The Campbell Connection to Cults

Splayd

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How do we respond to the connection between the Restoration Movement and many of the biggest cults today?

MORMONS - Sidney Rigdon was a very popular "Campbellite" preacher before meeting Joseph Smith and becoming the first thelogist for the Mormons. He took thousands of "Campbellites" with him and is even speculated to be the actual author of the Book of Mormon.

CHRISTADELPHIANISM - Dr. John Thomas was a prominent follower of Alexander Campbell until he broke off from his ministry and established the "Christadelphians" or "Brethren in Christ".

JEHOVAH'S WITNESSES - Benjamin Wilson was a follower of Alexander Campbell. He became a Christadelpian. He never studied Greek, but he published a Greek-English interlinear called "The Emphatic Diaglott." Wilson introduced Charles Taze Russel to the "Restoration" doctrines of Alexander Campbell. The Watchtower Society even published and used Wilson's interlinear for many years. Campbellism through Christadelphianism is the origin of the Jehovah's Witnesses.

Add to these big 3 - Jim Jones' Peoples' Temple, which was a member of the Christian Church with Jim Jones an ordained Disciples of Christ minister and the Boston movement which is often considered a cult today. When we follow the chain through the Campbellite influence on the Millerite movement and the others already mentioned we recognise that many of the dangerous cults today that further split from them can be somehow associated with the restoration movement.

Now don't get me wrong - I love the Restoration Movement, but am curious as to how you might reconcile these assorted connections when highlighted by critics.
 

notreligus

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Splayd said:
How do we respond to the connection between the Restoration Movement and many of the biggest cults today?

MORMONS - Sidney Rigdon was a very popular "Campbellite" preacher before meeting Joseph Smith and becoming the first thelogist for the Mormons. He took thousands of "Campbellites" with him and is even speculated to be the actual author of the Book of Mormon.

CHRISTADELPHIANISM - Dr. John Thomas was a prominent follower of Alexander Campbell until he broke off from his ministry and established the "Christadelphians" or "Brethren in Christ".

JEHOVAH'S WITNESSES - Benjamin Wilson was a follower of Alexander Campbell. He became a Christadelpian. He never studied Greek, but he published a Greek-English interlinear called "The Emphatic Diaglott." Wilson introduced Charles Taze Russel to the "Restoration" doctrines of Alexander Campbell. The Watchtower Society even published and used Wilson's interlinear for many years. Campbellism through Christadelphianism is the origin of the Jehovah's Witnesses.

Add to these big 3 - Jim Jones' Peoples' Temple, which was a member of the Christian Church with Jim Jones an ordained Disciples of Christ minister and the Boston movement which is often considered a cult today. When we follow the chain through the Campbellite influence on the Millerite movement and the others already mentioned we recognise that many of the dangerous cults today that further split from them can be somehow associated with the restoration movement.

Now don't get me wrong - I love the Restoration Movement, but am curious as to how you might reconcile these assorted connections when highlighted by critics.
You failed to mention Barton Stone and the "Stonites" who joined with Alexander Campbell's Restoration Movement. They joined together after a meeting in 1832, in Lexington, KY. Barton Stone and his "Stonites" were Unitarians. This is a fact and it gets swept under the Restoration Movement rug.

Campbell saw the membership in the R.M. in the Ohio Valley area increase from 3,000 members to 8,000 members after adding the Uni's. I'm still trying to understand how adding heresy brought the R.M. closer to the original church. Maybe it's because the original church was Jewish and prior to Christ they had no real concept of the Trinity. So, in effect, Campbell did help keep more elements of Judaism in tact than just water baptism.
 
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GreatBigAl

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How do we respond to the connection between the Restoration Movement and many of the biggest cults today?

MORMONS - Sidney Rigdon was a very popular "Campbellite" preacher before meeting Joseph Smith and becoming the first thelogist for the Mormons. He took thousands of "Campbellites" with him and is even speculated to be the actual author of the Book of Mormon.

CHRISTADELPHIANISM - Dr. John Thomas was a prominent follower of Alexander Campbell until he broke off from his ministry and established the "Christadelphians" or "Brethren in Christ".

JEHOVAH'S WITNESSES - Benjamin Wilson was a follower of Alexander Campbell. He became a Christadelpian. He never studied Greek, but he published a Greek-English interlinear called "The Emphatic Diaglott." Wilson introduced Charles Taze Russel to the "Restoration" doctrines of Alexander Campbell. The Watchtower Society even published and used Wilson's interlinear for many years. Campbellism through Christadelphianism is the origin of the Jehovah's Witnesses.

Add to these big 3 - Jim Jones' Peoples' Temple, which was a member of the Christian Church with Jim Jones an ordained Disciples of Christ minister and the Boston movement which is often considered a cult today. When we follow the chain through the Campbellite influence on the Millerite movement and the others already mentioned we recognise that many of the dangerous cults today that further split from them can be somehow associated with the restoration movement.

Now don't get me wrong - I love the Restoration Movement, but am curious as to how you might reconcile these assorted connections when highlighted by critics.
Something That was explained to me, interestingly enough, by a coc member. WHEN I challenged the authority and legitimacy of the coc as "The one and only true church" he explained to me this:
Most members of the coc Believe that unless you are a member of a local congregation that worships inside of a building that says "Church of Christ" on the outside, and on the inside you have no instrumental music, etc, then you are going to hell. If you worship in any other church, such as one that says "catholic" or "baptist" or "methodist" or anything else other than "Church of Chirsit" you are going to hell. The ONLY people going to heaven are ones who are members of a local church of christ congregation and who worship therein exclusevley.
In addition, most church of Christ congregations teach and expound on this myth to an almost cultic "us against the world" ideal.
The bottom line, many members of this denomination/sect/cult/movement/whatever label you want to frop in here- Truly belive that they are the only ones in the whole world who are going to heaven.

SO, they believe that it is neccesary to use any means available to get anyone to join up with there congregation. as he said it "We think we are doing you a favor"
When I called him on the number of lies and myths the congregation might use to degrade other faiths; when I pointed out the hypocrisy and shortcomings of his own group; when I asked about scare tactics and such to keep and isolate the flock from others, he simply said "We are Christ's people." According to him, anything at all that will get a person into the congregation is fair game, because otherwise, that person will not be saved.

I appreciate that this guy was so honest and came clean with me on this issue; I had known it to be true all along, but very few if any others in the movement will ever admit to it on such honest terms. Then again, most are probably not even aware of it.
Kind of similar to what I have encountered from a group called the Unification Church back in the 80's.

So if you look at abusive practices and abusive churches and the cult movements that sprang out of Campbell influence, it is no wonder. It just requires some degree of thinking to realize it.
And cults don't often encourage that.
Perhaps we should see that what campbell did, at the RM 's claim to "restore" Christ's church, and using the Bible, which states nothing of the need of a restoration when Christ mentiones the building of His Church in Matthew 16:18

So, yes, perhaps the cults that have ben influenced by Campbell are abusive and deceptive. And that could happen anywhere, in any religion, look at Shiites and Sunnis......
Simply be on guard and if something seems deceptive and the facts don't add up, the honesty is not there and if something seems wrong, well, it probably is.

Like I said...don't walk...RUN ! Run far away.
 
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HeyHomie

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Genetic fallacy - the assertion that something is bad because the person (or group) that orignated it (or practice/practices it) is bad.

This fallacy is presented around CF all the freaking time.

The best example of it that I've seen is the idea that cremation is an occultic practice simply because various cults throughout the years have done it.
 
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Koey

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Don't worry about it. The movement was begun by some who were heretics and didn't even believe in the Trinity. The camp meetings were often more famous for drunkenness and adultery than prayer. Too bad.

The important thing is where are you? The RM has some good stuff, most importantly to me, the "creed" (LOL) that if the Bible don't teach it we don't. That is fantastic stuff to me.

The rest? Every single church or denomination (yes, we are a denomination) has crap in it and people who will abuse the system for selfish, sinful purposes. You ain't gonna stop that, no way, no how. You just gotta make sure you are right with God.
 
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