A Brief History of the Restoration
Movement
The Restoration Movement was born on the nineteenth-century American
frontier out of a deep concern for Christian unity. There were four
pioneers: Barton Stone, Thomas and Alexander Campbell and Walter Scott.
Barton Stone believed that Christians could and should unite on the basis
of simple faith in Christ and that the divisive doctrines and practices of
denominationalism should be abolished. His church at Cane Ridge, Kentucky,
became the center of the famous Kentucky Revival; but Stone came out of
that movement convinced that salvation had little to do with church
affiliation and that “deeds are more important than creeds.”
Thomas Campbell advocated closer relations with all Christians, appealed
to the Bible as the basis of faith, and practiced open Communion. He
preached and practiced that the church and church membership should be
based solely upon the belief and practices of New Testament Christianity;
the articles of faith and holiness “expressly revealed in the Word of God”
were quite enough without the addition of human opinions or creedal
inventions.
Alexander Campbell gave the movement its formative theology. He enlarged
on the concept that every church should be autonomous and completely
independent—that creeds, clerical titles, authority and privilege had no
justification in Scripture; that the Lord’s Supper should be served at
every Sunday service; and that baptism should be by immersion for adult
believers (those adult enough to understand the meaning of the ordinance).
Walter Scott popularized the term restoration, meaning the restoration of
New Testament pattern and practice. Like Stone, Scott was suspicious of
the values of the current revivalist frenzies; he related faith more to
the mind than to emotions—it was not a matter of emotional experience but
of intellectual acceptance of the truth of Christ’s messiahship. He
stressed the importance of such faith, together with repentance of sin and
baptism by immersion.
Thus the independent Christian Churches do not make up a denomination, but
a fellowship, there is no formal organization other than in the local
congregations, and there are no denominational societies, officials or
boards.
Our doctrine stresses the divinity of Christ, the agency of the Holy
Spirit in conversion, the Bible as the inspired Word of God, future
rewards and punishments, and God as a prayer-answering deity. We maintain,
“all ordinances should be observed as they were in the days of the
apostles,” and we observe the Lord’s Supper in open Communion every
Sunday.
