Questions from a non-denominational

[xThirst4Godx]

I am non-denominational by force, not by will. that situation has driven me to look into several denominations, for a while making me forget that Jesus wasn't presbyterian or methodist or catholic, just a servant of the Lord. are there any traits that mark this as its own denomination? what are the basic principles and fundamental beliefs of restorationism?

[Splayd]

We really don't consider ourselves to be a denomination, though there are certain beliefs and practices which we generally share. There's a good sticky about our beliefs in our forum if you'd like to check it out.

Peace

[Jhth]

The desire as I see it of the restoration movement was to restore the Church to Christ. To use the scriptures as the only source of faith and practice thus the saying no creeds but Christ and no book but the bible. Trying to bridge the gap of denominationalism they came up with slogans like "No book but the bible and no creeds but Christ" and We are not the only Christians but Christians only."

While their claim to not be a denomination is hindered by the fact that the restoration group itself has split up into three different groups because of not being able to agree with what the scriptures were declaring. These groups are the Christian Church, the Church of Christ and the Disciples of Christ.

[PattyOfurniture]

'Restoration Movement ' trinitarians?

[WesWoodell]

We believe in the trinity.

[PattyOfurniture]

Thank you Wes

[DerSchweik]

Amen re the Trinity.

It is early morning and my head is yet a bit foggy :sleep: , so until the coffee kicks in, I might not be completely fluent in my response but let me see if I can answer your questions nevertheless.

First, the “restoration movement” is merely an attempt to restore to the church the practices, and beliefs, and doctrines of the New Testament church, more specifically, the first century church. You probably know much of this, but I hope some clarification might be helpful.

To understand the principle behind restoration or the need for restoration, consider what happens to someone in sports or to a team that has lost their focus and are no longer playing to their potential or as effectively as they have in times past. When that happens, they usually “go back to the basics” or the fundamentals to get back on track, to re-introduce the things that were effective for them in the past so they can play once again, at a level of performance as they are capable of playing.

I view the restoration movement in much a similar light – not focusing on performance of course, but on the fundamentals that made the first century church the light it was to world at that time.

I think it is important to outline a very brief history of the church as a background for what I believe led to the need for restoration; I’ll try to be as brief as I can, so please bear with me.

From its very beginnings, the first century church was under constant attack from without and within. Paul, in many of his letters to the churches, pointedly attacked those who assailed the Gospel from a variety of angles – in Galatians, Paul attacked legalism, and in Corinthians, he addressed the issue of divisions within the church. Early on, the church was assaulted with numerous false teachings such as Gnosticism, pelagianism, and the like. As the church grew and progressed, so did the assaults – heretical teachings, pagan practices, etc. To counter many of these attacks, the early Christian fathers wrote much in defense of the faith. Soon, creeds were adopted as a means of clarifying beliefs and identifying or associating with the proper teachings.

As in any war, we tend to look to those warriors among us who distinguish themselves by their abilities to combat the enemy effectively. We make want to make them our leaders, to fight the big battles for us so we don’t have to fight them ourselves because we often see the enemy as too strong for our own puny abilities (except for those rare Davids among us). This, ironically, was the very impetus that led Israel to seek their first king, which displeased God, nevertheless He anointed Saul as Israel’s first king to lead them into their battles against their enemies.

In around the third or fourth century, we see the first consolidation of similar power in the church, organized around the leadership of the church in Rome. This eventually became the catholic (“universal,” “general,” “overall”) church, which itself split into the Roman Catholic church and the eastern orthodox church (headquartered in Constantinople).

These were the Christian churches up until about the 14- and 1500s. A catholic monk named Martin Luther then pinned his 95 theses to the door of the Wittemberg cathedral, theses addressing a number of excesses and abuses of the catholic church. This spawned a movement of protest within the church that eventually led to what we now call the “reformation” and the inception of Protestantism.

The ensuing era of unchecked protest and unrivaled reforms led to the formation of what we know today as the various “denominations” of Protestantism: Lutherans, Methodists, Baptists, Calvinists, Wesleyans, Presbyterians, etc, etc, etc. All these groups grew around the teachings of their various leaders (Luther, Wesley, Calvin, Zwingli, and so forth). And as with all endeavors that involve us fallible and fallen humans, we divided; groups camped and entrenched themselves around these various teachings, and we experienced the rapid spread of divisions within the church under the single banner of “reform.”

In the late 16- and early 1700s, some viewed this rapid proliferation of division as inherently wrong. The very reforms we were demanding were themselves spawning excesses and abuses of a different nature, departures from sound doctrine and practices. So in the midst of reformation, another movement began to attempt to stem the tide of further division and “restore” to the reformation the principles, the fundamentals on which the first century church was originally founded and on which the first century church evangelized the world so effectively.

But here again, we have fallible, fallen humans and the result was predictable: division. Today, the restoration movement is comprised of three major divisions, the churches of Christ, the disciples of Christ, and the Christian churches. And there are many subdivisions within all three, much to our shame and embarrassment.

Still, I believe in the soundness of the fundamentals themselves that are the goal of restoration. It is, at its heart, a desire to return to the Bible as our sole authority for doctrine and practice; it is a desire to get “back to the basics” and to the fundamentals keep us united in Christ and alive to the goal of evangelizing the world for Christ.

Our churches are wholly autonomous; we have no over-arching leadership, organization, or “convention” that tells us what to believe and how to worship. We look to the Bible as our sole authority in all matters of doctrine, and where it speaks, we speak; where it is silent – well, we often speak anyway unfortunately – such is the nature of autonomy and human fallibility.

I love the church and am wholly dedicated to His body, to the unity of His body. :pray: It pains me to see all the divisions and disparate teachings that define the Christian world today. It pains me to walk into some individual church of Christ (not most) and see utter dogmatism and legalism – which honestly, one can find in many churches of any denomination. But it pains me because the world is watching all of us, and seeing our divisions, our dogmatism, our disunity, and the silliness and comedic antics that unfortunately characterize much of modern Christianity.

(The coffee is kicking in :D )

Still, I love the church. I need the church; and I am devoted to His body and to the principles of restoration that I feel we desperately need if we are to carry out effectively the commission He has given us. Most are not characterized by dogmatism and legalism; most are comprised of dedicated, loving, faithful Christians striving to do His will in their lives.

I urge you to pray earnestly for wisdom and guidance in this matter – not that you choose restoration, but that you seek and choose His will for you. Regardless where He leads you, regardless what congregation, denomination, or non-denomination you are led to attend, you will experience disappointment, disaffection, and disunity. But you will also experience utter joy and fulfillment as you follow His will faithfully – for He is faithful and He will not allow us to be tempted beyond our abilities but with each disappointment, He provides us an avenue to hope and joy in Him.

Amen? :amen: God bless you, brother.

May God’s grace and mercy be with you as you walk in faith in Him and continue in your thirst for God.

P.S. In a recent sermon, our preacher quoted a book on heaven where the author made this remarkable statement (I paraphrase):

For Christians, this world is the closest we will ever experience what hell will be like.
For non-Christians, this world is the closest they will ever experience what heaven will be like.

I pray for our endurance through this proximity to hell, and for the salvation of those in this proximity to heaven.

[Jerrell]

Jesus was a Jew not a Christian, A real Christian in the sense that we are thinking of is a real gentile Christian who followed the apostolic teachings.

[JDIBe]

Jesus was a Jew not a Christian, A real Christian in the sense that we are thinking of is a real gentile Christian who followed the apostolic teachings.
Christian: "Christ-like"

I think the original is probably the best likeness one can have. :)

I do think it is an important distinction because we are to be as "Christ-like" as possible. We are not called to be strictly "as close to gentile Christians who followed apostolic teachings as possible" per se.

Yes, Jesus was a Jew and followed many Jewish customs. Yes, those gentile Christians were (hopefully) trying to follow Jesus. But to downplay (even unintentially) the character of Jesus Himself in application to our everday lives is not desirable.

[HeyHomie]

I think some people get confused about our "non-denominational" status because, let's face it, what is taught from the pulpit at Kalamazoo Christian Church is essentially the same as what is taught at Ypsilanti Christian Church as what is taught at Hershey Christian Church and so on.

Still, there's no "headquarters," and each of our congregations make their own decisions. So in that sense we're definitely NOT a denomination.

[LivingWordUnity]

I am non-denominational by force, not by will. that situation has driven me to look into several denominations, for a while making me forget that Jesus wasn't presbyterian or methodist or catholic, just a servant of the Lord. are there any traits that mark this as its own denomination? what are the basic principles and fundamental beliefs of restorationism?Jesus IS the Lord.

The Holy Trinity=One God in three eternally divine persons , Father, Son, and Holy Spirit.

Jesus is both true God and true man. This is called the Incarnation.

Because we are not God, these mysteries of God are too much for our limited brain capacities to fully comprehend. So don't worry if this is hard to understand.
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