Ghosts of the Restoration

Ghosts of the Restoration

During the period of history now known as the Restoration Movement, many Christians in America sought to restore New Testament Christianity, and liberate themselves from the controlling religious institutions to which their European ancestors had adhered.  Many Christians today have a vague knowledge the Restoration Movement, or confuse it with the Reformation Movement.  Other Christians consider the study of that period in history almost as important as study of the Bible itself.  Although the dates vary from one historian to another, the Restoration began sometime in the early to mid-1800s, and concluded around the early 1900s. 

It was during this period of history that many have made the mistaken claim that “the church of Christ began” in America, or that churches of Christ today can trace their roots back to work of Restoration leaders such as Alexander Campbell and Barton Stone.  It is sometimes argued that churches of Christ today are merely “Campbellite” churches (churches of Alexander Campbell).  Again, many Christians (especially the younger) don’t have a clue who Alexander Campbell was!

It is evident, however, that many contemporary circumstances and customs in local churches are the result of Restoration era efforts, practices, and beliefs.  It is also a matter of historical fact that the way many brethren view one another or judge one another today is based on divisive “issues” that Restoration era Christians debated.  Having mechanical instruments of music, churches supporting secular institutions or getting involved in secular work, sponsoring church arrangements, are the kinds of issues that divided churches beginning in the Restoration era, and the same debates were passed from one generation to the next right up to the present day.  At the very core of the argument was biblical authority, but from the literature left from writers of the era, personal feelings, opinions, preferences, and prejudices were also tightly wound into the debates.  The ghosts of the Restoration still haunt us today.

The question is: are local churches and individual Christians today doomed to continue to divide and fall out of fellowship with one another based on 100-year-old publications, debates, and convictions?  Consider Ephesians chapter 4:11-16, which says,

“And He Himself gave some to be apostles, some prophets, some evangelists, and some pastors and teachers,  (12)  for the equipping of the saints for the work of ministry, for the edifying of the body of Christ,  (13)  till we all come to the unity of the faith and of the knowledge of the Son of God, to a perfect man, to the measure of the stature of the fullness of Christ;  (14)  that we should no longer be children, tossed to and fro and carried about with every wind of doctrine, by the trickery of men, in the cunning craftiness of deceitful plotting,  (15)  but, speaking the truth in love, may grow up in all things into Him who is the head—Christ—  (16)  from whom the whole body, joined and knit together by what every joint supplies, according to the effective working by which every part does its share, causes growth of the body for the edifying of itself in love.”

Jesus Christ is the Head of His church.  Local churches are established and maintained in His name when the people at that church adhere with sincerity of heart to His doctrine.  Local churches and individual members must ask themselves: do I believe and practice this because it is what Christ authorizes?  Any other reason – tradition, the predominant belief in one’s family, what looks or feels right – is not valid.  And when an individual or local church realizes a practice or belief may not be consistent with what scripture teaches, regardless of what was done during the previous 10, 20, 50, or 100 years, regardless of the consequences of even proposing a change, that local church or individual must make a sincere effort to study the word of God and decide WHY they are doing what they are doing.  Christ is the Head and must have the first and final word on all that we do and speak!

If the Lord Himself were to ask a local church, “Why did you abandon the guidelines established by My word on this issue?” would the answer, “well, that’s just how we always did it” be acceptable?  Any Christian or church, on either side of any debate, surely would agree that this excuse would not be acceptable to God, and yet, when our brethren ask us why we are engaged in an unscriptural practice, sometimes, that’s exactly what we say!

Verse 13 says that the goal is for all of us to “come to the unity of the faith and of the knowledge of the Son of God, to a perfect man, to the measure of the stature of the fullness of Christ.”  Disciples of Jesus Christ and local congregations have made mistakes since the establishment of the church in the first century all the way up this very moment that you are reading these words, but that shouldn’t distract us from this primary objective.  Past mistakes and continued error should not prevent us from striving to “speak the truth in love” (v.15) to those who we believe have departed from scriptural authority.  And, if we have been practicing error, past mistakes should not prevent us from abandoning that practice and prideful attitudes, and get back to the unity of the faith in the knowledge of the Son.

No, we are not doomed to continue to be divided by the same old debates kickstarted during the Restoration.  Jeremiah 6:16 says, “Ask for the old paths, where the good way is, and walk in it; there you will find rest for your souls.”  Although many admirable efforts were made during the Restoration period, the old paths are not to be found back in the 1800s.  The old paths are found in the eternal word of God.  If an individual or local church didn’t know anything about the history of the church over the past 2000 years, one could still learn how to “walk in the light as He is in the light, and have fellowship with one another” by simply studying and practicing what scriptures teach.

Jeremy Koontz