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Presented January 14, 2007

 

WHY ARE THERE SO MANY DIFFERENT CHURCHES? (6)

The Restoration Movement (1)

 

Thus far we have traced the history of apostasy from the church of the first century.  We noted how Catholicism developed over the course of several centuries by changing the organizational structure of the church as well as countless changes in doctrine as taught within scripture.  With continued and increased corruption within the Catholic Church, many men set out to reform her and the denominational (reformation) movement was started.  Men, many with sincere and noble motives, desired to correct the corruption and apostasy they witnessed within the Catholic Church.  But the problem was that they did not go far enough.  While they sought change in some false doctrines, they espoused others and in some cases, in response to Catholicism, swung the Pendulum to the opposite extreme (e.g. John Calvin and Calvinism, Luther and “faith only”, etc.).  For the next few centuries, the Catholic church continued to develop, as did the Greek Orthodox Church within its various countries.  At the same time, the denominations of the reformers also continued to develop and refine their doctrines, some adding creed books that distinguished them from other denominations.  At the same time, more and more denominations were being formed as many of them splintered over various doctrines and in some cases regions (e.g. Churches developing in the United States took a different direction than churches in Europe).  During this time (the 18-19th centuries), attitudes and beliefs became more and more liberal among many which changed the way many approached the scriptures and further divided those with a conservative Biblical mindset (i.e. – respect for the inerrancy of scripture) and the liberal approach (i.e. – questioning the inspiration of the Bible, miracles did not exist, who was Jesus, and appeals to emotions over reason).   The result of this was even more religious confusion as men, with the average man still quite illiterate and left to decipher what to believe based upon the debates and teachings of various men.   Thus we have many different “churches” per se and the answer to the question we are entertaining in this study.

But the history does not end there.  If this were all there is to religious history then we are doomed to accept religious division without any way of determining what is actually the truth.  This is unacceptable!  Especially when we consider that the Bible condemns such religious division (John 17:20-23, 1 Corinthians 1:10-13, etc.) Therefore we must continue our study by noting the reformation movement.

 

I.                     Returning to the Old Paths

a.        Maintaining the Old Standard.
In challenging condemned Judah to return to God, the prophet Jeremiah made the following statement in Jeremiah 6:16, “Thus says the LORD: ‘Stand in the ways and see, And ask for the old paths , where the good way is, And walk in it; Then you will find rest for your souls. But they said, 'We will not walk in it.'”
The idea of standing in the Old Paths is going back to the original commands of God.  Ways that we KNOW are pleasing to God.
Revelation 2:5 to the church at Ephesus that had left its first love they were told, “Remember from where you have fallen; Repent and do the first works, or else I will come to you quickly and remove your lampstand from its place – unless you repent.”
John 14:6 – Jesus said, “I am the way, the truth and the life: No one comes to the Father except through Me.”  There is only ONE way to God and that is through Jesus.  The whole purpose of this study has been to show the MANY different ways that men created to supposedly go to God.  Being the creeds of men, they CANNOT be right (Matthew 15:9).  On another occasion Jesus called Himself the door of the sheep (John 10:7) and the Good Shepherd (10:11).  He began that discourse by saying, “Most assuredly, I say to you, he who does not enter the sheepfold by the door, but climbs up some other way, the same is a thief and a robber. But he who enters by the door is the shepherd of the sheep” John 10:1-2. 

b.       What is restoration?

                         i.      The word restoration means, “a return of something to a former, original, normal or unimpaired condition.” (Random House, dictionary.com). 

                        ii.      When we speak of restoration we refer to returning the church to its original state.  Catholicism corrupted the New Testament Pattern for the church and worship.  Protestant reformers set out to reform (to improve or amend something) the abuses and corruption within the Catholic Church.  Because they were rejected they created their own religions and creeds.  While they did much good, they still did not completely return to the completed New Testament pattern in ALL things.

 

II.                   The Restoration Movement puts us back on that path.

a.        The restoration movement was a movement by men to put aside all innovations of men and completely return to the pattern of the New Testament church in all things. 

b.       The BEGINNING of the Restoration movement had its origins in the same manner as the reformation movement.  Just as reformers sought to correct corruption and error in the Catholic Church in the 15th and 16th centuries, so many denominational leaders saw errors in the creeds and denominational organizations they were a part of in the late 18th and early 19th century (i.e. late 1700’s and early 1800’s).  An interesting observation about this movement is that it began in a number of different places about the same time by different men who did not know each other or correspond with one another until after they had formulated their convictions.
IN THIS LESSON we want to notice some of the men who are associated with this movement and some of their teachings.  We will also notice HOW they apply to us.

c.        Some men of the restoration movement

                          i.      James O’Kelly – was a Methodist Episcopal preacher.  Objecting to the authoritarian practices of the hierarchy, he and others formed the “Republican Methodists” in 1793 & 1794.  Some of the points they emphasized included: 1) recognizing Christ as the only Head of the church; 2) calling themselves only “Christians”; 3) regarding the Bible as the only creed they would follow.

                         ii.      Barton W. Stone – a Presbyterian preacher from Kentucky began to question teachings of that denomination.  In 1804 he and others withdrew from the Presbyterian organization and formed the “Springfield Presbytery.”  Not long after that they realized that even that organization was without authority and they drafted “The Last Will and Testament of the Springfield Presbytery.”  In that statement they rejected human creeds, titles such as “reverend” and endorsed congregational autonomy.   A few years later, Stone studied and realized that baptism was to be administered to penitent believers for the remission of their sins.  Stone established what was called, The Christian Church.
http://www.bible.ca/history/eubanks/history-eubanks-41.htm

                        iii.      Thomas Campbell (1763-1854).  Another Presbyterian minister born in Ireland became a minister in that country and tried to unify various groups of that body.  In 1807 he moved to Pennsylvania where he continued to try and persuade others to follow various New Testament teachings.  With litigation to oust him from the Presbyterian Church, he resigned with others and formed the “Christian Association of Washington, Pennsylvania.”  He freely used the term, “Church of Christ” to describe the church.

                        iv.      Alexander Campbell (1788-1866) was Thomas Campbell’s son.  After Thomas left Scotland Alexander soon followed arriving in 1809.  He too started out as a Presbyterian minister.  But reading some of his father’s works, he found himself in agreement.  They formed churches throughout the Pittsburg, PA area.   After rejecting the Presbyterian Church and its teachings Alexander aligned himself with the Baptist church having been immersed by a Baptist preacher, Matthias Luce, in 1812.  But his affiliation with the Baptists was also short lived because he saw it as another denomination of men.  http://www.therestorationmovement.com/cmbla.htm
http://www.mun.ca/rels/restmov/who.html

                         v.      AT the same time, there were others, primarily in the south who began questioning the official creeds of various denominations and moved in the direction of the teachings of the New Testament.  
Among them was JOHN TAYLOR of NW Alabama (1807-1885).  He was a Baptist preacher who saw the need to be baptized FOR the remission of sins (in order to be saved).  He was finally baptized by a Baptist preacher who did not agree with his views, but complied out of respect and WITHOUT the consent of the Baptist Church.  Taylor was branded a heretic by the Baptist Church as a heretic.   After he was excluded from the Baptist church he wondered whether or not he could continue preaching but his brother (who was not a believer) to him he was just as suited to preach after the Baptist church as before.  In Alabama he found many who were willing and interested in following simply the New Testament without denominational affiliations.  A website that chronicles the restoration movement noted that Taylor had never heard of Alexander Campbell when he started preaching.  He simply studied the Bible and came to ITS conclusions.  http://www.therestorationmovement.com/taylorj.htm

                          vi.      IN 1832, after meetings, the movements of Stone and Campbell merged into one.  They called themselves the “Disciples of Christ.”  (Note the name – a Biblical concept rather than the name of a man).  http://www.answers.com/topic/disciples-of-christ

d.       Teachings of this movement

                            i.      "Where the Scriptures speak, we speak; where the Scriptures are silent, we are silent."

                           ii.      To call themselves, “Christians” only

                          iii.      To recognize Christ as the ONLY head of the church.

                          iv.      They adopted the saying, “In matters of faith, unity; in matters of opinion, liberty; in all things, love.”

e.        Why we espouse these teachings. 

                           i.      Are we Campbellites? While we owe a great debt of gratitude to these great men for their efforts to restore New Testament Christianity we do not profess to follow them.  In fact, they would NOT desire that anyone call themselves after their name.  In fact the very statements they made would oppose that.

                          ii.      The principles they espoused which are accepted are done because they are Biblically sound.

1.        Concerning speaking where the Bible speaks, we note Galatians 1:6-9, 1 Corinthians 4:6, Revelation 22:18-19

2.        We ought to simply call ourselves Christians – Acts 11:26 , 1 Corinthians 1:10-13

3.        Christ IS the only head of the church – Ephesians 1:22,23; 2 Thessalonians 2:3-4

4.        We need the Christian spirit of unity where God speaks and respect of differences where God is silent (Romans 14, etc.), and in all things we MUST have love – 1 Corinthians 12:31, 16:14 – “Let all that you do be done in love.”  Also Galatians 5:13, Colossians 3:14, etc. 

                         iii.      There are many things each of these men taught that I would not be in agreement with nor teach.  Differences are a result of continued study and a desire to return completely to the Old Paths we addressed at the beginning of this lesson.  It is well documented that as these men and others studied their way OUT of errors, it did not happen overnight.  But often times through YEARS and DECADES of honest examination they reached their conclusions.

 

Thus we can see the efforts of restoration.  LET US LEARN from them to always continue to study and strive to reach the complete truth of God’s word.  I would to God that each of us have the spirit these men had (and many in the reformation movement) to keep studying and IF WE FIND that anything we are doing or teaching is NOT what the Bible teaches, we will be willing to change.

But our study is not complete as we find the process of division began again only with different issues.  In our next lesson, we will notice some of these.