A History of the Mennonite Brethren Church, Ja Toews

with unbelievers, but shall come out from among them, and be separate. g) Regarding footwashing, we confess that the Lord Jesus instituted it, John 13; to be practiced among one another, for the blessing is in the deed, not in knowledge. h) Teachers (preachers) may be called in two Scriptural ways: Some are chosen by God alone, without human assistance, and sent out by His Spirit, as were the prophets and apostles, and also the house of Stephanas was self-appointed to the ministry of the saints. 1 Corinthians 26:15. Such are also mentioned by Paul in 1 Timothy 3. Others are called through the instrumentality of true believers, as recorded in Acts 1. Menno recognized this, as he clearly proves in his Grundfundament (basic doctrine), Vol. I, p. 148. i) Regarding the ban, we confess that all carnal and reprobate sinners must be banned from the fellowship of believers, as Paul states in 2 Thessalonians 3:14-15. In the event that someone falls into a carnal sin (God save us from it), and the Spirit of Christ, who alone can work true repentance, convicts him of his sin, so that he confesses and repents; in that case, the church has no authority to ban such a repentant sinner, because the forgiveness of sin is not obtained in or through the ban, but by the merit of Jesus Christ. This was also Menno's conviction, as recorded in Vol. Ill, p. 334 and 335. However, an unrepentant sinner may not be accepted into the fellowship of believers, until he be genuinely converted to Christ. k) In all other articles of our confession, we are in full agreement with Menno Simons. Elizabethal, January 6, 1860. Abraham Cornelssen. Corn. Wiens. I soak Koop. Franz Klaassen. Abr. Wiens. Martin Klaassen. Abr. Wiens. Daniel Hoppe. August Strauss. Jakob Boecker. Isaak Regehr. Andr. Voth. Jakob Wall. Joh. Claassen. Heinrich Huebert. Peter Stobbe. Abr. Peters. Diedrich Claassen. 31 The brethren added a footnote to this document, informing the elders that if they desired to communicate with the fellowship in this matter, the brethren Cornelsen, Koop and Claassen had been appointed as their representatives. A brief evaluation of this "Document of Secession" is in order. In the first place, it must not be regarded as a Confession of Faith, since it was composed too hurriedly and too much under the pressures of the immediate circumstance. It is, however, a statement that reveals the causes for the formation of the Mennonite Brethren Church, and the doctrinal position of the Brethren on some of the crucial and controversial issues of that day. In the second place it may be noted, that the main charges brought against the "decadent church" were never publicly refuted by the elders. On the contrary, the elder of the Ohrloff Church generally agreed 36 HISTORY OF THE MENNONITE BRETHREN CHURCH with the views of the Brethren regarding the moral and spiritual conditions within the churches, even though he disapproved of their p