Latest / Real Life Theology Podcast / Why Believe in the Restoration Movement | Ajai Lall

Transcript

Why Believe in the Restoration Movement | Ajai Lall · Real Life Theology Podcast

• 0:00
  Welcome back everyone to the Real Life Theology Podcast.
• 0:10
  Today we get to feature an episode coming from the 2025 Driven by Disciple-Making Conference.
• 0:18
  This episode features Ajay Lal, who led a breakout on why believe in the restoration
• 0:25
  movement.
• 0:26
  Here is the episode.
• 0:28
  Okay, thank you so much for being here and I think it's good that we are in a circle.
• 0:35
  So I don't, I like this to be very informal and I want us to participate in that because
• 0:47
  you know, I'll just, I'll just share the outline and talk about why I believe in restoration
• 0:54
  movement and would someone be willing to start this session with prayer?
• 1:00
  Yes, sir.
• 1:01
  Father, we're here together, your children, to learn how to do things the way Jesus has
• 1:02
  taught us to do it.
• 1:03
  And to bring us into the world with the knowledge that we need to bring people to you as a proud
• 1:04
  people.
• 1:05
  We ask this of you, son Jesus, to give us the strength and the spirit.
• 1:06
  Amen.
• 1:07
  Amen.
• 1:08
  Amen.
• 1:09
  Amen.
• 1:10
  Amen.
• 1:11
  Amen.
• 1:12
  Amen.
• 1:13
  Amen.
• 1:14
  Amen.
• 1:15
  Amen.
• 1:16
  Amen.
• 1:17
  Amen.
• 1:18
  Amen.
• 1:19
  Amen.
• 1:20
  Amen.
• 1:21
  Amen.
• 1:22
  Amen.
• 1:23
  Amen.
• 1:24
  Amen.
• 1:25
  Amen.
• 1:26
  Amen.
• 1:27
  Amen.
• 1:28
  Amen.
• 1:29
  Well, thank you so much for being here and I don't really feel to speak to you because
• 1:37
  a lot of you are so knowledgeable and experienced.
• 1:41
  I'm probably the least among all of you, but since this topic has assigned to me, I want
• 1:51
  to honor Lord for allowing me to share this.
• 1:56
  And I really would love for you to participate or if there are, you know, your experience
• 2:03
  or something that I'm sure I will miss saying some of the things that you may have experienced
• 2:10
  and you want to share, you're most welcome.
• 2:14
  I just want this to be very informal.
• 2:17
  And I'm also open to learn and I'm also open to, you know, have your questions.
• 2:26
  Just to give you my background, in 1894, 1894, Pastor Jay McGowran, who was the father of
• 2:44
  Donald McGowran, came to India.
• 2:47
  And I'm just painting the background just to sharing who I am and where I'm from and
• 2:53
  talking about the restoration movement.
• 2:56
  And they were medical doctors when they came to central India and started a hospital.
• 3:06
  And next year when we celebrate, when we have ICOM, we will be celebrating 100 years of
• 3:13
  the time when restoration movement, missionaries sent, restoration movement sent missionaries
• 3:21
  to many countries in a big number.
• 3:25
  But anyway, I'm from central India.
• 3:28
  I was, I lived there and I was raised there.
• 3:32
  I'm third generation Christian.
• 3:35
  My father's parents come from a Hindu background and my mother's parents come from Muslim background.
• 3:44
  And they all grew up, well, three of them, I would say, grew up in a Christian orphanage,
• 3:51
  which was started by an American teenager who went to central India at that time when
• 3:58
  there was a huge drought and there was an epidemic of plague.
• 4:07
  And the 17-year-old girl went and started an orphanage.
• 4:12
  And people were dying.
• 4:15
  Like just to give you an idea, in my area, my county, 40,000 people were killed in less
• 4:23
  than a month time.
• 4:24
  So it was worse than the epidemics that we have faced in previous years.
• 4:30
  But so that's three of my grandparents grew up there because their parents were killed
• 4:37
  in the tragedy.
• 4:39
  And the missionary lady named them Samuel and Jacob, and they grew up knowing the Lord.
• 4:46
  And then my grandparents became teachers.
• 4:50
  And they taught the language.
• 4:53
  They taught Sanskrit language.
• 4:56
  They taught the history of India and different.
• 5:00
  But they were great evangelists, I mean, they were solid Christians.
• 5:05
  I remember my grandpa walking every evening.
• 5:10
  And every person who would walk, because there are a lot of people are walking on the roads
• 5:14
  and roadside.
• 5:15
  If he would meet someone, he would want to share Christ, or he would say, may I pray
• 5:20
  for you.
• 5:21
  And so my dad became preacher.
• 5:26
  And he was preacher in a church, which was originally a disciples church, because disciples
• 5:33
  were the original mission, where the missionaries who started, who were part of the restoration
• 5:38
  movement sending the missionaries.
• 5:40
  But then when there was a movement of church union, then a lot of churches decided to follow
• 5:46
  the restoration movement and stayed as independent churches.
• 5:51
  There was, they didn't believe in denomination.
• 5:54
  They didn't believe in hierarchy.
• 5:57
  They didn't believe, they believe that Jesus Christ is the head of the church.
• 6:02
  So my father led that movement.
• 6:05
  And several of the churches did not, disciple churches, join and merge with the church union.
• 6:12
  But we stayed independent and followed the pattern of the original church, which is described
• 6:21
  in the book of Acts chapter two.
• 6:24
  And so my roots are there.
• 6:26
  I'm not saying that I'm a person who would worship restoration movement, because that
• 6:32
  was not intended.
• 6:34
  I'm not saying that restoration movement is a denomination.
• 6:39
  That was not the intention.
• 6:42
  It was a call to return to the original, return to the call and see the blueprint of the original
• 6:55
  church when church was founded.
• 6:58
  And they, it's a, just bringing back the church, because in 19th century, if you study
• 7:09
  the history, there were, you know, there were a lot of divisions, there were a lot of denominations.
• 7:16
  And out of these denominations, this, the restoration movement came out because some
• 7:24
  leaders wanted to follow not a hierarchy or a denomination or a man-made system, but
• 7:36
  they wanted to follow the blueprints, which were mentioned in the New Testament church
• 7:44
  in the book of Acts with simplicity, purity, unity, and believing in the mission of the
• 7:54
  New Testament church that we need to reach Judea and, you know, Samaria and Jerusalem
• 8:02
  and to ends of the world, ends of the earth.
• 8:06
  So first of all, I would say that I believe in the restoration movement because it talks
• 8:13
  about returning back to the original blueprint of the church in the New Testament.
• 8:23
  Secondly, I would say that definitely it is rooted in the scripture and a biblical call
• 8:33
  to restore.
• 8:35
  Jesus prayed for unity, Matthew chapter 15, verse 9, they worshiped me in vain, it says,
• 8:44
  their teachings are but rules taught by man.
• 8:49
  And that was not the restoration movement.
• 8:51
  So restoration, it's God's pattern in every age, God raises people to restore his people,
• 9:04
  bringing back his people, like we have seen example of Nehemiah restoring the walls,
• 9:12
  Josiah restoring the law, Ezra restoring the worship, and it is the God's story of renewal.
• 9:24
  So it's a movement, so we need to, just when we think about restoration, it is for the
• 9:33
  unity and for the purity, and it's a movement as it emphasized in following the great commission
• 9:43
  of Lord Jesus Christ.
• 9:46
  The history that shaped us, and I've talked to some of the professors in recent days who
• 9:53
  have taught me and who have taught in different Bible colleges about restoration history,
• 10:00
  and in early 1800s, America, divided church, they said denominational chaos, creeds separating
• 10:11
  Christians, there were different creeds that would separate, and there were doctrinal differences.
• 10:20
  So God raised people like Thomas Campbell, Alexander Campbell, Barton W. Stone, and their
• 10:28
  cry was, we are Christians only, but not the only Christians.
• 10:35
  It was not the condemning or a spirit or separating or saying that I'm better than you.
• 10:43
  They were simply saying, we are not the only Christians.
• 10:49
  We are only Christians, but not the Christians only.
• 10:53
  It's not, if you have, if there are minor doctrinal differences, I mean, I love the
• 11:03
  quote that I heard somewhere, we don't have to be twins in order to be brothers, okay?
• 11:11
  We don't have to be twins in order to be brothers.
• 11:13
  So they did not really, it was not like trying to divide the church, but uniting the church
• 11:21
  with the spirit of Lord Jesus Christ, with that the church was intended.
• 11:31
  There's also the pillar of restoration movement, you know, I said, we are Christians only,
• 11:37
  but not the only Christians.
• 11:39
  And then another slogan of the restoration movement, another pillar is, we, where the
• 11:45
  scriptures speak, we speak where the scriptures are silent, we are silent.
• 11:52
  So they were not inventing something new.
• 11:56
  They were pleading for the unity of the Bible alone.
• 12:00
  Psalm chapter 133, one, how good and pleasant is when brothers dwell together in unity.
• 12:11
  And because the creeds were dividing the church at that time in 19th century.
• 12:17
  And that's why they said, not through creeds, but through Christ, Christ alone.
• 12:25
  So I'll come, I'll move ahead and we'll have time to discuss and talk and you can share.
• 12:33
  And I'll be happy to answer some questions.
• 12:35
  But four core principles of the restoration movement.
• 12:42
  First is Christ alone is the head of the church.
• 12:48
  Not the Pope, no council, no denominational headquarters, but Christ alone is the head
• 12:57
  of the church.
• 13:00
  And that's what is described when we think about the church in the book of Acts.
• 13:06
  That's what the disciples preached and established.
• 13:11
  And so there was, you know, like, there's no other authority than the Bible.
• 13:19
  And that's the second principle, that the final authority is the scriptures.
• 13:26
  Like 2 Timothy 3, 16, 17, all scripture is God breathed.
• 13:33
  So there was no authority, no human authority, no structure created by the human, no council,
• 13:46
  but it is all, it was all, you know, coming back to the Bible, believing that Bible alone
• 13:55
  is our authority.
• 13:57
  So unity of all believers.
• 14:01
  And it says, that is the third pillar, in essentials, unity, in opinions, liberty, in
• 14:07
  all things, love.
• 14:09
  In all things, love.
• 14:14
  You know, what is amazing that a lot of the churches, at least where I have been in India
• 14:26
  and in America, I have a brother who has now become as one of the key leaders of evangelical
• 14:37
  churches of India.
• 14:40
  He was part of a denominational group, and he has preached there for 30 years, a very
• 14:45
  strong pillar of a denomination.
• 14:48
  I'm intentionally not mentioning the name of that denomination.
• 14:54
  But he read a book written by Dr. Leroy Lawson, which we translated into Hindi, called the
• 15:03
  New Testament Church.
• 15:05
  And this man read the book five times.
• 15:10
  And he just could not believe what the denomination he was from was following.
• 15:17
  And here is a simple biblical model rooted in the scripture with the purity of Christianity.
• 15:31
  And this man was a powerful preacher, and he was a significant leader.
• 15:36
  So in New Delhi, when they met for their denominational council meeting, yearly meeting,
• 15:46
  he stood up and he raised some questions.
• 15:49
  He said that I have five questions, why we are so different than what scripture teaches.
• 15:59
  And his first name is Harris.
• 16:01
  His first name is Harris.
• 16:04
  And Harris came to me, and we had a lot of discussions talking to them.
• 16:09
  And he really challenged the people.
• 16:11
  I mean, he was a courageous man.
• 16:14
  And he just stood on the scriptures.
• 16:17
  He repeatedly focused on the scriptures.
• 16:23
  You know, like the baptisms of the infants, things like that.
• 16:29
  And he really questioned what the denomination was.
• 16:34
  And when the vote came, his vote was not in majority what he was saying, because these
• 16:42
  people who were literally worshiping that denomination and who were rooted in that denomination,
• 16:49
  they did not follow what this man was saying.
• 16:54
  And really, he was like a rebel or whatever you say.
• 16:59
  He was speaking against the denomination.
• 17:02
  So they finally kicked him out, and he came to me.
• 17:06
  And he said that, you know, I just want to, I want to study.
• 17:10
  I want to know.
• 17:11
  And this is because I've studied this book.
• 17:14
  And this man has planted over at least 30 independent churches in his life.
• 17:25
  And I have great respect for this brother.
• 17:27
  He's still working.
• 17:28
  He's a dear friend.
• 17:31
  But he found out that, you know, about the restoration movement.
• 17:38
  And then finally, I would say that restoration movement has a passion for evangelism and
• 17:44
  Great Commission Go and make disciples and plant churches.
• 17:50
  And I have been part of this mission and this movement where we have seen churches.
• 18:03
  And when we talk about the self-supporting churches, it's not just financially.
• 18:09
  It's not financially self-supporting.
• 18:12
  Definitely they need to have enough resources to support their preachers in certain type
• 18:16
  of day or even in their tribal area.
• 18:20
  But we emphasize on becoming self-supporting and standing on their feet, becoming independent
• 18:30
  doctrinally with no human authority that Jesus Christ is the head of the church.
• 18:37
  And I would say that that is the fastest growing movement in central and northeastern India.
• 18:51
  So these are some of the things, you know, I just wanted to, I want to kind of summarize.
• 18:56
  I personally believe in the restoration movement because it's biblical, it is practical, it
• 19:03
  is missional, and it works.
• 19:11
  And there are, you know, I've talked to some preachers and people who are part of what
• 19:19
  I would say a brotherhood, but have not really have no idea of what restoration movement is.
• 19:27
  And when I'm talking about Thomas Campbell and Alexander Campbell and Barton de Bluestone,
• 19:34
  I'm not saying that they are authority or that we worship them and that we follow them,
• 19:45
  but God has used them for this movement, which brings us and gives us the purity and
• 19:55
  allows us to follow the blueprint of the church, which brings us to the original church that
• 20:08
  was planted by the apostles.
• 20:12
  So here is, I'm just sharing my testimony in a way.
• 20:16
  I started out that how I came, you know, how my forefathers who came and accepted the Lord
• 20:25
  and how, you know, we became part of this and how I can see that it is moving and it
• 20:33
  is making sense.
• 20:35
  And there are churches who are believing that they need to be independent and it's not any
• 20:41
  human authority.
• 20:43
  It's the authority of the scriptures and where the head of the church is Lord Jesus Christ.
• 20:50
  I'm just going to, I told you I'm the least among you, and I'm just going to leave it
• 20:56
  right here.
• 20:58
  And I will be happy to, happy for anyone who wants to add anything or, or suggest anything.
• 21:04
  I've not gone into really the history of restoration movement because I don't think that, that
• 21:10
  we had enough time and we need to go that.
• 21:14
  I have had two semester when I was in the Bible college at Cincinnati and in other Bible
• 21:20
  colleges about the restoration history.
• 21:23
  So instead of, you know, taking that direction, I just basically talked about the four pillars
• 21:31
  of restoration movement and why I believe in that.
• 21:37
  Thank you for listening to this episode on the Real Life Theology Podcast.
• 21:40
  Please check us out at Renew.org for more great resources on disciple making.