CHAPTER I: PRELUDE
PRELUDE
Who are these "Disciples of Christ"? What are these "Christian Churches" or "Churches of Christ" which now constitute one of the major religious groups in the United States? When, where, and how did they begin, and how have they become what they are?
They began early in the nineteenth century with the union of two separate movements, one of which had close kinship with two others. All four were alike in aiming to simplify the complexities of Christian faith and in going back of the creeds and the traditional practices of existing churches to the plain teaching of the New Testament. They believed that this was easy to understand, and that the divisions of Christendom would disappear if Christians would only agree to speak as the apostles spoke and to do as they did. They believed that man was sinful and needed God's salvation; but they did not believe him to be so depraved by "original sin" that he could not, by the act of his own intelligence and by his own free will, accept the means of grace that have been provided. They wanted all the churches to unite on the basis of the simple and clear requirements of discipleship as given in the New Testament, leaving all doubtful and inferential matters in the field of "opinion," in which every Christian should exercise liberty, and scrap the machinery of synods and bishops, for which they found no warrant in Scripture.
Of the two main movements, the name of Barton W. Stone was most prominent in one; the names of Thomas and Alexander Campbell in the other. Stone's movement (1804) began earlier than that of the Campbells (1809), but later than two others practically identical with it. But the Campbells' was the more dynamic, especially after it gained the advocacy of Walter Scott, who set the pattern for its evangelism. These are the four great names in the early history of the Disciples--Stone, Thomas Campbell, Alexander Campbell, and Scott. All four had been Presbyterians. __________________________________________________________________
A Preview
Stone was a native American of old colonial stock, born in Maryland, educated in North Carolina after spending most of his boyhood in Virginia. He did his most important work in Kentucky. Thomas and Alexander Campbell, father and son, were born in North Ireland, were educated at Glasgow University, and came to America only a short time before the launching of their reformatory movement. The influences seen in their work are those of a British background and an American environment. The center of their activity was the southwest corner of Pennsylvania, eastern Ohio, and the narrow strip of Virginia (now West Virginia) that lies between them. Walter Scott, born in Scotland and educated in the University of Edinburgh, came to America as a young man and was a teacher in Pittsburgh when he received the impulse which led him into the Campbell movement while it was still in its initial stage.
Soon the followers of the Campbells, most of whom had recently been Baptists, and the associates of Stone, many of whom had been Presbyterians, discovered the identity of their programs, and the two movements flowed together into one. Stone's "Christians," chiefly in Kentucky and Tennessee, plus the Baptists who had joined Campbell's "Reformers" and were beginning to call themselves "Disciples," plus the hundreds of converts who had already responded to the faith-repentance-and-baptism evangelism of Scott and the others who had learned to preach as he did, added up to twenty or thirty thousand by the time of this union in 1832. From that point, growth was rapid, by persistent and persuasive preaching, by propaganda in print, and by the constant movement of population to new frontiers farther and farther west carrying with it the nuclei of new churches in the new settlements.
This was at first a popular movement, unorganized and uncontrolled, with no high command, no common treasury, no general machinery for either promotion or direction. But the increasing magnitude of the enterprise, the changing social conditions as the Middle West grew out of its frontier stage, and the realization that such a religious body as this was coming to be had some responsibilities other than propagating itself--all these things made organization inevitable. Then followed colleges, missionary societies, conventions, and the other apparatus of an organic fellowship. But still, and always, there was fierce resistance to anything that seemed to threaten encroachment upon the liberty of the Christian individual or of the local congregation. Cooperation must always be voluntary.
So the Disciples of Christ have become "a great people." It is to their credit that there has always been some confusion about their name. Aiming to promote union, they wanted a scriptural name that all Christians might use. They found in the New Testament certain terms applied to the undivided church or to its members. Alexander Campbell liked the name "Disciples." Stone preferred "Christians." A local church is commonly called a "Christian Church," or a "Church of Christ"; less frequently a "Church of Disciples of Christ." The name "Churches of Christ" (in the plural), as the designation for a group, generally refers to the conservative or antimissionary-society churches which became completely separated from the main body in 1906.
But, though it is well to have unsectarian names which any Christian or any Christian church can use, it is highly convenient to have some designation which others do not generally use, so that the public will know what is meant when reference is made to the churches or members of this movement. Its objective may be the unity of all Christ's followers, but meanwhile it is a specific group, if not a denomination then a "brotherhood"--and a brotherhood is just as distinct an entity as a denomination. So, as a term that will be generally understood to mean us, the term "Disciples of Christ" has come into common use. __________________________________________________________________
Three Sources, Two Streams
Looking back from a later time to describe the reformatory movement as it had been in the 1820's, Walter Scott wrote that there were then "three parties struggling to restore original Christianity."
The first of these was the independent "Churches of Christ," which stemmed from the work of Glas, Sandeman, the Haldane brothers, and similar eighteenth century British restorers of primitive Christianity. Scott himself for a time belonged to one of these churches in Pittsburgh. They were few in number, had little relation to each other, little concern for union, and no evangelistic drive. This party is important for our purpose because it is one of the sources from which the Campbells derived suggestions for a rational conception of faith and the idea of "restoration" in its more legalistic and literalistic aspects. It will be described more particularly in the latter part of
[12]Chapter II.
The second was the "Christian" churches, existing in three independent groups in Virginia and North Carolina, in New England, New York, and Pennsylvania, and in Kentucky and adjacent states. The last of these divisions is doubtless the one Scott had chiefly in mind, and it is the one most closely related to our theme. Some account of these three bodies of "Christians" will be given in [13]Chapter IV.
The third, said Scott, "originating with the writings and labors of Bro. A. Campbell," was at that time "chiefly in the bosom of the Regular Baptist churches." Chapters [14]V and [15]VI will tell the story of these "Reformers" down to the time of their separation from the Baptists.
The first of these is significant as an influence and as part of the historical background. It contributed to the united movement few churches, few men, and no literature; but two of the men who came to the Disciples through this channel were invaluable--Walter Scott and Isaac Errett. The other two parties became substantial bodies, and they are the two main streams whose confluence produced the Disciples of Christ. __________________________________________________________________