Early Church Splits & Union/ The Bible Only?

When Walter Scott arrived on the scene, his background in education (I’ll say a spiritual gift to teach), took organizing evangelism to yet another level. Scott became a contributor to a set of writings called “Divinely Authorized Plan of Preaching The Christian Religion” (Lecture, Koffarnus). Walter Scott, made things a bit more simple by coining the approach “The Plan of Salvation”, using the “Five Finger Exercise”. He “discovered the simple truth of the scriptures that was void of the “mystical experience” (Koffarnus, Lecture).  Through this approach, modeled by countless others, the church experienced explosive growth. Before long, both the Stone movement and the Campbell movement united across the country, beginning with a series of Unity Meetings in 1831. Hence the formation of the Disciples of Christ Churches and the Christian Churches. By the 1820s “the Stone Movement continued to expand, coming in contact with the  Smith-Jones of the east” (growing to about 15,000 members), while the Campbell Movement increased by the thousands (but not before taking more Baptists with them) (North, 155).

They united on the principles of the two pillars – unity and biblical orthodoxy. Yet, it was not long before the union became challenged. It seems that when we achieve peace we need something else to fight about. The good news is that even though the movement shared their differences, the passion for unity was enough to overcome their differences. However, like a snake in the grass, these differences lurked for the opportune time for exposure.

By the 1830’s the Movement continued to see significant growth. It was becoming a standard among the churches which united to seek to be “governed by the word of God rather than the traditional articles of Faith” (North, 189). A little later in the decade, we would see signs of a breaking apart – Mormonism took its toll; so too did the doctrine of reimmersion. Dr. John Thomas played a key role here (1835). Another thorn in the Movement’s side was the rise of “Opinionism”.

Campbell had to use his platform to encourage that “opinions remain in the realm of speculation”, declaring “It is not the right of any one citizen of Christ’s kingdom to propagate any opinion whatever, either in the public assembly or in private” (ibid, 195). Campbell stressed that “Teaching that went beyond the foundation of Biblical revelation was a threat to the Christian Community” (ibid, 195). What we see happening later is “the inclusiveness of unity and the exclusiveness of biblical authority creating tensions within the Movement” (ibid, 198).