We want to Restore the Restoration Movement!

[InAllThingsLove]

There is a contingent of Christians within the Restoration Movement who feel the Movement has strayed from its original intent.

We have just started our own site - inallthingslove - but we are glad to find a Restoration Movement subforum here at ChristianForums, and would like to enter into dialog with any Christians, within our movement or without, who would care to discuss the changing state of the church and its conformity or non-conformity to the New Testament model.

Would anyone care to discuss?

[WesWoodell]

Certainly :)


I'll check back later - I'm late for church!

[HeyHomie]

I was unaware that the RM had strayed from its original intent. Can you give me some examples, please?


I, for one, believe that the RM has its share of sacred cows, but no more than any other group. I also find the austerity in our church buildings a little off-putting, but what can ya do?

[Jim Woodell]

There is a contingent of Christians within the Restoration Movement who feel the Movement has strayed from its original intent.

We have just started our own site - inallthingslove - but we are glad to find a Restoration Movement subforum here at ChristianForums, and would like to enter into dialog with any Christians, within our movement or without, who would care to discuss the changing state of the church and its conformity or non-conformity to the New Testament model.

Would anyone care to discuss?

I have been a part of the RM since 1963, started preaching in 1965, graduated from Harding with a major in Bibe in 1973, so I have over 40 years experience with this fellowship.

When I became a Christian in 1963 it was crystal clear to me that a person can be a Christian without joining a denomination, and it is still clear to me that this is so. Churches of Christ offered a fellowship, a community of believers, where this could be practiced. "Be a Christian, and only a Christian," was the plea. "The Bible only will make Christians only," was often heard. At the time I knew nothing about Thomas and Alexander Campbell or Barton W. Stone. I knew more about John Wesley & John Calvin than I did about any other connected with church history. Neither did I know about "antism" or "liberalism." I just knew that Christians should follow God's word and it seemed clear to me.

Within a couple of years, about the time I began to "fill in" preach, I began to hear about the "issues" that were a part of the RM, that there were actually two groups, instrumental and non-instrumental. Then I heard that there were actually more than just two groups within the RM. There were those who thought you could only use one cup during communion, and those who did not think you could have Bible Classes (thus dividing up the church on Sunday), and those who did not believe you could support "human institutions" out of the Church Treasury, etc. Further, there were (and are) those who believe that a person must know that baptism is FOR the remission of sins for their submission to God to be valid, and if they did not KNOW that at the time of their baptism they were not saved. Some would say that the Church of Christ is the ONLY true Church and if you are not a member of the Church of Christ you are lost (or that you are going to hell!), thus it is not that we are "Christians only," but "we are the only Christians."

In the past twenty years these "cross-currents" of thought and practice have led many to believe that we are/have failed historically to restore NT Christianity. The spirit of condemnation that has characterized the Churches of Christ, since the split with the Christian Church over the instrument, has not been and is not the spirit you read from the pages of the New Testament. Many times, when we have been right in doctrine, we have been wrong in attitude (Eph. 4:1-6). We have been too willing to identify and pull up "weeds" contrary to the counsel of God (Matt. 13:24-30).

Now the pendulum is swinging back the other way. More and more of the Church of Christ folks are willing to give up on the instrumental argument. More and more the doors are opening for dialogue with the Christian Church from the Church of Christ side (check out the Tulsa Soulwinning Workshop schedule for 2006). A number of Church of Christ groups are using instrumental music outside the Sunday morning worship assembly as a link to the community.

The RM, in my opinion, has been led more by the "head" than the "heart." We have, too often, let "the tail wag the dog." We have expanded the list of essentials far beyond what they really are, or what IT really is. The creed of the NT was, "Jesus is the Son of God." Accepting the death, burial and resurrection of Jesus (1 Cor. 15:1-4) was the "bonding" source for those who lived during NT times. Jesus alone drew folks into a common fellowship (Acts 2:47).

I continue to believe that we can be Christians only without joining a denomination. The question is, how can we exist as Christians only without being just another denomination.

[Jim Woodell]

There is a contingent of Christians within the Restoration Movement who feel the Movement has strayed from its original intent.

We have just started our own site - inallthingslove - but we are glad to find a Restoration Movement subforum here at ChristianForums, and would like to enter into dialog with any Christians, within our movement or without, who would care to discuss the changing state of the church and its conformity or non-conformity to the New Testament model.

Would anyone care to discuss?

This must have been a hoax post because no such website as "inallthingslove" exists. I expect there is some intended sarcasm intended here.

Nevertheless, I bit and went looking.

[EdmundBlackadderTheThird]

The website has the name and a .net extension. It cannot be posted here as a link because it does not provide a link back to CF and is a message board.

[Simionas]

I think both terms have the same meaning.
Read my post and let me know the differences, please.
Thank you!

[patrici]

This must have been a hoax post because no such website as "inallthingslove" exists. I expect there is some intended sarcasm intended here.

Nevertheless, I bit and went looking.

Hello,
I found the website with no problem. :)
I'll check it out.