One In Jesus

We in the Churches of Christ often claim to be part of or heirs of the Restoration Movement, founded by Barton W. Stone and Thomas and Alexander Campbell. We like to recite various Restoration Movement slogans and give them very nearly the authority of scripture. When we say that we must be “silent where the Bible is silent,” no one questions the truth of the proposition, only its application. The Restoration Movement is very deeply ingrained in our corporate DNA.

And I’m quite a big fan of the Restoration Movement. I wished we’d study it even more. Indeed, I’m confident we’d be spiritually more healthy if we were more knowledgeable of our historical roots.

But then, we have to be honest scholars, and as much as I admire the founders of the Movement, I have to recognize that the principles of the Movement have changed–and changed radically–over the years. We pretend to honor not only Stone and the Campbells, but also Lipscomb, and Sommer, and Boles, but we can’t truly follow them all. They disagree about too many things.

Stone and McNemar

Barton W. Stone and Richard McNemar were Presbyterian ministers working in Illinois. Following the Cane Ridge Revival, they came to reject the strict Calvinism of the day, as they saw men and women by the thousands choosing to follow Jesus as a matter of free will, in response to the preaching of the word by men of differing denominations. Ultimately, they founded a movement operating largely in Western Kentucky known as the Christian Church. In 1832, the Christian Churches began to merge with the Disciples of Christ, founded by Thomas and Alexander Campbell. Here’s the story as told by Leroy Garrett, Continue reading →