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The Restoration Movement emerged from a collective belief that Jesus’ prayer in John 17 called for obedience rather than admiration. Barton W. Stone and Alexander Campbell thought that Christian division was not only bad, but also morally wrong. Jesus asked God to make his followers one so that the world would believe, and they did. For them, unity was not optional, spiritualized, or put off until heaven. It was a command given to the church in the past. So, restoration didn’t start as an experiment; it started as an act of submission. There was a cost to that submission from the start; it took guts to call division disobedience instead of something that had to happen.
The Restoration belief was never that the Bible answers every question completely. Instead, it was that the Bible is clear enough on important issues of faith, obedience, and fellowship.
Stone’s instincts were influenced more by spiritual chaos than by systematic reform. The Cane Ridge Revival of 1801 showed that American Christianity has two sides. This led to a lot of people converting, too much emotion, and the breakdown of the church. Stone did not assert that Scripture was ambiguous; instead, he contended that human systems often contradicted its unifying principles. Revival could bring people back to life, but it couldn’t fix a church that was determined to keep its borders safe. He learned that creeds weren’t just neutral summaries of faith; they were also tools that could be wielded to keep people apart. Tightening control won’t bring people together, something which requires repentance and humility in the presence of the Bible.
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