SUNDAY: Bible Study - 9:00 AM | Worship - 10:00 AM | PM Worship - 6:00 PM WEDNESDAY: Bible Class - 7:00 PM ~ 8110 Signal Hill Road Manassas, Virginia | Office Phone: 703.368.2622

Menu

      A trip to Williamsburg Jamestown Old Sturbridge Village, or any number of other historic villages, presidents’ homes, or landmark buildings will certainly gift the visitor with a gander at something that has been “restored”. “The credenza has been restored to its 1824 state when Rachel Jackson purchased it from dealers in Paris.” “This writing desk, used by Mr. Jefferson’s daughter, Maria Jefferson Eppes, before her untimely death, has been restored to its original finish.” “This pneumatic wrench, once used by Mr. Earnhardt’s pit crew, has been lovingly restored to its original smudged condition.” In each case we get the idea that we are clearly looking at a museum piece – most often safe behind the velvet rope that says “Look, but don’t touch.” 

       The fellowship of autonomous congregations known as Churches of Christ is admittedly part of a movement, born on the American frontier, known as the “Restoration” movement.  Richard T. Hughes, in his milestone history Reviving the Ancient Faith (Eerdmans, 1996), writes that the primary impulse behind the emergence of these congregations was “the attempt to recover, in the modern age, the faith as it was believed and practiced in the first century” (p.1).  This sensibility understood that there was a moment when the community Jesus intended to create actually did exist.  Then, Western values, philosophies, and power structures lured that pristine community down a path that resulted in heresy, schism, and bloodshed.  The task of any Christian in any age, then is to salvage the dream and make it alive again in each life, each congregation.

      It is a task not unlike the one faced by Jesus, himself, as he sat down on the grassy slope above the Sea of Galilee and began to deliver the discourse known as the Sermon on the Mount (Matthew 5-7).  Jesus spent the beginning of the lesson with a series of “You have heard it said….but I say unto you” statements.  Over the centuries priests, litigators, and experts had taken the crisp, clear Word of God and made it mushy and meaningless.  Before Jesus could build upon the foundation of Old Testament scripture he had to restore it to God’s people.  He had to teach them how to read.  He had to give them their Bible back.

       Christianity has certainly suffered from priests, litigators, and experts to the effect that when we look back over the fields of Christian history we see the bodies of mutilated Muslims, gassed Jews, lynched slaves, and truth shattered into a myriad shards of denomination – a veritable kristal nacht.

       And so…restoration continues to be a goal that captivates the thinking, open-eyed Christian.  But as always, we are at a crossed foils when we try defining what restoration means.  When one reads the writings of Mr. Hughes and his colleagues, the regular contributors to “The Spiritual Sword”, or F. Lagard Smith’s recent Radical Restoration (Cottswold, 2000) – and especially if one reads further back to the writings of Stone, Campbell, McGarvey, Lipscomb, Howell and others – one is sometimes left with a cacophony of competing songs.       Perhaps a shift in vocabulary may help us to personally, and congregationally recover what Jesus has in mind for us.  Restoration, although a perfectly accurate word for our continuing task, might not serve us as well as a word actually found in the Bible.  I am recommending the word faithfulness.  Jesus has a clearly communicated vision of the kind of individuals, and the kind of community we are to be.  We should think in terms of being “faithful” to that vision – unto death, that we may receive the crown of life (Revelation 2.10).  Otherwise we find ourselves in the position of the re-enactors at Jamestown and Williamsburg that don feathered caps and farthingales – daily trying to pretend that time has stopped.

NewManassas Side

8110 Signal Hill Road | Manassas, Virginia

Let us know about your interest in Studying the Bible

Members Login

Bible Study

biblestudysd

Top
                                                                       © 2013 Manassas Church of Christ