One of the basic assumptions of Protestantism is Primitivism. This is the idea that the Catholic Church became corrupt at some point and that the Reformers need to ‘restore’ the simple, primitive faith of the early Christians.

Primitivist movements have been around since the beginning of the church, the Protestant Reformation threw up a good number of Primitivist sects like the Amish and Mennonite, but no part of church history is more replete with Primitivist Restorationist movements than 19th century revivalist-mad America. The Church of Jesus Christ of the Latter Day Saints with its ideas that the Native Americans are a lost Jewish race and golden tablets written in Reformed Egyptian etc etc. is just one of many such Primitivist sects. You can add in the Jehovah’s Witnesses, Seventh Day Adventists, Christian Science, Landmark Baptists not to mention the Biblical interpretation system called Dispensationalism which still influences the vast majority of Baptists in this country.

Well, if people want to think it through they can read this longer article of mine called The Problem with Primitivism. It examines the faulty assumptions of the Primitivist movements and their even worse solutions. This comes from my Archived Articles section–which I am regularly updating.