A 19th Century Call to Be a New Testament Church

Many times throughout its 2000 years history, churches have been called to become more like the church in its beginning. In our own restoration heritage, Thomas Campbell issued such a call in a document entitled Declaration and Address. My travels westward have brought me within a few miles of Washington, PA where that call was published in 1809. While I have often travelled that route, I have never visited the place. But I have often visited that document. It is a remarkable plea for Christian unity. I invite you to consider some of its proposals as we engage in our Bible study of the New Testament Church and how it should live.

ADDRESS

To all that love our Lord Jesus Christ, in sincerity, throughout all the Churches, the following address is most respectfully submitted.

DEARLY BELOVED BRETHREN:

“That it is the grand design and the native tendency of our holy religion to reconcile and unite men to God, and to each other, in truth and love, to the glory of God and their own present and eternal good, will not, we presume, be denied, by any of the genuine subjects of Christianity.”

After that opening, Thomas Campbell described the present divided state of the Christian religion in America. “What awful and distressing effects have these sad divisions produced! What aversions, what reproaches, what backbitings, what evil surmisings, what angry contentions, what enmities, what excommunications, and even persecution!!!”

After showing from Scripture the divine displeasure for “our sad divisions” Campbell points readers to their present situation in a new country. “The favorable opportunity which Divine Providence has put into your hands in this happy country, for the accomplishment of so great a good, is in itself, a consideration of no small encouragement. A country happily exempted from the baneful influence of a civil establishment of any peculiar form of Christianity, from under the direct influence of the anti-christian hierarchy [No state church, TGY].

In this new religious freedom, Campbell implores, “With such encouragements as these, what should deter us from the heavenly enterprise, or render hopeless the attempt of accomplishing in due time, an entire union of the all the Churches in faith and practice, according to the word of God? . . . we judge it our bounden duty to make the attempt.” Campbell advocated a “common cause, the cause of Christ and our brethren of all denominations [saying] Dearly beloved brethren, why should we deem it a thing incredible that the Church of Christ, in this highly favored country, should resume that original unity, peace, and purity which belong to its constitution, and constitute its glory?” To be Continued.

—Tom Yoakum