The world out of which the American Restoration movement grew was truly a world of “good soil” (Luke 8:8). The new nation was a nation that did not have allegiance to any particular religious denomination. Many were searching for truth in the early decades of the nineteenth century. It was fertile soil for people to question what they had always believed.

The result was a variety of religious movements. Joseph Smith offered his mythical Book of Mormon, as he suggested that all of the churches of the day were corrupt, and it was necessary to restore the church in those “latter days.” The “United Society of Believers in Christ’s Second Appearing,” better known as the Shakers, spread west to Kentucky and Indiana from their base at New Lebanon, NY, attracting thousands to communal living.

And then there was the Restoration Movement. From diverse beginnings, many began to question the religious division and denominational loyalties of their world. A trickle of searchers departing from those loyalties became a roaring river of people seeking to restore the ancient order of things. James O’Kelly left the Methodists. Elias Smith and Abner Jones left the Baptists. Barton W. Stone, Thomas Campbell and Alexander Campbell left the Presbyterians. Although these had some differences in doctrine, they united in understanding that the need was a return to the church of the New Testament, following only the Bible as a guide. As heirs of the Restoration Movement, we can be thankful that the religious climate of the nineteenth century provided the fertile soil of truth seekers.

We must seek good soil in our nation today. The moral climate of our world can’t help but convince truth seekers that there is a better way. “Thus saith the Lord, Stand ye in the ways, and see, and ask for the old paths, where is the good way, and walk therein, and ye shall find rest for your souls” (Jeremiah 6:16a).