Those who gladly received the word that the apostles preached to them on Pentecost were baptized, and when they were baptized, "the Lord added to the church daily those who were being saved." (Acts 2:47 KJV) When these men heard Peter preaching the resurrected Christ, they asked, "What shall we do?" Peter told them to "repent, and be baptized every one of you in the name of Jesus Christ for the remission of sins." (They had already believed the word that was preached.) When they did this "the Lord added to the church" those who were receiving the remission of sins--being saved.

To what church did the Lord add these saved people? Every denomination that came into existence since that day of Pentecost 2000 years ago is NOT the one to which the Lord added the saved. If the Lord is still doing today, what He did in Acts 2:47, He does not add the saved to any denomination. But what church came into existence on Pentecost?

In Matthew 16:18, Jesus said, "I WILL build MY church." Jesus promised to build only one church. He further said, "The gates of Hades shall not prevail against IT." Jesus spoke in the singular. He mentioned no plans to build differing churches. Evidently, He did what he said He would do, for He was adding to it on Pentecost. From Pentecost on, the church is pictured as being in existence. The idea of more than one church is never mentioned. This evidence cannot be denied.

"So we, being many are ONE body in Christ." (Romans 12:5) "There is ONE body, and one Spirit." (Ephesians 4:4) This same book describes the body. "And hath put all things under his feet, and gave him to be the head over all things to the church (singular, mg), WHICH IS HIS BODY, the fulness of him that filleth all in all." (Ephesians 1:22,23)

Consider also, "But now are they many members, yet but ONE body." (1 Corinthians 12:20) "And let the peace of God rule in your hearts, to the which also ye are called in ONE body . . " (Colossians 3:15). "And that he might reconcile both (Jew and Gentile) unto God in ONE body by the cross." (Ephesians 2:16)

The Bible says there is ONE, and ONLY ONE, body or church. This began on the first Pentecost following Christ's resurrection. In Acts 11:15, the apostle Peter referred to these events as "the beginning." He said: "And as I began to speak, the Holy Spirit fell on them, even as on us at the beginning."

Some are devoted to trying to prove that Alexander Campbell founded the Church of Christ.

"We see from this record, then exactly how the first Campbellite church ever to appear on the face of the earth had its origin. It began on May 4, 1811, not the day of Pentecost. It, like the Lutherans started by Luther, the Presbyterians started by Calvin, the Episcopalians started by Henry VIII, the Methodists started by the Wesleys, and other groups started by men, also had its origin with man" (Campbellism, Its History and Heresies, Bob L. Ross, pg. 19).

Alexander Campbell was an outstanding gospel preacher of the 19th century, but he was nothing more than that. Campbell was not a religious authority (1 Thessalonians 2:13; 1 Peter 4:11); nor do members of the church hold him up as an authority. Before Alexander Campbell began his effort, fruitful efforts to plant New Testament churches had been made in several parts of this country. The restoration works of Elias Smith and Abner Jones in New England, James O'Kelly in North Carolina, and Barton W. Stone in Kentucky all preceded Campbell's.

Alexander Campbell (1788 - 1866) and his father, Thomas Campbell, and the Campbell family came to America as Irish immigrants. They were reunited in 1809. Thomas and Alexander, along with the aforementioned men had, through their study of the Bible, come to reject Catholicism, protestant denominationalism, and all human creeds. They came to reject their unscriptural baptism and, on Wednesday, June 12, 1812, were baptized (immersed) into Christ for the remission of sins as the Bible teaches. They issued such challenges as "Let us speak where the Bible speaks and remain silent where the Bible is silent" and "Let us call Bible things by Bible names and do Bible things in Bible ways." These, however, including Campbell, did not seek to build a new church. We therefore, urge anyone to name one thing either taught or practiced by faithful Churches of Christ that originated with Alexander Campbell, or that was not taught and practiced in New Testament times. When the first-century gospel was preached in the 19th century, it resulted in nothing more than it had in the first century. The only result of gospel preaching is New Testament Christians.

If Alexander Campbell started the church of Christ in 1811, how do we explain the monument pictured below, marking the grave of William Rogers in Cane Ridge Cemetery near Paris, Kentucky? It says that the man buried there was united with the church of Christ at Cane Ridge in 1807. That was two years before Alexander Campbell came to America, four years before Campbell himself was baptized into Christ. He was a Presbyterian when he came to this country.

Vergilius Firm in his Encyclopedia of Religion, 1945, p. 116, gives this definition of a Campbellite, "A term sometimes applied to Disciples of Christ (a) whimsically, by themselves; (b) ignorantly, by the non-church public; (c) viciously, as well as ignorantly, by less-enlightened members of less-enlightened sects." It is contrary to fact and contrary to all reliable history to state that Alexander Campbell founded the "church of Christ" or any other church. He did no such thing, and those who so state contradict the facts and truthful history. Campbell simply called upon people to take the New Testament as their guide and accept the church of the New Testament as the only church authorized by God.