THE INDEPENDENT ASSEMBLIES
After the establishment of churches in the apostolic era, all independent of each other as undeniably proved through the entire text of the New Testament epistles, and Chapters 2 and 3 of Revelation, there was a polarization of churches around the most influential, the men in the oversight of individual churches organized themselves handing the general supervision of their group over to regional bishops, they in turn chose a leader, or archbishop, who became the supreme doctrinal and functional authority.
These groups claimed to be the "church of Christ” on earth and those that refused to submit to them were persecuted and killed, being labelled as" heretics." They joined the political powers to put pressure on people to submit to their government and civil and religious authority. To facilitate the imposition of their heresies, they hid the Bible from the public...
Thus the local churches lost the biblical principle of having as their head the Lord Jesus, and of giving freedom to the Holy Spirit to make every local church His temple, and to distribute gifts to each of its members in its service (1 Corinthians 12:7-11, 27, 30), to guide members in their service (Luke 2:27, 4:1, Acts 16:6, 7) and to be Himself the power for this service (Acts 1:8, 2:4, 1 Corinthians 2:4).
As a result of the "Protestant Reformation" and the subsequent dissemination of Bible translations from the oldest documents in their original languages, more and more church organizations that called themselves "churches” emerged, moving away from the older ones and approaching the biblical teachings more and more. Unfortunately clericalism was maintained, as well as a great part of the political union, and other bad habits that permeated the old ones.
Let us now skip the seventeen centuries during which the independent churches that remained, and others that arose during that time, were trampled on, destroyed or absorbed by these church organizations, and we will now give a very brief account of how some of the many saints keen to return to the principles taught in the New Testament came to gather, forming again genuine independent churches in recent times.
In Scotland in the late 18th century, two brothers from a wealthy and well-connected family, Robert and James Alexander Haldane, of the national Church of Scotland (Presbyterian), turned and began to diligently study the Scriptures. James married and started having family worship at home, where he taught the family. He realized that this was pleasant and edifying for himself and that was how the Lord prepared him for public speaking.
Although not an ordained minister, he began preaching the Gospel, with others, to small congregations where the minister could not attend. They wrote their own handouts. Eventually they borrowed church buildings to have their meetings.
Reacting, the Synod of the Church of Scotland forbade preaching by people not licensed by it, and this was followed by other synods. James Haldane and his colleagues did not listen and advocated the duty of every Christian to prevent sinners to flee from the wrath to come and to point to Jesus as the Way, the Truth and the Life. They emphasized justification by faith in the death and resurrection of Christ, without works.
Finally they separated themselves from the Church of Scotland, because they could not unite with people who showed they had never been converted, and began to meet only with those who evidenced being children of God. They gathered in a church in Edinburgh, which started with 300 members and grew quickly. One of its first acts was to recognize James Haldane as its "pastor." Robert Haldane arranged large meeting places (which they called "tabernacles"), both in Edinburgh and other places where they assembled.
They began to follow the example and teaching of Scripture, celebrating the Lord's Supper every Sunday, stopped passing a "collection" during general meetings, but members contributed what they could. This was all introduced gradually, as they understood better the will of the Lord according to the Scriptures, as if without human intervention, with the Holy Spirit providing a variety of ministers and ministries, so that they had the great joy of verifying what happened.
Eventually James became convinced that infant baptism had no biblical basis and others with him. Not everyone agreed, so there was an amicable separation: some congregations held infant baptism, others baptized by immersion only those who were converted, while others practiced the two. Some members left, returning to the Church of Scotland and other denominations.
Thus emerged the so-called Congregational churches, which emphasized the duty and responsibility of each congregation organized properly to govern itself, without having to undergo rule by a higher human authority, thus eliminating bishops and presbyteries. In them there was a strong conviction about the sovereignty of God and the priesthood of all believers. Each individual church was autonomous and independent.
In many parts of the world continued to exist and new congregations of believers appeared who sought to only stick to the Scriptures. In the early 19th century a North Irishman named Alexander Campbell, minister of the Presbyterian church, emigrated to Philadelphia in the United States. Upon arriving, he joined a Presbyterian church there, but he was surprised to see that there were deep splits in the Presbyterian churches, and he was even criticized for receiving at the Lord's Supper Presbyterians who did not belong to his own circle.
For defending his position based on Scripture, he was treated harshly to the point of leading him to move away from that church. But he continued his ministry aside, and people from various denominations gathered in his congregation, unhappy with the hostility displayed between the various churches. He preached that unity was only possible through a return to the teachings of the Bible, and made them understand that the struggles and dissent within the churches come as a result of theories and religious systems outside of the Scriptures, and to have fellowship it was necessary "to speak when Scriptures speak, keep silence when the Scriptures are silent.”
With the experience of communion and the hostility of the churches of origin all decided to meet as a single church strictly obeying what the New Testament taught, and nothing more. The church was formed in 1811 without any denomination, with thirty members, who appointed an elder and some deacons.
They found that the early church had a plurality of elders, they extinguished the distinction between "clergy" and "laity", took the Lord's Supper every Sunday and only baptized believers, by immersion (Alexander Campbell himself, his wife, his parents and sister were baptized in 1812), and the church was blessed, growing and preaching the Gospel, and thus forming new assemblies.
In Russia the same happened as did throughout the world, believers were dubbed “the Nazarenes" and were much persecuted by the Orthodox Church which held power there.
Such new independent churches were also assembling in England. Around 1827 one of the pioneers was a dentist in Plymouth called Antony Groves, a dedicated evangelist, and he was instrumental in the formation of a big church in that locality. The members called each other "brothers", and spread the Gospel in other locations. As they would not adopt a denomination, they came to be known as "Plymouth Brethren", and this epithet was also applied to the members of many other independent churches like them in the country.
The Gospel in its simplicity was preached in halls (often called "Gospel Halls") and in the open air, assembling churches based solely and entirely on biblical teaching, without clericalism or rituals, but obeying the ordinances of baptism ( by immersion) and the Lord's Supper. These churches multiplied over time while maintaining independence from each other, and have sent missionaries around the world, including Brazil, to preach the Gospel of Christ without assuming any denomination for themselves.
In Brazil, denominational churches often confuse the members of these independent churches with an exclusive sect, which they call "Darbyist”. It is true that its founder, an Anglican minister, of great scholarship, named John Nelson Darby, participated in the formation of one these churches. He made a translation of the Bible from the original texts still considered to be excellent, and developed a fruitful ministry of evangelization and education.
But Darby did not abandon infant baptism, a practice of the Anglican Church, and maintained that local churches should have one leader and submit to a central authority. He had other theories about the early church that separated him from the common understanding of most New Testament churches. Eventually he cut off communion with the churches which did not admit his ideas, and became the central authority of the churches that followed him, introducing a strict discipline and forbidding communion with any other church, denominational or not.
These churches therefore became known as churches of the "exclusive brethren". Darby sadly departed in the opposite direction of Campbell: Campbell assembled believers who understood it to be right to meet solely in the name of Christ, leaving the religious institutions of various denominations to turn to the New Testament teaching only, while Darby created his own institution, bringing under his authority the congregations which followed him.