Brethren Churches

Possibly following Matt 28:18-19, Keith: baptising "in the name of the Father (1) and of the Son (2) and of the Holy Spirit (3)". Certainly I know of Christians in South Africa who baptise tri-partitely in this way by full immersion; there the problem is with Oneness Pentecostalism and these Christians consider it heretical to immerse only once - to them it smacks of Oneness/ 'Jesus only' heresy.

Yours in Christ

Matt

 

If we base our belief and practice doctrinally upon passages such as Romans 6, we run into problems with triune baptism. The NT strongly emphasizes the singular death, burial and resurrection of Christ in passages such as Hebrews 10, so that multiple practice hurts the singular picture of the DBR of Christ. Jesus was teaching that baptism was in the name (singular) of the trinity and not the "names" as Squire noted.

 

UHW, I think among the Brethren churches, probably only the Old German BB and the Old Order German BB still qualify as "plain" groups. Here is a link to an article on various Brethren churches, with links that can be followed to details on specific ones:
<a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Brethren" target="_blank">
Brethren Groups</a>

Old German Baptists are part of the Schwarzenau (Germany) Brethren groups.

 

I read on the board in one of the forums today that some of the Brethren churches united with the Methodist church and are now called United Methodists. Is that true?

 

Plain Old Bill,

It was the United Brethren, which is quite a different group from the Dunkers or German Baptist Brethren, which united with the United Methodist church. The German Baptist Brethren do not baptize infants; the United Brethren do.

Mark Osgatharp

 

The Brethren originated with the scheme of Alexander Mack and his associates to restore New Testament Christianity in Germany in the early 1700s (1708 I think).

They claimed to have examined all denominations known to them, including the Baptists, and found them all to be wanting. So they appointed one of their number to baptize Mr. Mack who in turn baptized the rest and a new denomination was born. The name of the man who baptized Mack was concealed lest he be charged with founding a new denomination - though that is exactly what he did

Doctrinally they have a theology very similar to the Campbellites, believing in baptismal salvation and falling from grace. In addition, they are pacifists. Over the years they divided over various issues into The Church of the Brethren, The Brethren Church, and the German Baptists or Dunkards.

The German Baptists retain the original doctrines of the Brethren. The Church of the Brethren and Brethren churches have been deeply influenced by modernism. In the mid-Atlantic states there are also many independent Brethren churches which have broken away from the older Brethren bodies over the issue of modernism.

Also, there are some other groups of Pennsylvania Dutch heritage - such as the United Brethren and Brethren in Christ - who have a different origin from the "Brethren" bodies described above.

Mark Osgatharp

 

This all depends on which brethren you mean. There are indeed some out there who seem to be in mennonite territory. However here in the UK "brethren" would mean the "Plymouth brethren", which is a different group, characterised mainly by their utter refusal to accept any name at all.

Liz

 

Indeed. My wife is ex-PB, who are in turn split into Open Brethren (IMO virtually indistinguishable from Baptists as they have all the Baptist 'distinctives') and Exclusives, who range from the far-out Taylorites ('Jimmies') to more moderate but still strict Rentons, Frosts and Oxted groups (Oxted being the most moderate and OBs to all intents and purposes)

Yours in Christ

Matt

 

Speaking from experience of a year in the open brethren, i find them very different from baptists in terms of church practice. Brethren have:

No pastor
Unaccompanied singing only except perhaps in the Gospel meeting
Absolute women's silence even in the midweek prayer meeting
Women's heads covered in every meeting
All men allowed to take part including teach and even preach
And a major aversion to being called brethren!


Liz

 

Which Meeting were you at? The OB Meetings I've had experience of (Burgess Hill, Dorking and other places in the South-East) all have one 'leading Brother'; some Meetings refer to him as a pastor but even with those which do not, he is for all intents and purposes one. And at our Baptist Church, there are opportunities for many people to participate and even preach other than the minister; I've preached twice this year and hold no formal office or position in the church.

Yours in Christ

Matt

 

Ah Matt, the brethren I was in wouldn't accept the brethren you are talking about as brethren at all, even if they accepted the name brethren. You sound like you're talking about the kind of brethren that actually call themselves Evangelical churches (agh!!)

I was in Carmarthen to start with, my husband was from Copnor (Portsmouth) and before that at ingliss road, Southsea, and after we married and moved to Yorshire we were at Skelmanthorpe, huddersfield. Carmarthen allowed non-members to take the bread and wine, as long as those non-members were baptised, the other two were entirely closed table. All had multiple eldership which really did seem to be genuine multiple eldership, and all the meetings I ever visited appeared to be the same.

Liz

 

Sounds more closed than Open to me!

I started off professional life in Southsea and now work in Fareham but live in Titchfield Common; small world!

Yours in Christ

Matt

 

I think the preferred term is "tight". Closed is just a synonym for exclusive, isn't it?

I don't know as much about it as my husband, he was in the brethren most of his life. Sadly, he left because i was so very unhappy there, and now he goes nowhere at all.

Liz