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Evangelical Christians" Or "Gospel Christians," and Were Originally Unrelated to the Baptist Movement Under Nikita Veronin, Which Dated from 1869

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Evangelical Christians Christians Only Christians Only A History of the Restoration Movement James DeForest Murch Standard Publishing Cincinnati, Ohio © MCMLXII The Standard Publishing Company Cincinnati, Ohio Library of Congress Catalog Card Number: 61-18657 Printed in the United States of America Preface FOR fifty years there has been need for a comprehensive, but not too ponderous, history of the American movement to restore the New Testament church in doctrine, ordinances, and life. Many other competent histories have been written, but the more recent ones appear to be severely limited in scope and motivated by modern scientific and theological theories foreign to the genius of the Restoration movement. I have long had a secret desire to write such a volume in the frame of reference afforded by Thomas Campbell's Declaration and Address, a document as vital to this movement as the Declaration of Independence is to the United States of America. I rejoice and thank God that He has permitted me to realize my purpose in this book. As Kenneth Scott LaTourette confesses in the Introduction to his monumental work, A History of the Expansion of Christianity, "No his- torian can write without bias, and he who professes to do so is either de- ceiving or self-deceived. The very selection of facts out of the endless and infinitely multiple stream of daily happenings in itself involves judgment as to what is significant." In this present work I have sought to portray the Restoration move- ment in the traditional historical view, which sees in history the hand of God and evaluates and interprets facts in the light of His Word. I have little regard for the modern school of history which looks askance at the supernatural and which sees in the flow of events simply mechanical and human factors geographical, climatic, economic, political, social, cultural, and intellectual. I see the Restoration movement as a part of the plan of God to preserve and perpetuate "the faith which was once delivered unto the saints" in its purity and power, and visibly to restore the one body in Christ. I believe that unless the movement remains true to the principles and purposes which brought it into being, it has no reason to exist. This book frankly presents an irenic personal view of the historical facts implicit in the events of 150 years in the life of a great people, now approximately five million strong. It seeks to interpret the processes whereby they have achieved their distinctive position and character as one of the leading religious communions in the Christian world, to point out their failures and shortcomings, and to highlight the unique oppor- tunities which lie before them in the new ecumenical era in the larger history of the church universal. I am deeply in debt to many sources for the information which the book contains. The bibliography at the end of each chapter acknowledges some of these sources. Among the individuals with whom I have consulted and who have assisted in many ways are Dean E. Walker, Joseph H. Dampier, Jesse M. Bader, Claude H. Spencer, Burris Butler, Edwin V. Hayden, Ronald A. Merritt, Athens Clay Pullias, M. Norvel Young, George S. Benson, Don H. Morris, B. C. Goodpasture, Frank S. Smith, Orvel Crowder, Fred P. Thompson, Verda Bloomhuff, James W. Nichols, LeRoy Garrett, E. L. Jorgenson, and John W. Wade. Christians Only is sent forth with a prayer that it may in some small way be used by the Lord to advance His cause and kingdom and to achieve the unity of all God's people for which He prayed. -JAMES DEFOREST MURCH WASHINGTON, D. C. vi Contents Preface Introduction: The Preservation of the Faith 9 1 A Great Awakening in America 19 2 Thomas Campbell and the Declaration and Address 35 3 Alexander Campbell and His Sermon on the Law 53 4 Alexander Campbell and the Christian Baptist 67 5 Barton W. Stone and the Christian Connection 83 6 Walter Scott and the Gospel Restored 97 7 Christian Unity in Practice 109 8 A Movement of National Significance 123 9 Definitive Developments 137 10 The Civil War and Growing Tensions 151 11 Isaac Errett and Our Position 165 12 The Rise of Conventions and Agencies 179 13 Like a Mighty Army 193 vii 14 One Hundred Years--Crest and Crisis 207 15 The Great Apostasy 223 16 The Great Controversy 237 17 Attempts at Reconciliation 263 18 Leftist Status and Growth 279 19 Centrist Status and Growth 293 20 Rightist Status and Growth 309 21 A World-wide Fellowship 323 22 Modern Disciples and Christian Unity 345 23 The Restoration Plea in an Ecumenical Era 359 Index 377 viii Introduction The Preservation of the Faith WHEN Christ announced His intention to establish His church (Matthew 16:18), He certainly intimated His intention to preserve and perpetuate it in all its pristine purity and power. This He has done, as history abundantly attests. The church of Christ is the mystical body of Christ. He is the head, the king, the lawgiver, and those who are members of His body are under His direction and government. In the words of Alexander Campbell, "The true Christian church, or house of God, is composed of all those in every place that do publicly acknowledge Jesus of Nazareth as the true Messiah, and the only Saviour of men, and building themselves upon the foundation of the apostles and prophets, associate under the constitution which He himself granted and authorized in the New Testament, and are walking in His ordinances and commandments--and of none else." It was not long after the church was established that departure from the original pattern caused division and it became necessary to rebuke heresy and restore the declaration and practice of the true faith. True to His promise, our Lord has, in every time of declension, raised up men to restore apostolic preaching and practice by an appeal to the revealed Word of God. The story of that apostolic succession is one of the most thrilling in the annals of man. Holy Scripture is the first to record the cycle of purity, power, apostasy, and restoration in the church of Christ. The earliest forms of apostasy were advocated by the Judaizers, the Greek philosophers, and the devotees of worldly lust. The Jewish hierarchy vigorously and effectively opposed the new church from without, but Jews who became Christians sought to bring their brethren under the Mosaic law. From the book of Acts and the epistle to the Galatians, one can see that this serious development threat- ened not only to nullify the basic doctrine of justification by faith, but also to confine the church within the limits of a Jewish sect and to destroy its power and liberty to bring the gospel to the world. Greek philosophy, widely accepted by the intelligentsia throughout the Roman Empire in New 9 Testament times, had a tremendous influence upon religion. Gnostic systems seeking a satisfactory theory of God, explanation of nature, and codes of conduct, formed the basis of many religious heresies. These invaded the Christian churches and turned people from the revealed gospel to speculations, debates, and divisions. Sincere efforts of faithful brethren to combat these heresies sometimes took the form of unwise assertion of ecclesiastical power and control that later developed into episcopal systems and seriously modified the character of the churches. Ever present were the temptations of the flesh, aggravated and encouraged by the popular vile practices of a pagan society. Pietistic Christianity demanded that the life square with the profession. When church leaders succumbed to worldly practices, whole churches were affected and lost their testimony to the superiority of the Christian way of life. In the midst of these departures from the faith, the apostle Paul stands out as God's man of the hour, branding the heresies and the heretics, calling the churches back to the divine pattern, and inspiring them to pursue the evangelization of the world with consecration and sacrifice. Following the martyr deaths of the apostles and the murderous and devastating persecutions under the Roman emperors, the church faced new threats to its purity and power. Bishops assumed authority over groups of churches, weakening the Scriptural eldership and congregational in- dependence. The baptism of infants began to take the place of the baptism of believers, and the doctrine of baptismal regeneration arose. Catholicism, the doctrine of one authoritative, humanly devised church institution to which all the churches must submit, was widely accepted by the bishops. The union of church and state found its beginnings in the benevolent protectorate of Constantine, the first Christian emperor of the Roman Empire. These departures from primitive practice were by no means universal, nor were they condoned by many noble Christian leaders in the churches. Clement of Rome reminded the faithful that salvation is not by wisdom or works, but by faith. Tertullian warned against the infiltration of Greek heresy, opposed the practice of infant baptism and baptismal regeneration, and denounced transubstantiation and the substitution of a human ecclesi- asticism for the power and working of the Holy Spirit and the guidance of the Holy Scriptures. Montanus sought to raise up congregations that would restore the primitive piety, wait for the Lord's return, and give the Holy Spirit His rightful place in the churches. In his closing years, Tertullian became a member of one of these churches seeking to restore apostolic practice. E. H. Broadbent in The Pilgrim Church says, Departure from the original pattern given in the New Testament for the churches met very early with strenuous resistance, leading in some cases to the formation within the decadent churches of circles which kept themselves free from the evil and hoped to be a means of restoration to the whole.
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