DISCIPLE

(see previous blog entry for first 8 pages of Landis' booklet) ... We submit the following four propositions which summarize the results of our investigation of what the New Testament has to say on the, subject of ecclesiology or the doctrines relating to the church. (I.) THE TRUTH OF THE UNITY OF THE CHURCH IS PRACTICALLY DENIED BY THE PRESENT DENOMINATIONAL SYSTEM.     Our blessed Lord prayed for a practical unity among His followers, “Neither pray I for these alone, but for them also which shall believe on me through their word: THAT THEY ALL MAY BE ONE; as Thou Father, art in Me, and I in Thee, that THEY also may be one in Us; THAT THE WORLD MAY BELIEVE THAT THOU HAST SENT ME” (John 17:20-21). How much unbelief has been caused by the multitude of divisions in the Church God alone knows.     Through the power of the Holy Spirit, but one body was formed on the Day of Pentecost. That one body existed in the days of the Apostle Paul, for by the Spirit he writes:

My Reasons by George M. Landis The Reasons For My Resignation  as Pastor of the First Baptist Church  of New Castle, Pa. and From the Baptist Ministry (Read Lord’s Day morning, July 31, 1932, before the congregation of the First Baptist Church of New Castle, Pa., the last day of the pastorate of George M. Landis, after a service of seven and one-half years.) - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - Dear Brothers and Sisters in Christ Jesus: In accordance with the promise made when my resignation was read a few weeks ago, it is now my purpose to set forth the reasons which have led me to take this action. Justice to the congregation which has supported us so loyally during the past seven and one-half years demands that I give these reasons. Already rumors are afloat to the effect that I am leaving because the church has not supported me as it should have done; because certain individuals in the church have opposed me; because the congregation

by C.H.Spurgeon      ..."Read the text, and note it well: "If ye love me, keep my commandments."       What a great amount of religion may be cast out as worthless by this text! Men may keep on going to church, they may be religious throughout their whole loves, and they may be apparently blameless in their moral conduct, and yet there may be nothing in them because there is no love for the ever blessed Christ at the foundation of their profession of faith...      Yes, it was necessary to speak in this way even to the apostles. He said to the chosen Twelve, "If ye love me." We would never have doubted one of them. We now know, by the outcome, that one of them was a traitor to his Lord and sold Him for pieces of silver. But no one suspected him, for he seemed as loyal as any one of them. And if that question, "If ye love me," needed to be raised in the sacred college of the Twelve, how much more must it be allowed to sift our churches a