Neal Pollard
The Restoration Plea is valid, vital, and victorious! It urges every believer in Christ to throw off the shackles of humanly-devised traditions and beliefs that undermine and contradict the sole, supreme authority of Christ. Religious division has been spawned through time because of men’s preference for their own creeds and doctrines. Reason and rationale becomes, “We’ve always done this” or “We prefer this” rather than “Thus saith the Lord!” With human nature, we are often prone to see such faulty thinking in others while being blinded to our own potential guilt. This happens to us individually and it certainly can happen to us collectively. Painfully aware of my own limitations and shortcomings, may I offer some cautions to us out of a sincere love of Christ and His glorious bride?
If the church of Christ will truly be undenominational,
- We must build our faith and beliefs from the “text out” rather than assert our beliefs and then find verses to support it.
- We must avoid blind loyalty to any individual, congregation, school, work, and the like.
- We must determine not to press our inclinations, preferences, judgments, and opinions to the extent that such divides brethren or becomes matters of fellowship.
- We must strive to preach and practice “the whole counsel of God,” even in unpopular matters or those we may have neglected (church discipline, evangelism, marriage, divorce, and remarriage, moral purity, first-century-like benevolence, etc.).
- We must be patient and loving within and towards congregations, be they Thessalonicas or Corinths.
- We must avoid unconditionally venerating and idolizing men above the Lord.
- We must repent of our intensely “in-reach” philosophy and rededicate ourselves to intense “outreach” in our communities.
- We must avoid convenient silence in our pulpits and classrooms regarding New Testament distinctiveness and doctrine.
- We must increase our faith in the absolute, unqualified Lordship of Jesus.
This list is inevitably incomplete and imperfect. How could it not be, since it is put forward by one who is certainly both those things? Yet, it is put forward to emphasize that there is an urgent need for us to continually examine our beliefs and practices making sure our allegiance is to the Christ and not men—however great and noble they seem to us. Our Lord said, “He who rejects Me and does not receive My sayings, has one who judges him; the word I spoke is what will judge him at the last day” (John 12:48).
The Preacher Pollard Blog 
Very good. I will be sharing with the teens Sunday. We are studying the principles of Restoration.
That’s wonderful, Scott! How needed and what wisdom to do so! I appreciate you, brother.
The restoration plea was ,”Speak where the Bible speaks, and be silent where the Bible
is silent” There are words and phrases used by the church, that should not be used . If
God doesn’t use it, why should we. This will be one of the chapters in my book, “The
altered state of Christ “……Fran Wehe
Amen Neal! When we stop proclaiming our brand and start proclaiming our Lord heaven rejoices.
Amen. Sound. Biblical. Timely.
Amen Neal, and we need to begin immediately.
No doubt!
Neal, you always wield your hammer skillfully, hitting the nail on the head. Thanks.
Thanks, my brother. Very kind of you! I appreciate your great work for Christ.
Great reminders for us all!
Thanks, brother. Given the great respect I have for you, I’m humbled.
You make some very good points. I have been working on a sermon that stresses these points. With your permission, I will convey some of this message to those I minister to here in Iowa. “Law: Either it is from God, or it is from Man”
I agree with you 100%.
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Amen! May your words truly serve to, comfort the afflicted and afflict the comfortable.
Ev Tou Xristou; Beto
Preach the Word , nothing else and you can’ t go wrong…It’s the adding to and taking from that
create the problems in the church…like the word trinity (not a God word) if it were , it would be there
and it isn’t. The terms like 3rd. person can’t be found in God’s Word either….Think about it….LET
GOD BE TRUE AND EVERY MAN BE FOUND A LIER IF NEED BE.
Sincerely in Christ,
Fran Wehe
Am not a Trinitarian or catholic ….just a Christian. My fellowship is truly with the Father & His Son , Jesus Christ . 1John;1:3…eternal life is to know thee the only true God and Him
who thou has sent, even Jesus Christ…..John 17:3…on & on it goes as you study God’s word.
Christian Love,
Fran Wehe
Hey Neal…Brother Chambers changed my view on “un or non” denominational…he used the word Pre-denominational…this really opens up the line of communication for our denominational friends…just thought I would share…Great article. BTW.
Great article Neal! Could you contact me privately via my e-mail? I have prayer concerns for a friend and I don’t want them on Linked In’s public comment area. Thanks