Restorationism, Protestant
From The Encyclopedia of Mormonism
See this page in the original 1992 publication.
Author: Dillenberger, John
Author: Keller, Roger R.
Beginning about 1800, a religious movement known as the Second Great Awakening swept across the American frontier. The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints emerged in this setting.
Many people in this period were seeking the original vitality of the New Testament Church, and those who espoused this point of view were called "restorationists." Protestant restorationism, as manifested in the early nineteenth century, followed the lead of the early reformers Martin Luther and John Calvin, who believed that the church should be firmly rooted in the scriptures. But even their theologies contained complexities that to the nineteenth century restorationists seemed far removed from day-to-day life. Men of differing persuasions, often unlettered, emerged to sound the cry for the restoration of biblical Christianity.
In New England, Elias Smith and Abner Jones, both Baptists, organized a "Christian church" in Portsmouth, New Hampshire. They sought the New Testament Church in its simple, nondenominational form and thus called themselves Christians. In Virginia and North Carolina, a similar movement developed under the leadership of James O'Kelly and Rice Haggard, both dissatisfied Methodist ministers. Their group was also to be known as Christians, and the Bible was to be their only creed. In 1811, the two groups united. William Kincaid, an illiterate frontiersman, converted at a revival meeting, led another group of Christians in Kentucky.
Barton W. Stone, a Presbyterian minister from Virginia and North Carolina, sought the experience of religion that he saw in the New Testament. He finally left the Presbyterian church in Kentucky to found a "Christian church." Thomas Campbell, a Presbyterian educated in Glasgow, Scotland, believed the church should be founded upon the Bible only, and his followers coined the slogan, "Where scripture speaks, we speak, and where scripture is silent, we are silent." In Pennsylvania he founded the Christian Association of Washington for the cultivation of piety. His son, Alexander, who influenced Sidney Rigdon, was the restorationist who founded the church known today as the Disciples of Christ.
Virtually all restorationists believed that the New Testament Church was to be restored, that there should be no creeds, that baptism should be by immersion, that salvation was through faith and repentance, and that there were a remission of sins and a gift of the Holy Ghost. They differed, however, in other points: whether the remission of sins and the gift of the Holy Ghost were a result of baptism, simply a product of faith, or conferred by the laying-on of hands; whether there had been a loss of authority; whether all things were to be restored, including New Testament miracles and gifts of the Spirit, or whether only some things would be restored; and whether religious experience was necessary.
Latter-day Saints were more comprehensively restorationist than any other group. The principal LDS beliefs that created the most discussion were that the authority of the priesthood was restored to Joseph Smith by heavenly messengers; that remission of sins follows baptism, which is essential to salvation; that all things (including miracles) are to be restored; that revelation is as requisite today as in the past; and that, as in the New Testament Church, the scriptural canon is not closed. The acceptance of these beliefs led Sidney Rigdon to break with Alexander Campbell and embrace the restored gospel as taught by Latter-day Saint missionaries.
[edit] Bibliography
Bushman, Richard L. Joseph Smith and the Beginnings of Mormonism. Urbana and Chicago, 1988.
Garrison, Winfred Ernest. Religion Follows the Frontier: A History of the Disciples of Christ. New York, 1931.
JOHN DILLENBERGER
ROGER R. KELLER
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