Disciples of Yesterday

[Page 10]

     The modern religious organization known as "The Church of Christ" in many places has degenerated into merely another narrow and intolerant sect. It is no longer inviting all to retain the truth they possess and join in a search for more enlightenment. Instead, the membership arrogantly assumes that it possesses all of the truth there is, and everyone else is treated as a pagan or unbeliever. This was not true of the pioneers of the restoration.

     A. S. Hayden in "History of the Disciples on the Western Reserve" tells that in Mentor, Ohio, in 1826, there was a Baptist Church, of which Sidney Rigdon was minister. He read Christian Baptist, and adopted its restoration teaching. In the spring of 1828, he visited Walter Scott at Warren. Upon his return nearly the whole church accepted cordially the doctrine of the Lord, exchanged their "articles" for the new covenant as the only divine basis for Christ's church, and abandoned unscriptural titles and church names, choosing to be known simply as disciples of Christ.

     Alanson Wilcox in "A History of the Disciples of Christ in Ohio" relates that in 1804, Barton W. Stone made a trip to Meigs County, Ohio, for the purpose of immersing a Presbyterian minister named William Caldwell. While there, he preached on its invitation to the Separate Baptist Association. He says: "The result was that they agreed to cast away their formularies and creeds, and take the Bible alone for their rule of faith and practice; to throw away their name 'Baptist' and take the name 'Christian,' and to bury their Association, and to become one with us in the great work of Christian union. Then they marched to the stand where we were preaching, shouting the praises of God and proclaiming aloud what they had done. We met them, and embraced each other in Christian love."

     The modern inheritors of the restoration movement would not receive such as brethren. They would insist on all of them being re-baptized by a "Church of Christ" preacher. The Gospel Guardian has carried recent articles trying to show that even those who are immersed by preachers of the Christian Church must be baptized by one of our "loyal" group. We wish it known that we will act exactly as did Walter Scott and Barton W. Stone under the same circumstances as related above.