The restoration of the church to the First Century pattern began at the close of the Eighteenth Century and the beginning of the Nineteenth Century. During this time Restoration Movements sprang up in different parts of America and Europe with a plea to go back to the New Testament Scriptures as the only authority in all matters that pertain to religion and faith. It was an appeal to go back to the Bible with the adoption of the following maxim as the rule of action of life for Christians: “Where the Scriptures speak, we speak; where the scriptures are silent, we are silent.”
The Movement was launched upon four basic principles:
A. The acknowledgement of the New Testament Scriptures as the only authoritative rule of faith and practice. A positive attempt to obey the “Pattern whereunto we have been delivered,” to accept only those things in religion which are specifically specified in the New testament by command, apostolic example or necessary inference.
B. Renunciation of all human creeds and the acceptance of the precepts and examples of Jesus as the only creed binding upon Christians. Human creeds are by their very nature divisive; only the Scriptures furnish a rational basis for unity.
C. The restoration of the apostolic or New Testament concept of the church in the minds of men. Worshipping and patterning of our lives after the divine pattern.
D. The union of all Christians upon the basis of the Bible.
Leading members of the Restoration Movement whose names are outstanding were James O’Kelly (1735-1826) of Methodist Episcopal Church, Abner Jones (1772-1841) and Elias Smith (1764-1846) of Baptist Church, Barton W. Stone (1772-18444), Thomas Campbell (1763-1854) and his son Alexander Campbell (1788-1866) of the Presbyterian Church, and Walter Scott (1796-1861) of the Presbyterian Church.
These men led the Movements independently, which latter united and became a strong and formidable Restoration Movement because of their identical plea and purpose. They advocated the restoration of the church to the First Century, apostolic pattern. They did not advocate the establishment of a new church.
Worthy of note is that the Restoration Movement started at the time there was so much religious confusion and corruption in the church. Its purpose was to correct religious errors and stem the tide of apostasy.
Before the formation of Restoration Movement, and as far back as the Sixteen Century, several Reformation Movements had emerged in form of Protestantism against the Catholic Church that was accused of being the custodian of the religious confusion. The rise of the Protestant Movements did not bring sanity to the church either, because they subsequently yielded to human creeds and traditions – their efforts resulted in adulterated theology and new dogmas as well as the establishment of new churches all over the world.
The Restoration Movement preached against these adulterated theology, human creeds and traditions as well as all infringements on the New Testament Scriptures. The Movement accepted the Bible as being complete such that no human additions to the Scriptures would be accepted. They believed in “thus says the Lord” in all matters of faith and Christian practice.
Upon these premise leaders of the Restoration Movement accepted fully the declaration of Thomas Campbell, made in 1809, as being a thorough treatment of the restoration principles to replicate the ancient order of Christianity as read on the pages of the New Testament Scriptures in any environment, culture or context. Here (part in summary) is Campbell’s 13 points declaration:
1. That the Church of Christ upon earth is essentially, intentionally and constitutionally one; consisting of all those in every place that profess their faith in Christ.
2. That although the Church of Christ upon the earth must necessarily exist in particular and distinct societies, locally separate one from another, yet there ought not to be no schisms, no uncharitable divisions among them.
3. That the Bible is the only article of faith and practice for Christians, and nothing not so expressly enjoined by the authority of our Lord Jesus Christ and His apostles in the New Testament should be accepted as church doctrine.
4. That although the Scriptures of the Old and New Testaments are inseparably connected, making together one perfect and entire revelation of divine will for the edification and salvation of the Church, the New Testament is the perfect constitution for worship, discipline and government of the New Testament Church, as the Old Testament was for the worship, discipline and government of the Old Testament Church, and the particular duties of its members.
5. That with respect to the commands and ordinances of our Lord Jesus Christ, where the Scriptures are silent as to the express time or manner of performance, if any such there be, no human authority has power to interfere, in order that nothing more be required of Christians in such cases, but only that they so observe these commands and ordinances as institution. Much less have any human authority power to impose new commands or ordinances upon the Church, which our Lord Jesus Christ has not enjoined. Nothing ought to be received into the faith or worship of the Church, or be made a term of communion among Christians, that is not as old as the New Testament.
6. That although inferences and deductions from Scripture premises, when fairly inferred, may be truly called the doctrine of God’s holy Word, yet are they not formally binding upon the consciences of Christians farther that they perceive the connection, and evidently see that they are so; for their faith must not stand in the wisdom of men, but in the power and veracity of God. Therefore no such deductions can be made the terms of communion, but do properly belong to the after and progressive edification of the Church. Hence, it is evident that no such deductions of inferential truth ought to have any place in the Church’s confession.
7. That although doctrinal exhibitions of the great system of divine truths and defensive testimonies in opposition to prevailing errors be highly expedient, and the more full and explicit they be for those purposes the better; yet, as these must be in a great measure the effect of human reasoning, and of course must contain many inferential truths, they ought not to be made terms of Christian communion, unless we suppose, what is contrary to fact, that none have a right to the communion of the Church, but such as possess a very clear and decisive judgment, or are come to a very high degree of doctrinal information; whereas the Church from the beginning did, and ever will, consist of little children and young men, as well as fathers.
8. That as it is not necessary that persons should have a particular knowledge or distinct apprehension of all divinely-revealed truths in order to entitle them to a place in the Church, neither should they, for this purpose, be required to make a profession more extensive than their knowledge; but that on the contrary, their having a due measure of scriptural self-knowledge respecting their lost and perishing condition by nature and practice, and of the way of salvation through Jesus Christ, accompanied with a profession of their faith in the obedience to him in all things, according to his Word, is all that is absolutely necessary to qualify them for admission into his Church.
9. That all who are able through grace to make such a profession and to manifest the reality of it in their tempers and conduct, should consider each other as the precious saints of God, should love each other as brethren, children of the same family and Father, temples of the same Spirit, members of the same body subjects to the same grace, objects of the same divine love, bought with the same price, and joint-heirs of the same inheritance. Whom God hath thus joined together no man should dare put asunder.
10. That division among the Christians is a horrid evil, fraught with many evils. It is anti-Christian, as it destroys the visible unity of Christ; as if he were divided against himself, excluding and excommunicating a part of himself. It is anti-scriptural, as being strictly prohibited by his sovereign authority, a direct violation of his express command, It is anti-natural, as it excites Christians to condemn, to hate and oppose one another, where bound by the highest and most endearing obligation to love each other as brethren even as Christ has loved them. In a word, it is productive to confusion and of every evil work.
11. That (in some instance) a partial neglect of the expressly revealed will of God, and (in others) an assumed authority for making the approbation of human opinions and of human inventions a term of communion, by introducing them into the constitution, faith or worship of the Church, are, and have been, the immediate, obvious and universally acknowledged causes of all corruptions and divisions that ever have taken place in the Church of God.
12. That all that is necessary to the highest state of perfection and purity of the Church upon earth is, first, that none be received as members, but such as, having that due measure of scriptural self-knowledge described above, do profess their faith in Christ and obedience to him in all things according to the Scriptures; nor, secondly, that any be retained in her communion longer than they continue to manifest the reality of their profession by their temper and conduct. Thirdly, that her ministers, duly and scripturally qualified, inculcate one other things than those very articles of faith and holiness expressly revealed and enjoined in the Word of God. Lastly, that in all their administrations they keep close by the observance of all divine ordinances, after the example of the primitive Church exhibited in the New Testament, without any additions whatever of human opinions or inventions of men.
13. Lastly, that if any circumstantial indispensably necessary to the observance of divine ordinances be not found upon the pages of express revelation, such, and such only, as are absolutely necessary for this purpose should be adopted under the title of human expedients, without any pretence to a more sacred origin, so that any subsequent alteration or difference in the observance of those things might produce no contention nor division in the Church.
Thomas Campbell’s declaration essentially affirmed that only the Bible should serve as the Christian rule of faith and practice, and the New Testament as the constitution of the New Testament Christian church. This declaration, which God used Campbell to make, still serves as the principles on which the Church of Christ stands today.
The Church of Christ is not a new church, but rather the restored church originally established on the Pentecost Day in AD 33.
