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Be sure to check out https://www.ThatsJesus.org for YouTube playlists featuring series links on FASTING and CREMATION and others!   Support the channel: 1) Membership: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCegekT9tdVy9SIU9AQX-C9w/join 2) Buy Me A Coffee: https://www.BuyMeACoffee.com/thatsjesusr --- This episode belongs to TWO playlists: ▶️ **Why I Left the Church of Christ** — a sources-in-hand walk through CoC doctrine and history: https://youtube.com/playlist?list=PLJdTG9noRxsF3IJvZOxPWb7035qpvLyy6&si=8U6HVJ3rmOL87lpp ▶️ **Earl Irvin West – The Search for the Ancient Order** — chapter-by-chapter through West's four-volume Restoration Movement history: https://youtube.com/playlist?list=PLJdTG9noRxsGd8qTUsH1e9RdZJnDcwZH6&si=L_4cGyRFu9J4B4xU --- **About this episode:** Austintown, Ohio. August 1830. A preacher named John Henry stands up at the Mahoning Baptist Association — the same association that sent Walter Scott out as evangelist three years earlier — […]

Be sure to check out https://www.ThatsJesus.org for YouTube playlists featuring series links on FASTING and CREMATION and others! Consider supporting this channel through: 1) Channel Membership: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCegekT9tdVy9SIU9AQX-C9w/join 2) Buy Me A Coffee: https://www.BuyMeACoffee.com/thatsjesusr This episode is part of **The Baptism Series** on the channel — a careful, foundation-up walk through what baptism actually is, where it came from, what the Bible says about it, and what the church has done with it across two thousand years. Start at the beginning or jump in here: https://youtube.com/playlist?list=PLJdTG9noRxsGoYtZr5zovP0OKUrWGnktF&si=jNLYlPVLiP-c-KIt --- **About this episode:** When John the Baptist stepped into the Jordan River and started immersing people, he was not inventing something out of nothing. He was stepping into a world that already had a long, deep, theologically loaded history with water. If we don't understand that world, we will […]

Be sure to check out https://www.ThatsJesus.org for YouTube playlists featuring series links on FASTING and CREMATION and others! Consider supporting this channel through: 1) Channel Membership: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCegekT9tdVy9SIU9AQX-C9w/join 2) Buy Me A Coffee: https://www.BuyMeACoffee.com/thatsjesusr This episode is part of TWO series on the channel: ▶️ **Why I Left the Church of Christ** – a careful, sources-in-hand journey through the doctrines, history, and assumptions of the Church of Christ tradition, and why I eventually walked a different road. If you grew up in the CoC, love someone who did, or just want an honest inside-out look, start here: https://youtube.com/playlist?list=PLJdTG9noRxsF3IJvZOxPWb7035qpvLyy6&si=8U6HVJ3rmOL87lpp ▶️ **Earl Irvin West – The Search for the Ancient Order** – a chapter-by-chapter walkthrough of West's classic four-volume history of the Restoration Movement, summarized, contextualized, and applied for today's […]

Title: Three Preachers Who Watched the Brotherhood Begin to Split | Franklin, Fanning, Creath Description: Three preachers. Three different roles. The same conviction. Ben Franklin edited the most influential paper in the conservative brotherhood in the North. Tolbert Fanning shaped the South through Franklin College and the Gospel Advocate. Jacob Creath Jr. was the conscience that would not be silenced. All three opposed the American Christian Missionary Society. All three opposed the introduction of instrumental music in worship. All three watched the brotherhood begin to fracture — and none lived to see how it would end. Based on Earl Irvin West, The Search for the Ancient Order, Volume 1, Chapter 6. Chapters: 00:00 Introduction 00:45 Ben Franklin 05:20 The American Christian Review and the missionary society 07:45 Franklin's death 09:30 Tolbert Fanning 12:00 Franklin College and the Gospel Advocate 14:15 Fanning's final Lord's Day 15:40 Jacob Creath Jr. 17:50 Expelled by the […]

**TITLE:** BAPTISM 4 - Rest of Word Family **DESCRIPTION:** The New Testament does not use the same word for washing your cups and for being baptized into Christ. It uses one word for the cups — and a completely different word for the believer. Same family. Same root. Different realities. Today we finish the Greek word family behind "baptize." Over the last two episodes, we looked at baptō (the root) and baptizō (the verb for intensive immersion). Now we take the final three words — one names a person, one names a type of washing, and one names the act of baptism itself. In this episode: • βαπτιστής (baptistēs) — "the baptizer," used 14 times in the New Testament, always and only for John • Why Mark sometimes calls him "John the Baptizing One" instead of "John the Baptist" • βαπτισμός (baptismos) — the word for Jewish ceremonial washings, used for cups, pitchers, and copper pots — but never for Christian baptism • βάπτισμα (baptisma) […]

DESCRIPTION Alexander Campbell could write. Campbell could debate. Campbell could give the Restoration Movement its theology and its arguments. But Campbell by himself could not have done what these three men did. In Part 21 of Why I Left the Church of Christ, I walk through Chapter 5 of Earl Irvin West's Search for the Ancient Order, Volume 1. This is the chapter that introduces the men who carried the movement forward with Campbell: Walter Scott, W. K. Pendleton, and David S. Burnet. Walter Scott took the gospel to the people. In November 1827, at New Lisbon, Ohio, he preached on Acts 2:38, and a man named William Amend pushed through a packed crowd to be baptized. Scott boiled the message down to what he called the five-finger gospel: faith, repentance, baptism, remission of sins, gift of the Holy Spirit. Then he rode the Western Reserve for two years and shook it to the foundations. W. K. Pendleton ran the institutions. Virginia aristocrat, calm, dignified, married to Campbell's […]

DESCRIPTION Between 1809 and 1830, a handful of families meeting in Pennsylvania living rooms turned into a movement that got driven out of Baptist associations all across the American frontier. Not because it was failing. Because it was succeeding. In Part 21 of Why I Left the Church of Christ, I walk through Chapter 4 of Earl Irvin West's Search for the Ancient Order, Volume 1. This is where Alexander Campbell stops being a young preacher with ideas and becomes the central figure of the Restoration Movement. We cover his reunion with his father Thomas in 1809, the immersion of seven Campbells in Buffalo Creek in 1812, the uneasy years inside the Redstone Baptist Association, the Sermon on the Law that lit the fuse in 1816, the Walker and McCalla debates that sharpened his teaching on baptism, the seven fire-breathing years of the Christian Baptist, and the slow expulsion of restoration preachers from one Baptist association after another. Along the way I point out something the […]

**TITLE:** BAPTISM 3 - Transformation and Baptizo **DESCRIPTION:** If Greek has a basic verb for dipping — baptō — and a stronger verb for more intensive, overwhelming immersions — baptizō — which one did the early Christians choose for their practice? They chose the stronger one. And that choice tells us something before we read a single verse about Christian baptism. Today we look at βαπτίζω (baptizō), the word the New Testament actually uses for Christian baptism over 75 times. We survey how ancient Greek writers — who had nothing to do with Christianity — used this word. Ships sunk by waves. A man overwhelmed by wine. A priest drowned in a pool. Objects plunged into the Dead Sea. Every one of these involves total immersion — and in most of them, the thing that goes in does not come out the same. In this episode: • The real difference between baptō and baptizō • Four ancient Greek examples of baptizō — from Polybius, Plato, Josephus, and Strabo […]

Full Title The Campbell Movement — The Declaration and Address, the Communion Token, and the Reunion | West’s Search for the Ancient Order, V1 Ch 3 One-Sentence Mission This episode tells how Thomas Campbell broke with the Presbyterians in America while his son Alexander independently rejected the Seceder Church in Scotland — and how their reunion launched the most influential arm of the Restoration Movement. YouTube Description Thomas Campbell was suspended for serving communion across factions. Alexander dropped his communion token and refused to partake. Neither knew what the other had done. This episode covers Chapter 3 of Earl Irvin West’s The Search for the Ancient Order, Volume 1. This episode is not meant to convince anyone to leave their church. The goal is for people to place their eternal faith in Jesus rather than in a religious system. Keywords Church of Christ, why I left, Alexander Campbell, Thomas Campbell, Declaration and Address, Campbell Movement, […]

Full Title The Stone Movement — Cane Ridge, the Death of a Presbytery, and a Lifelong Search | West’s Search for the Ancient Order, V1 Ch 2 One-Sentence Mission This episode follows Barton W. Stone from his break with Calvinism through the Cane Ridge revival, the dissolution of the Springfield Presbytery, and his eventual union with the Campbell movement. YouTube Description Barton W. Stone rejected Calvinism, led the largest camp meeting in American history, and voluntarily killed his own religious organization. This episode covers Chapter 2 of Earl Irvin West’s The Search for the Ancient Order, Volume 1. This episode is not meant to convince anyone to leave their church. The goal is for people to place their eternal faith in Jesus rather than in a religious system. Keywords Church of Christ, why I left, Barton W. Stone, Cane Ridge, Stone Movement, Springfield Presbytery, Last Will and Testament, Restoration Movement, Earl Irvin West, Search for the Ancient Order, leaving the […]

**TITLE:** BAPTISM 2 - Bapto the Root **DESCRIPTION:** Did you know the word "baptize" was never actually translated? The English translators took the Greek letters, changed the spelling, and moved on. They brought the sound over — but left the meaning behind. Today we go to the root: βάπτω (baptō). This is the Greek word that the entire baptism word family is built on. We look at every place it appears in the New Testament, key uses in the Greek Old Testament (the Septuagint), and what classical Greek writers used it for — including dyeing fabric and staining garments permanently. In this episode: • Why "baptize" is a transliteration, not a translation — and why that matters • The core meaning of βάπτω: to dip, immerse, or plunge into a liquid • All 3 New Testament uses — a finger in water, bread in a dish, and a robe dyed in blood • 2 key Old Testament uses from the Septuagint — a cloth soaked in water and a man plunged into filth • The range of […]

**TITLE:** BAPTISM 1 - The Series Begins **DESCRIPTION:** Two Christians walk into a coffee shop. They both love Jesus. They both believe Scripture. But when one tries to join the other's church — water gets in the way. There are roughly 47,000 Christian denominations in the world. A huge number of them disagree — fundamentally — about baptism. Who gets baptized? How? What does it do? Is it necessary for salvation? This is Episode 1 of The Baptism Series — a deep, honest study of baptism itself. Not what your denomination teaches. Not a survey of traditions. The word. The texts. The history. The evidence. In this episode: • The scale of Christian division over baptism • Real stories of how baptism walls affect real believers • What this study covers — seven phases from Greek foundations to my own position • Why my own journey through 40+ years of Bible study led me here This series is designed for anyone — whether you've studied baptism your whole life or […]

So here’s where we are. The series launches tomorrow with Episode One. One episode per week. Every Sunday. For about two years. You don’t have to listen in order — every episode is designed to stand on its own. But I’d encourage you to start at the beginning, because each part builds on what came before. I’m not going to tell you what to believe about baptism. That’s not my job. My job is to lay out the evidence — all of it — as fairly and honestly as I can. And then trust you — trust the Holy Spirit working in you — to come to your own conclusions. All I ask is that you come in with an open mind. Even if you’ve been taught one thing your whole life — the way I was. Because sometimes the evidence challenges what we thought we knew. And that’s not a threat to faith. That’s faith doing what it’s supposed to do. Paul wrote it. One Lord. One faith. One baptism. One God and Father of all. That’s what we’re studying. Let’s find out what it means. Lord, […]

Early Beginnings — Before Campbell, Before the Movement, Before Religious Freedom | West’s Search for the Ancient Order, V1 Ch 1 One-Sentence Mission This episode traces the colonial religious tyranny and the earliest American revolts against denominational authority — O’Kelly, Smith, and Jones — that laid the groundwork for everything the Restoration Movement would become. YouTube Description Before Alexander Campbell ever picked up a Bible, people in America were already fighting for the right to read the scriptures and follow them without a denomination telling them what to believe. This episode covers the first chapter of Earl Irvin West’s The Search for the Ancient Order, Volume 1. This episode is not meant to convince anyone to leave their church. The goal is for people to place their eternal faith in Jesus rather than in a religious system. Keywords Church of Christ, why I left, Earl Irvin West, Search for the Ancient Order, Church of Christ history, Restoration […]

The Reading List — What We’re About to Read and Why It Matters (Why I Left the Church of Christ, Script 19Z) One-Sentence Mission: This episode introduces the books, authors, and categories that will drive the next major phase of the series — the standard histories, doctrinal textbooks, defensive works, and borrowed outsider books that built and defended Church of Christ identity. YouTube Description: For the next fifty-plus episodes, Bob Baulch is going to go through the books that built the Church of Christ. The histories written by Church of Christ scholars. The doctrinal textbooks that systematized its theology. The defensive works designed to keep questions out. And the borrowed books by outsiders — Plymouth Brethren, Calvinists, Baptists, Anabaptists — that were quoted in Church of Christ bulletins to support a claim those authors never intended to make. In this episode, Bob lays out the full reading list. He names every author and every book. He explains the four […]