The greatest plea ever made in the history of religion and religious thought since the 1st century is the plea of restoring New Testament Christianity. Brethren across the years have challenged men’s allegiances in calling for all people to abandon denominational affiliations, religious traditionalism, creedal pronouncements, and man-made names and practices, to return to the New Testament, and it alone, as the authoritative and sole guide for Christianity. This plea has been remarkably successful.
It is a scriptural plea, for it advocates speaking only “as the oracles of God” (1 Peter 4:11). It is a uniting plea, for it provides the only workable remedy for religious division (1 Corinthians 1:10). It is a liberating plea, for it breaks the shackles of man-made tradition (Matthew 15:7-9). It is an enlightening plea, for it brings man into fellowship with God by directing him to the truth of God’s revelation where the hope of eternal salvation is found (James 1:21; 1 Peter 1:22-23).
It is also a unique plea, and has set churches of Christ apart from all other religious bodies. We are the only people of whom I am aware advocating this unique plea, in calling men and women back to the Bible and the Bible only. Catholicism is, of course, overlain by layers of traditions; Catholicism never has, and never will, make a plea of “back to the Bible,” for the very premise is contrary to Catholic dogma. Protestantism is a house divided into numerous factions, each bearing singular man-written creeds and articles of faith separating each group one from another. The weakness of Protestantism is not in its avocation of “Scripture only,” but in its utter failure to actually practice such. So, ours is a unique plea, and we occupy a unique position in the religious world.
Our plea to return to the Bible as the sole and final authority for man, as God’s divine instruction Book, pattern and blueprint for life and living, for Christian faith and practice, is right! It is right when it is upheld! It is still right when it is ignored or even ridiculed. The fact that men want to go too fast on the highway is the reason government must impose a speed limit law. The fact that men often desire to go their own way in religion vividly illustrates why we must stress the essentiality of going God’s way, of adhering to His limits, laws, and restrictions. The breaking of a law doesn’t prove the law to have been unworthy; rather, the excesses and wrongs involved when law is broken simply demonstrate why the law was enacted in the first place, and why it must be upheld.
So, let us be always and ever-more determined to go back to the Bible: to call Bible things by Bible names, to do Bible things in Bible ways, to be simply and only Christians - members of the church we read about in God’s Word. And let us herald this plea to our friends and neighbors, and invite them to stand with us as we stand upon the truth of God’s Word.