martinsville

Chris Knight's avatar

The Lord works in mysterious ways…

I’m content to believe that the strange drama of what has gone on between Yours Truly and Johnny Robertson of “Martinsville Church of Christ” – part of what I call the “Church Of Christ In Name Only” – has finally drawn to a close. It came with this brazen admission by Robertson on the Answering the Church of Christ blog…

“we are here to defeat destroy you and uplift truth”

– Johnny Robertson, June 11, 2008

Johnny Robertson, supposed preacher and “Church of Christ” television broadcaster, has said that it is the mission of he and his followers “to defeat (and) destroy you”.

I don’t have to say anything else or make another video, folks. Robertson has shot himself not in the foot but straight in the chest with this statement.

No doubt that the effort I went through in order to ...

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Chris Knight's avatar

In the wake of my “extending the opportunity” to “Martinsville Church of Christ” cultist Johnny Robertson on June 1st, WGSR general manager Charles Roark offered me 25 minutes of free airtime on Sunday night in response to Robertson. I took up the offer, even though 25 minutes is not nearly long enough to counter everything that Robertson, James Oldfield and Norm Fields spend thousands of dollars to broadcast for about a dozen and a half hours a week.

And I already knew that it would have been futile to have even tried to counter everything they preach, too. But I never believed that I had to try to, either.

“Christianity is not a competition”, as I said on Sunday night. And I was never out to “beat” Johnny Robertson at anything. All of this began with a simple question…

“Johnny, how is what you are doing showing devotion to

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Chris Knight's avatar

Yesterday afternoon WGSR Star 39 General Manager Charles Roark devoted the 4:30 “warm-up show” to what happened on Sunday night on the street in front of the station, when I gave Johnny Robertson of the “Church Of Christ In Name Only” the opportunity to debate me on live television. Since Robertson had already declared he was going to talk about me and this blog on his show anyway, and had strongly stated that I wouldn’t debate him, I took him at his word and showed up at the station with my Bible and video camera and gave him the chance to take me on during a live broadcast. He refused, and he couldn’t answer the questions I was asking him either.

Long story short: Charles Roark has offered me 25 minutes of free airtime this coming Sunday night at 8 p.m.

I’m taking him up on it.

All I’m ...

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Chris Knight's avatar

As I reported earlier, last night I gave Johnny Robertson of the Martinsville Church of Christ (which I call the “Church Of Christ In Name Only” because it has NOTHING to do with the traditional Churches of Christ) the opportunity to debate me on live television, since he’s apparently been wanting me to mix it up with him over a matter of theology. You can read what I wrote about what happened at the above link.

Here at last is the video of what happened.

Part 1 is up already. I’m working on Part 2 now and it might even go to a Part 3. But in the meantime, have at it…

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Chris Knight's avatar

Yup, I sure did.

Went down to the WGSR studio at 7 p.m. last night (now 7 hours ago) and waited until Johnny Robertson – of the “Church of Christ in Name Only”, the hyper-legalist cult in these parts that is demonstrating so much hatred toward others, all in the name of Jesus Christ – showed up for his weekly live television broadcast.

Robertson got there just before 8:30 on his way to do his show. And I didn’t hesitate to ask Robertson three big questions:

(1) How is what he is doing showing devotion to Jesus Christ, and showing Christ’s love to the lost of this world?

(2) Where in the Bible does it say that if you are not baptized that you are going to Hell?

(3) “I’m here Johnny… so will you debate me live on the air tonight?”

Robertson never answered the first question, could not...

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Chris Knight's avatar

A bit of an update on Dianne Odell, who passed away this past week after living 60 of her 61 years in an iron lung and was reported to have been a devout Christian woman. In considering her situation a question arose in my mind that I felt led to ask aloud to Johnny Robertson, James Oldfield and Norm Fields of the local “Church of Christ” (which has nothing at all to do with the Church of Christ that most people know of): the three cultists who appear on WGSR several times a week and among other things teach that there is no salvation without baptism.

It turns out that Dianne Odell HAD been baptized, in her family’s bathtub, when she was 13 years old. She was taken out of her iron lung just long enough to accomplish it, against her doctor’s recommendation. It’s something that she very much ...

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Chris Knight's avatar

Okay, now it’s getting into the territory of the downright nutty…

About two months ago I called into Johnny Robertson’s show What Does the Bible Say? on WGSR Star 39. Johnny Robertson (shown at right) is considered the chief ringleader of what I’ve come to call the “Church of Christ in Name Only” (COCINO for short), a very vindictive, mean-spirited cult working around Reidsville, North Carolina and Martinsville and Danville in Virginia. These guys have about three hours of programming on WGSR each week and they do nothing but attack anyone who isn’t “their” brand of Christianity. Namely, they believe that if you are not part of what they call the “Church of Christ” (which is nothing like the Church of Christ that most people know) that you are damned and going to Hell. They also believe that a person must be baptized in order to be ...

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Dear Johnny Robertson, James Oldfield, and Norm Fields:

I can’t recall a single time that any of you have been live on the air on your various “Church of Christ” television programs that broadcast on WGSR, when you have not vehemently stated that in order to be saved and go to Heaven that one must be baptized in water and join the Church of Christ. All three of you claim that without water baptism, there is no salvation possible at all.

(I’ll take time out here to state again – as I did the first time and then again not long afterward that in no way do I consider Robertson, Oldfield, Fields and their bunch to be the real Church of Christ that most people know and respect. The “Church of Christ In Name Only” that broadcasts on WGSR is something that can only be described as ...

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Although to be fair, a lot of other Christians don’t get it either…

(Yes, I admit that I’m watching Robertson’s show tonight on WGSR, ‘cuz more than a few people suggested that after the video I posted in response to last week’s show, that he might use it tonight. So far I haven’t seen it.)

Mr. Robertson, God does not care which “church” we belong to! God is not interested one bit whether we are “Church of Christ” (I’m going to start calling the bunch that broadcasts on WGSR Star 39 as “Church Of Christ In Name Only” or “COCINO” for short to differentiate it from the real Church of Christ, the independent congregations sincerely trying to serve God that most people have heard of) or Baptist or Pentecostal or Catholic or Methodist, or any other denomination…

God does care about whether or not we are seeking for Him, ...

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Chris Knight's avatar

This requires a bit of set-up for readers who aren’t in this part of North Carolina/south-central Virginia …

Two or three times a week on Reidsville’s WGSR Star 39 television station, a group of local ministers calling themselves the “Church of Christ” do a series of live broadcasts. The shows have various names, but they’re all pretty much the same: a show starts, the minister runs some old video of a Baptist or Pentecostal or preacher of some other other denomination that they don’t agree with (sometimes it’s video of a debate of that night’s “Church of Christ” guy hashing it out with another pastor). While the video is running that night’s preacher silently stands on the set giving the camera a stern gaze, then he stops the video and begin blasting whoever it is that’s on the “hate list” for the evening.

So these “Church of Christ” guys believe ...

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