What is the history of the “Church of Christ?”<\/p>\n\t
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 good and detailed account is given in a series of books called The Search for the Ancient Order<\/em>\u00a0by Earl Irvin West. Unfortunately, it is out of print and sometimes difficult to find.<\/p>\n One of the earliest references to the church in the United States is found on a tombstone in Cane Ridge, Tennessee, dated to 1807. A preacher named Barton Stone had convinced a Presbyterian group there to leave their association and return to following only the teachings found in the New Testament. They wrote up a “Last Will and Testament” for their old church in 1804 and began calling themselves a church of Christ.<\/p>\n Yet, Cane Ridge is not the first group to do so. Dr. Robinson, principal of Overdale College in Birmingham, England, stated:<\/p>\n “In the Furness District of Lancashire, in North West England, there existed in 1669, during the reign of Charles II, a group of eight churches of Christ. Most of them are not now in existence. An old minute-book has been found on the year 1669 and it shows that they called themselves by the name church of Christ, practiced baptism by immersion, celebrated the Lord’s Supper each Lord’s Day, and had elders and deacons. There was also a church of Christ in Dungannon, Ireland, in 1804 and in Allington, Dengigshire. In 1735, John Davis, a young preacher in the Fife District of Scotland was preaching New Testament Christianity, twenty-five years before Thomas Campbell (Alexander Campbell’s father) was born.”\u00a01<\/sup><\/p><\/blockquote>\n Further confirmation of Dr. Robinson’s research can be found in the article “Pre-Campbell Christianity<\/a>.”<\/p>\n The fact that confuses many people is that the churches of Christ have no central headquarters or defining body. Each congregation is independent and autonomous. What creates a church of Christ is not its association with an organization, but an adherence to an idea: that the Bible alone defines what is the church. As a result, churches of Christ are often self-starting as people read their Bibles and decide to return to the simple beginnings of the church. Thus groups spring up and fade away over time often without a direct connection.<\/p>\n A fairly good description of the church can be found on Wikipedia under “Church of Christ<\/a>.” There is a book devoted to recording indications of these self-starting congregations in history. It is called “Traces of the Kingdom” by Keith Sisman. Keith Sisman maintained a website on the topic which was also called “Traces of the Kingdom<\/a>.”<\/p>\n 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 good and detailed account is…<\/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":[20],"tags":[448,726,279],"class_list":["post-4647","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-answer","tag-church","tag-church-history","tag-history"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_likes_enabled":true,"jetpack-related-posts":[{"id":4650,"url":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/pre-campbell-christianity\/","url_meta":{"origin":4647,"position":0},"title":"Pre-Campbell Christianity","author":"Jeffrey Hamilton","date":"May 23, 2005","format":false,"excerpt":"by Ken Chumbley via\u00a0Gospel Gazette, Vol. 2, No. 8, p. 18, August 2000 The following is an excerpt from an article by Carroll Sites that has been found in a number of bulletins over the last few years: Many people identify churches of Christ as owing their roots to Alexander\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":27232,"url":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/the-united-church-of-christ-is-not-of-christ\/","url_meta":{"origin":4647,"position":1},"title":"The United Church of Christ Is Not of Christ","author":"Jeffrey Hamilton","date":"November 10, 2020","format":false,"excerpt":"by Kent Heaton The prophet Jeremiah wrote, \"But thou shall say unto them, This is a nation that obeys not the voice of the Lord their God, nor receives correction: truth is perished, and is cut off from their mouth\" (Jeremiah 7:28). The news unfolds daily how a nation once\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":38582,"url":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/the-church-of-christ-in-1771\/","url_meta":{"origin":4647,"position":2},"title":"The Church of Christ in 1771","author":"Jeffrey Hamilton","date":"October 12, 2021","format":false,"excerpt":"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\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":69198,"url":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/baptism-in-history\/","url_meta":{"origin":4647,"position":3},"title":"Baptism in History","author":"Jeffrey Hamilton","date":"August 8, 2024","format":false,"excerpt":"by Ed Harrell via Christianity Magazine, December 1984 My reading of the New Testament makes very clear the meaning and intent of baptism - it was a \"burial\" that put one \"into Christ\" and resulted in the \"remission of sins\" (Romans 6:3-4; Acts 2:38). Of course, we should always be\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":17980,"url":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/the-church-in-1492\/","url_meta":{"origin":4647,"position":4},"title":"The Church in 1492","author":"Jeffrey Hamilton","date":"January 7, 2009","format":false,"excerpt":"by Kent Heaton The world of 1492 was very small. Men knew very little about the earth as we know it today. Christopher Columbus sailed this important year with a crew of 87 to discover a new world. His adventure literally changed the face of the world and man came\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Answer"","block_context":{"text":"Answer","link":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/category\/answer\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/wp-content\/uploads\/2009\/01\/Columbus.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]},{"id":19287,"url":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/do-all-churches-of-christ-teach-that-the-ten-commandments-were-nailed-to-the-cross\/","url_meta":{"origin":4647,"position":5},"title":"Do all churches of Christ teach that the Ten Commandments were nailed to the cross?","author":"Jeffrey Hamilton","date":"June 27, 2009","format":false,"excerpt":"Question: I\u00a0stumbled upon\u00a0the La Vista Church of Christ web site in the course of searching for an answer to the question, \"Were the Ten Commandments Nailed to the Cross?\"\u00a0\u00a0Simply stated,\u00a0your answer\u00a0is \"Yes,\" and I\u00a0fully agree with every single comment\u00a0I found on your web site regarding\u00a0the answer to this question -\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":[]}],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4647","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=4647"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4647\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=4647"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=4647"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=4647"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}
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