COC European Short Vers

The Church of Christ existence in Britain before Campbell and Stone were born is well documented, though this knowledge is highly repressed. Many teach the COC came from the Baptist because Campbell was baptist before converting. If you go back farther in history you see the Baptists came from the COC. There were 54 congregations around London that split in the 1500's. They did not convert away from christian baptism but into minor elements of calvinism, which began the schism.

see Matthew Henry commentaries on John 3:5. I have an article on this site.

There is public documentation in the Libraries of England. Those who want to discredit the Church of Christ as a new denomination don't really like the history found in English libraries. The Churches of Campbell and Stone were not the beginning. 

One of the translators of the King James Bible wrote of the Church of Christ in a book called "The Dippers Dipt".or "Dippers Dipt".

Anglican clergyman, Dr Daniel Featly, (who was one of the translators of the King James Bible) wrote in 1645 of the Churches of Christ meeting in London and elsewhere in his work the 'Dippers Dipt', took those congregations back to 1525 when he quotes from them "That baptism ought to be received by none, but such as can give a good account of their faith; and in case any have been baptized in their infancy, that they ought to be re-baptized after they come to years of discretion, before they are to be admitted to the Church of Christ." These churches in the 1600s were in communication with other churches of Christ in America, nearly two hundred years before Campbell!

Also, it is amazing that Campbell quoted from a book written by a member of this group, "Jones History of the Church of Christ" was written by a man who was from the congregations Daniel Featly wrote about.

William Jones was the writer of the history.

Campbell was converted through reading his works and others.

Campbell quoted Jones History in 1816, he did not convert until much later. He was still writing for a Baptist Magazine when he quoted the book. It took him a while to fully ascimilate and change, one source said Campbell left the Baptist name in 1839. So he quoted from Church of Christ works 23 years prior.

Alexander Campbell wrote in his Christian Baptist "He who reads Jones' History of the Church of Christ, the history of that society of Christians which we see described in the Acts of the Apostles and in the Apostolic Epistles, which has been persecuted since Constantine by such secular ecclesiastical establishments as that of the English episcopacy, will readily perceive that the church of Christ is quite a different thing from such hierarchies, and that their creeds and confessions have no claim to divine authority, but are reprobated by it. It will be seen that that such has been described by Mosheim and Milner as the Church of Christ has been the beastly persecutor of his church.” Jones' history was first published in 1816. Alexander Campbell was aware of the materials used both in the book and this website from sources he had, primarily Jones' history. It seems he understood the Church of Christ has always existed. William Jones' was a member of the British church of Christ.

Jones' history was published in 1816, Campbell came out of the Baptist name in or near 1834 - 1839. Thus COC existed before Campbell converted.

The point is Campbell didn't start the Church of Christ but through study slowly accepted our views on many subjects, then publicly chose to identify with the name. 

We can also trace menbers coming on the Mayflower to these groups of Churches.