King Hezekiah, you remember, 2 Kings, chapter 18; 2 Chronicles, chapter 29, followed the wicked reign of his father, Ahaz; and Ahaz had promoted idolatry, even to the worshipping of the gods of Damascus. And 2 Chronicles 28, verse 24, says, “And Ahaz gathered together the vessels of the house of God, and cut in pieces the vessels of the house of God, and shut up the doors of the house of the LORD, and he made him altars in every corner of Jerusalem.” Well, wanting to restore the worship of God, Hezekiah sanctified the priests; he cleansed and repaired and sanctified the temple; he gathered the people together, offering up sin offerings and burnt offerings; and thus, we can read later on, 2 Chronicles 29, verses 35, “So the service of the house of the LORD was set in order.” It was restored. How did King Hezekiah know what the Lord desired? By turning to the Word of the Lord delivered to Israel through Moses, the king knew what type of worship God demanded.

And then there is that wonderful story about King Josiah. Manasseh, Hezekiah’s son, would be the next king. He would destroy all the good that his father had accomplished in restoring the true worship of God. Though he later “knew that the Lord was God” and restored the true worship of God, when he died, his son, Amon, would follow in the wicked deeds of his father, Manasseh, who had destroyed the “church” of God. And then, the boy Josiah, the son of Amon, would become king, and he “did what was right in the sight of the Lord.” He began to seek God and to purge from Jerusalem and Judah all of the evil worship that his father, Amon, had reinstated. They had even lost God’s Word; they hadn’t seen it in years. While they were repairing and restoring the house of the Lord, Helkiah ran across “the Book of the Law of the Lord given by Moses”; and he dusted it off, and he had it taken to the king. When the king heard the words of the Law, he tore his clothes, for lo and behold, there was God’s Word and the instruction about what would need to be done to restore true worship to God. He then commanded Helkiah the priest and others to “Go, inquire of the LORD for me, and for those who are left in Israel and Judah, concerning the Words of the book that is found; for great is the wrath of the LORD that is poured out on us, because our fathers have not kept the word of the LORD, to do according to all that is written in this book”2 Chronicles 34:21. And in 2 Chronicles 34, and verse 31, it says, “Then the king stood in his place and made a covenant before the LORD, to follow the LORD, and to keep His commandments and His testimonies and His statutes with all his heart and all his soul, to perform the Words of the covenant that were written in this book.”

Well, just as King Hezekiah understood the divine requirements for true worship by reading God’s Word; and Josiah learned things from what was “written in this book,” we today understand what God wants His church to be by reading His inspired Word, the New Testament.

Well, we could talk a little bit about some of the Restoration leaders and be reminded of some of what they would do. For example, we might think about James O’Kelly, that he, together with some associates who had broken away from the Methodist Church, met in Lebanon, in Surry County, Virginia, on August 4 th, 1794. They were discussing what name they should wear. Well, it was one named Rice Haggard, who held up the Bible and said, “Brothers, this is a sufficient rule of faith and practice. By it, we are told that the disciples were called ‘Christians.’ I move that henceforth and forevermore the followers of Christ be known as Christians simply.” The name was determined by God’s Word, not by committee; not by a group of men.

And then, Abner Jones, with about a dozen others, formed a Vermont church in 1801. Jones described the group in this way: He described it as “one that will own no name but that name of ‘Christian.’ The Bible shall be my only article of faith, Christ my only Head, and all true Christians my brethren.”

And then, of course, we’re reminded of the statement that Thomas Campbell would make, which really, in a sense, became not a creed, but a motto of the Restoration Movement, and it’s appropriate even for us today, and we hear it stated and quoted from time to time. Thomas Campbell said, “Where the Bible speaks, we speak; where the Bible is silent, we are silent.” Well, speaking where the Bible speaks and being silent where it is silent is really the only safe route to follow. God’s Word is the only true and dependable guide, 1 John 4, verse 1 [“Beloved, do not believe every spirit, but test the spirits, whether they are of God; because many false prophets have gone out into the world.”]. This means that all other teachings must be tested. Good things, as measured by Truth, are to be firmly grasped, 1 Thessalonians 5:21 [“Test all things; hold fast what is good.”]. Only those things authorized by God’s Word are to be taught, 1 Peter 4:11 [“If anyone speaks, let him speak as the oracles of God.”], and this as a pattern for the New Testament church.

What is the status of the Restoration Movement today? What is the Restoration principle that we are following? Is the goal of a restored New Testament church still a valid goal; is the need still there? We know that the road has been a rocky road. We have talked about that at some length, knowing that in the middle part of the 19 th Century there were troubles and problems with those who wanted to introduce instrumental music; problems with the Missionary Society; the Civil War caused brethren to separate, and so on. And then, we saw that in the early part of the 20th Century, in 1906, there was, more or less, that official separation; official division that was recognized in the 1906 religious census of the United States; and there would be from that, then, three recognizable groups—the Disciples of Christ, the Independent Christian Churches and the churches of Christ.