Adron Doran (1909–2001)

A quick and rewarding read! Restoring New Testament Christianity is noted in the Preface to be a transcription of six lectures delivered at Crieve Hall church of Christ and the Nashville School of Preaching and Bible Studies in 1996 by Dr. Adron Doran. Dr. Doran makes four very important statements at the very beginning of the study: (1) the Restoration Movement has always been focused on calling people back to the Bible, (2) the church is not a product of society and it is not the prerogative of society to dictate to the church, (3) the church is not a denomination, so it cannot be measured by denominational standards or by sectarian ideals, and (4) the Restoration Movement did not produce the church!

The purpose of the church as defined by God, not the Restoration Movement, is to make known the manifold wisdom of God as it is revealed in Jesus Christ (Eph. 3:7-12). The church was always part of God’s plan as can be seen in the prophetic writing of Daniel 2, Isaiah 2, and Joel 2; the church was also part of the teaching of Christ – Matthew 3:1-2; 16:13ff; Luke 16:16; and Mark 9:4. If examined, these passages point to the importance and the prophetic awareness of the church in Scripture. The zenith of these passages occurred on Pentecost approximately 33 A.D. with the presentation of Gospel to all those gathered at Jerusalem during that feast. As an aside, there has been some discussion and dissention regarding the actual year, but, the year is incidental to the fact that the church began as predicted by the Scriptures and shone to be the accurate time for occurrence by Peter (see Acts 2).

Dr. Doran speaks to the actual need for a Restoration Movement among Christians. It is no secret that what is identified as the church in the New Testament Scriptures quickly became The Catholic Church and began to depart from the actual pattern as given in the NT. Even during the 1st century, much of what was recorded by the NT writers was in response to problems with practice and doctrine in the hope of averting apostasy. The stepwise departure from the NT pattern began with a deviation from the organizational pattern of autonomous congregations with local leadership to a manmade hierarchy which culminated with a pope ruling every congregation apart from those congregations. The second step as noted by Dr. Doran is a departure from Scripture as regarding doctrine. As divisions began to grow, a manmade council of bishops wrote and adopted what is now called the Nicene Creed – a creed that indicated what the church was supposed to believe, to advocate, and teach. As time passed more councils wrote more creeds and eventually gave The Catholic Church the right to write ordinances. The last step as seen by Dr. Doran was around worship. The Lord’s Supper was restricted to the fact that only ordained priests could administer what became a sacrament. The a cappella music was eventually also altered to include musical instruments. Further additions helped fuel the fires of discontent, but it was the practice of Indulgences that eventually pushed Luther into open protest.

The problem with the Reformation Movement was attempting to “reform” a Church that was broken instead of attempting a Restoration of the church to the pattern present in the Scriptures. The Restoration Movement began in response to a church that was “characterize by division, confusion, confrontation, and controversy” (31). Instead of attempting to reforming the status quo, the early Restorationists went back to the Scriptures to discover what the NT taught and dictated as practice. The two most prominent names of the America Restoration Movement – Barton Stone with the Cane Ridge Church, and Alexander Campbell with the Brush Run Church – sought to take the church back to Jerusalem. Stone and Campbell were not the first to attempt a restoration of the church to its Biblical roots, but they did eventually become well-known enough that many now refer to those that came out of the time as the Stone-Campbell Movement, Stonites, or Campbellites. Those within the movement typically refer to themselves merely as Christians or disciples.

Dr. Doran examines some of the difficulties associated with the Restoration Movement. It should be remembered that the early leaders of the Restoration Movement declared themselves free of all creeds and confessions of faith and took only the Bible as their rule of faith. In whatever community, the restorers entered they faced the opposition of denominational and sectarian communities. Along with the opposition from the outside, the Restoration Movement was also troubled with dissension from the rank and file members. There was also the problem of implementing the actual practices required to put the restoration plea into effect. One particular difficulty of the early restorers was to harmonize their former beliefs and practices regarding baptism (pedobaptism and affusion) with the Biblical witness (adult believer’s immersion). Lastly, there was also a difficulty regarding which name to be called – Stone wanted to use the name “Christian” for the individual and Campbell wanted to use the designation “disciple.” Interestingly, both the Cane Ridge and Brush Run congregations adopted the name “Church of Christ” for the cooperate body.

The last three chapters are dedicated to a discussion of Barton Warren Stone and Cane Ridge, Alexander Campbell and Brush Run, and the Hall Laurie Calhoun respectively. Of note for B. Stone, after a difficult period of attempting to align himself and his fellow restorers to various Presbyterian Synods, 15 individual congregations and their ministers broke from the synods of the day and formed the Springfield Presbytery. Those reformers quickly realized they were no better off than if they had stayed where they were so they wrote the Last Will and Testament of the Springfield Presbytery – “the document is basic and sets forth in clear terms the great pleas of the Restoration Movement” (66).

In conjunction with A. Campbell, it is recorded that it was at a meeting held at Abraham Atler’s home that Thomas Campbell delivered a sermon in which he expressed the famous motto of the Restoration Movement, “Where the Scriptures speak, we will speak, and where the Scriptures are silent, we will be silent” (78). It was T. Campbell that eventually penned The Declaration and Address which became very relevant to the future of the Restoration Movement. A. Campbell became a prolific writer in his own right, a well-known preacher of the Gospel, an accomplished debater, and an educator.

H. L. Calhoun was a personal research subject of Dr. Doran and his associate Julian Earnest Choate. The chapter containing information on Calhoun is interesting to be sure; yet, other early leaders of the restoration movement may have also been the subject of an interesting final chapter to the work.

This volume has a personal inscription noted to be from June 19, ’00 – “To: Brother B. Prince with personal regards and best wishes – Adron Doran” in the author’s own hand.

Quotes from the work:

“Besides, a growing tolerance for deviations from the Bible pattern in the name of individual differences and individual freedom and love for the brethren makes the subject of apostasy a hazy superstition, a bogey man without the power to frighten” (25).

“One must hear with disappointment and disillusionment that an overview of the Reformation Movement shows that it actually did little more than create a system of denominationalism and sectarianism in the religious world” (30).

“Opinion can be held but it must be in harmony with the Word of God, and it is the responsibility of the Christian to see that it is. An opinion that does not harmonize with the Word of God has no place in one’s mind and heart” (45).

“If a creed teaches less that the Bible, it is a dangerous thing. If it teaches more than the Bible, it is a very dangerous document to accept. But if it teaches the same thing as the Bible, we do not need it!” (59)

“When Stone and Campbell at last had an opportunity to talk, they were gratified to discover that, in the main, they stood in agreement. After a lengthy conversation, Stone said that they agreed on most matters, and their causes paralleled one another so well that they ought to be united” (69).… (més)