THOMAS CAMPBELL wrote: “We speak to all our Christian brethren, however diversified by professional epithets, those accidental distinctions which have happily and unscripturally diversified the professing world. By our Christian brethren, then, we mean . . . ‘All that love our Lord Jesus Christ in sincerity, throughout the churches.’ ” (Millennial Harbinger, Series 1, May 1844, p. 199.)

ALEXANDER CAMPBELL wrote: “But who is a Christian? I answer, every one that believes in his heart that Jesus of Nazareth is the Messiah, the Son of God; repents of his sins, and obeys him in all things according to his measure of knowledge of his will. . . . I cannot make any one duty the standard of Christian state or character, not even immersion into the name of Father, of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, and [cannot] in my heart regard all that have been sprinkled in infancy without their own knowledge and consent, as aliens from Christ and the well-grounded hope of heaven. Should I find a Pedobaptist [one baptized as an infant] more intelligent in the Christian Scriptures, more spiritually-minded and more devoted to the Lord than a Baptist, or one immersed on a profession of the ancient faith, I could not hesitate a moment in giving the preference of my heart to him that loveth most. Did I act otherwise, I would be a pure sectarian, a Pharisee among Christians.” (Millennial Harbinger, 1837, p. 411-412.)

Again, ALEXANDER CAMPBELL wrote: “The case is this: When I see a person who would die for Christ: whose brotherly kindness, sympathy, and active benevolence knows no bounds but his circumstances: whose seat in the Christian assembly is never empty; whose inward piety and devotion are attested by punctual obedience to every known duty; whose family is educated in the fear of the Lord; whose constant companion is the Bible; I say, when I see such a one ranked amongst heathen men and publicans, because he never happened to inquire, but always took it for granted that he had been scripturally baptized, and that [ranking] too, by one greatly destitute of all these public and private virtues, whose chief or exclusive recommendation is that he has been immersed, and that he holds a scriptural theory of the gospel, I feel no disposition to flatter such a one, but rather to disabuse him of his error. And while I would not lead the most excellent professor in any sect to disparage the least of all the commandments of Jesus, I would say to my immersed brother as Paul said to his Jewish brother who gloried in a system which he did not adorn: ‘Sir, will not his uncircumcision, or unbaptism, be counted to him for baptism? and will he not condemn you, who, though having the literal and true baptism, yet dost transgress or neglect the statues of your King?'” (Millennial Harbinger, 1837, p. 565.)

BARTON W. STONE wrote: “My opinion is that immersion is the only baptism. But shall I therefore make my opinion a term of Christian fellowship? If in this case I thus act, where shall I cease from making my opinions terms of fellowship? I confess I see no end. . . . Let us still acknowledge all to be brethen, who believe in the Lord Jesus, and humbly and honestly obey him, as far as they know his will, and their duty.” (Christian Messenger, 1831, p. 19, 21.)

WALTER SCOTT wrote: “Christians who have not been baptized for the remission of their sins! Strange! Whoever read of such christians in God’s Word? But the times are peculiar, and as faith does purify the life of a man, and as the man of pure life and pure heart is accepted of God and may receive the Spirit, therefore we must allow, that there are now a days christians in heart and life who have not been baptized for the remission of their sins. What evidences, then, have they for themselves and others, that they are posessed of the Spirit? None but the moral graces which have already been quoted, viz: love, joy etc.; they dont need to depend upon an opinion; they feel within themselves and show to those without them by their fruits, that they have been made partakers of the Spirit of Christ.” (The Evangelist, No. 2, Vol. 2, Feb 4, 1833, p. 49.)

ISAAC ERRETT wrote: “There are myriads of godly people, who are in error on baptism, of whom, nevertheless, we are compelled to say, ‘They are not of the world.’ To urge against these a strict and literal applicaton of passages which are meant to mark the distinction between the church and the world, and thus to attempt to thrust them out from our Christian love, among heathens and reprobates, is, in our view, a grievous wrong. As it is a question growing out of the times — a question not directly known in form in the Scriptures, it must be settled in the light of well-established Christian principles, and not by a severly literal construction of Scripture language, spoken with reference to other classes of persons, and another condition of things.
The saints were carried captive into Babylon and remained there a long time. The church lost her primitive purity and excellency. . . . Yet God had a people in Babylon. . . . Now our good brethren may be able to prove to their own satisfaction that all these people of God in Babylon were immersed believers; and they may point, here and there, to bands of religionists, who kept up a protest against the corruptions of Rome. But it strikes us that a people could not come out of Babylon who were not in Babylon; and immersed believers, walking in the light, would have been hard to find within Babylon’s limits! But there was a people of God in Babylon. We incline to the opinion that most of them were unimmersed. They were in many respects an erring people — in regard to baptism they certainly were in great error; but they ‘feared God and wrought righteousness’ and, — what seems as great a stumbling block to many good men now as it was to Peter, until the trammels of sectarianism were kno cked off — ‘in every nation, he that feareth God and worketh righteousness is accepted with him.'” (Millennial Harbinger, 1862, p.120.)

(Reprinted by permission from Edward Fudge – gracEmail)

What happened to their view of things? Here 5 of the most well known figures of the Restoration Movement, in their own words, prove that the modern day version of the restored New Testament church of Christ is a far cry from what they invisioned isn’t it?

Grace to you,
Royce Ogle

Our next stop in the Acts finds Peter and John in chapter 3. God again uses  an astonishing event to get the attention of those who need to hear the good news about Christ. A lame man is healed by the Lord and Peter makes it clear that it was by the power, and in the name of Jesus, that this man was made whole. Then Peter begins to preach to the people.

His message was much like the one he preached in Acts 2. He accused them of murder and then powerfully preached the ressurection of Jesus. “But you denied the Holy One and the Just, and asked for a murderer to be granted to you, and killed the Prince of life, whom God raised from the dead, of which we are witnesses. And His name, through faith in His name, has made this man strong, whom you see and know. Yes, the faith which comes through Him has given him this perfect soundness in the presence of you all.” Acts 3:14-16. This is exactly the same way we are now healed from our sin sickness,  By”His name, through faith in His name” we are made pure. Peter contintues in verse 19 commanding ” Repent therefore  and be converted, that your sins may be blotted out…” He made it clear that the responsiblity of man is to “hear” Jesus according to the prophets and those who do not “hear” Him will
be cut off. Acts 3:22-24.

Then in the early verses of Acts 4 Peter and John are arrested for preaching through Christ the ressurection from the dead and were put in jail for the night. Then the 4th verse says,”However, many of those who heard the word believed; and the number of the men came to be about five thousand.” What a great harvest!

Again, Peter preached Christ’s death, burial and resurrection and many of the hearers responded by putting their faith in Jesus and were saved. (about 5,000 men) It is safe I think to assume that those who were saved were then immediately baptised, that is the New Testament pattern, but so far as the scriptural record, baptism was not a condition of their salvation. Peter said “repent and be converted“, but never mentioned any other condition.

The same message preached in 2007, preached in the power of the Holy Spirit, will get the same sort of results. Neither the method or the message has changed. Through Jesus’ name, and faith in His name, we can be made whole just as these 1st Century men who “believed”.

Grace to you,
Royce Ogle

Did Jesus, John the Baptist, Peter, Paul, Phillip, Apollos and others preach a “systematic salvation” or a Saviour? Did they peach  a “pattern” or a Person? The answer is clear.

And, does the Word of God record the response to the message clearly, consisely, and constantly? It does.

The gospel, (good news) is not “If you do these several things, then live a faithful life you will be saved. The gospel is the good news that Jesus fulfilled the righteous requirements of the law, lived a perfect life, became a perfect sacrifice, died in my place and yours, and completely paid in full the penalty due for our sins, was buried and after 3 days, was resurrected, defeating death, hell, and the grave. By His perfect living and dying, His burial and resurrection, we are now saved by His life. He freely gives forgiveness of sins and eternal life to those who come to Him by faith (beliving on, or trusting in Him).

I know of no other way to make clear what the Bible teaches about salvation but to go to the scriptures and discover what it consistently teaches. In the next post of this series I will begin in Acts 2 and begin plowing through that great narritave beginning with Peter’s message at Pentecost, and then every other passage where Christ was preached and people were saved.

Some of you might be surprised to learn that the Apostle Peter, who is perhaps quoted more than every other Bible character by Restoration folks, (Acts 2:38) would not have been welcome in the Jerusalem church of Christ if they had the same doctrinal critera that most do in 2007.

There is a pattern but not the one you know by heart.

Grace and Peace,

Royce Ogle

“Unless you repent you will all likewise perish” (Luke 13:5 NKJV) In a recent post I attempted to explain saving faith. I unashamedly preach that salvation is by grace through faith. I suppose I would fall into the category of ones who preach” faith only” for salvation. I will gladly confess to that, but only if I am able to define the faith. Repentance is linked to faith almost like conjoined twins; one’s life depends on the other. Faith without repentance in the Bible is never implied or taught. The consistent message of the Bible is that sinners must repent. This truth is especially true of the New Testament. John the Baptist preached “Repent, for the kingdom of God is at hand” His baptism was one of repentance. That is those who were baptized by him identified with his message of changing one’s mind about his sins and were saying to onlookers, “I have turned away from my sin to God”. Jesus then came with the same message, “Repent, for the kingdom of
God is at hand”. The disciples went about demanding repentance. Peter’s invitation after his great sermon when he and the others were empowered by the Holy Spirit at Pentecost was “Repent and be baptized.” God commands “All men everywhere to repent” (Acts 17:30 NKJV) While the Bible is replete with passages demanding repentance, repentance never stands alone. No sinner can by himself repent in a way that is acceptable to God. Just as faith is given by God to the sinner who hears the word of God (Romans 10) so repentance is also given by God to the hopeless sinner. When the believers learned that the Gentiles had been saved by faith (Acts 11:17) they exclaimed in the following verse “Then God has also granted to the Gentiles repentance unto life”. So they understood that those who are saved by faith by necessity must also repent. Then in II Timothy 2 Paul said these words, “And a servant of the Lord must not quarrel but be gentle to all, able to teach, patient, 25 in humility correcting those who are in opposition, if God perhaps will grant them repentance, so that they may know the truth, 26 and that they may come to their senses and escape the snare of the devil, having been taken captive by him to do his will” Notice carefully what he says. First he hopes God “will grant them repentance”; Secondly “that they may know the truth”; then thirdly “that they may come to their senses”. A man is given by God the ability to know the truth and then to come to his senses. There is no repentance without knowledge of the truth about God and the sinful condition. A sinner hears the good news and God the Holy Spirit “pricks” his heart as in Acts 2. Then that man is able to repent. It is impossible to repent without saving faith and it is impossible to have saving faith without repentance. When one turns to God he must at the same time turn away from sin. The heart turns from its own sinful way toward God and throws itself upon Christ’s mercy and grace. 

Repentance without faith will only produce self righteousness. And, faith without repentance will only produce a hypocrite. Neither is fit for heaven and is surely bound for hell. Repentance is not being sorry for our sinful condition. Godly sorrow can lead one to repent but sorrow is not repentance. Trying to make amends for wrongs done is also not repentance. Restitution is Biblical and ought to be carried out but that alone is not repentance. Reforming one’s life is also not repentance. I remind you that the Pharisees lived righteous lives, as well as anyone of their day. But Jesus said that unless your righteousness exceeds that of the Pharisees you will perish. 

In I Thessalonians chapter one Paul greeted the believers and praised them for their faith and their faithfulness to get the gospel out to others and in verse 9 he says about them “You turned to God from idols to serve the living and true God”. They turned from idols to God. That is faith and that is repentance.  Those who put their trust in Christ alone for salvation and forgiveness of sins will at the same time “come to their senses” and change their minds about their way of living. How could a person possibly turn toward God and not turn away from sin? 

Our message of the saving sacrifice of Jesus will likely fall on deaf ears until the hearer knows there is something to be saved from. Unless a person knows he is lost what would be his motive for coming to God for mercy. We must always allow God the Holy Spirit to do His blessed work in the lives of those we hope to win. He alone can do the work in the heart of wicked sinners that must be done before they come to their senses and put their trust in Jesus. 

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Next post:  Hear, believe, repent, confess, and be baptized; 5 steps or conditions to be saved. Isn’t it interesting that not one preacher in the Bible taught any group of people, at any one time, that they must do these 5 things to be saved? If it is the Bible plan of salvation why did they not preach it?