THROWBACK THURSDAY: ‘The Restoration Movement: Then and Now’ (1984)

By Lewis Foster 
Oct. 14, 1984; p. 15 

Each generation should be required to write out the pur­pose for the existence of any movement vital to its own time. This must be done conscientiously, striving to be faithful to the emphasis and intent of the founding fathers. It must be done frankly, willing to note shortcomings in the concept then at the beginning, as well as fault and loss of direction now. It must be done freshly, using words and concerns most mean­ingful to the present generation, but not changing simply for variety sake.  

A statement of purpose—The following statement is this kind of an attempt to enunciate for today the original thrust of the restoration movement:  

The restoration movement of Campbell and Stone exalted the lord­ship of Jesus, the Son of God, and acknowledged the divine authority of the Scriptures. It was dedicated to bring about a unity among all Christians through the restoration of the New Testament order of the church: its doctrine, its ordinances, and its fruits. Evangelizing the world was its prime task. It emphasized the freedom of each Christian in matters of opinion, the local autonomy of each congregation, and the cooperation of the churches in love and service.  

The restoration movement came into existence in the early years of the nineteenth century. This period was marked by an aggressive skepticism outside the church and deep denomina­tional division separating the professed Christians inside Christendom. Although the lines of division have shifted somewhat, the same basic need to confront unbelief and divi­sive barriers separating Christians is still with us. The restora­tion movement attempted to meet this need with a plea for unity based on the restoration of New Testament teaching, faithful to its purity and the intent of its inspired authors.  

Observations about it—The following observations on the essentials of the movement are drawn from the statement of the movement’s purpose given above.  

1. Jesus is Lord. The restoration movement made good use of catchy slogans, some of them new, some of them borrowed. “No creed but Christ; no book but the Bible,” were the first two lines of one of these. To many this was a negative state­ment about creeds, but actually it pointed up the true centrality of Christ in the whole movement. To others it was too broad an affirmation that leaves it possible to conjure up any kind of Christ one chooses. But the second line of the adage cleared this up. “No book but the Bible.” The Christ of the first line is the Christ introduced in the second line. He is the real Jesus, the Son of God, and we learn about Him in the trustworthy, divinely inspired Word of God. An individual’s experience or a theologian’s Christology must be measured by the teaching of Scripture. To accept Jesus, in faith and obedience is the basis of all else.  

2. The Scriptures are the divine standard. The word of Scripture was used as the infallible record to establish the standards of the church described in the New Testament.  

With you all we desire to unite in the bonds of an entire Christian unity—Christ alone being the head, the center, his word and rule; an explicit belief of the manifest conformity to it, in all things—the terms (Thomas Campbell, Declaration and Address). 

Believers’ immersion and the observance of the Lord’s Supper each Lord’s Day were advocated, not as an arbitrary trade­mark of a movement, but because they were taught in the Word of God.  

3. Unity through restoration is the way. The only hope for unity in Christendom was not in an attempt to get in step with one another, but to get in step with the Scriptures and find agreement with one another on this basis. It seems that the interest in restoring the New Testament practice in the church rose from the desire for unity. A search for the basis of true unity found no other way than a unity based on God’s Word.  

With the passage of years the movement, however, has been identified with restoration, not unity. In fact with many, this early essential unity thrust of the movement has been allowed to drift out of sight compared with the place it once occupied.  

On the other hand, many who claim a heritage with the Campbells and Stone have discarded the restoration concept along with the acceptance of the Scripture as the divinely authoritative Word of God. Ironically these have emphasized the word “unity,” but it is not the unity the restoration move­ment urged because the full authority of Scripture is missing. At the same time while they have pursued this different type of unity, they have welcomed the identification of themselves as another denomination, the Disciples of Christ.  

Still others, not to be confused with those who have lost trust in the Scriptures, would consider “restoration” a burdensome term to carry to the contemporary world. No one claim that an understanding and an acceptance of the movement are nec­essary for salvation. They are not necessary for an understand­ing of Scripture or the acceptance of Jesus as Savior. But the movement provides a great assistance: a rich heritage, exam­ples of faith, wise instruction, valid standards, worthy goals, urgent challenges. If it is a matter of changing the words, this is one thing; but the abandonment of the movement’s concept of either unity or restoration would be preserving a fairly empty shell. This is a particular area of tension both in the pursuit of unity and the concept of restoration. Both are vital to the movement and both show evidences of neglect.  

4. Evangelizing is the task. 

Next to our personal salvation, two objects constituted the summum bonum, the supreme good, worthy of the sacrifice of all temporali­ties. The first was the union, peace, purity and harmonious coopera­tion of Christians, guided by an understanding enlightened by the Holy Scriptures; the other, the conversion of sinners to God (Alexan­der Campbell, The Christian System, p. xiii).  

Although Campbell put conversion of the world as the end purpose for the unity of Christians, one must question the order in which unity occupies first place and evangelism sec­ond. The order of listing may not be important in itself, but because of what followed, it may reflect something more sig­nificant. It seems as though the founding fathers expected so assuredly the turning of the whole of Christendom into the unity they were advocating that they were waiting for this to occur before their evangelistic effort took them into all the world to preach the gospel. Although their record of evange­lism is phenomenal in the early decades of the movement, their writings emphasized unity and restoration, so that the lag in evangelism during later years may be connected in part with the disillusioned wait for unity. Evangelism is the prime task of the church, and its work cannot wait on any of the other demands upon the Christian. The salvation of souls is the goal the church exists for—“that they may be one . . . that the world may believe” (John 17:21).  

5. Freedom, autonomy, congregational government is the form. Another important lesson taught by the restoration fathers is that each individual has freedom in matters of opin­ion. Where the Scriptures speak, this is a matter of faith—there must be unity. But where there is no explicit “thus saith the Lord,” we have no right to demand that a brother adhere to our opinion, nor does he have the right to insist to our conformity with him—“in opinion liberty (diversity is to be expected), and in all things love.” The local congregation has a compara­ble freedom. No ecclesiastical power has higher authority con­trolling the individual congregations (local autonomy). In the local congregation the congregational form of church control prevails, the vote of the members is the final voice, not a presbyterial body or a synod.  

6. Love, cooperation, service are responsibilities. The priv­ileges accompanying genuine freedom are plagued by lurking dangers made real if excessive freedom is reached for. Licen­tiousness, selfishness, and pride result. Christian responsibili­ties point in the opposite direction. Love and mercy shown by God are the challenge to each Christian’s life. The congrega­tions, free from control over one another are urged in the spirit of unity to cooperate with one another in far greater undertak­ings than could be approached alone.  

Evangelism is the biggest challenge to the united effort of the churches. But the responsibilities of service and benevo­lence both in the congregation’s own community and the world at large must not be ignored. We live in a hungry world, the third world calls to us, and the vast lonely world craves the hope the Christian can supply. This is all a part of the Christian responsibility, and the restoration movement called attention to this side of the church’s work.  

To keep a movement alive and well, one must understand the heart of the past, breathe the air of the present, and exercise a vision that anticipates the future. The alpha and the omega is the Lord Jesus. By His presence is a person or a movement kept alive—both then and now.  

Dr. Lewis Foster is professor of New Testament at Cincinnati Christian Seminary, Cincinnati, Ohio.