Salient Principles of New Testament Ecclesiology
by Willard Ramsey and William Hawkins

      1. The Church is a localized body of believers 1) having been immersed in water upon a voluntary profession of faith (Acts 2:41); and 2) having been constituted an autonomous body (Acts 11:22-26; 13:2-4; 14:22, 23). Both these acts must have been done under the authority of an agency authorized by God to "bind and loose" on earth (Matthew 16:19, 18:18).

      2. The Church is comprised only of a membership professing to be regenerate (Acts 2:41, 47).

      3. Each local Church, under the headship of Christ only, is autonomous on earth as a "binding and loosing" agency (Matthew 16:19, 18:18).

      4. The Church as an institution has been and will continue to be comprised of a perpetual succession of local Churches on earth never to perish or apostatize (Matthew 16:18; Ephesians 3:10, 11, 21).

      5. Each Church must maintain its own moral and doctrinal purity and separation from the world by the faithful and impartial application of biblical disciplinary measures at the local level (Matthew 18:13-17; 1 Corinthians 5:11-13; Revelation 2:15,20).

      6. The Church never baptizes infants but believers only (Acts 2:41) by immersion only (Romans 6:4, 5; Colossians 2:12).

      7. The Church never acknowledges any other institution, movement, or individual to have authority from God to baptize in His name. Hence they baptize all converts coming to them from other institutions.

      8. The Church has never used physical persecution to coerce the conscience of any.

      9. The Church has never formed an alliance with the powers of any state.

      10. The Church has never had a centralized, heirarchical or espiscopal form of government or a graduated (tiered) clergy; it is rather a theocracy executed through democratic processes at the local level (Matthew 18:18; Acts 1:23-26; 6:3-6; 1 Corinthians 5:4, 5, 12; II Corinthians 2:6, 7).

NOTES

      1 This article first appeared in the Spring 1987 issue of The Pillar and is used by permission with the following statement from the author: "The availability of Pillar articles from the web page does not necessarily imply the full endorsement of that ministry by The Pillar or its authors."

[From The Pillar. Scanned and formatted by Jim Duvall.]

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