Page:The church manual (Church of the Brethren 1916).djvu/11

From Wikisource
Jump to navigation Jump to search
This page has been proofread, but needs to be validated.
10
CHURCH MANUAL.

to receive holy baptism (Mark 16: 16; Acts 2: 38), with deep repentance and full confession, at the same time heartily receiving the Lord Jesus Christ, as he is revealed in his Word, and relying on him alone as an all-sufficient Savior (Rom. 10: 9-1 1).

10. We believe that Christian Baptism is the immersion in water of a believer (Acts 8: 36-39) into each of the names of the divine persons in the Godhead, which we understand to be a trine immersion, which was the apostolic mode and the universal practice of the church during the first three hundred years of its existence. The Scriptural authority for this practice is found in the Commission (Matt. 28: 19). Baptism is a beautiful emblem of our faith in the crucified, buried, and risen Savior, with its effects in our death to sin and resurrection to a new life (Rom. 6: 4) it is a condition of pardon, (Acts 2: 38) and is a prerequisite to church relation.

11. We believe that in regeneration a new life principle is begotten in the soul of man by the Holy Spirit, through the Word of