You may wonder why I choose to call the ICC a cult, especially if you are a current member. First, the ICC encourages excessive devotion to one thing... and that thing is not God. It's their church, their leaders, and their power structure.

While the Bible encourages leaders not to "lord it over" the disciples (Matthew 20:25-28), leaders in the ICC do exactly that. They often accuse people who disagree with them or question their authority of sinning by doing so. Furthermore, they go so far as to define what acts are sins even when they are not listed in the Bible. For example, Kip McKean once proclaimed, "It's flat unscriptural to be overweight!" Nobody questioned him, or asked what verse in the Bible says, "Thou shalt not be overweight." Another example, which I personally witnessed, was when the evangelist of the Greater Cleveland Church of Christ declared that he had the authority to tell members of his congregation to move to another house or apartment, and where that new residence would be. Anyone who didn't move within two weeks, the evangelist continued, would be sinning. To this day, I have not seen a sound Scriptural basis for that claim... but nobody questioned him.

The entire discipling heirarcy, in my opinion, is very controling. While some maintain that "advice" from a discipler is just advice, those who question it are often accused of the "sins" of "independence" or "pridefulness." People who neglect the "advice" that it is best to double date, for example, frequently are accuse of all manner of sins. If you're in the ICC and believe that advice from your discipler is just advice, try going on a single date without asking your discipler anything about it, and without having any other disciples along other the one you've asked out. If you actually believe you won't be able to keep yourself pure on that date, I've really got to wonder how committed ICC members really are. I've even heard of someone who was told she was in sin for neglecting her discipler's advice on how to bake cookies. Where in the Bible does it say every Christian needs to be in a discipling relationship, anyway?

Furthermore, I believe the ICC preaches a doctorine which is contrary to the Bible in several respects. While many aspects of their belief are orthodox Christian (with a small "o", as in the basic, Biblical Christianity), there are some areas which I believe contradict the Gospel. While I have discussed many of these issues in other areas of my site, I will briefly outline some of the areas of the ICC's doctorine which I consider unscriptural.

First and foremost is the doctorine of personal fruitfulness and the issue of saved by works. I have written a more in depth essay about this. The Bible never defines fruit as converts, but does offer other definitions which the ICC seldom talks about (Galations 5:22-23). It also explicitly says we are not saved by works (Galations 3 is a good example). Yet the evangelist of the Greater Cleveland Church of Christ explicitly told me that if I wasn't doing "the works of a disciple" that I would be damned to Hell.

They also insist that "praying Jesus into your heart" is a false doctorine. It isn't nearly as unscriptural as they claim it is. See this page for some of the Scriptures that support it. Another claim in their teachings on salvation is that you must be baptized to be saved, and that if you are not baptized with the knowledge that baptism is the moment when you are saved, that baptism doesn't count. I plan on writing a more detailed essay on this later, but suffice it to say there isn't a verse in the Bible to substantiate Kip's claim that "retroactive understanding is not sufficient" (First Principles). If God could forgive the unbaptized theif on the cross, why does the ICC imply he won't fogive someone for having an "incorrect" understanding of baptism?

Then there is the Special Missions Contribution. Paul calls on each disciple to give "what he has decided in his own heart to give, not reluctantly or under compulsion." (2 Corinthians 9:7). The ICC, however, announces that Special Missions Contribution will be so many times (usually 20, it seems) your weekly tithe. Just how Biblical is that? And do you think that has anything to do with the fact that Kip McKean lives in a $483,000 condo?

The members of the ICC also frequently believe that they are the only ones saved. Many claim something to the effect of, "We don't believe we are the only Christians, but I've never met any outside the ICC," if the issue is pressed. The First Principles studies, according to many former members, begins with the assumption that the recruit is not a Christian, and goes about trying to prove it. I have not heard one story of someone who went through the First Principles studies and was able to convince the ICC's leaders he or she was a Christian. In my case, they had managed to convince me I wasn't a Christian because there was sin in my life. They wouldn't take my response that there was sin in everybody's life (Romans 3:23). Many of the doctorines used to "prove" the recruit is not a Christian are addressed elsewhere on my site.

Then there is the way the ICC reacts to people who criticize them. They usually just dismiss it as "slander" and "persecution". Slander, however, needs to be false to count as slander, and the things critics do pale in comparison to the real persecution (arrests, lynchings, brutality, and the like) encountered by the first century church. There are many things wrong with the ICC, and criticizing those who call attention to them won't make them go away.