Who thought of restoring the original New Testament church?
At different times in history and in different places in the world people have decided to leave behind traditions and creeds that have been created by man and return to the simple pattern for the church and Christian living that can be found in the Bible. History records people in Spain in the early 1600's working to restore original Christianity. There are many examples from India, Poland, Russia, Ethiopia and other countries where people studied the Bible on their own, found the original design for the church and Christian life, and began following it.
One example involved a man named Thomas Campbell, a Presbyterian minister that immigrated to the United States from Ireland in 1807. He was deeply troubled by the rivalries he saw between the religious denominations in America, so he left his denomination and pledged to be "just a Christian" and to help congregations to be established that were churches of Christ according to the model for the church found in the Bible.
A more recent example occurred in the 1990's. A missionary visiting a remote village in Nicaragua was surprised to discover that the village already had a congregation. He learned that although decades earlier a missionary had brought Bibles to the village, when war broke out the earlier missionary left before doing any teaching. So where had the church come from? The people of the village had simply read the New Testament and put into practice what they read. They, like others, had restored a church of Christ.
One example involved a man named Thomas Campbell, a Presbyterian minister that immigrated to the United States from Ireland in 1807. He was deeply troubled by the rivalries he saw between the religious denominations in America, so he left his denomination and pledged to be "just a Christian" and to help congregations to be established that were churches of Christ according to the model for the church found in the Bible.
A more recent example occurred in the 1990's. A missionary visiting a remote village in Nicaragua was surprised to discover that the village already had a congregation. He learned that although decades earlier a missionary had brought Bibles to the village, when war broke out the earlier missionary left before doing any teaching. So where had the church come from? The people of the village had simply read the New Testament and put into practice what they read. They, like others, had restored a church of Christ.