Manual Of Church Discipline PDF Download

Excerpt from A Manual of Church Discipline of the United Brethren in Christ to Secure Uniformity of Administration in the Church: Adapted to Discipline of 1893 The Christian church is a divine institution, organized by the authority of Jesus Christ. He gave to his inspired apostles the command to "preach the gospel to every creature," and "set in order" whatever was necessary to complete the organization of the church. What they did is just as authoritative as what they said. While no form of church polity in detail is specifically given in the New Testament, the foundation principles are laid down, from which the necessary details may be deducted. So far as these foundation principles are given, all Christians should conform to them. Concerning the less important matters not definitely prescribed in the Scriptures the church should be guided by the dictates of reason and expediency. Great care should be exercised so as not to incorporate in the details of church polity any principle that in any way will conflict with the foundation principles laid down in the New Testament. The word church is generally understood to mean "a congregation of faithful men in which the true word of God is preached, and the sacraments duly administered according to Christ's ordinances, in those things that of necessity are requisite to the same." Organization and concert of action are essential to success both in church and state. Organization necessarily implies some fundamental principles which form the basis of government. About the Publisher Forgotten Books publishes hundreds of thousands of rare and classic books. Find more at www.forgottenbooks.com This book is a reproduction of an important historical work. Forgotten Books uses state-of-the-art technology to digitally reconstruct the work, preserving the original format whilst repairing imperfections present in the aged copy. In rare cases, an imperfection in the original, such as a blemish or missing page, may be replicated in our edition. We do, however, repair the vast majority of imperfections successfully; any imperfections that remain are intentionally left to preserve the state of such historical works.