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Church Order

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Seventh-day Adventist Publishing Association · Battle Creek, Mich. · Tuesday, April 21, 1885

FromAdvent Review and Sabbath Herald, Vol. 62, No. 16

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Church Order

A correspondent inquires if it is right for a person who has been turned out of a church, still to claim church fellowship with that church; that is, can he properly attend the meetings and bear his ordinary testimony just as if no change had taken place in the relations between them?
The answer to this question must be in the negative, viewed in any light whatever. It is to be presumed that the church is right in disfellowshipping the individual; and if so, that action should be respected; and a person with any sense of propriety would respect it, and the first thing he has to do further in connection with that church is to cancel his offense by suitable confession. And if the church has any sense of propriety it cannot suffer its action to be ignored and trampled under foot.
On the other hand, if the church has made a mistake, and the person has been disfellowshipped without just cause, he has the right of appeal to higher authorities for an investigation; and if he is vindicated, the church should withdraw its charges, cancel its action, and re-instate the individual in its fellowship again.