Visions of Restoration

By John Young

In VISIONS OF RESTORATION, historian John Young provides a highly readable, easily accessible overview of the history of Churches of Christ stretching from the early nineteenth century to the early twenty-first century. The target audience is primarily members of Churches of Christ who are new to the study of their fellowship's history and, at a

• Language: English
• Publisher: Cypress Publications
• Release date: Jul 28, 2020
• ISBN: 9781087901985

John Young

John Young is a writer who is originally from Belfast and now lives near Edinburgh. A former lawyer, he helped found The Teapot Trust, a children's art therapy charity, with his wife Laura. He was a Scottish Book Trust New Writer Award winner in 2013.

Book preview

1

Why Study the History of Churches of Christ?

Readers, thank you for engaging in this study of the history of Churches of Christ—whether you’re doing so voluntarily, or simply because your Bible class teacher thought that this would be a good idea. If you’ve never been in a study like this before, I hope that it will strengthen you in your faith as you learn more about where we came from, who we are, and indeed, whose we are. If you have engaged in a study like this before, and you found it dreadfully boring or irrelevant, fear not; give it a fair chance, and I think you’ll come to see that church history isn’t just trivia for trivia’s sake, but a vital part of our spiritual lives. And if you have participated in a study like this before, and you had a great experience, hopefully you’ll find that this book will address issues, individuals, and even movements that you’ve never heard of.

I want to say at the outset of our time together that the question of historical periodization—or, in non-historian’s terms, when and where we start the story—is a surprisingly loaded one. This is especially true since we are discussing a topic which is so near and dear to our hearts. Have Churches of Christ as we know and love them today existed continuously since the events of Pentecost, as recounted in Acts 2? Or are they the product of nineteenth-century revivals, just one of many such groups born out of an atmosphere of religious innovation and creativity? Members of Churches of Christ and members of the historical profession have each, at various times, answered this question in both ways.

You may have seen the chart, frequently shared on social media, which lists the supposed start dates for various Christian fellowships. Most of the dates given are relatively recent, typically within the last three or four centuries. Only the Church of Christ, according to this chart, began at Pentecost. Nor is this chart an exception proving the rule. In the widely read book and evangelistic tool Muscle and a Shovel, author Michael Shank’s friend Randall claims, Denominations are divisions from the original. The church of Christ is the original that began on the Day of Pentecost around 33 AD. Additionally, Randall states, You see, you can’t find the Catholics, the Baptists, the Methodists, the Presbyterians or the rest of them in the Bible. You can’t find any of those groups by name or by practice. That’s because they didn’t exist in the first century. ¹

But other devout Christian believers, members of Churches of Christ, have argued that while the church was established at Pentecost, it has not existed continuously since that time, and that present-day Churches of Christ are best understood as a modern movement which seeks to restore, or return, Christianity to the teachings and practices of the first-century church. Many historians, including some who are members of Churches of Christ, have taken just such an approach. But this understanding isn’t just the province of scholars. In fact, the noted evangelist Walter Scott was so strongly convinced that the long-lost church had been restored in his lifetime that he affixed a specific date to the preaching of what he believed to be the first full gospel sermon in nearly two millennia! (By the way, Scott was the man who developed the five-fingers-for-five-steps-of-salvation memory