Thomas campbell declaration and address. Thomas Campbell's Declaration and Address (Centennial Edition, 1909) 2019-01-08

Tom Olbricht Thomas Campbell Declaration and Address: a Review

Isaiah 8:20 Isaiah and Hebrews Sola Scripture If thou turn away thy foot from the sabbath, from doing thy pleasure on my holy day; and call the sabbath a delight, the holy of the Lord, honourable; and shalt honour him,. Our principal and proper design, then, with respect to ministerial assistants, such as we have described in our fifth resolution, is to direct their attention to those places where there is manifest need for their labors; and many such places there are; would to God it were in our power to supply them. What good, then, have those devisive expedients accomplished, either to the parties that have adopted them, or to the Church universal, which might not have been as well secured by holding fast in profession and practice that form of sound words contained in the Divine standard, without, at the same time, being liable to any of those dangerous and destructive consequences which have necessarily ensued upon the present mode? Come, then, dear brethren, we most humbly beseech you, cause your light to shine upon our weak beginnings, that we may see to work by it. Is that ridiculous, or what? If evidently defective in either of these respects, let them be corrected and amended, till they become sufficiently evident, adequate, and unexceptionable. You believe that no man has a right to judge, to exclude, or reject his professing Christian brother, except in so far as he stands condemned or rejected by the express letter of the law; so do we. For this purpose we were born. He had about 20 dogs, and they did not look that friendly.

Thomas Campbell's Declaration & Address

Happy is the man, that condemneth not himself, in the thing which he alloweth. Our dear brethren, of all denominations, will please to consider, that 45 we have our educational prejudices, and particular customs to strug- gle with as well as they. Or, is there anything that can be justly deemed necessary for this desirable purpose, both to conform to the model and adopt the practice of the primitive Church, expressly exhibited in the New Testament? And has he not been graciously pleased, upon many signal occasions, to bring to pass the greatest events from very small 35 beginnings, and even by means the most unlikely. Creeds are useful in summarising truth and excluding error, but should never be made terms of Christian communion. Was not this evidently the case in the apostles' days, as has been already observed? Tired and sick of the bitter jarrings and janglings of a party spirit, we would desire to be at rest. At first t he Sophists were held in honour; but from their loose principles they fell into ill repute, and the word came to mean, 2. Whatever private opinions might be entertained upon matters not clearly revealed must be retained in silence, and no effort must be made to impose them upon others.

Thomas Campbell (minister)

That we form ourselves into a religious association under the denomination of the Christian Association of Washington, for the sole purpose of promoting simple evangelical Christianity, free from all mixture of human opinions and inventions of men. Having established the Association, the document turns immediately to the , in which a more complete explanation of their motives and goals is presented. For example, Campbell and his associates may have been viewed as anti-creedal, but they did not reject all use of. Upon the whole, we see one thing is evident: the Lord will bear with the weaknesses, the involuntary ignorances, and mistakes of his people, though not with their presumption. He brought to the supreme task of his life--the writing of this document--incorruptible faith, unconquerable hope and inexhaustible love; the fulness of learning, the poise of reflection and the ripeness of experience.

Campbell's Declaration and Address

These, we hope, according to their respective merit, we as highly esteem, and as thankfully receive, as our brethren. Every Christian question should be settled by appeal to the Scriptures. Campbell continued to preach, and many gathered to hear his messages in which he pleaded for liberality and Christian union based on the Bible alone. This by no means forbids him to use helps, but, we humbly presume, will effectually prevent him from resting either in them or upon them, which is the evil so justly complained of; from taking up with the directory instead of the object to which it directs. Which of them takes the greatest latitude? Should it be further objected, that even this strict literal uniformity would neither infer nor secure unity of sentiment; it is granted that, in a certain degree, it would not; nor, indeed, is there anything either in Scripture or the nature of things that should induce us to expect an entire unity of sentiment in the present imperfect state.

Thomas Campbell's Declaration and Address

That church, therefore must surely act very schismatically--very unlike a church 78. You have given us a way to discover each other as we discover God's Truth about God's Gift. That we select a committee of 21 members to manage the business. Why not all agree as you can all read the book? It is to be understood, that a number for each month will be duly delivered; though it is probable that the frst two or three numbers may come together, as it is not likely, that the number of subscribers above specified can be obtained in time to commence the publication in the month of January, now so near at hand. It is, to us, a pleasing consideration that all the Churches of Christ which mutually acknowledge each other as such, are not only agreed in the great doctrines of faith and holiness , but are also materially agreed as to the positive ordinances of Gospel institution; so that our differences, at most, are about the things in which the kingdom of God does not consist , that is, about matters of private opinion or human invention. We are also persuaded that as no man can be judged for his 10 brother, so no man can judge for his brother: but that every man must be allowed to judge for himself, as every man must bear his own judgment;--must give account of himself to God--We are also of opinion that as the divine word is equally binding upon all so all lie under an equal obligation to be bound by it, and it alone; 15 and not by any human interpretation of it: and that therefore no man has a right to judge his brother, except in so far as he mani- festly violates the express letter of the law.

Thomas Campbell (minister)

As every man, therefore, hath received the gift, even so minister the same one to another as good stewards of the manifold grace of God. The like dutiful condescension we candidly expect of all that are seriously impressed with a sense of the duty they owe to 5 God, to each other, and to their perishing fellow-brethren of man- kind. . The Declaration and Address had passed with little notice from the greater world. By this, at least, we shall get rid of two great evils, which, we fear, are at this day grievously provoking the Lord to plead a controversy with the Churches: we mean the taking and giving of unjust offenses; judging and rejecting each other in matters wherein the Lord hath not judged, in a flat contradiction to his expressly revealed will. The blessing out of Zion is pronounced upon our undertaking. Lastly, that in all their administrations they keep close by the ob- servance of all divine ordinances, after the example of the primitive church, exhibited in the New Testament; without any additions whatsoever of human opinions or inventions of men.

The Declaration And Address

So they set out to restore primitive Christianity. If to justify this principle by our practice, in making a rule of it, and of it alone, and not of our own opinions, nor of those of others, be not a party principle, then are we not a party. What an important alteration would it also make in the education of youth? Sadly, history has reflected there have been far more of the latter group than the former parading through the Hallowed Halls of Christendom. With the advantage of subsequent history, perhaps we can glean what was right, discern what went wrong, and thereby gain a vision for moving forward toward unity. But had the Jews been expressly prohibited, or the Gentiles expressly enjoined, by the authority of Jesus, to observe these things, could they, in such a case, have lawfully exercised this forbearance? A conscience that awaits the decision of the multitude, that hangs in suspense for the casting vote of the majority, is a fit subject for the man of sin. Such was the work of the tabernacle in the wilderness.

“Thirteen Propositions” of Thomas Campbell’s Declaration and Address

Surely, then, the time to favor her is come; even the set time. Rev 19:9 And I fell at his feet to worship him. . We fairly understand and consider them as human expedients, or as certain doctrinal declarations of the sense in which the compilers understood the Scriptures, designed and embraced for the purpose of promoting and securing that desirable unity and purity which the Bible alone, without those helps, would be insufficient to maintain and secure. But neither should this discourage us, when we consider the expressly revealed will of God upon this point, Ezek.