The American Restoration Movement
This section is best read with a
Bible at hand.
In the latter part of the 1700's and the early 1800's, a movement was launched in America by James O'Kelley, Abner Jones, Elias Smith, Barton W. Stone and Thomas & Alexander Campbell, and later ably championed by such men as Walter Scott and John Smith, to restore the New Testament church in all its purity and simplicity.
The
plea of these men was a complete restoration of the church to that established
by the apostles after the resurrection of Christ Jesus in
Because
of the zeal and success of the work by the
"We will do this by teaching everything they taught and refusing to teach anything which they did not teach. We will do and practice everything which they did and practiced, but we will not do one thing which they did not do and practice (spiritually speaking)," declared the movement leaders. "We will speak where the Bible speaks and we will be silent where the Bible is silent" following the guidance of 1 Peter 4:11. They believed if the Lord's church was not a denomination in the first century, then it is not to be one today.
The
early restoration movement pioneers were very concerned about the many
traditions, doctrines, "creeds" and cultural values which had become
part of the worship for members of the various denominations. The church
of the New Testament was completely free from all of the denominational
machinery, doctrine and ecclesiastical systems which have permeated so many
churches today.
Each congregation of the New Testament was separate from every other church or group of churches, subject to no authority outside the local congregation other than Jesus and his apostles. In the New Testament, the "church" was described as the body of Christ with Jesus as "the head of the body" (Colossians 1:18). To be "Christian" is to be Christ-like. Consequently, the churches which are part of the restoration movement fellowship are "Christian" churches or churches "of Christ."
Each New Testament church had its own set of elders (alternately called episcopals, bishops or presbyters, and sometimes called shepherds), along with members selected to serve as deacons. As a group they were primarily responsible for teaching and serving, they were not a "ruling" class.
Members of Christian churches or churches of Christ, are simply "Christians." They do not claim to be the only Christians. Christians of the restored church "of Christ" have no doctrine or creed, nor any book but the Bible. Each church of the restoration movement fellowship is an independent, non-denominational church.
From 1794 through 1835, six separate pioneer restoration groups were organized without any knowledge of each other's existence. In all six cases, their reason for organization was that they might restore the New Testament church as it is found in the Bible. Each had gone back to the same basic "blueprint," the Bible, for forming a congregation and conducting worship.
The first effort toward a restoration of Christ's church began in 1794 under the leadership of James O'Kelly, a Methodist minister from Virginia. Under his guidance several Methodist churches in the area took upon themselves the name of "Christian" only.
In 1801 Abner Jones, a Baptist from Vermont and New Hampshire, broke with the Baptist church and began an independent movement for the purpose of returning to the "old paths."
Another Baptist, Elias Smith, led his congregation in 1807 into the New Testament position. In 1812 he and Abner Jones joined efforts and established congregations calling themselves simply "Christians."
While these events were taking place east of the Appalachians, out in the hills of Kentucky a Presbyterian minister named Barton W. Stone, was leaving the Cumberland Presbytery, followed by his entire congregation. He subsequently formed the Cain Ridge Christian Church. In the book Attitudes and Consequences, Homer Hailey writes, "These people were calling themselves 'Christians,' rejecting human creeds and party names, appealing only to the Bible for their guidance in faith and conduct."
About the same time, Alexander and Thomas Campbell, father and son, both Presbyterian ministers from Pennsylvania, broke from their denominational background and began organizing Christian churches throughout their state. By 1832 the Campbell group, which by that time far outnumbered that of Stone, united with the Kentucky churches to form the largest and fastest growing religious organization of the time. Their union was upon realizing their identical belief in the need and possibility of restoring the church of the New Testament.
The sixth group to enter the movement was Scottish Baptists of New York. Although not as large as the other groups, they also left denominational ties and sought out others holding to the same New Testament position.
Although the early restoration pioneers came from a variety of geographical regions and a variety of backgrounds, all of them could unite because they agreed upon the need for the restoration of the first century church. The need for a restored New Testament church continues.
About 1860 a large number of Russian Orthodox Christians from Northern Russia broke with their church and set out to return to the principles of the New Testament. They called themselves "Evangelical Christians." During the next 60 years they grew until they numbered more than two million believers in Russia, Poland and other Slavic regions.
In 1918 the Russians chanced upon a copy of the Christian Standard, an American publication, and were surprised to find it advocating the same position as theirs. After subscribing to the publication for more than a year they were convinced that in the Christian churches and churches of Christ of America, there was a group identical to theirs. In 1920 they sent a delegation to America and joined forces for a common goal.
In December of 1961, the National Bible College of Wichita, Kansas, received a letter from a young man in Shama, Ghana, asking for a copy of the Bible. Soon after the Bible was sent, a flood of requests began to pour in. The Ark Valley Christian Church of Wichita, began furnishing Bibles as a missionary project. In May of 1964, a Bible recipient wrote Ark Valley that he had begun preaching the New Testament gospel and that some 5,000 locals were ready to be baptized.
Max Ward Randall, missionary to Northern Rhodesia, and Cyril Simkins, professor at Johnson Bible College, went to Ghana the following August. To their surprise, they were met by more than 5,000 Christians. Following several preaching services, more than 2,000 additional locals were baptized. These people were taught and saved simply because someone sent them copies of God's Word, they read, believed and did as commanded by the Lord.
OVERVIEW OF CHURCH HISTORY:
1. The beginning of the Christian Church
30 - 100 AD -- New Testament churches established by the apostles and other Christian disciples. The presence of the apostles critical for correcting error. The last of the apostles, John, dies about 100 AD.
30-300 AD -- Persecution of the early Christians, first by the Jewish leaders and then by the Romans, motivates the early Christians to disperse and establish new congregations. The persecutions have a purifying effect on the church.
2. The church becomes corrupted
300-1500 -- Emperor Constantine converts (?) in 306 and eventually makes Christianity legal. Persecution ceases. Being a "Christian" becomes popular. Church leaders become politicized. Human reason and church councils begin to supersede scripture as authority. The bishops of Rome and Constantinople begin to vie for superiority.
325 AD -- Council of Nicaea. Called by Constantine to resolve disputes between prominent bishops, philosophers and various religious factions. Reducing turmoil in the Empire seems to be a stronger motivation than restoring the church.
460-467 -- Attempting to solidify the authority of the Papacy, Pope Leo I "the Great" declares papal primacy, arguing that the Pope alone has the responsibility and authority to care for the entire church.
497 AD -- With the fall of the Western Roman Empire, the Pope gains in political power and influence.
610 AD -- Mohammed begins preaching in Mecca; flees to Medina. He returns to take control of Mecca in 630 and dies in 632. His "writings" collected as the Qur'an (Koran) and the military forces of the Islamic faith unleashed in the East. They are stopped from going north by the Eastern Roman Empire with its capital at Constantinople, but sweep east through Persia and west across Northern Africa to the Straits of Gibraltar. They invade Spain in 711 and continue north into France where they are stopped by Charles Martel (the grandfather of Charlemagne) at the Battle of Tours in 732. The defeated Moors are driven back across the Pyrenees Mountains to Spain.
751 & 768 -- Pepin the Short and his son, Charlemagne, fuse the Frankish monarchy and the Papacy with the creation of the "Holy Roman Empire."
988 AD -- Vladimir I, grand duke of Kiev, declares Eastern Orthodox Christianity to be the official state religion of Russia.
1015 -- Celibacy of priests.
1054 -- Pope Leo IX and Patriarch Michael Cerularius make permanent the long-developing schism between the Roman Catholic and Eastern Orthodox, with an exchange of anathemas of excommunication.
1096-1099 -- The First Crusade (out of a total of eight) is organized to liberate the holy lands from the grasp of the Muslims. The crusaders set out after Eastern Roman Emperor Alexius Commenus, besieged by Islamic forces, pleads for help from Pope Urban II.
1229 -- The Inquisition forbids the reading of the Bible by lay persons. Pope Gregory IX issues the Excommunicmus in 1231 which explicitly permits the burning of heretics at the stake.
1302 -- Pope Boniface VIII declares that the Pope has supreme and final authority in all matters, both civic and spiritual.
1315 -- Selling of Indulgences
1376 -- John Wycliffe, an Oxford don, calls for reforms in the Church and is latter expelled from Oxford. Preacher John Hus adopts Wycliffe's theories to support his own claims against ecclesiastical extravagances.
1415 -- John Hus tried and burned at the stake for heresy.
1438 -- Johann Gutenberg invents the printing press with movable type, producing the first Bible printed with this technology at Mainz, Germany. This new ability to "mass produce" information in the printed form significantly influences the exchange of ideas.
1453 -- The Ottoman Turks seize Constantinople, opening the way to expand their Muslim empire into southeast Europe.
1492 -- The Spanish drive the remnants of the Moors out of Spain and sponsor the voyages of Christopher Columbus, which carry Catholicism to the Americas and begin the conquest of areas from the Gulf of Mexico to the tip of South America by Spain and Portugal. Vasco DaGama rounds Cape Hope at southern tip of Africa and sails to India for Portugal (1497-1498).
3. The Renaissance and Protestant Reformation
1517 -- Martin Luther, a highly-respected church leader and teacher, nails his 95 Theses to the door of All Saints Catholic Church in Wittenberg, Germany, protesting the sale of indulgences and other corrupt church practices. His act gives significant momentum to the rudimentary Protestant movement in Europe. Luther condemned as a heretic in 1521.
1533 -- Pope Clement VII excommunicates Henry VIII of England, who separates England from the Catholic Church and declares himself to be the head of the Church of England, laying the foundation for the Anglican/Episcopal Church.
1560 -- John Knox founds the Presbyterian Church in Scotland.
1608 -- Baptist Church established by John Smyth
1611 -- The "King James" translation of the Bible commissioned by the King of England. King James also bans the Jesuits.
1620 -- English Puritans, known as Pilgrims, establish a colony at Plymouth, Massachusetts, to escape religious pluralism in England.
1664 -- Trials begin in Salem, Mass., which condemn women in America as witches for the first time.
1738 -- Methodist Church founded by John Wesley.
1776 -- 13 American colonies declare independence from England and create the United States of America. One of the basic tenants of the new country is religious freedom.
4. The Church restored -- 1800 to present.
1794 -- James O'Kelly begins restoration efforts in Virginia.
1801 -- Abner Jones begins restoration in Vermont and New Hampshire.
1807 -- Elias Smith leads his congregation in restoring the church.
1800's-early -- Barton W. Stone takes his Presbyterian congregation and forms the Cain Ridge Christian Church in Kentucky.
1800's-early -- Alexander and Thomas Campbell begin organizing Christian churches throughout Pennsylvania.
1800's-early -- The Scottish Baptists of New York become part of the restoration movement.
1812 -- Smith and Jones join efforts, establishing congregations calling themselves simply "Christians."
1832 -- The Campbell group unites with the Kentucky churches. Eventually the various independent restoration churches come together under a common "fellowship" umbrella.
Unfortunately even the restoration movement has had divisive issues. The two great enemies of the church have proved to be legalism (as practiced by the Pharisees) and liberalism (the modernizing or softening of Biblical principles). The three main divisions of the restored churches fall into these basic categories:
- Disciples of Christ -- The division arose over the development of the United Christian Missionary Society. Churches disagreed over whether to send funds to a central organization or directly to the mission field. "Open membership" became accepted practice in UCMS; immersion no longer required. Begin to question miracles of the Bible. Liberal theology filters in at colleges and seminaries. In the late 1960's the churches involved go through a "restructure" and become a denomination with headquarters in Indianapolis, Ind.; have approximately a million members.
- Church of Christ - Non-Instrumental -- An ultraconservative interpretation of the "silence of scripture" results in condemning the use of the piano and other instrumental music in worship. Approximately two million members, especially in the south; institutions of higher learning include David Lipscomb and Pepperdine.
- The Independent Christian Church -- Each usually contains the designation "Christian" or "Church of Christ" in its name and often is noted as "instrumental." Goal is to "Speak the Truth in Love" (Ephesians 4:1-15). Collectively, they generally take a conservative approach to scripture but seek tolerance in attitude toward those who disagree. Number about four million members and have own publishing company, Standard Publishing. Also have own convention, the North American Christian Convention; institutions of higher learning include Milligan College, Lincoln Christian College and Great Lakes Christian College (Lansing, Mich.).
The churches of both the "instrumental" and "non-instrumental" persuasion are all independent and non-denominational in nature. This follows the pattern of the New Testament where each church was independent or "autonomous." Each is led by a group of elders, have deacons in positions to serve the church, and most employ a "preacher." Following the absence of a distinction between laity and clergy in scripture, preachers serve as "minister" and prefer to be addressed as "brother" or just by their first name, rather than "reverend" or "father."
Each church considers itself
responsible for bringing the unchurched into the fold
and assisting Christians in growing to be like Christ. The church is to
be a place of worship as well as "fellowship," promoting mutual
support in living a Christian life; a source of edification so that members
will grow as Christians; and an opportunity to serve in a variety of programs
or "ministries." The most important program is Bible study
opportunities to prepare Christians to be witnesses to non-Christians.
Members are expected to attend regularly (Hebrews