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Christianity and the Church of Christ BEFORE Alexander Campbell
Christianity and the Church of Christ BEFORE Alexander Campbell
Many people identify churches of Christ as owing their roots to Alexander Campbell in 1813. This is a common tendency among people thinking in denominational terms. Thus, in some circles, we have held the dubious distinction of being referred to as "Campbellites." The following is an interesting quotation from documentary research of a Dr. Robinson, principal of Overdale College, Birmingham, England. (From Odie: As you read it, remember that Alexander Campbell was born September 12, 1788.) It reads:
"In the Furness District of Lancashire - in N. W. England-there existed in 1669, during the reign of Charles II, a group of eight churches of Christ. Most of them are not now in existence. An old minute book has been found of the year 1669 and it shows that they called themselves by the name of church of Christ, practiced baptism by immersion, celebrated the Lord's Supper each Lord's Day, and had elders and deacons. There was also a church of Christ in Dungannon, Ireland in 1804 and in Allington, Dengighshire. In 1735, John Davis, a young preacher in the Fife District of Scotland, was preaching New Testament Christianity twenty-five years before Thomas Campbell (Alexander Campbell's father) was born."
Churches of Christ have always traced their origin back to the 1st Century, approximately 33 A.D. Men like Alexander Campbell, Barton W. Stone, and others were instrumental in the Restoration Movement, but the principle of New Testament Christianity is biblically and historically rooted within the soil of the Old Testament prophecy and Apostolic authority. The real truth of the matter is - when the seed of the kingdom (the word of God) is preached and men and women believe and obey it...there is the church of Christ.
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