When Moses was given the details for the construction of the tabernacle, he was told to build it according to the pattern that had been given unto him on the mount. (Exodus 25:1-9) There is a pattern in the New Testament for the church. Only by following this pattern can we have first century Christianity in the twenty first century. It was because of the eager desire and sincere aim of good men to follow the pattern of the New Testament that the Restoration movement of the nineteenth century became reality.
Efforts at Restoration must not be confused with the Reformation movement. The leaders of the Protestant Reformation had as their aim the reformation of the Roman Catholic Church, while those who took lead in the Restoration movement were motivated to restore the Testament church, not reform an apostasy.
This effort at restoration is well illustrated by an accident that happened in the gold rush days in California. A group of men became separated from their party and they thought they would die because of the lack of water. Suddenly they came upon a stream of sparkling water.
When they began to drink from it, they found it bitter to the taste. To say the least, they were disappointed. One man went up stream and found the fountain from which the stream was flowing. When he drank of the water it was sweet and good to the taste. He couldn’t understand how something so good and sweet at the fountain could be so bitter on down the stream. He soon discovered side streams that poured into the main stream that brought the bitter water and corrupted the stream. He took the party back to the beginning of the stream and there their thirst was quenched.
In the twenty first century, the religious world is woefully divided into several hundred different bodies, or churches, and many people wonder, “What is Christianity?” Millions of us believe in Christ; yet the power of Christianity is nullified by the divisions that exist. We must achieve the unity with which the church began. We must return to the fountain head of truth which is the Word of God and restore the church as it was before the waters were made bitter by human doctrines and creeds.
May the Lord bless you and keep you!
Billy
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