."
I ought to note here that the author does not mean the United Church of Christ or any denominational Church of Christ, but uses the scriptural descriptive term to simplify and distinguish these churches. A local body of believers who follow the New Testament pattern are a "church of Christ" or a "church of God" or a congregation, or a "house church" or an ecclesia (if one use the Greek), no matter whether they call themselves Lambtown church of Christ or Lambtown Home Fellowship of God, etc; as Christians have a local assembly but also belong to Jesus' universal church made up of all who wear his holy name. Thus Sisman writes:
"The people who are written about wore no name other than ‘Christian’. For convenience in this study we will use the same term and refer to the congregations who met together to Worship the Lord as ‘churches of Christ’. This description was given in Paul’s letter to the Romans in chapter sixteen verse sixteen. The term ‘church of Christ’ is a common designation made in the English language referring to those churches who are ‘in Christ’.
The 'church of Christ' is none other than Christians who make up the body of Christ, His spiritual Kingdom on Earth."
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