The Brethren
What Is So Unique About Them!
Johnson C. Philip, PhD (Physics), ThD, DSc, DNYS
Saneesh Cherian, MA (Sociology), PhD, MDiv, DMin (Apologetics)
Copyright 2011, Creative Commons
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Brethren Research Group
· This ebook is offered free of cost to you by the Brethren Research Group. BRG is dedicated
to the propagation of the New Testament Pattern of faith and commitment that is reflected
in the following doctrinal stand:
1. Sola Scriptura (Bible Alone)
2. Sola Fide (Faith Alone)
3. Sola Gratia (Grace Alone)
4. Solus Christus (Christ Alone)
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Brethren Assemblies are a unique Christian group, and both insiders as well as outsiders to this group
should know why it is so. While the church has seen many reformations, the reformation brought in
by the Brethren is unusual and has left an impact upon all church groups.
The Brethren are relatively a small
conservative and Bible-believing Christian
group that has left a remarkable impact upon
Bible exposition and Christian practices
worldwide. Most church historians are of
the opinion that the influence of this group is
unproportionately high when compared to
the small number of churches that the
Brethren have worldwide.
The story begins with Emperor Constantine
who in the fourth century helped to push the
Christian church into total doctrinal darkness.
The rise of the Roman Catholic church, the
suppression of all the core biblical truths, and
biblical illiteracy continued till the time of
Martin Luther. Possessing and reading the
Bible was forbidden for Christians till that
time. Bible and biblical truths were kept
completely away from Christians.
Biblical truth became public once again with
the Protestant Reformation. However, since
Luther, Calvin and many other Reformers
were former Roman Catholics, they continued
to follow many erroneous doctrines and
practices. Reformation started with Luther,
but it did not reach a mature level of Biblical
understanding at his times or till a few
centuries after. Another Reformation was
needed and that came with the arrival of the
Brethren Movement.
The Brethren movement with its origin in the
1800s went one step beyond Reformation.
This movement went back to the Bible to
reclaim the full biblical truth. It embraced right
Biblical doctrines, right Biblical emphasis,
and right Biblical practices. It also rejected
widespread errors in the church. There were a
number of Reformation before the Brethren,
but most of them were partial. Some
emphasized the right doctrine, but embraced
pagan practices. Others emphasized biblical
practices, but soon fell into error because they
did not give emphasis to the Bible, the source
of truth.
A combination of right doctrines, emphasis,
practice, and rejection took for the first time
when the Brethren Movement arose, and that
is why the Brethren Movement is unique in
Church History. We therefore look at this
uniqueness or Brethren Distinctives under the
following headings
· Biblical In Doctrine
· Right In Emphasis
· Right In Practice
· Biblical In Rejection
BRETHREN DISTINCTIVES
The pioneers of the Brethren
movement realized that
unless a structure is built on
the right foundation, it would
collapse. While it is possible to build something that outwardly looks beautiful and attractive even if
it does not have a strong foundation, outward show is not the purpose of spiritual reformation. The
purpose is to build up a healthy and vibrant community of God’s people, who grow and multiply
standing upon the strong and sure foundation.
Rev PE Mammen of Kumbanad, one of the the first
person who gave rise to the Brethren Movement In
Kerala, India
Thus right from the beginning the pioneers of
this movement emphasized the need for a
right understanding of the Scripture. They
made Bible-exposition an essential part of
church meetings, and devoted considerable
time to study and teaching of the Scriptures.
What is more, they kept reminding believers
that like the Bereans (Acts 17:11) everyone
needs to read the Bible and examine
everything in its light. Examine all things and
hold fast to that which is good (I
Thessalonians 5:21) became their slogan.
As a result, weekly and even daily Bible studies
became widespread in the Brethren
Movement. While many churches gathered
people for daily programs, they did so for
rituals — and that also, for man-made rituals
that only enslave people. However, the
Brethren gathered people for studying the
Scripture, the divine communication for
mankind. Thus their understanding of the
Scripture reached a high level and even young
people became good at preaching and
teaching. This has benefited not only the
Brethren, but also all other Protestant church
groups because whenever people try to
spread deviant teachings, the Brethren are
always at the forefront of opposing it. Since
the Scriptures are taught to them right from
their childhood, they are usually better
equipped to spot error, identify the biblical
problems, and oppose it. In this way the
Brethren have played a substantial role in
keeping the Protestant Christianity active,
alive, and opposed to error.
The movement stands upon four key and
cardinal doctrines which are not allowed to be
compromised or diluted in any way. These
doctrines are:
· Sola Scriptural (Bible Alone)
· Sola Fide (Faith Alone)
· Sola Gratia (Grace Alone)
· Solus Christus (Christ Alone)
We have given the concise form of the
cardinal doctrines above first in Latin and then
in English. The Latin form was common during
the Reformation and we keep repeating the
Latin phrases as a reminder to the history of
Reformation. While many churches
proclaimed one or more of the above
doctrines, they did compromise with some of
them. For example, some churches that
emphasized Christ alone negated Grace Alone
by adding works to salvation. The Brethren
are one of the few who stood steadfast
without compromising on all the four cardinal
doctrines above. We will thus look briefly at
the four cardinal doctrines here.
THE RIGHT DOCTRINAL STAND
V Nagal, a German missionary who encouraged the
early Brethren in Kerala
We will discuss all the four unique doctrines in
detail:
1. Sola Scriptura (Bible Alone):
Numerous churches, denominations, and false
cults would like to add their pet doctrines and
practices to Christian truth and practice. For
this they take help from man-made sources
such as church-tradition, the teaching of a
prominent leader of the church, or the books
written by the founder of the denomination or
the cult. Thus for them Christian truth is to be
derived from the Bible PLUS other sources,
and this is how they turn into denominations,
movements, or cults that are unbliblical.
The Brethren Movement recognizes that once
anything is placed alongside the Bible as an
equal or reliable source of doctrinal authority
or divine truth, it is divine truth that gets
diluted. Human philosophies, aspirations, and
even perversion becomes prominent. A good
example is the Roman Catholic Church that
uses tradition to impose celibacy upon people
who serve the church. This is a totally
anti-biblical idea that has become the source
of all kinds of moral corruption in the last 1500
years. Bible plus anything (as a source of
authority in church or in doctrinal matters) will
always result in the obscuring of divine truth.
The first people who left denominational
churches in England or in India to form New
Testament Pattern Churches had 1800 years of
Church History to glean from. Looking at it,
they realized that unless the new movement
gave the Scripture the unique position it
deserves in the church, the new movement
would eventually fail. Thus right from the
beginning these New Testament Pattern
reformers emphasized the doctrine of
Sola Scriptura (Bible Alone), and the Brethren
worldwide therefore came to be known as
“People of the Book”.
They based this stand upon numerous
statements in the Bible, including the
following verses:
· He sheweth his word unto Jacob, his
statutes and his judgments unto Israel.
He hath not dealt so with any nation:
and as for his judgments, they have
not known them. Praise ye the LORD.
(Psalms 147:19, 20)
· All scripture is given by inspiration of
God, and is profitable for doctrine, for
reproof, for correction, for instruction
in righteousness. 2Timoty 3:16
They also based this stand upon the
observation that both Lord Jesus Christ as
well as the apostles always relied upon the
Scripture, not upon human opinion. “It is
written” was a common phrase used by Jesus
and the apostles. The believers at Berea were
commended by God (Acts 17:1-, 11) as being
more noble because they decided the veracity
of messages they heard by searching for
those things in the Scriptures.
The also emphasized that any compromise on
“Revelation in Bible Alone” will open up a
floodgate of errors, and time has proved
them right. Thus people who are faithful to
the New Testament model strongly refuse to
compromise on this doctrine.
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