Restorationism

This article deals with the restoration of Christian authenticity in worship and living; see Supersessionism for a discussion regarding Restorationism in Dispensational Christian views towards Jewish people in the End times.

Reconstruction difficulties

A major difficulty in Protestantism lies in its premise that the Reformation was justified in order to re-establish worship according to its biblical pattern. Protestantism seeks to reconstruct Christian worship from the Bible alone, and frees itself from any duty to conform to an attested tradition, or even from any obligation to draw from any historical documentation of traditional practice. This left Protestantism with a stark minimalism on the one hand, and on the other hand a spectrum of more or less borrowing from Catholic tradition. This led to new traditions, which caused the Protestant churches to grow in parallel, away from one another, rather than to come together.

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Restorationism sought to solve this Protestant problem by rejecting its basic definition of the issue. The problem is not a matter of outward forms of doctrine and churchliness so much, as of a pattern of spirituality and authenticity. It seeks not so much to return to the Bible (as Protestantism did, in contrast to the magisterium), but to return to a lost interpretation of Christianity itself.

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Thus, The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints developed an arresting blend of new Scriptures, an alternative history and a distinctive folklore of providential history, individualistic mysticism, rites of initiation into higher teachings and privilege, a broadly inclusive priesthood, an eclectic spirituality, a distinctive philosophy and culture, centralized organizational control under a divinely appointed council, and guidance by a succession of living revelators, in addition to the Bible. The narrow way of Mormonism seems to the outsider to have tributaries from every form of rejected Christianity ever invented; but Latter-day saints see themselves as set on a path of original Christianity, under the direct guidance of God.

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Similarly, the Adventist emphasizes the Spirit of Prophecy, which assures them of a divinely inspired interpretation of the Bible, which they have in the writings of Ellen G. White. The Jehovah's Witnesses have guarantees too, of the correctness of their teaching. Spiritualism, the Unity School or the Christian Scientist's metaphysical and universalist spirituality, likewise are not interested in Biblical interpretation, in any traditional sense. They sought instead a spiritual way of life, a renewed sense of what Christianity is supposed to be. Pentecostalism also is restorationist, in this sense. Pentecostals believe a spiritual aspect of original Christianity has been missing from the world since shortly after Pentecost, but is now restored as evidenced by the renewed gifts of speaking in tongues, and anointed preaching (prophecy). According to them, the present is the time of a "latter rain", when true and spirit-filled worship and the abundant Christian life is being re-established, and God is guiding and speaking to his people in a new way.

Related Topics:
Spirit of Prophecy - Pentecostalism - Speaking in tongues - Prophecy - Spirit-filled

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The early Restoration Movement also was guided by leaders who believed that common sense rationalism, dispensing with sectarian loyalties, favorite lies, prejudices and superstition, could restore a clear minded view of history and of Scripture that would guarantee the re-establishment, for the first time in millenia, of real Christian worship and community. Even fundamentalists of the 20th century are a kind of restorationism, in the sense that their interpretation of contemporary events makes the present time seem to be immune to correction by history, or tradition - now the Bible is alive in daily events, in a way that it hasn't been since the first days of the church.

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Under the sway of such a mindset, at the outset of these movements, not only were historical documents relating to the early church seldom, if at all, consulted; but, when they were read, if they contradicted the new insights, they seemed only to give evidence of the Great Apostasy, in even the very earliest church doctrines and practices. Thus, with the consensus of history or tradition silenced to an unprecedented degree, the doctrines of these groups are set free to differ without an arbitrating voice to reconcile them. Their various approaches, their new principles of authority, and novel notions of unity, spirituality and worship, have led to a proliferation of interpretations, and intriguing spiritual experiments which prospered in the new American Land of boundless frontiers. Each with their own supporters, who believed that their way was right, the pioneering leaders developed vivid and compelling new portraits of what really is authentic Christianity.

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Thus, very far from transcending denominational divisions, restorationism accelerated Protestantism's trend to make schism into a new kind of normalcy. The commonalities of Restorationist splinter groups, such as baptism by immersion and other similarities, are superficial and expressive only of the common temper of the times. But together, these groups typify an epoch in history, at least as radical in its implications for Christianity as the Protestant Reformation had been; and, they are still the fastest growing Christian sects in the world.

Related Topics:
Baptism - Christianity - Protestant Reformation

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