The Brethren Church

Mcdirector--about 3 years ago, I would've had the same view. Not anymore. Not after finally recognizing that Christian books and autobiographies (Rice, Spurgeon, Moody, etc.), the most well-written hymns (Wesley, Spafford, Prentiss, etc.), and the outstanding Christians in history (Luther, Huss, Tyndale, etc.) are simply not solely comprised of "Brethren". Just believers.

I had to realize that in Heaven, we won't be divided into groups and subgroups according to denomination.

I grew up in the Open Brethren, I suppose it could be called. But I would rather that "Christian" define me, because any other name seems to automatically throw up an unnecessary wall--an unscriptural wall that "I am of Paul, I am of Apollos, I am of Christ". It is difficult though, to just be recognized as merely a Christian--since it is a term so carelessly tossed about these days.

Because my dad attended a Baptist University, he probably was a lot more open (than a lot of PBs) to the fact that there are other believers living and worshipping according to the Word of God. When we were in Russia, the Russian Baptist church would often join us in passing out tracts and street preaching and invited us over for meals and sometimes provided accomodations. When you are with genuine Christians, there is nothing like it--especially when in a place you'd least expect to find family.

Sincerely,
Ciela

 

Matt Black,

You asked "who was 'defending the faith' before 1534?"

It seems that no matter how dark things get or have ever gotten, there are always faithful believers somewhere. Even when the infamous Jezebel was troubling Israel--even then there were followers of God still hanging on--if I remember correctly because of the threat to their lives, they were hiding out in caves.

Perfect example--Russia was under communism for over 70 years--dark, oppressed, corrupt, and ungodly as could be. Atheism was the official religion, and if you didn't adhere, you were simply beaten into submission. I saw the prisons with my own eyes where they put those who dared to expose themselves as Christians. Right after the Iron Curtain fell, my dad went to Russia to visit a friend and brought along a few Russian Bibles. Secret Christians seemed to stream from the woodwork and wept over having a nice new Bible. And it happened over and over--Russian Christians weeping in public, in the street when they held an entire Bible in their hands (after secretly sharing and passing around merely pages of the Bible for over 70 years!)

They may not have been flying a flag over their houses saying "here I am! A Christian!" But they were there.

There are always lights in the world.

Ciela

 

Motive

The motive to form the assemblies of PB was quite remarkable.
JN Darby and some 7 believers gathered together to return to the Early Church in the Bible. They believed the Holy Spirit who is the Author of New Testament doesn't work in contradiction to what He said in the Bible and He demonstrated the Truth of Church gathering thru Early Churches.
In New Testament we don't find any clergy system, but it tells us all believers are the Priests ( 1 Pet 2:5-9, Romans 12:1, Rev 1:6, Rev 5:10).
We find all women believers wear head covering for prophesy and prayers as in 1 Cor 11:1-16
We don't find any name of denomination or sects as we read 1 Cor 1:11-17
They were called only Brothers and Sisters ( Mt 23:8-11, Rm 16:1, ...)
There were 2 types of offices in NT which are Elders ( or Overseers) and Deacons as we notice the qualification of theirs in 1 Tim 3:1-13.

On the first day of the week , when they gathered together, the purpose of the meeting was to break the Bread ( Acts 20:7) and the most important part of the meeting on the Sundays was to celebrate the Lord's Supper in remembrance of His Death and Blood at the Cross( 1 Cor 11:23-30)

The books written by PB's are quite easy to read and understand, which is not theoretical. "Dawn of World Redemption" by Erich Sauer and Commentary on Pentateuch by CH McIntosh are quite popular among other denominational chuch members.

PB's were in the most locations in the world, the Christians who suffered the terrible pains during the Communist Russian era were the PB's. Ciela may know Arnold Rose who escaped from Russia before Gorvachev's era and still lives in Germany. Many believers kept their faith by conducting Baptism in the night of the cold winter during the communist era.
During such persecutions by communists, the priests or any other clergies with different titles often departed from their faith and cooperated with the Communist Party in persecuting the true believers, which was a shocking tragedy. Such happened in Russia and Romania, and in other countries.

So many testimonies prove that Holy Spirit has been with this group of Brotherly Love ( Philadelphia)

 

There are none so blind as those who will not see.

Cheers,

Jim

 

Eliyahu,

I didn't run into any PBs where my family was in particular (western and midwestern Russia-known as Siberia-, and the Ukraine), although there are several assemblies there now. Perhaps Middle-to-Far Eastern Russia has some PB assemblies there--Dr. Bedecker in the 1800's is a name that comes to mind as working there...

We ran into quite a few Baptists--who had been in existence for a long time either secretly or openly depending on current dictator's mood. Pentecostals were few and far between, but were and are coming on increasingly strong. We did come across several house churches--with no particular denominational connection but excellent Biblical teaching. This was intriguing considering that prior to the fall of communism, good churches shared maybe one or two mismatched hymnbooks and either secretly shared a Bible or a few pages that had been torn from a Bible.


The truth is, the greatest threat to Russian and Ukrainian believers is not the government or even their Tartar Muslims. The greatest enemy of the believers there is the Orthodox Church. They have quite a bit of leverage in the government and are doing everything in their power to prevent evangelical churches from preaching, distributing Bibles and misc. literature, or even from meeting together.

In the larger cities especially, depending on the benevolence of the mayor, because of the armtwisting from the Orthodox Church, believers AGAIN have to meet somewhere different each week--and come at staggered times. My dad has been interrogated KGB style as recently as 2004--and the U.S. Embassy had to step in.

The Orthodox Church hierarchy is furiously against evangelicals, PB's, Baptists, anyone who opens the Word of God and preaches from it faithfully--and they have successfully booted some missionaries from the country.

Ciela

 

That's the true sense of the churches faithful with NT teachings.
Actually even during Communist regime of Russia, the true churches were not called PB's. Moreover, as I said we don't call ourselves PB's and I mentioned if anyone calls himself PB, she or he is no longer PB. Therefore we don't hear any word like PB's around us. But the true aspect of the true believers in Russia while they were in very difficult times, they were exactly the same as we (so-called PB's) are,i.e having no pastor, no priest, Lord's Supper every week, Women head covering, Pulpit open to the born-again believers, Baptism by immersion, no head quarters, calling brothers and sisters each other, faithful with all the teachings of New Testament. They still survived during the terrible time of Communism while Russian Orthodox surrendered themselves to Communism and cooperated with them in searching for the true believers and in persecuting them.
That history proved that our type of church system which is faithful with NT teachings is the best way to survive the horrible persecutions.
The True believers who endured the horrible time during the communism have had the same faith as we do today.

I do understand and can imagine Russian Orthodox works against the True church of God, and notice even in other countries often the mainstream of the Christian groups or so called Orthodox persecute the true believers, which was proven by the history.

House churches or small group of churches persecuted by mainstream christian churches are often faithful with the Bible teachings.

In Saudi Arabia, there are many house churches where several families gather together weekly but secretly, and they are quite faithful with Bible teachings. In Kuwait they gather openly and have some good size churches with building which are still faithful with NT teachings. I heard even in Iraq there were some good number of churches even though Iraqi War caused them to have much difficult situation now.
Baptist churches during the reformation or before were like these.
So, God works everywhere and the True churches faithful with Bible teachings are stronger than any other big churches or so called Orthodox churches. God will reward them sufficiently on His Day.

For your information, there are several sites by PB's

1) Pilgrim Church- History of the churches faithful with Bible teachings by Broadbent.
http://ourworld.compuserve.com/homepages/thailand/PC-B-013.HTM

I am not satisfied with this book entirely because it tolerated the view of Catholics to some extent, but it was written based on the proof by proof. Someone may find Trail of Blood by Baptists is one-sided and the so-called Orthodox histories are not reflecting the true believers in the old times. This book reports from an intermediate angle and the readers can gain a good understanding about the history

2) http://www.plymouthbrethren.org/default.asp?scid=1
This is a kind of Overall information site for many PB's
I recommend you to check this.

3) Biographies of famous PB's
http://www.bruederbewegung.de/personen/biografisches.html
Cover-letters are German but the inner contents are English.

You can be proud of many great believers who like to be called Brothers and Sisters. Hope you enjoy reading them.

 

What did I do wrong as the same post shows 3 times ?

 

Another listing of the same post again!

 

How come the above post appeared 3 times? Sorry

 

Eliyahu,

You are correct in that PBs don't refer to themselves Plymouth Brethren. And really, Plymouth Brethren is quite a loose term because there are so many different kinds--some are quite unrecognizable from the other.

One Russian house church we came upon was called "The House of Prayer". Imagine--in the U.S. and Canada, people would've dubbed them the "HOP" people! :laugh:

See, we would go visit a remote village to pass out New Testaments, and would be astonished to find genuine believers already there! In one instance, an older lady had come to the city to sell various wares in the city market, heard the gospel there, went back and shared the gospel with her family and friends. When we came, a house church was already there--they just lacked enough Bibles and hymnbooks.

In fact, the largest assembly is in a remote village in the Ural Mountains--and has already sent out its own preachers and evangelists.

Emphasis--or--lack thereof in reaching out with the gospel is a good determining factor exactly which "Brethren" you are dealing with. Also, whether the Bible is read in the services and regularly in the home--because some "Brethren" do not--and read the latest teachings/edicts of a man instead.

Ciela

 

Good to hear from you. Sometimes I notice other believers use different terninology for the same situations and matters.
I think the Missionaries should respect the local believers and their faith. What the missionaries have to do is not to rule over the local believers but to serve and assist them.