Chapter 17: The Quest to Restore Early Christianity. Luther lit the spark that set Western Christianity on fire. If he had made no other contribution to Christianity than this, the Church would still forever owe him a debt of gratitude. His courageously bold confrontation with the Roman Catholic Church inspired thousands of others to begin questioning its teachings and to work towards restoring apostolic Christianity.
Whereas Luther had sought to reform the existing Church-state establishment, others concluded that such an establishment was beyond reforming, so they worked to restore primitive Christianity apart from the Church-state institution. Since the days of Luther, there have been numerous such movements to restore early Christianity. We're going to briefly look at some of the most significant of these movements. First, the Wesleyan Revolution.
In England, the Reformation had taken somewhat of a different turn than the Reformation in Germany. Like Luther, most of the English reformers sought to reform the existing Church-state establishment. However, where Luther had read Scripture through the eyes of Augustine, many of the English reformers relied heavily on the writings of the pre-Nicene Church to interpret the Bible.
One of them wrote, "The Holy Scripture is the fountain and lively spring, containing in all sufficiency and abundance the pure water of life and whatever is necessary to make God's people wise unto salvation. The voice and testimony of the primitive Church is a ministerial and subordinate rule and guide to preserve and direct us in the right understanding of the Scriptures." Unfortunately, the English reformers didn't always follow this principle of Scripture interpretation.
If they had done so, they would have never tried to squeeze Christianity into the confines of a state institution. As the early Christians so clearly recognized, Christ's kingdom is not of this world, and it can never be successfully joined to the kingdoms of this world. Despite its failings, the English Reformation prepared the soil for an English minister who turned 18th-century England upside down. That minister was John Wesley.
By the 1700s, the Church of England had largely regressed into a lethargic Church of the educated, the cultured, and the wealthy. Not content with this state of affairs, Wesley began taking the message of the Gospel to the workhouses, village streets, and open fields in order to reach the common people. As had been so true of the preaching of the early Christians, Wesley's preaching radically changed thousands of lives. His Gospel of radical saving grace turned both England and America upside down.
Unlike so many of the spiritual reformers who preceded him, Wesley realized that a spiritual revolution has to begin within a person. The Holy Spirit must radically change a person from the inside out. There can be no return to primitive Christianity without the empowering work of the Holy Spirit. Wesley also grasped that when the Holy Spirit fills a person, there will necessarily be an outward change in his lifestyle. No one living in the Holy Spirit walks in the ways of the world.
Wesley had a deep appreciation for the writings of the early Christians. He wrote, "Can anyone who spends several years in those seats of learning be excused if they do not add to that learning the reading of the Fathers? The Fathers are the most authentic commentators on Scripture, for they were nearest the fountain and were eminently endued with that Spirit by whom all Scripture was given.
It will be easily perceived I speak chiefly of those who wrote before the Council of Nicaea." Wesley's ministry eventually gave birth not only to the Methodist Church, but also to numerous Holiness and Pentecostal churches, many of which have focused on restoring apostolic Christianity. What's more, the Wesleyan movement, with its strong emphasis on a personal relationship with Jesus Christ and the empowerment of the Holy Spirit, has influenced hundreds of churches outside of the Wesleyan community.
Now we want to look at other movements that focused on early Christianity. Another movement to restore primitive Christianity sprung up in America in the early 1800s out of the Presbyterian Church. Tired of the endless theological disputes, rigid predestination, clerical tyranny, and the frequent schisms he saw among the Presbyterians, Barton W. Stone, a Presbyterian minister, began a movement in Kentucky to restore apostolic Christianity.
Stone's chief objective was to restore the holy living and separation from the world that had marked the early Church. In the 1820s, Stone's movement merged with a separate movement begun by Thomas and Alexander Campbell, who were also seeking to restore primitive Christianity. One of Alexander Campbell's primary objectives was to achieve unity among all Christians.
He felt that this unity could only be obtained by Christians forsaking all man-made creeds and traditions and returning to the forms, structures, and doctrines of the apostolic Church. To this end, the members of the Campbell-Stone movement returned to the early Christian practices of weekly communion, congregational autonomy, and a plural ministry in each congregation.
Although the movement now focused more on primitive doctrine and ordinances than on holy living and the inner life, it did bring spiritual renewal to thousands of people across the nation. A discussion of movements to restore primitive Christianity would hardly be complete without mentioning the Oxford movement of the early 1800s, even though it was actually a reforming movement rather than a restitutionist movement.
It began as a crusade by ministers and professors at Oxford University, calling for Christians of their day to return to the faith and practices of the ancient Church. Through their labors, the leaders of this movement ignited considerable interest in the early Church. In fact, they published quite a few of the early Christian writings in leaflet form, making them available to the Christian public for only two pennies per booklet.
For the first time in history, the common people of England could read for themselves such passages from the early Christian writings as the account of Polycarp's martyrdom and at a price that they could afford. Edward Pusey, one of the main leaders of this movement, personally launched a 50-volume set of translations of the early Christian writers, calling it the Library of the Fathers.
In fact, it's largely through the influence of the Oxford movement that affordable translations of the early Christian writings are now available in English. Because of the groundwork laid by the Oxford men, ordinary Christians today can discover for themselves what early Christianity was really like. The search for primitive Christianity continues on today in various groups. Some of these churches number in the tens of thousands. Others consist of two or three believers gathered in a home.
Whether large or small, all Christians seeking to restore primitive Christianity today can learn much from one of the most significant movements in all of Church history, the Radical Reformation.