Christians definition of Christians in the Free Online Encyclopedia.

Christians, name taken by the followers of several evangelical preachers on the American frontier, notably James O'Kelley, Abner Jones, and Barton W. Stone Stone, Barton Warren, 1772–1844, American clergyman of Kentucky. With four other ministers he withdrew from the Presbyterian Church and in 1804 began to form new churches whose members called themselves simply Christians .
..... Click the link for more information. , all of whom were antisectarian. Some congregations joined the Disciples of Christ (see Christian Church (Disciples of Christ) Christian Church (Disciples of Christ), sometimes called Campbellites, a Protestant religious body founded early in the 19th cent. in the United States. Its primary thesis is that the Bible alone should form the basis for faith and conduct, each individual
..... Click the link for more information. , a body with similar emphasis founded by Thomas Campbell Campbell, Thomas, 1763–1854, American clergyman, a founder of the Christian Church (Disciples of Christ) . See Campbell, Alexander , his more famous son.
..... Click the link for more information. and Alexander Campbell Thomas Campbell, 1763–1854, of the Christian Church (Disciples of Christ) . Of Scottish lineage, both were born in Ireland and educated at the Univ. of Glasgow. Both were Anti-Burgher Presbyterians, a division opposed to the discipline of the main church.
..... Click the link for more information. , and the name Christians continued to be applied often to members of the Disciples' church. Other congregations of Christians united as a separate body that ultimately took the name of the Christian Church; this was merged in 1931 with the Congregational churches and the merged group became known as the Congregational Christian churches (see Congregationalism Congregationalism, type of Protestant church organization in which each congregation, or local church, has free control of its own affairs. The underlying principle is that each local congregation has as its head Jesus alone and that the relations of the various
..... Click the link for more information. ). See also Christianity Christianity, religion founded in Palestine by the followers of Jesus . One of the world's major religions, it predominates in Europe and the Americas, where it has been a powerful historical force and cultural influence, but it also claims adherents in virtually
..... Click the link for more information. .