Strengths of the Restoration Movement - Going Back to Scripture

[James Nored]

Part of the Restoration Plea was to go back to the Bible. The Bible is the inspired Word of God, and our sure guide for our faith and practice. The early Restoration leaders saw themselves as continuing the reform brought about by Martin Luther and the Reformation, which also had as its plea to "go back to the Bible." Thankfully, we are not alone in our belief that the Bible should be our guide, even if we have drawn some conclusions that are different than others.

The idea of going back to Scripture and challenging ourselves to see if we really are following God's word as closely as possible is a good thing. We should never abandon our love and practice of God's inspired word, which should lead us to Christ. 

This plea has helped us in many ways, including, for instance, placing a stronger emphasis upon baptism and the Lord's Supper. These are good things that we should not abandon.

Now we need to apply this principle to daily Christian living. Are we living the kinds of lives that we see upheld in the New Testament? Have we fully restored the evangelist zeal of the early church? The early church's prayer life? The early church's dependence upon God? The early church's witness despite persecution? Restoration must continue, and in this world, it is a never ending task. Thankfully, of course, we are saved by grace through faith in Jesus Christ. But in this world, asking, Am I following God as he would have me do? is a good thing.

What do you think are the strengths of the Restoration Movement?

[sgranberg]

I've summed up our strengths this way:

We are a people who deeply desire to obey the God of the word and who implicitly trust the word of God to lead us to creatively engage the world of God.

Our struggle has been putting this into practice.

[James Nored]

Interesting perspective, James. Self-reliance is indeed something that we must fight against. We must rely upon the Spirit.

[James M. Whitefield]

It seems to me that the restoration movement was less about creating a new fellowship than about renewing a relationship with the Trinity. They could read about the Father and the Son, but to achieve a relationship with the Holy Spirit, they had to open their hearts to Him and acknowledge His presence and His work through them. There are a few documented occasions during the Restoration Movement when this was achieved. All that was accomplished in the early days of the Church, was due to the activity of the Holy Spirit in the lives of those early Christians. Their prayer life, their total dependance on God, and their witness, even in persecution, was directly because the Holy Spirit was so very active in every detail of their lives. The churches I grew up in treated the Holy Spirit like a "Holy Ghost". They were trying to accomplish through their own works what had been done so completely by the Holy Spirit. When the Holy Spirit is invited back into our churches, and allowed to do what He was sent to do, we will begin to approach the achievements of the First Century Church.

[James Nored]

Yes, we do.

[Steven Herod]

You are exactly right: we live in a different world today.

[Steven Herod]

[James Nored]

Thanks, Steven, for the thoughts. Yes, it is unfortunate that it has to be said. But when the Restoration Movement began, they were not dealing primarily with Christian living--perhaps due to the assumption that everyone knew how to do that. We are in a different world today, and we definitely need to look at our daily walk with God.

[Steven Herod]

Good topic.  I think that one of the strengths of the Restoration Movement was the emphasis (early on) of being in the Word and putting each practice under the "microscope" to see if what was being done in faith and practice was indeed according to scripture.  Unfortunately, I think that we now live in a time when this isn't being done (at least not as it once was) and consequently, since we aren't so deeply rooted in the Word, we are becoming less and less relevant.  

Yes, we do need to apply the principle - i.e. that the Bible, as the inspired Word of God, is our guide for our faith and practice - to daily Christian living.  But this fact should be obvious; isn't it sad that it has to be stated?