RESTORATION READINGS. Keith Mosher.

Restoration history through the preachers.

1939: german theologian Dietrich Bonhoeffer made his final visit to the US, he had been
here before: No rusty swords, lectures in the US from 1920-26; freedom of speech has
caused a problem for us, most people believe that they have the right to believe: “it has
been granted to Americans less than any other nation of the earth to realize the visible unity
of the church of God”. It supersedes the religious division of any other country.
Americans go to the nearest church. 200 separate protestant religious bodies. Southern
Baptist lead with around 3500 congregations. Alexander Campbell: May 1848, Millennial
Harbinger: “the beginnings of all things is weak and small”.
Rupertus Meldinias: “In essentials unity; in non-essentials liberty; in all things, charity”.
The first journal of Campbell was called the Christian Baptist because of the early
association with some Baptist.

1054: split between Orthodox and Catholic, led to Luther’s reformation in 1517: reformed
churches. In England the Episcopal or the church of England started and the puritans came
to America.
There were different splits in churches.
Richard Baxter
In all of them there is a search for unity John 17:20-21. Christianity is not divided,
denominationalism is. The target of Campbell’s attacks was the clergy.
John Drury 1595-1680: three-point program for unity: no creeds, abolish every sectarian
name, individual freedom in non-essential matters. Hugo Grotius.
Nothing in history happens in a vacuum.
1728: Benjamin Grosbenor: essay on the name “Christian”. The origin of the split between
Stone and Campbell.
Puritans idea for unity: they thought that there were too many human additions to the Bible,
get rid of the creed books, worship was too ritualistic, clergy was too eager for higher pay,
belief in congregational autonomy, there could be a lay leader.
Campbell studied the NT under John Glass and Robert after a shipwreck and left the
Presbyterian church at the same time that his father.
John Glass: his son in law was Robert Sandeman (1718 – 1771). Glass broke with the
Presbyterian church, he preached for a congregation in Dundy Scotland. He left after
studying the NT. They started the Glassite churches: Christian profession churches. They
had a problem with Glass calling himself the overseer. They observed the Lord’s Supper
once a month. He believed that there was no authority in the NT for a national church, or
that no political authority had power in the church and that no true reformation can be
carried with secular motives. There is still a Glassite meeting house in Edinburgh. Glass
applied the difference of the testaments politically.
Sandeman believed:
1. justification by intellectual faith; 2. The Lord’s Supper observed every week; 3. Holy
kiss; 4. Weekly contribution for the poor; 5. Mutual exhortation; 6. Any Christian could
claim another’s goods: communal property; 7. He made a difference between bishops and
elders.
The first sandemanian congregation in America was in Conneticut: Christian Church of
Christ. In 1840 this congregation merged with the group of Campbell. They established
about 30 congregations.
James Haldane: they left the Presbyterian church and became like the Sandemenians. In
Edinburgh and Glasgow Scotland they built tabernacles and called them churches of Christ.
They heard about a preacher in England, Roland Hill, he organized the English and foreign
Bible society and the Missionary Society. They taught church autonomy, weekly Lord’s
Supper, immersion of believing adults. They begin to try to conform to apostolic practice.
Walter Scott and Campbell were influenced by the Haldane and Sandemenian churches.

American background:
1727, long before the revolutionary war: movement with origins in Calvinism. In NYC in
1758, the influence of Jonathan Edwards, about 5,000 people gathered to pray to revive the
country.
The first great awakening of religion
The second great awakening under the influence of George Whitfield.
American Christianity took the image of revivalism. A form of democratic and free show of
religion contrasted to the ritualistic churches ran by the state in Europe.
After Thomas Jefferson and Thomas Pane the interest in religion in America decreased.
Book: Hard Fighting Soldiers. Robinson.
F. F. Carson: Otoka Oklahoma.
In Virginia: Old Lebanon church, James O. Kelly. August 4 1794. He broke with the
Methodist church: Francis Asbury was the Methodist superintendent who controlled the
preachers, he called himself the Bishop of America, Rice Haggard followed O. Kelly in his
breaking with the Methodism.
The Christmas conference was the moment of breaking of O Kelly with the Methodist
church: along with Rice Haggar, John Allen, John Robertson and William McKendree.
The Christian connection or Republican Christians: they fellowshipped people with similar
Christian ideas, among them was Barton W. Stone. This lead to an effort to restore NT
Christianity: the meeting of August 4, 1794 they decided to use the Bible as the only creed.
The 5 cardinal principles:
- Jesus as the only head of the church.
- Christian only, no sectarian names.
- The Bible is the only sufficient rule of faith.
- The Christian piety or character is the only rule of fellowship.
- Private judgement of all the believers.
The influence of John Locke and Thomas Jefferson left an impact in the religious
consciousness of the people, they formed a sort of natural religion.
*In the time of O Kelley Methodism had turned into what it came out from, a ritualistic and
formalistic religion: The Anglican church of England. –Wesley would fit more in
Pentecostalism than in Methodism-. Restoration was the breaking of a link of years and
years of tradition in interpreting the Bible.
George Whitfield: the great revivalist.
Elias Smith and Abner Jones: they joined the Christian connection in the New England
Area.
The conversion of Elias Smith into the Baptist church was after he realized the need of
baptism, he then prepared himself to be a preacher. His rejection of Calvinism almost led
him to the other extreme of universalism.
In Portsmouth, New Hampshire in 1802 Elias Smith and other rented Jefferson Hall to
gather in Sunday mornings. In 1 and a half years they got 150 members.
Abner Jones: Both former Baptists and freed from state churches. Both published the first
journal: Herald of Gospel Liberty. 1808-1817.
In May 1818 the Christian Herald succeded the Herald of Gospel Liberty.
The view of the first journal was espoused to the cardinal principles of James O Kelly.
Abner Jones founded the first free Christian church in New England.

The significance of the saying and source of the saying: in essentials unity, in non-
essentials liberty, in all things charity.
1804: Rice Haggard mentions it in an address to the different religious societies on the
sacred import of the Christian name: the tenet of Christians only.
There is reference to something similar even in Augustine, and other medieval authors. It
did not originate with the restoration movement.
Richard Baxter – the saints everlasting rest; he quotes the saying.

Barton Warren Stone 1772 - 18

Alexander Campbell, February 7th 1825, CB: “we are trying the society of Christians up to
the NT”. NT Christianity is our goal.
MH: None can adopt a creed like the NT.
1853, MH: “original Christianity is the polar star of all of our aims ecclesiastic”.

When Stone was 7 his family moved to Virginia. When he was 12 his mother had a
daughter. At 16 Campbell was born in Ireland 1788. At 18, he received money from his
father and went to Log Cabin School in North Carolina, with a Presbyterian teacher.
A serious individual who questioned what he was taught religiously. But he was also a
meek man, although he was firm in his convictions.
p. 20.
The first problem that he had with the Presbyterian church was their name. It encouraged
division.
Letters to John Blythe.
Stone ends up in Kentucky, where he made his career.
Cane Ridge revival: They understood that people could understand. There was a
spectacular response with physical explosion of excitement.
Barton started preaching in a way that got him in troubles with the Synod of the
Presbyterian church. The Washington Presbyterian.
Some of the companions of Stone started to hold Arminian views. He declared to the
Presbyterian church that the rule of faith stopped the evangelism.
The Springfield presbytery. They wrote an apology where they declared the rejection of all
creeds except for the Bible.
The last-willing testament of the Springfield Testament: at this point Stone was not
thinking himself outside the Presbyterian church, but he wanted to see it finished
completely and hold on to the Bible. After the rejection of the church he understood that the
only way to get out of the Presbyterian church.
Earliest document favoring the restoring of NT Christianity.
*People will pervert what one says: the noblest intentions are perverted by enemies: they
started the Stone movement as “new light Christian church”.
2 of the members of the group of Stone united the shakers and 2 others went back to the
Presbyterians.
The theme of immersion was gaining importance in Stone but he was reluctant to speak
about it for the amount of controversy. He was not fond of fighting and debates.
Hall-Stone’s discovery of baptism for the remission of sins is fundamental for the
understanding of the doctrine in the COC.
Barton started to support himself while preaching and began the publishing of a newspaper.
The Christian messenger: the goal was the unity of Christians under the NT pattern.
Campbell was the one preaching baptism for the remission of sins.
The meeting of Stone and Campbell represented the unity of the two movements: they
knew about each other. They would come together around 1835 but started meeting in
1831.
Stone became ill after the meetings and lasted for a long time. He was able to speak in 1838
in annual meeting of the Christian churches in Indiana: 150 groups represented. He spoke 5
times. Next year he attended the meeting in Indianapolis but his hearing decayed and
continue so until the end of his life. He noticed the absence of Campbell in the meeting, and
wrote him about the discussion between the name disciples and church of Christ. MH,
1840, 22.
August 1841 he suffered another stroke, but he recovered. In 1843 he wrote his
autobiography of 79 pages: published in the MH with comments of John Rogers. He made
a sunset tour to churches he planted in Indiana, Ohio and Cane Ridge. Oct. 2 1844 he
finished writing his rewritten will. Oct. 30 1844 he attended the “district” meeting, in
Columbia MSS, where he preached the last sermon on Oct 31. He went to his daughter’s
home in Hannibal MSS. In Nov. 9 1844 he died. At age of 72.
5 Lord’s days after his death they made a memorial service. They held another at
Jacksonville, and another at Cane Ridge the next year. John Rogers preserved the outline of
that memorial service.
Additions and reflections, the last part of the autobiography of Stone, by Rogers is where
the outline is. His body is near Cane Ridge.
CAMPBELL MOVEMENT
1850: John F. Rowe.