Brethren Church (Ashland, Ohio)
The Brethren Church came out the Brethren movement in 1708. The Brethren Church is considered one of the Peace Churches in the United States. They have characteristics of the German Pietistic movement, the Anabaptist movement, and Baptist movement.
The Brethren Church is also known as the Brethren Church (Ashland, Ohio) and the Dunkers. The name comes because the believers of the baptism ceremony dip their finger three times in the name of the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit. Dunkers come from a German word meaning to dip.
The official Brethren Church was organized in Dayton, Ohio on June 6, 1883. The Brethren Church did not have a formal creed because they were afraid it would limit the work of the Holy Spirit.
The Brethren Church hold the Bible alone as their sufficient creed and the only rules for the church to practice. The Brethren Church relies on the Holy Spirit to guide and help in the discernment of the Scripture for their daily life.
The Brethren Church has a revitalized sense of direction and vision in the church. They are seeking to discern the calling that God has given to them and other denominations of like-kinds. The denomination has been restructured to make it more responsive to change, and begin working toward a national organization.
They are committed to evangelism in the United States and overseas and remain faithful to their heritage to bring service to the needy of the world. The Brethren Church strives for a faithful discipleship with the Lord Jesus Christ in both word and deed.
History
The roots of the Brethren Church began in Germany in the early 1700.
There were different facets to the Brethren movement. One, the Radical Pietism was under the leadership of Alexander Mack, Sr. The Radical Pietism called people to experience a life changing spiritual awakening and remain independent of any established churches, because it was believed the Lutheran and Reformed churches had departed for the true commitment to Jesus Christ. The Radical Pietism did not believe in Baptism or Communion.
The state authorities in Germany forced Alexander Mack and his Radical followers to seek refuge in a small town called Schwarzenau in 1708. This is when this group of believers accepted the full obedience of Jesus Christ and started practicing Baptism, Communion and discipline in their church. They founded a new Christian fellowship and through passionate evangelism of the radical followers, the established churches, and the Mennonites spread their faith throughout Germany.
Because of the spread of their religion, the Brethren also suffered persecution from the authorities in Germany. They were exiled, lost their property, were imprisoned, and were forced to serve on galley slave ships. The first Brethren to immigrate to America happened in 1719, with around twenty families from Krefeld, Germany. There was no formal organized congregation until Christmas Day in 1723. Germantown, Pennsylvania, in the William Penn colony, became a haven for religious nonconformists from Europe. This Colony was under the leadership of Peter Becker and he held the first Baptism and Love Feast in 1723. Alexander Mack first led his Schwarzenau group to the Netherlands in 1720 and then to the William Penn colony in Pennsylvania in 1729.
There were two congregations of the Brethren Church that were formed in 1724; Coventry and Conestoga. It was in 1728 that a division occurred within the Conestoga congregation. The leader, Conrad Beissel, was the central figure in the communal society that was known as the Ephrata Cloister which was part of the Conestoga congregation.
The Brethren were differentiated by their practice of Believer’s Baptism which was by immersion and the three parts of the Lord’s Supper (feet washing, love feasts, and communion). The ministers leading the Brethren were unpaid and elected by the local churches. There were deacons who assisted the ministers with the congregations. The Brethren Church aimed to live devout Christ like lives and maintained a principle of nonconformity, nonresistance, and non-swearing.
The Brethren Church congregation spread to the Midwest and to the West coast by 1850. They held on to their German heritage and culture throughout the 19th century before the American culture influenced change. The Brethren changed from speaking German to predominantly speaking English.
The influence of the American culture brought many new issues to the Annual Meeting of the Brethren to take under consideration. Issues like allowing carpets and flowered wallpaper in homes, the appropriate wearing apparels, and the question of higher education and even Sunday Schools were debated between the Progressives and the Old Order.
The Progressive Brethren believed the brotherhood should make full use of practices such as Sunday Schools, higher education, evangelism, and spreading their mission to foreign lands to help spread their beliefs of the church, and they wanted to move into the mainstream of the American culture. The Old Order Brethren felt such modernizations would take the church in the direction of worldly Christianity and away from their old order and faith of the church. It was also in the 1870 that a third group, the Conservatives became a middle position between the Old Order Brethren and the Progressive Brethren. The breaking point came around the 1880 when tension between these groups caused a breaking away.
The German Baptist Brethren Church experienced a three way split. The Old Order Brethren organized together and established the Old German Baptist Brethren Church. They expelled the Progressive followers under the leadership of Henry Holsinger.
The main body of the German Baptist Brethren who were known as the Conservatives adopted the name The Church of the Brethren in 1908.
It was the Brethren Church who had to reorganize their church when they were unwillingly forced out of the German Baptist Brethren Church. There was a lack of ministers. Because of the lack of financial backing, the publishing company and Ashland College, under the control of the Brethren Church, was in danger of being closed. It was in 1906 when a seminary programs with a graduate level degree were started at the Ashland College under the leadership of J. Allen Miller. Ashland College became a center of controversy in 1930 when the Fundamentalist Brethren wanted to transform Ashland into a Bible college and the traditional Brethren wanted it to remain a liberal arts institution.
The Progressive Brethren became part of the mainstream of American church life and stressed education and theological training for all ministers. They permitted women to become ordained, and they developed home and foreign missions. They became part of many interdenominational movements and were greatly influenced by the fundamentalism.
Belief
The Brethren Church believes all believers must embrace correct doctrinal beliefs and make evident their new life they have received in Jesus Christ. The doctrine is a declaration of the life that is in Jesus Christ and that He is Lord. The whole belief is centered on Jesus Christ.
The Brethren Church believes God is made available through Christ and the Spirit, in Scripture and the church and that is all that is needed to live the life of faith. Christ and His life exemplified the walk that the Brethren Church is called to obey. It is by the death of Christ that the possibility of a renewed fellowship with God is made available. The resurrection of Christ is the revealing of the power of God. The Holy Spirit enables believers to become the children of God and to live in obedience to the Scripture. The Scripture is the teaching and the example of Jesus and the apostles to follow as a response to God. The church is the gathering place for the community to nurture believers in their life and in their faith. The Brethren Church believes God is true and living and three equal persons; the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit. God is eternal, infinite, personal and perfect.
The Brethren Church believes Jesus Christ is the living Word of God. The Holy Spirit reveals the plan of salvation from God in Christ. Both the Old Testament and the New Testaments are the inspired Word of God. It is trustworthy and true in all aspects. It is the only written Word revealing Jesus Christ to the Brethren, and therefore it is obeyed completely.
The Brethren Church believes male and female were created in the image of God and they have the freedom to obey or disobey God. Humanity chooses to be disobedient and enter into sin and passed on to every person. Because sin dwells in all people they are unable to please God or escape from the power of sin. The penalty of sin is death that only a new relationship with God is promised to those who accept a life in Jesus Christ.
The Brethren Church believes salvation is a process and an event. It is a gift of God and is received by repentance from sin and faith in the Lord Jesus Christ. The believer must witness and receive a water baptism. God then adopts believers as His children, forgives their sins and gives them the Holy Spirit.
The Brethren Church believes when He sent His Son that God established the last days. The church is eagerly waiting for the consummation of the divine plan in Christ.
They believe that the human body at death returns to the dust from which it came. The soul of the Christian goes immediately to be with the Lord. The souls of the unsaved enter into torment.
The Brethren Church believes in the personal and visible return of Jesus Christ from heaven as King of kings and Lord of lords. The Brethren Church believes in the bodily resurrection and the judgment of believers unto eternal life as well as the judgment of the wicked unto eternal punishment. The Brethren Church believes in a new heaven and a new earth in which the righteous shall dwell and will live eternally with the Lord.
Cite Article Source
MLA Style Citation:
Holstein, Joanne “Brethren Church (Ashland, Ohio):.” Becker Bible Studies Library Jan 2006.<https://guidedbiblestudies.com/?p=2605,>.
APA Style Citation:
Holstein, Joanne (2006, January) “Brethren Church (Ashland, Ohio):.” Becker Bible Studies Library. Retrieved from https://guidedbiblestudies.com/?p=2605,.
Chicago Style Citation:
Holstein, Joanne (2006) “Brethren Church (Ashland, Ohio):.” Becker Bible Studies Library (January), https://guidedbiblestudies.com/?p=2605, (accessed).
