by Mitzi Saltsman

Created on: June 01, 2009   Last Updated: June 04, 2009

The Open Church movement is not as new as may it seem. Over the centuries, man made laws, have taken the church that God designed and changed it; whether it was to explain, improve upon, or get around the existing laws of God. From the earliest of time with Adam and Eve, people have been disobeying God. All through the Old Testament, we find God saying this is what is best for you and like small children, we have to cross the line and see for ourselves.

The basic concept of the Open Church, is to go back and erase the man-made flaws. Lets try again to follow God's plan, God's way. A great concept indeed. In the 1800's, a father and son named Thomas and Alexander Campbell, had the same idea. Both men were preachers and tired of the denominational path their churches had taken.

A denomination is defined as the Bible, plus a man made creed. The Bible: plus the pope; the Augsburg Confession, the Westminster Confession, Luther's 96 thesis, the Discipline, etc. etc. The Restoration Movement, was started to erase the man-made divisions and addions, and get back to the simple New Testament church.

These men decided that if a creed said more than the Bible, it said too much and if it said less than the Bible, it didn't say enough. If it said the same as the Bible, we didn't need it. The extra creeds and writings of men were dividing the churches. If we all agreed on the Bible, we wouldn't be dividing the body of Christ at all.

Throughout history, groups came to this realization and tried to get back to the pure Bible ways. Whether through the Restoration Movement, spurred on by the Campbells and others, or by individuals who studied the Bible and recognized that their church body was not doing what was written.

In the book of II Kings, young King Josiah, was quite disturbed to discover that his people were not following the commands of the Almighty God and he worked hard to restore the Law, to the lives of the people. As good as the job he did was, it was short lived. It never seemed to take long for a bad King or leader, to rise and the people follow them away from the truth again.

The Open Church, wants to put the Bible and the ministry back into the hands of the people. Many traditional churches are doing this already. This doesn't take away from the movement, as long as the Open Church stays on the Bible path. To discover whether your church is traditional or open, you need to know what the Bible teaches.

Believe it or not, choosing the right church isn't

• 1
• 2
• Next Page >>