The restorationist movement

[W2L]

Yes I have, thank you.

So did the first church

 

[friend of]

Sounds like this movement completely ignores Jesus Christ.

 

[PoppyB]

Is that what restorationism is about, though? Excitement?

Whatever happened to "the heart is deceitful above all things, and desperately wicked; who can know it?" That's in the OT. Even the most 'primitive' of restorationist groups should know that one.

I think that being part of a church full of fervour and zeal for the Lord is exciting. Church is so often boring no wonder non believers stay away in vast numbers. Hearing from God is exciting. Moving in the Spirit is exciting. I want the Holy Spirit to restore the Church so that instead of luke warm Christianity the Church can once again have a voice and be relevant to people in today's world. Not by rites, rituals or traditions of man but by the moving of the Holy Spirit. If this isn't what you mean by restorationism then forgive me. Bless you.

 

[HTacianas]

So did the first church

Paul said he received the Eucharistic blessing "from the Lord". I assume he meant from the Lord meaning during his encounter with Jesus. I suppose he would have had to in order to establish the Churches of Arabia.

 

[LittleLambofJesus]

Are there any restorationist groups who actually follow the new testament?

By "restorationist" I mean any or all of those groups claiming that the Church somehow went astray and it is up to them to "set things straight".

To follow the new testament one must:

1. Practice water baptism for the remission of previous sins
2. Gather on the first day of the week
3. Sing the liturgy
4. Read from the bible (actually only read from the old testament)
5. Participate in the eucharist as the body and blood of Christ and a sacrificial sacrament

There are a few others, such as having apostles, teachers, etc. This only hits on a few of the high points.

Hello Htacianas. Have you checked out this board yet?
Not sure if it fits in with what you are inquiring about, but here is the link:

No Creed But Christ - Restoration Movement
No Creed But Christ - Restoration Movement
Disciples of Christ, Church of Christ, and Independent Christian Churches.

What is the Restoration Movement?

The Restoration Movement is the name for a loosely affiliated group of churches that sought to unify all Christians by following the Biblical model of the Church as closely as possible, while allowing as much diversity as possible around issues not explicitly described in the Bible. The Restoration Movement churches have been especially wary of rituals, written creeds, and governing heirarchies. The Restoration Movement makes no claim to being the continuation of the original Christian church.

In the 20th Century, the Restoration Movement has developed in a variety of directions. Some churches have moved away from the founders' view of the New Testament as a pattern for contemporary worship and Church practice -- for these churches, the focus on Christian unity has led them to adopt practices more typical of other Protestant churches. Others continue to strive to restore their worship and practices to what they believe was practiced in the first century church.

The key beliefs of the Restoration Movement that set its congregations apart from other evangelical Protestant churches are:

1) "No Creed but Christ." The phrase "No Creed But Christ" means that no Restoration Movement congregation will require a believer to read, memorize, sign, recite, affirm, pledge, or in any way have anything to do with a written creed as a litmus test for fellowship, baptism or communion, nor will a seeker or non-believer be expected to learn a creed in order to continue learning or attending. Many, if not most, RM congregations have a written "Statement of Beliefs." Such as statement is for information only, and is not a standard to which one must agree in order to have fellowship.

2) "Where the Scriptures speak, we speak; where the Scriptures are silent, we are silent." In essence, this means that congregations affiliated with the Restoration Movement reject catechisms and the like, and base their beliefs only on Scripture.

3) "In essentials, unity; in non-essentials, liberty; in all things, love." Believers affiliated with the Restoration Movement will not exclude other Christians from fellowship based on differing beliefs on "non-essential" doctrines. Restoration Movement believers will show love to believers with whom they may disagree.

4) "We are not the only Christians, but we are Christians only." Restoration Movement believers do not claim to be the only Christians, and we accept other believers who profess to believe in Jesus Christ as our brothers and sisters. However, we do not attach any other name to ourselves other than "Christian." There is a very small percentage of RM believers who believe that only RM believers are true Christians, but this is not a popular view.

5) "The priesthood of all believers." We believe that all believers are "priests" and can access God through prayer without a human intermediary.

The main practices of the Restoration Movement are as follows:

A) Local control of congregations. Any and all decisions that affect a congregation, such as hiring, transfer or termination of staff; budget allocations; building projects; etc. are made by that congregation. No congregation is accountable to any governing heirarchy.

B) Lord's Supper every Sunday. We celebrate the Lord's Supper every Sunday. Any baptized believer is welcome to participate.

C) Believer's baptism by immersion. Only those who choose to baptised are baptised (we do not baptise infants or children who are too young to understand the decision). We baptise by full immersion.

D) Beauty through simplicity. Most Restoration Movement churches are rather austere, rejecting such things as candles, artwork, or stained glass windows, and are decorated quite simply.

Restoration Movement churches go by several styles of names. The most common type of name is the combination of a geographical place, for example a city or a street, and the words "Christian Church" or "Church of Christ." For example, if you're in Kalamazoo and you drive by Kalamazoo Christian Church, you can be 99% it's a Restoration Movement congregation.

There are some Restoration Movement congregations that practice non-instrumental worship. They almost exclusively use the name "Church of Christ" (as opposed to "Christian Church"). However, not all congregations that use the term "Church of Christ" are non-instrumental.

For more on the founding and the history of the Restoration Movement, see http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Stone-Campbell_Movement.

For a thorough treatment of the five branches of the Restoration Movement and the divisions (some minor, some major) between them, see http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Disciples_of_Christ.

Statement of Purpose - No Creed But Christ - Restoration Movement Statement of Faith

No Creed But Christ:
A forum for all Restoration Movement Christians to discuss and fellowship together.

A few things to know about Christians of the Restoration Movement (Stone-Campbell Movement):

• "No Creed but Christ." No Restoration Movement congregation will require a believer to read, memorize, sign, recite, affirm, pledge, or in any way have anything to do with a written creed as a litmus test for fellowship, baptism or communion
• "Where the Scriptures speak, we speak; where the Scriptures are silent, we are silent." Our beliefs are based on scripture only.
• "In essentials, unity; in non-essentials, liberty; in all things, love." No Christians are rejected from fellowship based on differing beliefs on "non-essential" doctrines.
• "We are not the only Christians, but we are Christians only." Restoration Movement believers do not claim to be the only Christians, and we accept other believers who profess to believe in Jesus Christ as our brothers and sisters. However, we do not attach any other name to ourselves other than "Christian." There is a very small percentage of RM believers who believe that only RM believers are true Christians, but this is not a popular view.

 

[Unnamed Guy]

Are there any restorationist groups who actually follow the new testament?

By "restorationist" I mean any or all of those groups claiming that the Church somehow went astray and it is up to them to "set things straight".

To follow the new testament one must:

1. Practice water baptism for the remission of previous sins
2. Gather on the first day of the week
3. Sing the liturgy
4. Read from the bible (actually only read from the old testament)
5. Participate in the eucharist as the body and blood of Christ and a sacrificial sacrament

There are a few others, such as having apostles, teachers, etc. This only hits on a few of the high points.

Same comment: Who Here Believes Born Again Christians...

 

[Ignatius the Kiwi]

The problem with Restorationists is that they would argue they do all those things, except they do them properly, where the historic Church has deviated from what is actually to be done and replaced it with man made concepts.

Messianics, for example, will argue that the only true liturgy is a Jewish liturgy akin to what modern day Rabbanic Jews use and it will look much the same as that with a distinct focus on the Torah, reading the five books of Moses. The Christian liturgy is not like this but developed from making Christ the centre instead of the Torah.

I'm not sure about the other points but I'm willing to bet they would question your assumptions about what the New Testament says. Though it always good to point out that the Apostles never intended to collect 27 books and make that a canon which formed this thing called the bible. That came about later by a Church they have to determine as apostate or mislead.

 

[Albion]

I was not describing the restorationist movements with the points in the OP. I was describing the early Church. None of the restorationist groups follow those points. That's the reason for the thread.

But who are the groups you had in mind and labelled as "restorationist?"

They apparently are not the ones that usually are identified by that term, and we can see by now that all sorts of different church groups have been mentioned by
one poster or another along the way here. I am just asking which churches, by name, we are supposed to be talking about.

 

[Dale]

Are there any restorationist groups who actually follow the new testament?

By "restorationist" I mean any or all of those groups claiming that the Church somehow went astray and it is up to them to "set things straight".

To follow the new testament one must:

1. Practice water baptism for the remission of previous sins
2. Gather on the first day of the week
3. Sing the liturgy
4. Read from the bible (actually only read from the old testament)
5. Participate in the eucharist as the body and blood of Christ and a sacrificial sacrament

There are a few others, such as having apostles, teachers, etc. This only hits on a few of the high points.

You say that a New Testament Church should "sing the liturgy."

Where is there a liturgy in the New Testament?

 

[HTacianas]

But who are the groups you had in mind and labelled as "restorationist?"

They apparently are not the ones that usually are identified by that term, and we can see by now that all sorts of different church groups have been mentioned by
one poster or another along the way here. I am just asking which churches, by name, we are supposed to be talking about.

There are any number of groups that label themselves as restorationist. This is from the Restorationist Movement wikipedia page:

The Restoration Movement has since divided into multiple separate groups. There are three main branches in the U.S.: the Churches of Christ, the unaffiliated Christian Church/Church of Christ congregations, and the Christian Church (Disciples of Christ). Some characterize the divisions in the movement as the result of the tension between the goals of restoration and ecumenism: the Churches of Christ and unaffiliated Christian Church/Church of Christ congregations resolved the tension by stressing restoration, while the Christian Church (Disciples of Christ) resolved the tension by stressing ecumenism.[8]:383 A number of groups outside the U.S. also have historical associations with this movement, such as the Evangelical Christian Church in Canada[9] and the Churches of Christ in Australia.

 

[Albion]

All right. And thank you. So it is the "Stone-Campbell" movement of churches that originated in the USA in the 19th century claiming that they wanted to be "Christians only, but not the only Christians," Sunday-keeping, with weekly Communion and Believers Baptism by immersion, having congregational autonomy, and dedicated to observing what the New Testament churches did, and nothing extra.

So no, it is not the Seventh day Adventists, Mormons, Jehovahs Witnesses, etc. even though there are some similarities (but more dissimilarities, to be sure).

 

[Justasking123]

But that was then and even the best things can change and become mundane and boring instead of exciting and life-changing.

What happened?

 

[Jonaitis]

Are there any restorationist groups who actually follow the new testament?

By "restorationist" I mean any or all of those groups claiming that the Church somehow went astray and it is up to them to "set things straight".

To follow the new testament one must:

1. Practice water baptism for the remission of previous sins
2. Gather on the first day of the week
3. Sing the liturgy
4. Read from the bible (actually only read from the old testament)
5. Participate in the eucharist as the body and blood of Christ and a sacrificial sacrament

There are a few others, such as having apostles, teachers, etc. This only hits on a few of the high points.

Well, anyone who believes the Church of Christ had ever at one time went astray and disappeared need to explain Matthew 16:18.

"The purest churches under heaven are subject to mixture and error. Some have degenerated so much that they have ceased to be churches of Christ and have become synagogues of Satan. Nevertheless, Christ always has had and will have in this world to the very end a kingdom of those who believe in him and profess his name.- Second London Baptist Confession, Chapter 23, Section 3