The question has been posed to me in a comment on my previous blog as to what exactly must be restored in reference to the church of Christ. There’s a lot of approaches I could take with this so I’ll try to mix them all together as coherently as I know how.
Let me start by telling you how I see the church that Christ established. In Matthew 16, throughout the book of Acts and on through the rest of the New Testament, we read of the church that our Lord and Savior founded by His death, burial and resurrection. This all took place close to 2000 years ago. At that time, the foundation of the household of God was laid. Christ was and is the cornerstone, the most important piece of that foundation. The teaching of the apostles’ and their writings, along with writings from other inspired authors aided in completing that foundation for us. From that foundation and the rock of our salvation, the church was built.
The apostles and the early church fathers (men like Eusebius, Ignatius, Justin Martyr) built upon that foundation. But with the fall of Jerusalem and the Roman Empire, as well as the spread of false doctrine, much of that new building became worn and dilapidated. The Catholic Church in Rome rose to power, declaring its leader the pope to be “Lord God, the pope,” became more and more corrupt year after year. Attempts to thwart this superpower were suppressed by violence and oppression.
Men like Martin Luther, John Calvin, and Ulrich Zwingli challenged the Catholic church and were successful, but with false doctrines of their own. More men like John and Charles Wesley started new movements throughout the world as well. But throughout all this time of oppression, pockets of resistance still existed which held fast to the doctrines of the New Testament church (tracesofthekingdom.com). I could also go on and on about men like William Tyndale and John Wycliffe, men that brought the Bible to the masses. Their work is extremely important and I would encourage you to study it.
I’m not an expert in church history, nor do claim to be. And I know that’s probably the most watered-down, abridged version of church history I could give, but let me continue. It was not until men like Barton Stone, along with Thomas and Alexander Campbell came along in the 1800’s that we saw any attempt at restoration. Now many would venerate these men almost like apostles themselves, but I am here to tell you that their work is vastly incomplete.
Do not misunderstand me. The work they accomplished is invaluable. It cannot be understated, but it must not be venerated. My fear is that we as members of the churches of Christ have arrogantly fooled ourselves into believing that restoration is complete by the work of these men. It is not! It is our duty to continue restoration. Restoration is not a movement, it is an ongoing process.
So if someone were to ask me if I think that the church of Acts 2 has been restored, I would reply by telling them that they are asking the wrong question. Rather, we should ask “are we restoring that church?” We cannot afford to simply rely on the work of our brothers and sisters in Christ who have gone on before us. We would be doing them and God Himself a disservice to just sit idly by and relax knowing that the work of restoration has already been done for us. If we were to do that, we would become the very reason that the church needs to be restored in the first place.
Restoration must not end with a mere movement. It must continue as a process. The torch has been passed, we must carry it to the next generation.
Posted by Braden 
