RELIGIOUS ENCYCLOPEDIA
Dioscurus Disciples of Christ
DIPTYCHS. See Libee Vit^.
DISCIPLES OF CHRIST.
Origin (§ 1). Doctrinal Teaching (§ 2).
Statistics (§ 3).
The Disciples of Christ, or Christians, are a body of believers which dates as a distinct organization from the early part of the nineteenth century. In different parts of the United States teachers arose simultaneously among the religious denominations who pleaded for the Bible alone without human addition in the form of creeds or formulas of faith, and for the union of Christians of every name upon the basis of the apostles' teaching. James O'Kelly (q.v.) and others in Virginia and North Carolina, Barton W. Stone (q.v.) and his coadjutors in Kentucky, Walter Scott in Ohio, the Campbells in West Virginia (see Campbell, Alexander) — ministers of different denominations, unknown to each other, lifted up their voices against divisions in the body of Christ. In Aug., 1809, Thomas I. Origin. Campbell, a Presbyterian minister in Washington County, Pa., formed " The Christian Association of Washington," and in September of the same year issued a remarkable Declaration and Address, deploring the tendencies of party spirit among Christians and the enforcement of human interpretations of God's Word in place of the pure doctrine of Christ. Commencing with the admitted truth that the Gospel was designed to reconcile and unite men to God and to each other, the address proceeded to consider the sad divisions that existed, and their baleful effects in the angry contentions, enmities, excommunications, and persecutions which they engendered; it set forth the object of the association " to come firmly and fairly to original ground and take up things just as the apostles left them," that, " disentangled from the accruing embarrassments of intervening ages," they might " stand upon the same ground on which the Church stood at the beginning."
The principles of this address were cordially indorsed by Alexander Campbell, and in the following year (1810) he began publicly to urge them. The first organization was formed May 4, 1811, at Brush Run, Pa., with twenty-nine members; in 1813 this church united with the Redstone, and ten years after with the Mahoning Baptist Association. In 1823 Mr. Campbell began publishing the Christian Baptist, and his teachings began to attract universal attention. Opposition was aroused and his views were denounced as heterodox, but large numbers accepted them. Many new churches were organized under his labors and those of Walter Scott, and the Baptists began to declare non-fellowship with those who pleaded for the Bible alone, thus forcing these brethren to organize themselves into separate communities. This was in 1827, and from this time may be dated the rise of the people known as Disciples of Christ. In 1831 the followers of Barton W. Stone in Kentucky, and of Alexander Campbell in Virginia and Pennsylvania, united (see Christians, 2); for the next thirty-five years Mr. Campbell is the foremost figure in the movement.
In substantial agreement with all evangelical Christians, Disciples of Christ accept the divine inspiration of the Holy Scriptures of the Old and New Testaments; the all-sufficiency of the Bible as a revelation of God's will and a rule of faith and life; the revelation of God in threefold personality of Father, Son, and Holy Spirit as set forth by the apostles; the divine glory of Jesus Christ as the Son of God, his incarnation, doctrine, miracles, death as a sin-offering, resurrection, ascension, and coronation; the personality of the Holy Spirit, and his divine mission to convince the world of sin, righteousness, and judgment to come, and to comfort and sanctify the people of God; the alienation of man from his maker, and the 2. Doctrinal necessity of faith, repentance, and Teaching, obedience in order to salvation; the obligation of the divine ordinances of baptism and the Lord's Supper; the duty of observing the Lord's Day in memory of the resurrection of the Lord Jesus; the necessity of holiness on the part of believers; the divine appointment of the Church of Christ, composed of all who by faith and obedience confess his name, with its ministries and services for the edification of the body of Christ and the conversion of the world; the fulness and freeness of the salvation that is in Christ to all who will accept it on the New Testament conditions; the final judgment, with the reward of the righteous and punishment of the wicked.
The Disciples of Christ, however, have their distinctive position: (1) In their plea for restoration. Others have sought to reform the Church. The Campbells and their coworkers aimed to restore in faith, spirit, and practise the Christianity of Christ and his apostles as found in the pages of the New Testament. The need was not to recast any existing creed, or reform any existing religious body, but to go back of all creeds and councils, all sects and schools since the days of the apostles, and to take up the work as left by inspired men. To believe and to do none other things than those enjoined by our Lord and his apostles they felt must be infallibly safe, and for this to-day the Disciples continue to stand — the word of Christ and the body of Christ as in the beginning. (2) In the rejection of human creeds. They claim to stand strictly upon the original Protestant principle—the Bible, the whole Bible, and nothing but the Bible, the religion of Protestants. They affirm that the Sacred Scriptures as given by God answer all purposes as a rule of faith and practise and a law for the government of the Church; and that human creeds and confessions spring out of controversy and tend to division and strife. (3) In their emphasis upon the divine Sonship of Jesus. In place of all human confessions they would exalt that of Peter: " Thou art the Christ, the Son of the Living God." " What think you of Christ ? " is the great question. " Thou art the Messiah, the Son of the Living God," is the great answer. " On this rock I will build my Church " is the great oracle. (4) In their division of the Word. They believe that of old, " Holy men of God spake as they were moved by the Holy Spirit," yet do not regard the
Disciples of ChriBt THE NEW SCHAFF-HERZOG
Diseases and the Healing' Art
Old and New Testaments as of equally binding authority upon Christians. " God, who at sundry times and in divers manners spake in time past unto the fathers by the prophets, hath in these last days spoken unto us by his Son." A clear distinction is made between the Law and the Gospel, the old covenant and the new, and the New Testament, it is claimed, is as perfect a constitution for the worship, government, and discipline of the New Testament Church as the Old was for the Old Testament Church. (5) In the plea for New Testament names for the Church and followers of Christ. As the Bride of Christ, the Church should wear the name of the Bridegroom. Party names perpetuate party strife. " For while one saith, I am of Paul; and another, I am of Apollos; are ye not carnal?" Disciples do not deny that others are Christians, or that other churches are churches of Christ. They do not claim to be the Church of Christ or even a Church of Christ. They simply desire to be Christians only, and their churches to be only churches of Christ. Hence they repudiate the name " Campbellites." (6) As to the work of the Holy Spirit in conversion. Accepting the divine personality of the Holy Spirit and holding that in every case regeneration is begun, carried on, and perfected through his gracious agency, the Disciples claim the Divine Word is his instrument, the sinner is in no sense passive, regeneration is not a miracle, the Gospel is God's power unto salvation to every one that believeth, and men must hear, believe, repent, and obey the Gospel to be saved. (7) As to Christian baptism. Recognizing Christ alone as King, his Word only as authoritative and binding upon the conscience, and finding, as they would return to the order instituted by our Lord and his apostles, baptism commanded in order to the remission of sins and administered by a burial with Christ, they take it up as one of the items of the original divine system against all human systems. Baptismal regeneration they have never taught. They simply insist upon the purpose of baptism as set forth in the divine testimonies: Mark xvi. 16; Acts ii. 38; Acts xxii. 16. They would give the inspired answers to the question, "Men and brethren, what shall we do ? " They would demand no other prerequisite to baptism than the confession of the whole heart in the personal living Christ. They would teach the believing penitent to seek through obedience the divine assurance of forgiveness; and in Scriptural surrender to the authority of Christ, and not in sensation, or vision, or special revelations, to find evidence of acceptance with God. (8) As to the Lord's Supper. The Disciples hold first to the weekly observance of this holy ordinance in all their assemblies. Of the Church in Troas we read: " On the first day of the week, when the disciples came together to break bread, Paul preached unto them," and following this apostolic model. Disciples teach that the Lord's Supper should be celebrated by the Lord's people on every Lord's Day; and, secondly, they emphasize and
exalt this institution, not as a sacrament, but as a memorial feast — an act of worship in which all Christians may unite, and from which they have no right to exclude any sincere follower of our common Lord. (9) As to the Lord's Day. With the Disciples this is not the Sabbath, but a New Testament institution, consecrated by apostolic example, and to be observed in joyous and loving remembrance of the resurrection of the Lord Jesus. (10) As to the Church. The Disciples believe that the institution built by Christ, set forth by the apostles on Pentecost under the special guidance of the Holy Spirit, established upon the foundation of apostles and prophets, Jesus Christ himself being the Chief Corner-stone — the Church of Christ — is a divine institution; that sects as branches of the Church are unscriptural and unapostolic; and that the sect name and sect spirit and sect life should in every case give place to the unity of the spirit and the union and cooperation that distinguished the Church of the New Testament.
The Disciples rank sixth among the religious bodies of America, and in the decade 1890-1900 increased eighty-four per cent. They have 11,000 churches and one and a quarter millions communicants. In Christian Endeavor Societies they rank third. They have a Home Missionary Society working in thirty-seven States, and their Foreign
Missionary Society sustains 466 work- 3. Statistics, ers, 40 colleges and schools, and 18
hospitals in twelve different foreign lands. Their Christian Woman's Board of Missions does a large work in both home and foreign fields, and they have both a National Education Society and a National Benevolent Association. They publish fifty-five journals and support thirtyfour colleges and seminaries of high grade, among which are Bethany College, Bethany, W- Va., founded by Alexander Campbell in 1840, and Hiram College, Hiram, O.
F. D. Power.
Bibliogbaphy: The sources first in importance are the writings of A. Campbell, partly collected in his Works, 6 vols., Cincinnati, n.d., to be supplemented by the Debate with N. L. Bice, ib. 1844, his Popular Lectures and Addresses, Philadelphia, 1863, and The Christian Baptist, r. newspaper nearly the whole of which was written by Campbell. Valuable also is R. Richardson, Memoirs of Alexander Campbell, Cincinnati, 1888. Consult further: J. A. Williams, Life of John Smith', Cincinnati, 1870; W Baxter, Life of Walter Scott, ib. 1874; J. S. Lamar, Life of I. Errett, 2 vols., ib. 1894; B. B. Tyler, American Church Hist. Series, vol. xii., New York, 1894; F. D. Power, Sketches of our Pioneers, St. Louis, 1899. On the doctrines of the Disciples consult: B. Franklin, The Gospel Preacher, Cincinnati, 1868; 1. Errett, Walks about Jerusalem, ib. 1872; J. H. Garrison, Old Faith Restated, St. Louis, 1891; S. Lamar, First Principles and Going on to Perfection, Cincinnati, 1891; F. D. Power, Bible Doctrine for Young Disciples, St. Louis, 1899.