[Christian Unity] Looking Back: Thomas Campbell

[Alan]

Thomas Campbell was born in Northern Ireland in 1763, and was raised in the Church of England. He studied at the University of Glasgow and at the Divinity School at Whitburn. Upon graduation he began preaching in the Presbyterian Church, known in that day as the"Church of the Secession" since it was formed in reaction against the state-sponsored Church of England. Health difficulties prompted him to seek a change of climate, and he moved to America in 1807, where he began preaching for the Presbyterian church in Washington, Pa.

In that place and time, Presbyterians were sharply divided over various doctrinal disputes, so much so that certain groups of Presbyterians would have no fellowship with each other. Campbell disapproved of the division, and attempted to bring various groups together to share communion. For doing so, he was brought to trial by the presbytery, where he was censured for his actions. As a result, Campbell withdrew from the Presbyterian synod, and began preaching for Christian believers from varying denominational backgrounds. Together with these believers, Campbell formed the Christian Association of Washington. One of their first activities was to develop a statement of purpose and direction for the group. Thus was born the Declaration and Address of the Christian Association of Washington. Campbell's university education being a rare commodity in the New World, he naturally took the role of primary author.

From the very introduction, it is plain that the Association wanted a change from the sectarian spirit that prevailed in the surrounding religious world. A hundred words into the document, Campbell had already laid out the need for autonomy and for the authority of scripture alone. Then he asserted the right and responsibility of each individual to learn and follow the scriptures, free from the judgment of other men, and free from the rule of human opinions. He lamented the "bitter jarrings and janglings of a party spirit" and pleaded instead for a way of peace, guided by the scriptures alone. He wrote:

Our desire, therefore, for ourselves and our brethren would be, that rejecting human opinions and the inventions of men, as of any authority, or as having any place in the church of God, we might forever cease from farther contentions about such things; returning to, and holding fast by, the original standard...

Thus Campbell arrived at the central thesis of the Restoration Movement. Their original motivation was to "cease from farther contentions about such things." Campbell and his friends were tired of the quarrelling. They longed to be at peace in the church. They hoped to accomplish this by returning to scripture, and by regarding the opinions and inventions of men as having no authority. The goal was not to win theological arguments. It was not to purify the church through division. Instead it was an appeal for peace.

Two hundred years later, churches of Christ are known for something quite different from that. We have an uncanny resemblance to the very Presbyterians Campbell left, those whose sectarian spirit he found so offensive, those with their separate factions who refused one another fellowship, and those with their "bitter jarrings and janglings of a party spirit."

The noble experiment was never completed, and its goals were not reached. But that doesn't make the experiment any less noble. And it doesn't make those goals any less worthy. On the contrary, we need to make every effort to maintain unity in the church, in the bond of peace. We should try again, and again, and again, until either we get it right or the Lord returns.

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Posted By Alan to Christian Unity at 5/13/2009 04:50:00 PM