Page:Scriptural Basis of Christian Unity.pdf/7

 to fellowship. This simple creed, with its necessary inclusions, was the only one required then, and is the only one that may be imposed lawfully now.

Second, the New Testament church everywhere had the same ordinances: Baptism, which was the immersion in water of a penitent believer in Jesus as God's Son; the Lord's Supper, a memorial institution; observed every Lord's Day in memory of the risen and ascended Christ.

Third, the New Testament church had a uniform plan of organization for training Christians and maintaining the local work of the congregations. Believers were associated together in groups under elders (also called bishops) and deacons (in both genders), to whose oversight and administration were entrusted the common spiritual interests of the congregation.

Fourth, the church had a common task—preaching the gospel to the world and cultivating Christian graces and virtues in the lives of believers.

Fifth, the apostle taught that there should be no schism in the local congregation. A factious man was to be refused after a second admonition. Paul denounces church splitting as sin.

He devotes four chapters of 1 Corinthians to the threatened division, over men, in that congregation. The essence of denominationalism is division, or Scriptural heresy, originating among individuals or in congregations. Divisions, personal and congregational, can be avoided only by all "keeping the unity of the Spirit in the bond of peace."

I think it can be successfully maintained 7