It’s been awhile since we’ve had some restoration notes. Partly that’s because we had VBS last week and thus no class, and part of that is because we spent about three weeks on the last section of notes. So really, pay no attention to the number after ‘Week’; it’s a lie. Here’s the downloadable version.
Restoration Class Notes – Week Six
Restoration Notes
Week Six
I. The Growth of the Stone-Campbell Movement
a. Numbers
i. With unification in 1832, the Stone-Campbell movement had 25,000 members mostly in Kentucky and Ohio.
ii. By 1861
1. nearly 200,000 members
2. 29 states and 2 territories
3. some estimated Disciples of Christ as the fourth largest religious group in the country.
b. Why the huge growth?
i. Walter Scott
1. met and befriended Campbell in 1821
a. wrote articles on evangelism for the Christian Baptist.
b. Campbell nominated Scott as a traveling evangelist for the Mahoning Baptist Association.
i. The year before Scott was appointed, the Mahoning Assc. had 34 baptisms.
ii. In Scott’s first year they had nearly 1000.
iii. Averaged 1000 baptisms per year for the next thirty years. But how?
2. A New Evangelism
a. Developed a simple answer to the question “What must I do to be saved?”
b. The ancient gospel or The Gospel Restored
i. Two parts
1. Man does three things to be saved
a. Believe
b. Repent
c. Be Baptized
2. God makes three promises to those who do the three things.
a. Forgiveness
b. The Holy Spirit
c. Eternal Life
ii. Eventually simplified it to a ‘five finger exercise’
1. faith
2. repentance
3. baptism
4. forgiveness of sins
5. the gift of the Holy Spirit
iii. How did he keep it from becoming legalistic?
1. kept everything focused on Christ as the central teaching of Christianity
2. Goal was unity among Christians
c. So successful because it offered something people could do to be saved as opposed to the Calvinistic belief that one needed to have a salvation experience.
ii. Schools and Colleges
1. What better way to spread your message than to start young?
2. Purpose of the Disciple Colleges
a. Not primarily to train ministers
b. Focused on arts and sciences and emphasized the empirical method (scientific).
3. BaconCollege
a. First college in the movement
b. Georgetown, Kentucky in 1836
c. Began as a school of engineering
d. Eventually moved towns and in 1858 became Kentucky University, and later became the Transylvania University in Lexington after a merger with some other schools.
4. BethanyCollege
a. Founded by Campbell in 1841
b. More than half of its curriculum was in the sciences
c. Charter prohibited the establishment of a theological professorship.
i. The students did have a one-hour Bible lecture every day
ii. Focus on empirical Bible study as opposed to ‘speculative theology’.
5. 1840-1866
a. Disciples started 32 colleges
b. It wasn’t their main goal, but they did some ministerial training.
iii. Papers, Publications, and Debates
1. One of the major factors that held the Stone-Campbell movement together was the journals and publications.
a. Used to detect heresy, debate issues, promote unity, and suggest programs.
b. Sometimes said the Disciples didn’t have bishops, but did have editors who sometimes ruled with an iron fist.
2. Debates
a. Helped spread the word
b. Helped establish Campbell as a household name
iv. Organizing for Missions
1. Campbell
a. Initially opposed missions believing the early church only worked in a local capacity
b. By 1840 he changed his mind and began calling for a church-wide organization to promote missions.
c. Called for a general convention of Disciples in Cincinnati in November of 1849
i. The American Christian Missionary Society was born
ii. Campbell was the first president
2. American Christian Missionary Society
a. James T. Barclay
i. First official foreign missionary of the Disciples
ii. Sent to Jerusalem because that’s where Peter first preached the Gospel
iii. Wasn’t terribly successful
1. didn’t speak the language
2. knew next to nothing about the culture
b. Alexander Cross
i. Slave bought and freed by the Society.
ii. Sent to preach to freed slaves in Liberia
iii. Died of a fever two months after his arrival
c. J.O. Beardslee
i. Had modest success in Jamaica
ii. Worked from 1858-1866
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