Tracing Our Steps – A Chronology of the Restoration Movement, Volumes 1& 2, John T. Smithson, III

Hester Publications is reprinting some of the most treasured works of the restoration movement including recent research materials from this area of study. While attending the Freed-Hardeman Lectureship in February 2010 I was delighted to obtain an expanded and updated two-volume set of this valuable reference work. When I was preparing for presentations on some key figures of the Restoration Movement such as Thomas Campbell and Benjamin Franklin, I found the first edition of Tracing Our Steps to be of great service in organizing my material chronologically. It provided other key surrounding events to include more of a historical context surrounding these giants advocating what Alexander Campbell often called “The Ancient Order of Things”. As the back cover well states,

“A chronology helps one get a bigger picture of things. When a towering figure dies, for instance, one might be tempted to worry about the future of the church in a certain locale. Examination of historical facts, however, will show us that great leaders are continually being born as great leaders are dying.”

The format is very straightforward. It is organized by dates in bold on the left with important events relating to the timeframe. One of the interesting and challenging facts of restoration history is conflicting dates. Some records are rather sparse and there are times when two dates are assigned to the same important event. Smithson has made it a practice to note significant events in history of churches of Christ and was able to compile this information it these two volumes. 

Some may find it hard to develop an interest in history of any subject, much less Restoration History of the New Testament Church. One way to whet one’s appetite for the subject matter is to tour restoration sites such as the home of Thomas & Alexander Campbell in Bethany, WV, Cane Ridge Meeting House near Lexington, KY, and several other significant sites. There are several exciting opportunities to attend guided tours by informed brethren. I would like to highlight two such opportunities. Each first Sunday in August, the North Lexington Church of Christ hosts its Restoration Workshop which includes tours of significant restoration sites in and around Lexington, KY where opportunities to learn about important figures such as Barton W. Stone, J. W. McGarvey, Raccoon John Smith and others are readily available. To learn more about this great opportunity, visit the North Lexington church of Christ website at http://www.northlexingtoncoc.org/. Another tour is being conducted by a recently formed group of restoration historians known as “The Friends of the Restoration”. This group is comprised of several excellent historians including the author of this two volume set, Scott Harp, who operates a restoration history web site at http://www.therestorationmovement.com/, Tom Childers who has made available several excellent materials on DVD, Sam Hester who owns Hester Publications and is a professor at Freed-Hardeman University, Ancil Jenkins, William Kilpatrick and others committed to learning and preserving Restoration History. The group is planning on a tour from Freed-Hardeman University in Henderson, TN and will visit places such as the Disciples of Christ Historical Society and the Gospel Advocate in Nashville, TN, the Mulkey Meetinghouse in Thompkinsville, KY, Lexington Cemetery in KY, Broadway Christian Church, Transylvania College, Cane Ridge Meetinghouse, Bethany in West Virginia, Hiram College and James Garfield’s home and monument in northeast Ohio. The trip is scheduled from June 14-20, 2010. If interested, be sure to visit their website for additional information at http://www.friendsoftherestoration.com/. For me, I could not think of a better vacation than this trip! While I cannot attend this trip, if the Lord is willing, I plan on joining and assisting with their visit to sites relating to James Garfield. 

Churches of Christ have a rich historical legacy in the United States. Certainly, mistakes have occurred in the past but that is all the more reason to study the past to avoid the tendency of repeating mistakes. The restoration movement did not begin in America nor does it end here. We need to always keep in mind the ground that has been fought and won for the preservation of New Testament Christianity lest at any time we should let them slip.

A Harmony of Samuel, Kings and Chronicles, William Day Crockett

Harmonies of the gospels are interesting to study and the efforts to harmonize the gospel accounts is a formidable challenge since some events are difficult to put in chronological order. One student of the Scriptures sought to create another harmony of the gospels, but decided that the work had been done by other scholarly men. The thought occurred to him that there were no harmonies of the books of history for the nation of Israel. The books of Samuel, Kings and Chronicles, similarly to the gospels, have overlapping accounts. The person thought this would be a more profitable venture to concentrate his efforts of study in this area. That person was William Day Crockett, and he published A Harmony of Samuel, Kings and Chronicles in 1951 which has gone through numerous printings. As he completed the first draft he discovered there were other similar works but those were out of print and largely unavailable in his day. This book remains in print and is a profitable study of the exciting era of the kings of Israel. 

The book begins with the genealogies from Adam to Noah found in 1 Chronicles and ends with the proclamation of Cyrus permitting the Jews to return from Babylonian Captivity recorded in 2 Chronicles 36. In between are all the events of Samuel, Kings and Chronicles in chronological order as best determined by Crockett. This includes the lives of Samuel, Saul, David, Solomon and others during the divided kingdom and captivities. It covers events relating to the close of the period of the judges, the time of the kings, the break of the kingdom and the subsequent Assyrian and Babylonian captivities. It covers the change in worship from the tabernacle to the temple and the destruction of Israel due to its idolatry. Many exciting events occur during this period. I thrill to read about the lives of David and Jonathan. In fact, I hope to go someday to Mount Gilboa where Jonathan made his final stand with Saul, resulting in the subsequent heartbreak David felt at the loss of his dear friend and his father. These are stories that have never lost their appeal to me and I often turn to them to read these again and again. 

Indeed, much history is recorded in these books. The book begins with an analytical outline of the books, outlined in major events. Texts from the historical accounts are cited so one can turn and read the text. The outline splits into two side-by-side columns to cover the divided kingdom so one can see what was occurring at the time in the other kingdom more easily. One might be interested to know that originally there were three, not six, books of history—Samuel, Kings & Chronicles in the Hebrew Bible. Each of these books was divided in two (to make six books) during the translation of the Septuagint. The reason for the division was the difference between the languages of Hebrew and Greek. Hebrew does not require vowels so it was easier to condense the material onto one scroll. Greek; however, does have vowels and requires much more space to translate the same Hebrew material. In fact, one estimate states the size of the text doubled with the translation to Greek. The translators divided these books in order to accommodate the amount of writing space available on a scroll. 

Then Crockett takes this outline and expands it to include the Revised Version of 1884 including many footnotes pertinent to the study. In this layout one can quickly read the parallel accounts. If three books cover the same event, then three columns are used to preserve the reader’s ability to read in parallel. The book concludes with an appendix showing other books of the Bible which cite passages from Samuel, Kings and Chronicles. There is also an index in the back that allows a person to find a certain passage within the harmony with ease. 

While one may not agree with certain sequence of events, the reference work is extremely valuable study to a thrilling section of scripture from a different approach.