by Jeffrey W. Hamilton<\/p>\n
In a book titled, “A History of the Rise and Progress of the Baptists in Virginia” by Robert Baylor Semple, published in 1810 is a copy of this journal entry:<\/p>\n
“Wednesday Morning<\/em> — Met and proceeded as follows: The church of Christ on Black Water, in Bedford, having sent neither letter nor delegate to this association; at the request of the association, brother Samuel Harris and brother Wm. Lovell, are agreed to visit them, and invite them to appear by their delegates, at the next association.<\/p>\n
“The church of Christ, on Dan River, in Pittsylvania, having sent neither letter nor delegate to this association, and hearing that the said church is in distress, brother Walker and brother Burruss are agreed, by and with the consent of the association, to offer them their help the 2nd Friday, being the 12th of July 1771; and they requested to make a report at the next association.” [p. 52].<\/p><\/blockquote>\n
It is an interesting bit of history because a frequent claim is that the churches of Christ were started by Alexander Campbell, but this entry shows that churches existed 17 years before Campbell was born and 38 years before Campbell came to the United States.<\/p>\n
This short tidbit doesn’t tell us whether the churches in Virginia at this time were faithful to the teachings of the Bible, but it is noteworthy that there were groups choosing to call themselves a church of Christ.<\/p>\n\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
by Jeffrey W. Hamilton In a book titled, “A History of the Rise and Progress of the Baptists in Virginia” by Robert Baylor Semple, published in 1810 is a copy of this journal entry: “Wednesday Morning — Met and proceeded as follows: The church of Christ on Black Water, in Bedford, having sent neither letter…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"advanced_seo_description":"","jetpack_seo_html_title":"","jetpack_seo_noindex":false,"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[27],"tags":[726],"class_list":["post-38582","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-article","tag-church-history"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_likes_enabled":true,"jetpack-related-posts":[{"id":17984,"url":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/did-alexander-campbell-establish-the-church-of-christ\/","url_meta":{"origin":38582,"position":0},"title":"Did Alexander Campbell Establish the Church of Christ?","author":"Jeffrey Hamilton","date":"January 7, 2009","format":false,"excerpt":"by Bill J. Humble via The Preceptor, Vol. 1, No. 8, June 1952. A Preceptor reader from Texas has submitted a list of questions that request a statement of what Alexander Campbell actually did. Since members of the church are often asked such questions as \"The church of Christ began\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Article"","block_context":{"text":"Article","link":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/category\/article\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/wp-content\/uploads\/2009\/01\/Alexander-Campbell-200x300.jpeg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]},{"id":32257,"url":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/guilty-by-association\/","url_meta":{"origin":38582,"position":1},"title":"Guilty by Association","author":"Jeffrey Hamilton","date":"February 19, 2021","format":false,"excerpt":"by Whit Sasser Sentry Magazine, December 2001 Was Jesus sinning when He ate with unfaithful Jewish brethren? Evidently, some thought so (Matthew 11:19), but you and I know it wasn't true; for Jesus did not sin in anything He did while on the earth (Hebrews 4:15). Did Jesus sin when\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Article"","block_context":{"text":"Article","link":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/category\/article\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":45973,"url":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/the-congregational-cooperation-issue-during-the-restoration-movement\/","url_meta":{"origin":38582,"position":2},"title":"The Congregational Cooperation Issue During the Restoration Movement","author":"Jeffrey Hamilton","date":"September 15, 2015","format":false,"excerpt":"by George P. Estes via Gospel Guardian, May 3, 1956 Behind the thinking of the men who attempted to restore the New Testament church lie two basic premises or accepted facts: first, that the church as it existed in the apostolic age contained no admixture of human doctrine and was,\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Article"","block_context":{"text":"Article","link":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/category\/article\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":4647,"url":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/what-is-the-history-of-the-church-of-christ\/","url_meta":{"origin":38582,"position":3},"title":"What is the history of the “Church of Christ?”","author":"Jeffrey Hamilton","date":"April 6, 2006","format":false,"excerpt":"Question: What is the history of the \"Church of Christ?\" Answer: The true history of the church is found in the Book of Acts in your Bible. However, I assume from your question you are wondering about the history of the churches of Christ in the United States. A really\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Answer"","block_context":{"text":"Answer","link":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/category\/answer\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":86914,"url":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/is-it-wrong-to-attend-a-different-church-after-being-baptized\/","url_meta":{"origin":38582,"position":4},"title":"Is it wrong to attend a different church after being baptized?","author":"Jeffrey Hamilton","date":"May 1, 2025","format":false,"excerpt":"Question: Greetings Brother, I want to know if it's wrong, once we're baptized, to worship at a church other than a Church of Christ. Answer: I'm puzzled. If you were baptized at a church of Christ because you realized you need to obey the Lord and you realized the church\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Answer"","block_context":{"text":"Answer","link":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/category\/answer\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":55631,"url":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/do-the-churches-of-christ-suffer-from-amnesia\/","url_meta":{"origin":38582,"position":5},"title":"Do the Churches of Christ Suffer from Amnesia?","author":"Jeffrey Hamilton","date":"November 9, 2022","format":false,"excerpt":"by Hugh Fulford In the October 2022 issue of the Christian Chronicle (identified as a subsidiary of Oklahoma Christian University), a book review is set forth under the headline, \"New book explores where Churches of Christ fit\" (p. 37). The name of the book reviewed is In the Great Stream:\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Article"","block_context":{"text":"Article","link":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/category\/article\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]}],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/38582","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=38582"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/38582\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=38582"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=38582"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=38582"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}