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This is a very brief history of the Restoration Movement by way of slogans.
In 1807 a man of great humility and deep Christian convictions came to America from Ireland. In Ireland Thomas Campbell was the minister of an "Old Light, Anti-Burger, Seceder Presbyterian Church". Thomas Campbell did not like the ecclesiastical hairsplitting of the denominational churches. Burdened because of the division and strife in the church, Thomas Campbell was told by his physician to take, a long sea voyage and rest. Upon arriving in Philadelphia in 1807, he presented his credentials and was initially accepted. It did not take long, though, that Thomas Campbell saw the same divisiveness among the American churches. A year later, in September of 1808, Thomas Campbell declined "all ministerial connection with, or subjection to, the Associate Synod of North America". He had been an ordained Presbyterian minister for eleven years or more. He now found himself with no official ministerial connection. In the early summer of 1809, at the home of Abram Altars, located between Mount Pleasant and Washington, PA, Thomas Campbell insisted upon a return to the simple teachings of the Scriptures, and upon the entire abandonment of everything in religion for which there could not be produced a Divine warrant. Finally, after having again and again reviewed the ground they occupied in the reformation which they felt it their duty to urge upon religious society, he went on to announce in the most simple and emphatic terms, the great principle or rule upon which he understood they were then acting, and upon which, he trusted, they would continue to act, consistently and perseveringly to the end. "'That rule, my highly respected hearers", he said in conclusion, "is this: Where the Scriptures speak, we speak; Where the Scriptures are silent, we are silent". (Christians Only by James DeForest Murch, Standard Publishing ©1962, page 40)
While Thomas Campbell was taking a strong stance on the authority of the Bible, his son, Alexander, went to communion at one point in his life and placed down his token without taking communion, showing his break from the Presbyterian church. Both men did this without the other knowing. Imagine Alexander’s anxiety about telling his father he had broke from the religion his dad raised him in and vise versa. Alexander Campbell wrote a 32 part article in his periodical the Christian Baptist about the Restoration of the Ancient Order of things. Alexander Campbell believed that the New Testament was enough and the church should just restore the simple practices of the New Testament. He said we should do Bible things in Bible ways and call Bible things by Bible names.
In 1798 Barton Warren Stone was presented with a call to ministry from the united congregations of Cane Ridge and Concord through the presbytery of Transylvania, Kentucky. He accepted and knew that a day, not too far away, he would be appointed for his ordination. He also knew that at his ordination he would be required to adopt the Westminster's Confession of Faith. These systems of doctrine would have as much, if not more, authority than the very Word of God. To clear his own conscience, he decided to examine this confession of faith one more time. Barton W. Stone wrote that "this was to me the beginning of sorrows". He stumbled at the doctrine of the trinity as it was taught in the confession of faith. He had his doubts about the doctrines of election and predestination as they were taught in this document. In this state of mind, he went to be ordained and had actually decided to ask them to defer his ordination until he was better informed. The presbytery tried to remove the objections Stone had with this confession of faith. When they realized that they couldn't, they ask him how far was he willing to receive the confession. His answer was, "As far as I see it consistent with the Word of God". The presbytery concluded that this was sufficient and Barton Warren Stone was ordained.
It was Walter
Scott who introduced the restoration fathers to the plain and simple plan of
salvation. He said there were three things man must do: Then there were
three things that God did in response to our obedience:
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