John Campbell/Barton Stone?

Some say that Alexander Campbell started the church of Christ.

He and his father (Thomas) were Presbyterians. Thomas came to the Americas in 1807, and Alexander followed. He arrived in America for the first time in 1809. (Please remember these dates.)

In 1812, Alexander had a son. Through study of the Scriptures, he found that the infant baptism practiced by the Presbyterians was not in accord with the Bible. He found the Bible to teach that baptism was by immersion and for those mature enough to believe. For this reason, he left the Presbyterian Church and became a member of the Baptist Church.

About 1829 through further study, he realized that baptism was "for the remission of sins" and he left the Baptist Church with the goal to come out of any man-made denomination and return to the Bible to restore the original church. He had a desire to be only a Christian.

About this time in Kentucky, Barton Stone was seeking to do the same thing. In 1824 the Campbell and Stone met. After this, their efforts to restore New Testament Christianity was somewhat combined into one "movement".

The church of Christ, did not begin with them! It began in the 1st Century on Pentecost (Acts 2).

If a person believes and practices the same things the original church did, then they are not part of a new sect, but they will become the same thing those in the 1st Century became - Christians, nothing more, nothing less.

For more proof that the church was not established by Campbell, note this:

Alexander Campbell:

Came to America in September, 1809

Left the Presbyterian Church and joined the Baptist Church in 1812.

Left the Baptist Church in the late 1820’s.

Alexander Campbell preached his first sermon on July 15, 1810.

I live in Alabama. In this state, the oldest continuous congregation of the Church of Christ is the Rocky Springs Church of Christ in Jackson County. This congregation began in 1807 and still continues to meet.

If Alexander Campbell began the Church of Christ, how did congregations such as this exist in America before he arrived and many years before he separated from his prior denominational ties?

Please see the attached links. I think you will find them interesting!