Jesse L. Sewell (1818-1890) was a Tennessee preacher who sincerely wanted to please God and to proclaim what he found to be taught in the Bible. Eventually, he became connected with the Restoration Movement. It was common for these preachers to begin their work within the denominations before breaking away to follow the New Testament as their only rule of faith and practice. Sewell followed this course, having his start among the Baptists.
However, his Baptist brethren took exception to his preaching, and he was tried for heresy in December 1842. The charge against him was that he had “run fully into Campbellism” (The Life and Sermons of Jesse L. Sewell, p. 54), a label pejoratively given to those who allegedly followed the teachings of Alexander Campbell (1788-1866), a prominent figure in the Restoration Movement. Peter Ragan, a visiting preacher, offered this definition of “Campbellism”: “It denied faith, repentance and the influence of the Spirit, and made a God of the water” (ibid., p. 54). Sewell dismissed the allegation against him.
“If Campbell lived eighteen hundred years ago, and was the author of the New Testament, he had gotten his doctrine from Campbell, but not unless this is true” (ibid., p. 54).
