Restoration History

Raccoon John Smith (2)

Life was not easy for John Smith in Wayne County, Kentucky in 1804. Like many of his fellow Kentuckians, John Smith wanted a better life than those who had gone before.

Raccoon John Smith (1)

In 1778, just two years after the colonies declared their independence from England, Daniel Boone made his way through the Cumberland Gap and blazed the Wilderness Trail into the frontier. Fourteen years later, the state of Kentucky was founded.

Unity

During this period of peace, the efforts of the Campbells, Walter Scott, and others to restore the ancient order and the ancient gospel in the northern areas of Pennsylvania, Ohio and Kentucky were meeting with great success

Walter Scott (2)

It was 1830. Walter Scott was only 34 years old, but he was physically, emotionally and spiritually exhausted. His preaching, which had moved thousands, was now disappointing. The former energetic, gregarious preacher was in an almost constant state of melancholy.

Walter Scott: The "Golden Oracle"

If Thomas and Alexander Campbell were the intellectual and theological leaders of the early Restoration Movement, Walter Scott had to be the one who helped bring the grand principles expounded by the Campbell's to the common man.

Alexander Campbell (4)

As the first half of the nineteenth century passed, millions of immigrants followed the Campbells and others to America's shores. As they came the frontier was pushed further west. What were small villages on the frontier just a few years before grew into large cities. Cincinnati, Nashville, Pittsburgh and others became centers of commerce, learning, and transportation.

Alexander Campbell (3)

The twists and turns of life may take one along many roads and paths before the allotted "three score and ten" have passed. So it was as Alexander Campbell spent his life in his search for truth, unity, and the restoration of the "ancient order of things.

Alexander Campbell (2)

The re-united Campbell family settled into the routine of life typical of many others living on the frontier of a growing nation in 1809. The nation had officially expanded beyond the Mississippi River with the Louisiana Purchase in 1804 and the roughest aspects of the frontier had passed by the environs of the little town of Washington, Pennsylvania.

Alexander Campbell (1)

"Upon these principles, my dear son, I fear you will wear many a ragged coat," said Thomas Campbell to his son Alexander. Of what principles was the father speaking? Alexander, having been in America only a short time, had just refused a salary of $1,000 a year to take charge of a school in Pittsburg.

Thomas Campbell (3)

How one would like to have been present when Thomas Campbell, after a two year separation, met his beloved family on the National Pike in Pennsylvania on that October day in late 1809?

Thomas Campbell (2)

"Where the scriptures speak we speak, where the scriptures are silent, we are silent." The words flowed from the lips of Thomas Campbell at a meeting at the home of Abraham Alters. Campbell had called the meeting to explain his views and reasons for leaving the Presbyterian Church, discuss what was next and how they might achieve the desired unity of the followers of Christ.

Thomas Campbell (1)

In a short time, as a result of the ensuing ecclesiastical trial, Thomas Campbell left the church of his youth for which he had preached for many years and began seeking unity among God's people. Like Abraham of old, he did not know where he was going, but he trusted the Lord would lead him.

Barton Warren Stone (4)

Under the name of the Springfield Presbytery, Stone and the others continued laboring for about a year. It then dawned on the small group that having yet another presbytery "savored of a party spirit." It was decided to dissolve the Springfield Presbytery and sink into the body at large.

Barton Warren Stone (3)

Though Stone had been ordained a minister of the Presbyterian Church by the Transylvania Presbytery in 1798, he was never comfortable with the Calvinism believed in the churches, preached by most preachers of the day and expressed in the Westminster Confession of Faith, to which the Presbytery pledged their allegiance.

Barton Warren Stone (2)

Barton Stone, as did millions of others who migrated to the west in search of fame, fortune, land and destiny, found himself in the sometimes harsh surroundings of the American frontier.

Barton Warren Stone (1)

"We will, that this body die, be dissolved, and sink into union with the Body of Christ at large; for there is but one Body, and one Spirit, even as we are called in one hope of our calling."

What Was/Is the Restoration Movement?

The story of the Restoration Movement has its roots deep in American history. Not just in dates and places, but in ordinary people who struggled with the daily task of living. Yet they had their eyes on the higher, nobler goal of finding the will of God and living it.