Cane ridge and
Sectarianism
See The Stone Campbell Movement as a new sectarianism
The Stone Campbell Movement. A new SECTARIANISM intending to restore the church to 1801 Cane Ridge rather than to the first century Bible practices. to show why non-instrumental, non-denominational churches WERE LEFT BEHIND and did not leave anyone.
A. Ralph Johnson in Instrumental Music, Sacred or Sinful. 10/23/04 11/13/04..11/16/04...11/17/04 new lucifer, Apollyon data
Dwaine E. Dunning: The non-instrumental BRANCH must be cut OFF. God always hides a MARK. God always hides a MARK.
1. Tom Burgess in Documents on Instrumental Music reviewed. Psallo and Instrumental Music: Proofs do not prove anything but the "music-homosexuality" connection. See more on Strabo's definition of the worship of Apollo or Abaddon or Apollyon: his MUSES are the locusts or musical performers in the book of revelation.
2. Tom Burgess More Review of Plutarch: if Psallo authorizes "church music" it authorizes a homosexual gathering.
3. Tom Burgess on Moralia confirms the "Music-Heresy-Perversion" connection which has no historical exception. 10/20/04
4. Tom Burgess on John Chrysostom: are the anti-instrumentalists ignorant rurals? 10/21/04 What about Paul and Martin Luther and John Calvin and Zwingli and--everyone who believed the Bible as authority.
5. M. C. Kurfees and G. C. Brewer on Psallo and Instrumental Music in worship. Thayer and Grimm reviewed by Tom Burgess.
9/25/04 Charles Daily Northwest College of the Bible Part One ..... Part One A .....Part Two ..... THRESKIA or CHARISMATIC
Isaiah 25, Isa 25: Isaiah Chapter 25: The branch of the terrible one is a song to be accompanied with instrumental music. The Abominable Branch also speaks of Satan's use of instrumental music.
Navigating the winds of change and calling new Jubilees after Lord Jesus Christ has redeemed us, works by calling people out because they claim to have the power to "lead you into the presence of God." However, Jesus warned:
Behold, I have told you before. Matthew 24:25
Wherefore if they shall say unto you, Behold, he is in the desert; go not forth: behold, he is in the secret chambers; believe it not. Matthew 24:26
(Dark dispenser or distributor; a dispensary or magazine)
For as the lightning cometh out of the east, and shineth even unto the west; so shall also the coming of the Son of man be. Matthew 24:27
For wheresoever the carcase (lifeless body) is, there will the eagles (navigators of the wind) be gathered together. Matthew 24:28
"Gathered" means to convene for entertainment, assemble selves together.
However, Jesus promised to be in the midst of two or three gathered by His authority but it was prophesied that:
He shall not cry, nor lift up, nor cause his voice to be heard in the street. Isaiah 42:2
Jesus would not "proclaim an assembly, call together orgather selves together."
"Jingling, banging, and rattling accompanied heathen cults, and the frenzying shawms of a dozen ecstatic cries intoxicated the masses. Amid this euphoric farewell feast of a dying civilization, the voices of nonconformists were emerging from places of Jewish and early Christian worship ..." (Encyclopaedia Judaica, 1971 ed., s.v. "Music")
And when he was demanded of the Pharisees, when the kingdom of God should come, he answered them and said, The kingdom of God cometh not with observation: Luke 17:20
Neither shall they say, Lo here or, lo there! for, behold, the kingdom of God is within you. Luke 17:21
It is not surprising, therefore, that any mass promotional movement using methods not diffrent from ancient paganism and even devil worship, usually looks quite good but always produces division and sectarianism.
Without the charismatic revivals other movements were freeing themselves from denominational control and the division would not still exist among those who lust to "restore the restoration movement" meaning that they would like to see a new outbreak of charismatic madness. Why? Because as always, it would validate the power of the manipulator.
A true Church of Christ does not use these means.
In the First Great American Awakening there was a maked increase in "joining the church" during the revival. However, after the fever wore of, admissions dropped drastically. It is believed that the average with or without the revivals would have been about the same:
"It encouraged people to devote their practical, daily exertions to loving God and serving their neighbors.
A new desire to see the churches purified of all but the elect
was an ecclesiastical reflection of this more intense piety.Led by Edwards, many Congregational and Presbyterian churches repudiated the Half-Way Covenant. The fellowship of the faithful on earth, so this reasoning ran, should reflect the purity of God's grace as closely as possible.
"In fact, the Great Awakening did nearly as much to promote controversy (sectarianism) as it did to stimulate revival. In the middle colonies, Presbyterians divided over the revival and its effects....
Its immediate impact was to divide the Puritan churches into four more or less distinct groups. Historian C. C. Goen has painstakingly identified 321 separations of one kind or another by these New Lights.... The Baptists were the greatest benificiaries of the Great Awakening."Eerdmans' Handbook to Christianity in America, p. 115-115)
Revivalism was never a vital part of the Restoration Movement.
What became churches of Christ continued on as if the charismatic revivals had not happened. In fact, Stoneite "experiences" did not work in Tennessee and Alabama among the more educated. These people knew their Bible -- especially the mothers -- and when the right to believe and be baptized was preached the people got the "relief" or assurance of their salvation which the legalistic-based work of Stone could not produce.
Caneridge involved Presbyterians, Methodists and Baptists but it was not a calculated movement related to the "final resting" place of any of the restoration movements. Barton W. Stone was not trying to "restore" anything but the wild exercises which he had deliberately studied and planned to imitate. These exercises would prove his Calvinist brethren wrong and prove that salvation was for all. He got more than he bargained for. While it would not have occurred to any of these groups to even think about instrumental music to induce the exercises, the style of singing and preaching had the same effect. Because the meeting became more of a "county fair" than religious revival, historians note that it was attended by wine, women and son. Modern churches try to revive ancient revivalism by using musical worship teams to "help bring the worshipers into the presence of God." However, ->
"it is misleading to refer to these New Light churches as predecessoors of the later Christian-Disciples movement, for in so many ways, beginning with the explosive conversions and the physical exercises and the spiritual gifts,
the first New Light churches were closer to later Pentecostals than to contemporary Disciples or the Churches of Christ." (Conkin, Caneridge, p. 132)
Out of this sectarianism the first instrumental music as worship was imposed even over the heads of the elders of the church.
The message is not clear about music at Cane Ridge. Any secular instrumental music would be part of the majority of the camp followers but it simply was not a part of any of the participating denominations as instrumental music as worship.
We know that only about 800 were members of any church. The evidence for emotional hymn singing is much clearer and its effects have always been about ecstasy-producing as instruments of revival fire:
"... the primary effect of music is to give the listener a feeling of security, for it symbolizes the place where he was born, his earliest childhood satisfaction, and his work; any or all of these personality shaping experiences.
As soon as the familiar sound pattern is established, he is prepared to laugh, to weep, to dance, to fight, to worship, etc...
Apparently the character and the variety of the music matters less than its conformity to tradition, which produces a sensation of security. The work of composers in the folk world is, so far as I have observed, limited by this stylistic security-bringing framework." (Goldschmidt, Walter, Exploring the Ways of Mankind, p. 609, Holt, Rinehart and Winston)
It is a known from ancient history and modern practices that it is not probable that all of the "exercises" took place without the use of mind-control devices.
While never the intention, it is clear that artificial revivalism produces a form of ancient fire worship. When you look for the Holy Spirit as a personal presence scholars note that the "spirits which steal in" are not invited. We begin by quoting Clement who soundly rejected such antics and music as Christian. It is not without meaning that critical scholars note that caneridge is in Bourbon county:
After the world was purified by water--
"men turned again to impiety; and on this account a law was given by God to instruct them in the manner of living. But in the process of time, the worship of God and righteousness were corrupted by the unbelieving and the wicked, as we shall show more fully by and by.
"Moreover, perverse and erratic religions were introduced, to which the greater part of men gave themselves up, by occasion of holidays and solemnities, instituting drinking and banquets, following pipes, and flutes, and harps, and diverse kinds of musical instruments, and indulging themselves in all kinds of drunkenness and luxury. Hence every kind of error took rise; hence they invented groves and altars, fillets and victims, and after drunkenness they were agitated as if with mad emotions. By this means power was given to the demons to enter into minds of this sort, so that they seemed to lead insane dances and to rave like Bacchanalians; hence were invented the gnashing of teeth, and bellowing from the depth of their bowels; hence a terrible countenance and a fierce aspect in men, so that he whom drunkenness had subverted and a demon had instigated, was believed by the erring to be filled with the Deity." (Recognitions of Clement, Book IV, Chapt XIII, Ante Nicene Fathers, Vol 8, p. 137)
It has been noted that in revivalistic movements among Restoration Movement churches, "Rap" and other forms of musical worship teams frequently use barking or other forms of animal sounds. This probably couldn't even take place among the "musicians" without the self-induced charismatic fit which Paul called madness. "No drums allowed around here." However, if you want to make vulgar sounds with your mouth which sounds like instruments that is acceptable because "we are still legal." And we will rave our applause.
It seems clear that the small revival which produced great excitement attracted the masses with no better entertainment than a religious revival. We have experienced it in our own lives. Many creatures great and small were attracted like moths to a flame and many got burned. The spirit of celebration and entertainment produced the great crowds and the preachers who had become men of note literally sold their bodies to create the charismatic breakdown which, if personality driven, is sexual.
"Oh men without understanding! Judge ye rightly of what is said. For if it were necessary to give one's self to some pleasure for the refreshment of the body, whether were it better to do so among the rivers and woods and groves,
where there are entertainments and convivialities and shady places,
or where there is the maddness of demons, and cuttings of hands,
and emasculations, and fury and mania, and dishevelling of hair,and shoutings and enthusiasms and howlings, and all those thing which are done with hyprocrisy for the counfounding of the unthinking, when you offer your prescribed prayers, and thanksgivings even to those who are deader than the dead?" (The Clemetine Homilies, Homily XI, Chapt XIV, Ante Nicene Fathers, Vol 8, p. 287).
Earlier, In Salem, dominant males such as Parrish needed a supernatural show to prove his superiority over the other local preachers. As a result, "witches" were murdered.
In Boston, Anne Hutchinson, formulated a new set of 81 "laws" which denied the value of the Bible, demanded a witness of the Spirit to prove conversion, one "assured" could not be lost for any reason, and "the whole letter of the Scripture is a covenant of works." See Trial of Anne Hutchinson
Increase Mather listed the signs of demon possession (or epilepsy) and listed speaking in tongues, speaking without use of the mouth (Stone was impressed with this), and "bodily exercises." "Witches" were hanged and pressed to death for causing the "exercises" and Robert Calef blamed the clergy for "laying aside the Sword" of God and repeating what happened when Samson, the blind, was forced to participate in worship much like what was happening in Salem. Deodat Lawson describe the Salem "exercises" in some of the same terms as caneridge.
Hodge said--
"We have seen that enthusiasm and fanaticism, in their wildest shapes, have attended them--that jealousy, envy, hatred, evil surmisings, bitter revilings, heart-burnings, unholy schism and strifes, have followed close in their train--that spiritual pride, censoriousness, a Pharisaic disposition, and a spirit that trusts too much in suggestions, impulses, and consequently, that underrates the word of God, is always associated with them." (Stone Biography, p. 384).
Kenneth Latourette notes that:
"Divisions in the churches accompanied and followed the Great Awakening. The more ardent preachers of the revival had sharp words for those ministers whom they deemed unconverted. Whitefield occasionally spoke caustically of those who did not follow him. Others were even more vehement. On the other side were many, both clergy and laity, who were alienated by the emotional excesses, were angered by the denunciations of the more ardent itinerant preachers... 'New lights' 'Old lights' in Presbyterian and Congregational churches often separated into distinct units." (Latourette, p. 960).
"While there were examples of church groups which increased in numbers and strength as a result of the appearance of glossolalia, more usually friction and divisive factions developed. In extreme examples, up to one-third of the congregation stopped going to church and/or dropped their formal membership." (John P. Kildahl , p. 66 The Psychology of Speaking in Tongues, Harper and Row).
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1Corinthians 13:1 Though I speak with the tongues This is not speaking as in the command to SPEAK one
to another to teach and comfort.
Sounding brass and tinkling cymbals here are identifying marks of
people who have NO LOVE. Even if they COULD speak all of the languages
in the world there would be no love. The command is to SPEAK or LOGOS
the Word of Christ which is the opposite of rhetoric, singing or
playing instruments. Speaking in the tongues of angels was IN FACT
making music in tongues. Tongues and Instruments INTEND to lull
people to sleep with THE LOCUSTS OF REVELATION. It may help us to understand that the Greek word lelein refers primarily to utterance rather than to meaningful conversation. The term is used repeatedly in chapter 14 to describe speaking in tongues. Phrynichus, the ancient dictionarian, defined the term as 'to talk nonsense'. Aggelos , of a loquacious person 2. generally, one that announces or tells, e.g. of birds of augury, Il.24.292,296; Mousōn aggelos, of a poet Aggelos , ho, hē, A. messenger, envoy, Il.2.26, etc.; “di' aggelōn homileein tini” Hdt.5.92.z, cf. SIG229.25 (Erythrae):— prov., Arabios a., of a loquacious person, Men.32.
4. In later philos., semi-divine being, “hēliakoi a.” Jul.Or.4.141b, “a. kai arkhaggeloi” also in mystical and magical writings, “aggela nikēs”2. generally, one that announces or tells, e.g. of birds of augury, Il.24.292,296; Mousōn aggelos, of a poet,“aggelon glōssan logōn” E.Supp.203; “aisthēsis hēmin a.” Plot.5.3.3; neut. pl., “aggela nikēs” Nonn.D.34.226. nik-ēi_, hē, II. pr. n., Nike, the goddess of victory, Hes.Th.384, cf. Pi.I.2.26, etc.; “Nikē Athana Polias” S.Ph.134, cf. E. Ion457 (lyr.), 1529.Eur. Supp. 203 Theseus [195] Full often have I argued out this subject with others. For there are those who say, there is more bad than good in human nature; but I hold a contrary view, that good over bad predominates in man, [200] for if it were not so, we should not exist. He has my praise, whichever god brought us to live by rule from chaos and from brutishness, first by implanting reason, and next by giving us a tongue to declare our thoughts, so as to know the meaning of what is said.. And where sight fails us and our knowledge is not sure, the seer foretells by gazing on the flame, by reading signs in folds of entrails, or by divination from the flight of birds. Are we not then too proud, when heaven has made such [215] preparation for our life, not to be content with it? But our presumption seeks to lord it over heaven, and in the pride of our hearts we think we are wiser than the gods. |
Cane ridge
"The Baptists had a peculiar appeal to the masses. Their preachers, usually with very slight education, knew their audiences and how to address them in language (with a musical cadence) which would hold their attention and bring conviction. They tended to be highly emotional." (Kenneth, Latourette, p. 1037).
"For the desire of the teacher for power, combining with the desire of the taught for certainty, must tend always to efforts at making the sign, which is to secure both, still more awful and convincing, by still greater and more awful attestations. A fresh miracle must be provided to silence each fresh heresy, a new prodigy to confirm each new dogma." (j. Hastings, The Greater Texts of the Bible, 1 Cor., p. 7).
"The camp meeting was well introduced by the beginning of the next century. Excitement was intense. This was largely the result of impassioned preaching, earnest exhortation, loud prayers, and energetic singing. Bodily exercises, as dropping, jerking, and barking, often manifested themselves, but since they too often brought disrepute upon religion, they were frequently condemned by the better educated of all denominations." (Jenning, Walter W., Origin and Early History of the Disciples of Christ, p. 28, Standard).
From Small Cells to Large Groups
At caneridge: "They were commonly collected in small circles of ten or twelve, close adjoining another circle, and all engaged in singing... hymns; and then a minister steps upon a stump or log and begins an exhortation or sermon..."
"On Sabbath night, I saw above 100 persons at once on the ground crying for mercy of all ages from 8 to 60 years... The whole number brought to the ground under convictions about one thousand, not less."
"When a person is struck down he is carried by others out of the congregation, when some minister converses with and prays with him, afterwards a few gather around and sing a Hymn suitable to his case." (Jenning, Walter W., Origin and Early History of the Disciples of Christ, p. 29, Standard).
"The new, self-consciously wrought revivals took several forms. They first emerged at the turn of the eighteenth century with the invention of the camp meeting in western Virginia and North Carolina and on the Kentucky and Ohio frontier by Presbyterians, Methodists, and Baptists. At these meetings, the most famous (or notorious) of which took place at caneridge, Kentucky in 1801, hundreds and sometimes thousands of people would gather from miles around in a wilderness encampment for four days to a week. There they engaged in an unrelenting series of intense spiritual exercises, punctuated with cries of religious,
all designed to promote religious fervor and conversions.
These exercises ranged from the singing of hymns addressed to each of the spiritual stages that marked the journey to conversion, public confessions and renunciations of sin and personal witness to the workings of the spirit, collective prayer, all of which were surrounded by sermons delivered by clergymen especially noted for their powerful "plain-speaking" preaching.
The second, major variant of the new revivalism consisted of the "protracted meetings" most often associated with the "new measures" revivalism of Finney but which by the late l820s had become the characteristic form of most northern and western revivalism. "Protracted meetings," ordinarily conducted once a year at a time when they would be less disruptive of ordinary life, usually lasted two to three weeks, during which time there would be preaching two or three times each day, addressed especially to the anxious penitents who would gather on an "anxious bench" at the front of the church to be prayed for by the congregation, and prayer and counseling visits by newly converted Christians to the concerned and anxious. Once a person had gone through the experience of conversion and rebirth, he or she would join the ranks of visitors and exhorters, themselves becoming evangelists for the still unconverted around them. Click Here
"As the revival interest grew, and as the meeting became larger and longer, unexpected and bizarre manifestations, called 'exercises,' began to occur. They were considered visible manifestations of the direct action of the Holy Spirit... The commonest were the 'falling exercise' and the 'jerks.' The names are sufficiently explanatory. The barking exercise sometimes accompanied the jerks, and the dancing exercise grew out of them. There was also the running exercise. It was reported that those who came to scoff were not immune to these seizures. However, it was only the devout who ever experienced the laughing exercise." (Winfred E. Garrison and Alfred T. DeGroot, The Disciples of Christ, St. Louis: The Bethany Press, 1948, p. 99).
The Stoneites were in sympathy with the Shouting Methodists.
Elsewhere in Kentucky--
"Hundreds fell to the ground senseless, the most elegantly dressed women in Kentucky lying in the mud alongside rugged trappers. Some were seized with the 'jerks,' their heads and limbs snapping back and forth and their bodies grotesquely distorted. Those who caught the 'barks' would crawl on all fours, growling and snapping like the camp dogs, fighting over garbage heaped behind tents... One preacher wrote to another: 'thousands of tongues with the sound of hallelujah seemed to run through infinite space; while hundreds of people lay prostrate on the ground crying for mercy. Oh! My dear brother, had you been there to have seen the convulsed limbs, the apparently lifeless bodies, you have been constrained to cry out as I was obliged to do, the gods are among the people." (Fawn M. Brodie, No Man Knows My History (New York: A.A. Knopf, 1945), p. 14).
In Cincinnati Mrs. Francis Trollope noted what happened when our feminine nature is dominated--
"One young girl, apparently not more than fourteen, was supported in the arms of another some years older; her face was pale as death; her eyes wide open, and perfectly devoid of meaning; her chin and bosom wet with slaver; she had every appearance of idiotism. I saw a priest approach her, he took her delicate hand, 'Jesus is with her!' (Jenning, Walter W., Origin and Early History of the Disciples of Christ, p. 36, Standard)
"It is hardly necessary to say, that all who obeyed the call to themselves on the 'anxious benches' were women and by far the greater number, very young women."
"It is thus the ladies of Cincinnati amuse themselves; to attend the theater is forbidden; to play cards is unlawful... For myself, I confess that I think the coarsest comedy ever written would be a less detestable exhibition for the eyes of youth and innocence that such scenes."
"Out of about thirty persons thus placed, perhaps half a dozen were men." (Jenning, Walter W., Origin and Early History of the Disciples of Christ, p. 37, Standard).
"Many of these wretched creatures were beautiful young females. When the preacher embraced the lady something happened to "ting the pale cheek with red." Had I been a man, I am sure I should have been guilty of some rash act of interference" (p. 38).
Among Shakers--
Some Cane Ridge leaders moved naturally into Shakerism even leaving their wives:
"The sisters began to talk in 'unknown tongues.' Then commenced a scene of awful riot. Now was heard the loud shouts of the brethren, then the soft but hurried note of the sisters, whose gifts were the apostolic gift of tongues. These gently gestured their language, waved themselves backward and forward like a ship on the billows of a ceased storm, shook their heads, seized their garments, and then violently stamped on the floor. The exercise had lost its violence, and exertion grew faint; yet a continued din of frightful yells rendered the scene a scene of confusion, a scene of blasphemy, an awful scene. After, probably, three quarters of an hour had transpired, the members were called to order, and the meeting adjourned." (Hamilton, p. 83).
Among Mormons--the Charismatic Wing of the Restoration Movement
"They saw angels, Satan as an angel of light, angelic beings on horses jumped through the ceiling, they received the sword of Laban, they chased balls over the forests, they could tell the quality of angels by the color of their hair, tell if you were a demon by your handshake, letters came down from heaven, they screamed like panthers, a huge man turned somersaults, some kept Bowie knives under their pillows to keep Satan away, a steamboat well painted and filled with people who waved passed over the city, braying asses turned out to be Satan, Christ promised to come within 15 years, they wrestled with devils. A half-dozen girls swore on paper that they had seen the same angel and etc.
"Many would have fits of speaking in all of the Indian dialects which none could understand. Again at the dead hour of the night, young men might be seen running over the fields and hills in pursuit, as they said, of balls of fire, lights, etc.) (Jividen, Glossolalia, p. 84).
"At Kirtland, Ohio, the place of the first temple, Brigham Young received the gift of tongues several weeks after his baptism while praying with some friends: 'The Spirit came on me, and I spoke in tongues, and we thought only of the day of Pentecost.' The Saints anxiously awaited the arrival and the verdict of their Prophet, Joseph Smith. When he came, he informed Young that his gift of tongues was the pure Adamic language.' Shortly thereafter, Smith himself received the gift." (Hamilton, p. 87).
"And again I speak unto you who deny the revelations of God, and say that they are done away, that there are no revelations, nor prophecies, nor gifts, nor healing, nor speaking with tongues, and the interpretation of tongues; behold I say unto you, he that denieth these things knoweth not the gospel of Christ." (Book of Mormon, Mormon 9:7-8a).
"He accused some of the speakers in tongues with stopping at a 'gin shop' on their way to meeting and arriving 'beastly drunk with whisky.' He recalled that 'one would jump up, put forth his arm, stretch out his neck, shut his eyes, and at the top of his voice begin a series of disjointed utterances. When he had finished, he collapsed, and, at his last 'fiz,' another arose to interpret."
Among all Religions
"Instead therefore of being referred to those feelings which are peculiar to the people of God, they may safely be referred to those which are common to them and to unrenewed men. Besides, such effects are not peculiar to what we call revivals of religion; they have prevailed in seasons of general excitement in all ages, and in all parts of the world, among pagans, papists, and every sect of fanatics which have ever disgraced the Christian church." (Stone biography, p. 362)
Barton W. Stone--Praised only the Initial Unity at Cane Ridge
"He speaks of... falling, rolling, jerking, barking, growling, snapping the teeth, foaming, rushing out on all-fours, roaming round, personating dogs--shouting, screaming, shrieking, groaning, singing, clapping of hands, praying, preaching, jumping, dancing, &c...." (However, this was a false accusation against STONE and Rogers wrote)--
"And that as a matter of course, if Mr. Stone's peculiar views gave rise to such fearful extravagancies, his reformation is little worth." (Stone Biography, p. 402)
"That there were many eccentricities, and much fanaticism in this excitement, was acknowledge by its warmest advocates; indeed it would have been a wonder, if such things had not appeared, in the circumstances of that time. Yet the good effects were that... 'it silenced contention and promoted unity for a while; and these blessed effects (unity--not exercises) would have continued--but, but, but." (Biography, p. 42).
"At first, they were pleased to see the Methodists and Baptists so cordially uniting with us in worship, no doubt, hoping that they would become Presbyterians.
But as soon as they saw these sects drawing away disciples after them, they raised the alarm..."
"The gauntlet was now thrown, and a fire was now kindled that threatened ruin to the great excitement (unity not exercises); it revived the dying spirit of partyism, and gave life and strength to the trembling infidels and lifeless professors. The sects were roused. The Methodists and Baptists, who had so long lived in peace and harmony with the Presbyterians, and with one another, now girded on their armor, and marched into the deathly field of controversy and war.
These were times of distress.
"The spirit of partyism soon expelled the spirit of love and union--peace fled before discord and strife, and religion was stifled and banished in the unhallowed struggles for pre-eminence. Who shall be the greatest, seemed to be the spirit of the contest--the salvation of a ruined world was no longer the burden... peace was drowned by the din of war." (Stone Autobiography, 45-46)
"We have seen this state of things continue but a short time, and then disappear for years. We have seen many of these converts soon dwindle, sicken and die, and become more hardened against the fear of God, than they were before--many of them becoming infidels, by thinking that all professors of religion are like themselves deluded by strong passion and imagination."... All must acknowledge that some good results from such revivals; but all must acknowledge that great evil also rose out of them. Those, who were under strong affections, believed they were born of God, and who made a public confession of faith, and fell from it, are of all people in the most pitiable situation, seldom do they ever after embrace religion--these by their example, discourage others, and fill their minds with prejudices against religion." (Stone, Barton Warren, The Christian Messenger, Vol. VII, No. 7, July, 1833, pages 210-212--See Randall p. 390, for the complete letter).
"I admit that some enthusiasm and even fanaticism did prevail. But as respects that, brother Stone was clear. He was faithful, zealous, and spiritual; yet sober and temperate, holding fast the faithful word. Some talked of extraordinary views and spiritual illuminations. I mentioned that matter to Stone--
"He replied--'I cannot rely on any teaching from God, otherwise than through his word.'" (Biography, p. 122).
"... need we wonder at the exhibition of this spirit in the wildest forms of fanaticism among the more ignorant on camp-meeting occasions and others, where such spirit is encouraged and sought after?"
"In view then of the fanatical, bitter, and censorious spirit which associates itself with these bodily agitations, and is highly promotive of them, the writer is decidedly opposed to them." (Rogers, Stone Biography, p. 383).
The End of the Stone Restoration Movement in The South
"No Christian churches long survived in Tennessee, their cause was ruined in Kentucky and never has regained its former strength or prestige... Of the Southern Ohio Christians a majority of the preachers embraced Campbellism prior to 1837, and only about one thousand church members remained." (Jenning, Walter W., Origin and Early History of the Disciples of Christ, p. 197, Standard).
Because the spirit of Cane Ridge was "unity" or denominationalism, when the brush which charismatic religion did not "take" among most participants, the Christian Standard sent out an evangelist to try to convert peaceful Christian churches--now churches of Christ--to adopt instrumental music which became a major tool of keeping the revival fires burning.
While the motive of Stone at Cane ridge was unity, his doctrine contributed little to the Restoration movement. Even baptism was believed but slowly practiced only when the charismatic "exercises" could no longer be pumped up in Tennessee and Alabama. Joining with Campbell did not contribute greately to the movement. Very rapidly, Stone's men who called themselves Christians adopted the teachings of Campbell which had their origin in the Bible and their restoration a well-developed goal before either Stone or Campbell.
"It was not your joining brother Stone as a leader, nor his joining you as such; but all rallying in the spirit of gospel truth, liberty and love, around the one glorious centre of attraction--Christ Jesus." (Biography, p. 345)
"He would disparage Mr. Stone's reformation, by representing it, as a system of the grossest error associated with the wildest fanaticism. This is rendering honor to the pious, departed Stone, with a vengeance!"
"He would degrade Mr. Campbell, by representing him as building on Mr. Stone's foundation." (p. 403).
Alexander Campbell--and All Restoration Movement Churches
"The machinery of modern revivals is not divine, but human. It is certainly divisive. They are undoubtedly deceived who repose the slightest confidence in it. The spirit of the crusades is in it--the spirit of fanaticism is in it--the spirit of delusion is in it. The Spirit of God is not in it, else he was not in the Apostles; for he taught them no such schemes--no such means of catching men. This is a bait which was never put by Christ's fishermen on the evangelical hook." (Alexander Campbell, quoted by Randall, p. 373)
"But in the rage of sectarian proselytism, 'the Holy Ghost' is an admirable contrivance. Every qualm of conscience, every new motion of the heart, every strange feelings or thrill--all doubts, fears, despondencies, horrors, remorse, etc., are the work of this Holy Ghost. " (Millennial Harbinger 1831:212).
"Simply that it was a peculiar form of nervous disease, that was both epidemic and contagious... No new truths were communicated,--no old errors corrected--nor miraculous utterances given; but simply an excitement, despondent or hopeful, gloomy or joyful, clear or confused, according to the convictions of the mind at the time of the attack and influence of circumstances during its continuance." (Pendelton quoted by Randall, p. 373).
Looking backward through one's own head makes Cane Ridge into a holy place or a place of horror and lostness in the wilderness where Indians lurked, beverage sellers sold and prostitutes plied their trade certainly in later imitation. This led to the demise of such revivals.
"They (disorders) cannot come from God, for he is not the author of confusion. The apology made in Corinth for the disorders, which Paul condemned, was precisely the same as that urged in defense of these bodily agitations. We ought not to resist the spirit of God, said the Corinthians; and so said all those who encouraged these convulsions. Paul's answer is that no influence comes from God which destroys our self-control. 'The spirits of the prophets are subject to the prophets.'
"The prophets of God were not like the raving Pythoness of heathen temples,
nor are the saints of God converted into whirling dervishes by an influence which is the author.There can be little doubt that Paul would have severely reprobated such scenes as frequently occurred during the revival of which we are speaking.
"He would have said to the people substantially what he said to the Corinthians. If any unbeliever or ignorant man come to your assemblies and hears one shouting in ecstasy, and another howling in anguish; if he sees some falling, some jumping, some lying in convulsions, others in trances, will he not say ye are mad?" (Hodge, History Presbyterian Church quoted in Barton W. Stones' Biography, p. 368, 369)
"A high form of mystical ecstasy flourished mainly at two periods, in the fourteenth and seventeenth centuries, in both cases near the close of great intellectual and spiritual awakenings. In cruder forms it has had a continuous history among the lower and less cultured strata of the population. In the fourteenth and fifteenth centuries the Dancers of Chorizates created much excitement in Germany. These wild enthusiasts numbering thousands of the poor and ignorant of both sexes, danced madly in thee churches and streets for hours at a time, frequently until they fell exhausted. They saw fantastic visions, leaped high in the air to get out of the flood of blood in which they imagined themselves to be wading, and indulged in many other marvelous exercises, wholly oblivious of the throngs of amazed spectators. Gifts were showered upon them, attracting many rascally imitators and thus offering a breeding ground for shocking immoralities." (Clark, Elmer T., The Small Sects in America, p. 87, Abingdon)
"To some extent they were contrived, both by those who exhorted and by those who listened and responded. Certain techniques, which ministers conscientiously learned, helped push audiences toward an ecstatic frenzy. Certain hymns, certain tunes worked better than others. Certain repeated and familiar verbal images, those with great resonance for an audience, worked better than others. In many of the greatest revivals the spark was a type of confession--the telling of what had happened to oneself there or at an earlier revival. Some ministers learned the most evocative ways of telling their stories. Several sermonic devices--timing, phrasing, pauses, and above all the display of intense feeling--worked." (Conkin, Paul, Cane Ridge America's Pentecost, p. 106, U of Wis.)
The good which came out of the revivals was not the revival itself. Furthermore, as with the First Awakening, the divisiveness produced, droves evangelists out and many churches were established as a byproduct. From the Britannica to Karen Armstrong in A History of God, the good which the proponents sell as the result is always doubted when the unholy spirits settle.
The restoration movement began a long time before either "Father" Stone or "Father" Campbell. Among all groups there have always been a few who love the Word enough to want to see it the focus of our lives because it is the only gateway to the Mind of Christ.
Cane Ridge #2 You are Here
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