Religious Practices
Members seek to obey the Bible, which they hold to be the infallible Word of God. Many of their practices, however, are not explicitly derived from the Bible. Rather, some of them are biblically inspired traditions derived from the writings of Froehlich (who was strongly influenced by early church writers such as Tertullian) and some are past practices found to be beneficial. These traditions are passed from one generation to the next and are held in high esteem, but never meant to approach the level of Biblical commandments. Members are disciplined out of love, and the degree of discipline varies on the degree of sin. If the member commits a sin unto death, as laid out by the bible, he or she will be excommunicated, but never shunned. Members are disciplined because of sin and not, as commonly misconceived, because of adherence to traditions. Traditions within the Apostolic Christian Church help encourage believers in their commitment to serving the Lord, help to knit generations together, and provide close harmony among the various congregations.
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Famous quotes containing the words religious and/or practices:
“We think of religion as the symbolic expression of our highest moral ideals; we think of magic as a crude aggregate of superstitions. Religious belief seems to become mere superstitious credulity if we admit any relationship with magic. On the other hand our anthropological and ethnographical material makes it extremely difficult to separate the two fields.”
—Ernst Cassirer (1874–1945)
“They that have grown old in a single state are generally found to be morose, fretful and captious; tenacious of their own practices and maxims; soon offended by contradiction or negligence; and impatient of any association but with those that will watch their nod, and submit themselves to unlimited authority.”
—Samuel Johnson (1709–1784)