Jesus promised to build His church (Matthew 16:18) and He did (Acts 2:47; Eph. 1:22,23). The New Testament contains many warnings about the church falling away, becoming apostate. Paul wrote to Timothy, “Now the Spirit speaketh expressly, that in the latter times some shall depart from the faith, giving heed to seducing spirits, and doctrines of devils; Speaking lies in hypocrisy; having their conscience seared with a hot iron” (I Timothy 4:1,2). Again he warned Timothy that, “the time will come when they will not endure sound doctrine; but after their own lusts shall they heap to themselves teachers, having itching ears; And they shall turn away their ears from the truth, and shall be turned unto fables” (2 Timothy 4:3,4). To the Thessalonian church he wrote, “Let no man deceive you by any means: for that day shall not come, except there come a falling away first, and that man of sin be revealed, the son of perdition; Who opposeth and exalteth himself above all that is called God, or that is worshipped; so that he as God sitteth in the temple of God, showing himself that he is God” (2 Thessalonians 2:3,4).
A short study of church history reveals the accuracy of these prophecies. The first departures were in the organization of the church which eventually led to the development of the Roman Catholic Church organized after the Roman Empire. In this structure the Pope corresponded to the Emperor, the College of Cardinals with the Senate, the Bishops with the Governors, and the parish priest with the local officials. The Roman Catholic church grew in power and dominated until the Protestant Reformation. This effort led by Martin Luther, John Calvin, Ulrich Zwingli and many others broke away from the Catholic Church. What resulted was a splintering of believers into several different churches, each with its own unique creed and doctrinal stance.
During the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries several men began advocating a rejection of all man-made forms of religion and a return to the purity of the Bible alone as the standard of authority in all religious matters. As this idea began to catch on and spread in America, it came to be known as the Restoration Movement. The principle for such a restoration is found in the books of 2 Kings and 2 Chronicles where under the reign of the young king Josiah, the book of the law, once lost and forgotten, was found. The result was a restoring of the religious system which God ordained for the Jews at Mount Sinai.
We here at Warners Chapel advocate the principle of restoration in religion. This requires that we use the Bible as our lone source of authority in the Christian faith. If you are interested in the idea of returning to the teaching of the New Testament alone, we invite you to come and visit with us. We invite you to bring your questions and we will search the scriptures for the answers.
—Denton Landon, minister