Daniel
A: Thank you so much for a wonderful question. There is actually a brother at my home congregation who is an expert on the Restoration Movement, but I will answer to the best of my ability. As your website indicated, the Restoration Movement was a part of the "Second Great Awakening." Between the early 1700's and the 1970's there were a total of 4 "Great Awakenings" which were pretty much what people lable as "religious movements." Most of these, especially back in the 1700's, were to help the puritanistic thoughts and ways to become more powerful by numbers and spirituality. These effects played a pivitol roll in all denominations, and most notably, helped raise new memberships to the Baptist and Methodist communities.
To somewhat sidetrack a bit, I want to go into detail when the Church of Christ was founded and who was its creator. Notice this: Every single denominational organization can be traced back to who the founder was, when it was created, and where it originated from. Lets look a a few examples here to further examine my point:
TIME Place Founder Church
606 A.D Rome Boniface III Roman Catholic
1520 A.D. Germany Martin Luther Lutheran Church
1536 A.D Switzerland John Calvin Presbyterian
1607 A.D Holland John Smythe Baptist
1830 A.D America Joseph Smith Latter Day Saints (Mormon)
1872 A.D America Charles T Russell Jehovah's Witness
Now all in all, there are several thousands of different religious organizations in our present world, so obviously I cannot sit here and name every single one of them. Obviously, every founder of their religious organization has various motives of how and why they came up with their church name and why they believe in what they do. Can all of this be pleasing to God??
Eph 4:5- One Lord, One Faith, One Baptism.
Well, that pretty much answers that question. So then, enough of me babbling. Lets get down to the point and research the Church of Christ. In order to do so, I need no history book or encyclopedia of any kind. I simply open my Bible and "Study to shew thyself approved unto God." (2 Tim. 2:15)
First I read in MATHEW 16:18-20 where Christ laid down the foundatoin of his church. Notice in verse 18 "upon this rock, I will build MY church." Now think about this. If John Smith were to buy some property and build himself a house, how silly would it be if he and others called his house "Donald Trumps house"....or "George Bush's house." DUH! Its the house of John Smith, or "John Smith's house." Therefore, when Jesus said "my church," why wouldn't he want it called "The Church of Christ?" Not enough background? Well flip on over to Romans 16:16 wherer Paul states "Salute one another with an holy kiss; the Churches of Christ Salute you. There in plain text it states exactly what the church was called, which is why I am a proud member of what is known today as the Church of Christ.
Now others may say, "ALL CHURCHES ARE THE CHURCHES OF CHRIST." But recall the very first verse we used talking about how there can only be one faith. How can we all be of different faiths and still claim that we are the same church that Christ established and died for? How can those in the denominational world claim that they have the right church that Christ built upon that rock, when as we looked above, they can be traced to a specific date with a founder that isn't named Jesus Christ? My friends, we just cannot be apart of any other organization that has a different name other than "Church of Christ." The Bible states over in Proverbs that "A good name is better than precious oinment," and we know that Christ is the best name of all.
If you are one who is not attending a Church of Christ, I strongly consider that you think about these things. I hope that I have answered the question that was asked in a thourough manner and understand that it came strictly from the word of God.
May God bless...
~Broc Begley~