February 23  A Side Lesson On Restorationism

Those from among you shall build the old waste places; You shall raise up the faoundations of many generations; And you shall be called the Repairer of the Breach, the Restorer of Streets to Dwell In. Isa. 58:12, NKJV.

A rising independently in several sections of the United States around 1800, restorationism aimed at reforming the churches by recovering all of the New Testment's teachings. The restorationists rejected the view that the Reformation was something that happened only in the sixteenth century. Rather, the Reformation began then but would continue until the last vestiges of tradition were gone and the teachings of the Bible were firmly in place in the church. The task of the restorationist movement was to complete the unfinished reformation.

The restorationists espoused a radical view of sola scriptura. They wanted Bible evidence for every position they set forth. Scripture was to be their only foundation for faith and practice. the movement was also anti-creedal. A popular statement among its adherents was that "we have no creed but the Bible itself."

Teh spirit of the restorationist movement set the stage for a great deal of the theological agenda for the majority of American Protestants during the early nineteenth century. It fostered the attitude of getting back to the Bible that permeated the American Protestant mentality of the times.

One branch of the restorationist movement had special importance to Seventh-day Adventists: the Christian Connexion. James White and Joseph Bates (two of Adventism's three founders) were members of it.

Those two men brought with them into Adventism both the Bible-oriented philosophy of the Christian Connexion and its drive to return to the chruch of the lost teachings of the Bible. They were convinced that such a restoration must take place before the Second Advent.

A restorationist view of history continues to influence Adventism today. Take, for example, the opening words of the denomination's Statement of Fundamental Beliefs: "Seventh-day Adventists accept the Bible as their only creed." Beyond that, Ellen White's The Great Bible tecahings is built upon a restorationist pattern, tracing the recovery of those Bible teachings lost in the early centuries of Christianity, beginning with the Reformation and extendeing to the eschaton.

As Seventh-day Adventists we can be thankful that we belong to a movement that is strong on Scripture.

We should not try to lessen our guilt by excusing sin. We must accept God's estimate of sin, and that is heavy indeed. Calvary alone can reveal the terrible enormity of sin. If we had to bear our own guilt, it would crush us. But the sinless One has taken our place; though undeserving, He has borne our iniquity. "If we confess our sins," God "is faithful and just to forgive us our sins, and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness." 1 John 1:9. Glorious truth!-- just to His own law, and yet the Justifier of all that believe in Jesus. "Who is a God like unto Thee, that pardoneth iniquity, and passeth by the transgression of the remnant of His heritage? He retaineth not His anger forever, because He delighteth in mercy." Micah 7:18(TFMB, 116).