In 1992, due to doctrinal disagreements in the FGBC, the Conservative Grace Brethren Churches, International was formed.
The conservative faction objected to the bestowal of membership status upon individuals who could not tangibly demonstrate their support for the church's doctrinal convictions with regard to baptism, which is traditionally regarded as a triple immersion within historic Brethren circles,[1] in accordance with Jesus' directives in Matthew 28:19.
Conservatives within the FGBC felt that the broader group was compromising its standards in the name of pragmatic growth strategies.
Division was further cemented in the minds of conservatives with what was regarded as the unjust and ill-advised ouster of a much beloved and internationally respected professor, Dr. John C. Whitcomb, from the faculty of what was perceived as an increasingly liberalized Grace Theological Seminary, which was viewed by many conservatives as having fallen under the dominating influences of neo-evangelicalism.
Minor revisions and additional comments added to the CGBCI's statement of faith in 1994 were designed to "conserve" what the CGBCI asserts are the original Grace Brethren tenets, including a young earth creation, the cessation of miraculous sign gifts, a seven-year eschatological tribulation period, the doctrine of eternal punishment as a conscious state of unending torment, the absolute and unlimited inerrancy of Scripture, and the exclusive practice of baptism by trine immersion, as well as the exclusive practice of communion as a threefold ordinance (involving foot-washing, the Love Feast, and the Eucharist).