The Church and Alexander Campbell

by Micky Galloway

Those on Pentecost who “gladly received” the word that was preached to them by the apostles “were baptized,” and when they “were baptized,” “the Lord added to the church daily such as should be saved” (Acts 2:47 KJV). When these men heard Peter preaching the resurrected Christ, they inquired, “What shall we do?” Peter told them to “repent, and be baptized every one of you in the name of Jesus Christ for the remission of sins” (they had already believed the word which had been preached). When they had done this “the Lord added to the church” those who were receiving the remission of sins, or who were being saved.

To what church did the Lord add these saved people? Every denomination that came into existence since that day of Pentecost two thousand years ago is NOT the one to which the Lord added the saved. If the Lord is still doing today what He did in Acts 2:47, He does not add the saved to any denomination today. But what church came into existence on Pentecost?

In Matthew 16:18 Jesus said, “I WILL build MY church.” Jesus promised to build only one church. He further said, “The gates of Hades shall not prevail against IT.” Jesus spoke in the singular. He had no plans to build differing churches. He evidently did what he said he would do, for he was adding to it on Pentecost. From Pentecost on the church is pictured as being in existence. The idea of more than one church is never given. This evidence cannot be denied. “So we, being many are ONE body in Christ” (Romans 12:5). “There is ONE body, and one Spirit” (Ephesians 4:4). This same book identifies what the body is. “And hath put all things under his feet, and gave him to be the head over all things to the church (singular, mg), WHICH IS HIS BODY, the fulness of him that filleth all in all” (Ephesians 1:22, 23). Consider also, “But now are they many members, yet BUT ONE body” (I Corinthians 12:20). “And let the peace of God rule in your hearts, to the which also ye are called in ONE body …” (Colossians 3:15). “And that he might reconcile both (Jew and Gentile, mg) unto God in ONE body by the cross” (Ephesians 2:16). The Bible says there is ONE, and ONLY ONE, body or church. This began on the first Pentecost following the resurrection of Christ. These events are referred to by the apostle Peter as “the beginning” in Acts 11:15, “And as I began to speak, the Holy Spirit fell on them, even as on us atthe beginning.”

Yet, some are devoted to trying to prove that Alexander Campbell founded the Church of Christ. “We see from this record, then exactly how the first Campbellite church ever to appear on the face of the earth had its origin. It began on May 4, 1811, not the day of Pentecost. It – like the Lutherans started by Luther, the Presbyterians started by Calvin, the Episcopalians started by Henry VIII, the Methodists started by the Wesleys, and other groups started by man – had its origin with man, too” (Campbellism, Its History and Heresies, Bob L. Ross, pg. 19).

Alexander Campbell was an outstanding gospel preacher of the 19th century, but he was nothing more than this. Campbell is no authority in religion (I Thessalonians 2:13; I Peter 4:11), nor is he held to be authoritative by members of the church. Fruitful efforts had been made in several parts of this country to plant New Testament churches before Alexander Campbell even began his effort. The works of restoration by Elias Smith and Abner Jones in New England, by James O'Kelly in North Carolina, and by Barton W. Stone in Kentucky all pre-date that of Campbell. Alexander Campbell (1788 - 1866), his father, Thomas Campbell, and the Campbell family came to America as Irish immigrants and were reunited in 1809. Thomas and Alexander, along with the afore mentioned men had, through their study of the Bible, come to reject Catholicism, protestant denominationalism, and all human creeds. They came to reject their unscriptural baptism and were baptized (immersed) into Christ for the remission of sins as the Bible teaches, on Wednesday, June 12, 1812. They issued such challenges as “Let us speak where the Bible speaks and remain silent where the Bible is silent” and “Let us call Bible things by Bible names and do Bible things in Bible ways.” These, however, including Campbell, did not seek to build a new church. We therefore, urge anyone to name one thing either taught or practiced by faithful Churches of Christ that originated with Alexander Campbell, or that was not taught and practiced in the New Testament days. When the gospel of the first century was preached in the 19th century, that gospel made nothing then that the same gospel did not make in the first century. By preaching only the gospel, one can make only New Testament Christians.

Please consider, if Alexander Campbell started the church of Christ in 1811, how do we explain the monument pictured here, marking the grave of William Rogers in Cane Ridge Cemetery near Paris, Kentucky? It says that the man buried there was united with the church of Christ at Cane Ridge in 1807. That was two years before Alexander Campbell came to America, four years before Campbell himself was baptized into Christ. He was a Presbyterian when he came to this country. Vergilius Firm in his Encyclopedia of Religion, 1945, p. 116, gives this definition of a Campbellite, “A term sometimes applied to Disciples of Christ (a) whimsically, by themselves; (b) ignorantly, by the non-church public; (c) viciously, as well as ignorantly, by the less enlightened members of the less enlightened sects.” It is contrary to fact and contrary to all reliable history to state that Alexander Campbell founded the "church of Christ" or any other church. He did no such thing, and those who so state contradict the facts and truthful history. Campbell simply called upon people to take the New Testament as their guide and accept the church of the New Testament as the only church which is authorized by God.