Restoration begins with the sweet memory of a better state
of affairs, of a time when things were better, or were as they should be. Restoration finds its home in a world in
which decay, corruption, rust, and depreciation are facts of life. This is the natural tendency of things. Restoration undertakes very “unnatural”
processes like repair, renewal, reclamation, and revitalization. Progress is not a default direction; it
happens only through deliberation. In
fact, in the sense we mean it, Restoration transcends from an “unnatural” to a “Supernatural”
process.
Restoration encompasses everything from the micro to the
macro. On the largest scale, the entire
created order has fallen from the pristine, honorable, pure state given by the
Creator. Jesus will remain in Heaven
until “the restoration of all things” (Acts 3:21). The creation will be again put right. We would notice the damage if someone placed
a moustache on the Mona Lisa, but not everyone has the vision to behold the satanic
marring of God’s good creation. Things
are in disrepair, and terribly so. Jesus
would not have taken the Cross if a little patch or cosmetics would
suffice. The damage could be fixed by
nothing less than Jesus’ sin-bearing death on the Cross.
Restoration takes in every smaller part of Creation that has
suffered damage. The Great Commission
that undertakes the evangelism of the non-Christian world aims to restore
humanity to honor, glory, and nobility that the stained image-bearers of God
traded to the Devil in the greatest swindle of all times. Every person who has fallen from perfection
should hunger desperately to have themselves restored. This restoration of the individual is the
most micro level of the work of God.
And the American Restoration Movement remembers a time when
the church was in better shape. There
was a time when unity was a non-negotiable quality that Christians would fight
for, if ever a sign of unraveling fell into the holy fellowship of God’s people. That unity was so important to Father and Son
that they sent the Holy Spirit to indwell first one Christian and another, and
then to be the common indwelling Presence shared by all. Not everyone can see the ugliness when
Christians denominate into separate fellowships and begin to see some as “one
of us” and others as “one of them.” Some
think it’s beautiful to have such variety of faiths and celebrate the
diversity. Others of us long to go back….
Restoration has to be a “back-to-the-Bible” process. Love alone is not enough, though it is
indispensable. Love has to be guided by
knowledge, wisdom, and clear direction that can only come from the revelation
of God. When my relationship with God
slips, I have to restore it through the correction that comes from
Scripture. When my church slips,
crossing some doctrinal line or failing to honor God in theological belief, we
have to submit to what is Written. Whole
denominations have to come to fresh terms with the body of tradition that they
have inherited, perhaps uncritically in view of the Bible. All of the “isms” that define one identity
group (but not the others) can be legitimately retained only if they are true
to what God has revealed and declared, or they must be jettisoned sacrificially
not merely to please God, but to enable restoration of fellowship with
Christians who are unable to join them in such beliefs because they, in truth,
are not supported in the faith once delivered to the saints.
There is a cost to restoration. To regain what was good, some adopted
substitute will be lost. Some
theological trend that has been cherished for centuries, and traces its memory
to someone pedestalled as a hero, might have to be wadded up and summarily
trashed. Arguments will arise and
relationships will shake and sometimes break.
Church discipline will have to be enforced and meals will no longer be
eaten with someone we loved dearly, and love still. Those who love the truth will sometimes have
to walk away alone. Your hearts will be
broken. Paul wrote, “For, in the
first place, when you come together as a church, I hear that divisions exist
among you; and in part, I believe it. For
there must also be factions among you, so that those who are approved may
become evident” (1 Cor. 11:18-19). The Prince of Peace himself came to bring, not
peace, but a sword, creating enmity even between the sharers of a common
household (Matt. 10:34ff.).
Fact is, today we have numerous “Christianities” and
numerous strategies by which salvation in Jesus might be had. I hope I’m not the first to see that God did
not create them all. I hope others can
see that they all do not have God’s approval (see the Bible). There are not many paths from which we may
choose. There are but two; one
considerably wider (and easier) than the other (Matt. 7:13-14).
For example, consider baptism, the salvation-bearing rite of
Christian initiation. To accommodate those
who cannot accept the plain teaching of Scripture, shunted aside as they are by
this theological trend or that, some have instead created “the Sinner’s Prayer”. Others have changed the meaning of the act,
still insisting that new (already-saved, it is supposed) Christians yet obey
the command to “get wet all over”, now for some other contrived reason—perhaps an
outward public confession of an inward faith.
They, thus, obey God’s command to “be baptized”, right? Forget for the moment that getting wet all
over is quite a strange way to publicly declare faith. The silly notion has not a single support
from Scripture. Some baptisms are quite
private (the eunuch, the Philippian jailer), and at others we never hear the
call, “Gather a crowd, they’re about to get wet all over!” Meanwhile, the plain declarations of union
with Christ Jesus, with remission of sin, and with reception of Spirit are
ignored suspiciously or explained away torturously.
This is a call to anyone who longs for a better day. Those of a Restorationist bent have little
appreciation for the current state of things.
There were Restorationists around who saw the great Temple of God razed
to the ground, and who could not applaud its disappointing replacement:
And when the builders laid the
foundation of the temple of Jehovah, they set the priests in their apparel with
trumpets, and the Levites the sons of Asaph with cymbals, to praise Jehovah,
after the order of David king of Israel. And they sang one to another in praising
and giving thanks unto Jehovah, saying, For he is good, for his
lovingkindness endureth for ever toward Israel. And all the people shouted with a great shout,
when they praised Jehovah, because the foundation of the house of Jehovah was
laid. But many of the priests and
Levites and heads of fathers' houses, the old men that had seen the
first house, when the foundation of this house was laid before their eyes, wept
with a loud voice; and many shouted aloud for joy: so that the people could not discern the noise
of the shout of joy from the noise of the weeping of the people; for the people
shouted with a loud shout, and the noise was heard afar off. (Ezra 3:10-13, ASV)
In our day, there is great rejoicing over the broad
diversity of Christendom, but not from those who remember the sweet unity that
was once shared in the Spirit in shared beliefs. Those of us who have seen something better than
the current Babel within Christianity will work for Restoration. We will rebuild, repair, restore. And while great improvements in doctrine and
theology continue to be made outside of churches of Christ, our own fellowship
is suffering erosion in the same areas.
Wouldn’t it be ironic if those churches of Christ who strategically seek
to be “like the other denominations” now find themselves in need or
Restoration, while the denominations themselves have moved onto the ground they
had vacated? In the crucial concerns of
Spirit and baptism, this looks to be the situation.
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