Books

Focus On The Fundamentals Of The Faith

By W. Douglass Harris

Have We Abandoned the Plea of the Restorers?

Some renegade preachers are protesting today that the mainstream churches of Christ have abandoned the aims and purposes of the pioneer Restorers of the first half of the 19th century. They have gone so far as to deny that the Restorers ever taught a plan of salvation establishing the order of faith, repentance, and baptism. Some of them even aver that Walter Scott devised the “five-step plan of salvation.”

While recovering from bypass surgery in May, 1990, this writer used the time in reading Restoration literature. In a book entitled, Restoration Readings, by Orman J. Swinney and published by the late Old Paths Book Club, we found a tribute by Moses E. Lard to Alexander Campbell following Campbell’s death, a part of which we reproduce here. After reading the following excerpt from that tribute, the reader can decide for himself if we have abandoned the plea of the Restorers.

After discussing Campbell’s intellect, scholarship, versatility, and controversies, Lard says the following: “Mr. Campbell’s work was far from being negative. It did not consist in simple opposition to this or that, however much such opposition was needed. It had in it something still higher, still better. The whole force of his mind was now directed to the word of God. This he was studying with intense thought. Its meaning was gradually opening to him. Among the first things which struck him was the great and imperious necessity for pure speech. By this is meant the expression of revealed thought in the identical words of the Bible. To him it seemed clear that purity of speech was a necessary condition of purity of thought, and purity of thought a necessary antecedent of union. On it, therefore, he insisted with great warmth. Time has only served to demonstrate his wisdom in the item.

“Mr. Campbell had now reached the point from which to unfold the true plan of salvation. To elaborate from the New Testament this plan, and present it in its completeness, is the supreme honor of his life. This was his great and peculiar mission. Had he done no more than execute this faithfully, he would still be entitled to the profound gratitude of the world. In unfolding this plan, then so complete an enigma to those who sought the way of the Lord, his first act was to call attention to the Saviour. Christ was to be conceived only in the light of the New Testament, and to be spoken of only in its terms. All speculation respecting Him was to be dismissed. This work Mr. Campbell continued through life. For truly it can be said that the Messiah was his perpetual theme and his highest delight. To him all eyes were turned as the only source of salvation.

“Next, faith in Christ was discussed. Its true nature, value, and place were all determined. Mountains of rubbish were here dissipated. For while other subjects were involved in quite as much confusion as that of faith, none was involved in more. That faith is the simple belief of the truth, that it is induced simply by hearing the word of God, that on it all must at once and without delay submit to the Saviour — these were strange things in the early part of Mr. Campbell’s labors.

“Repentance was also defined, and its true nature unfolded and illustrated. It was shown to be an act, and not an impartation to the soul or a feeling excited in it by some occult inscrutable influence of the Holy Spirit. Not only so, it was shown to be an act entirely under the control of the will of the party repenting, and not an effect wrought in him in which he is merely passive. To that age these were most heretical positions. With them the common people were delighted; against them the preachers poured out the bitterness of their souls. For the first time in long dreary centuries men began to feel that Christianity was perfectly adapted to them in their present state, and that hence all its blessings are available things. They now began to feel that salvation is for all, and that all may at once, and without the toils of the anxious seat, attain it. Men grew wild with joy. They vowed the millennium was at hand, and that the new doctrine would take the world. Such were the feelings with which Mr. Campbell and the simple truth as it is in Christ were everywhere received.

“Also the true nature of baptism, especially its true design, was unfolded with irresistible force of argument, and all its peculiarities treated with the utmost minuteness of detail. Indeed it is not going too far to say that the whole ordinance, except the simple act itself, was literally exhumed from the rubbish beneath which the criminal folly of man had buried it. We are amazed at the achievements of Mr. Campbell here. It is but just to add that in all this good work he was greatly and signally aided and abetted by many excellent and Godly men, most of whom now rest with him. I should delight to honor them by name, but cannot here.

“Still further, the true office and precise work of the Holy Spirit in the matter of conversion and sanctification were fully set forth in the light of the gospel, and at once became the joy of an age which had lived in painful darkness on this point. This work of Mr. Campbell, and no other deserves higher praise, provoked heavy opposition. He was denounced on all hands as an innovator and a heretic; but he heeded it not. Being bold and scrupulously honest, and feeling profoundly sure that he was right, he pushed the cause of his Master grandly on.”

As Lard’s final tribute to Alexander Campbell has never been read by many members of the church, we are adding the following closing paragraph of his tribute to Campbell: “Nothing peculiar seems to have marked his dying moments. He was at himself only at intervals. In these he evinced the same unwavering faith and boundless hope which had borne him up through his long life. His last words were an emphatic expression of profound confidence that Christ would hold the candle for him as he stooped beneath the cold shadows of death. And now his work is gloriously done, and he sleeps till the trump of God shall wake him. Grand old man, and tenderly beloved brother! It well nigh breaks my heart to tell thee goodbye. Yet, since it must be so, fare thee well, thou friend of God, thou friend of Christ, thou friend of the Bible, thou friend of man — fare thee well!”