The Restoration Movement was founded in the early 1800s by Thomas Campbell, Alexander Campbell, and Barton W. Stone who aimed to achieve unity among Christians. They believed Scripture alone should be used as the basis for the church without interpretations from creeds. Campbell thought Scripture had been interpreted for too long through speculative systems and creeds. He believed the Bible's true meaning could be directly perceived without colored glasses. They advocated using common sense and empirical methods to examine the Bible factually and arrive at objective results. The goal was to find how the early church worshipped by copying its practices from the New Testament, including its order of assemblies, devotion, and using the Bible as a collection of facts to illuminate those who read it with

1. Class 4:
The Birth of the
Restoration Movement
Restoration Movement
Restoration Movement

2. Thomas Campbell
Alexander
Campbell
Barton W. Stone

3. Their objective:
UNITY !
UNITY !
UNITY !

4. The Restoration Plea!

5. How could this Church of many
become a Church of one?
Scripture alone as the
constitution for the Church.

6. “Campbell believed that the scriptures had been interpreted
too long through the ‘colored glasses’ of ‘speculative’ systems
and creeds. He believed that it was possible to interpret the
scriptures without colored glasses and thus directly perceive
the real or true meaning of the text.”
Casey, Michael. “The Origins of the Hermeneutics of the Churches of
Christ. Part 2: The Philosophical Background,” Restoration Quarterly 31.4
(1989).
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7. "Christian Baconianism"—is the view of the Bible as a
sourcebook of facts, which any reasoning man could quarry
out as the building materials for a logical system. The method
presumes that epistemological, ethical, and methodological
sense are common to all sensible men, so that any such man of
sense is capable of using the Common Sense method to
examine the Bible empirically and scientifically and to arrive
at objective, unprejudiced, factual results.”
Dudrey, Russ. Churches of Christ: Why We are at an Impasse. Restoration
Quarterly. 1987.
•

8. worship, discipline, and government of the New Testament
Church, and as perfect a rule for the particular duties of its
members, as the Old Testament was for the worship,
discipline, and government of the Old Testament Church, and
the particular duties of its members... The New Testament is
the proper and immediate ride, directory, and formula for the
New Testament Church, and for the particular duties of
Christians, as the Old Testament was for the Old Testament
Church . . . in the observance of this Divine rule, this authentic
and infallible directory, all . . . may come to the desirable
coincidence of holy unity and uniformity of practice.”
Campbell, Thomas. Declaration and Address. 1809
•

9. “The order of their [the early Church] assemblies was
uniformly the same. It did not vary with times and seasons. It
did not change as dress, nor fluctuate as the manners of the
times. Their devotion did not diversify itself into the endless
forms of modern times.”
Campbell, Alexander. The Christian Religion. The Christian Baptist 1:1
(August, 1823).
•

10. The Christian Baptist
&
Millennial Harbinger
Harbinger
Harbinger

11. Find the way they did it,
copy it,
stick to it!
to it!
to it!

12. The Bible is a collection of
facts.

13. “The wisdom of God is as evident in adapting the light of the
Sun of Righteousness to our spiritual or moral vision, as in
adjusting the light of day to our eyes. The light reaches us
without an effort of our own, but we must open our eyes, and
if our eyes be sound, we enjoy the natural light of heaven. . .
.Every one, then, who opens the Book of God, with one aim,
with one ardent desire—intent only to know the will of God—
to such a person the knowledge of God is easy; for the Bible is
framed to illuminate such, and only such, with the salutary
knowledge of things celestial and divine.
Campbell, Alexander. Christian System.
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