In August of the same year, five men, including Mack, and three women gathered at the Eder, a small river that flows through Schwarzenau, to perform baptism as an outward symbol of their new interpretation of the faith.
Mack along with the seven others believed that the Roman Catholic, Lutheran, and Reformed churches were taking extreme liberties with the true message of Christianity revealed in the New Testament, so they rejected state-church unions, use of force and violence, and the established liturgy, including infant baptism and existing Eucharistic practices.
The founding Brethren were broadly influenced by Radical Pietist understandings of an invisible, nondenominational church of awakened Christians who would fellowship together in equality, purity, and love, following Jesus while awaiting Christ's return.
By 1708, the date of the first Brethren baptisms, Mack had rejected this position in favor of forming a separate church with visible rules and ordinances—including threefold baptism by immersion, a three-part Love Feast (that combined communion with feet washing and an evening meal), anointing, and use of Church discipline steps as instructed in Matthew 18, culminating with the "ban" against wayward members.
[2] In 1743 Christopher Sauer, an early preacher and a printer, printed a Bible in German, the first published in a European language in North America.
[3] The first schism from the general body of German Baptist Brethren occurred in 1728, but more followed after the American Revolution, as different groups sought their own ways.
In 1883, the Brethren Church left the German Baptist Brethren over several matters revolving around separation from following fleeting fashions and whatever is popular with the world (James 4:4) including Sunday Schools, higher education, expensive and luxurious dress fads, revivalism, nationalism and practicing less church discipline.
They wanted to focus on personal discipleship, daily and weekly worship, bearing one another's burdens, and working together to build relationships while conquering obstacles.
They did not want to lose their children to a fast, self-centered lifestyle and kept a cautious attitude, waiting to observe resulting consequences rather than automatically accepting every new innovation of the 19th century.
At the same time, Henry Holsinger, a leader of the progressives in the church, published writings that some Brethren considered slanderous, anti-Jesus, and unscriptural and schismatic.
After the 1930 divide, those who adopted the use of the automobile placed less stress on annual meeting authority than did the parent body, believing it to be more for edification and teaching.
Personal conviction from the Holy Spirit and Scripture rather than legislative decisions of annual meeting is now the basis for adherence to the church's order.
Two other minor divisions in the parent body of "Old German Baptist Brethren" occurred in the 1990s resulting in three car driving congregations of 185 total members.
In 2009, a major division was a result of the rejection, by a large percentage of members (approximately 2,400 individuals),[7] of an unprecedented committee report [8] adopted by the 2009 Annual Meeting held near Waterford, CA.
The report stated in part, "Members of the Old German Baptist Brethren Church in full fellowship and in good standing with the Church, believe and agree that the Old German Baptist Brethren’s interpretation of New Testament doctrine is scriptural and has been prompted by the Holy Spirit and it is their mind to remain in this fellowship and to teach, support and promote the unity of the Spirit in the bond of peace.
Those who refused to accept the report gave their names, which were recorded and sent to the secretary of the standing committee for processing, and they were disfellowshipped (i.e. excommunicated).
A majority of the members who did not accept the Report and were subsequently disfellowshipped participated in the re-organization of a new body, which was organized at a July 3, 2009, meeting in Troy, Ohio, called the Old German Baptist Brethren, New Conference.
As of 2015, there is a group of nine brethren working autonomously with outside communications companies to arrange a "third party" system to allow their members access to needed online information without actually using the World Wide Web themselves.
A trickle of members moving to the more traditional horse and buggy groups (primarily Old Brethren German Baptist) may also have slowed.
Not receiving satisfaction and being unwilling to submit to the repeated decisions and re-affirmations of the general brotherhood at the Annual Meeting, and following the work of a committee of elders called to the Antietam, PA congregation to resolve several issues, there were two independent meetings held on November 11-12 and December 9-10, 2020, on a farm near Greencastle, Pennsylvania, to discuss the grievances of the dissatisfied members and to consider a formal separation from the main body.
An agreement was reached by those present to re-organize as The Old German Baptist Church, and between 500 and 600 members aligned themselves with this new group; the majority of the new membership was primarily composed of individuals from Pennsylvania, along with others from New York, Wisconsin, California, Ohio, Indiana, Kansas, Missouri, and West Virginia.
A Doctrinal Treatise was published in 1952, primarily for the sake of young men who went abroad in Civilian Public Service camps or other work programs, and it presents many doctrinal distinctives of the OGBB; however it is not a creed or formal statement of faith to which members must subscribe, as members interpret and apply some of its various theological points differently.
When there is a question of applications for a specific issue or area of life for which Scripture has no clear mandate, the members gather once a year at their annual meeting and consider the issue in light of Scripture, past practices, and current contexts, then voice (or vote) on it, with a few chosen leaders of the church counting the votes.
The theological position of the OGBB was largely established by Peter Nead and William J. Shoup, both prolific Brethren authors and preachers.
Ex-member Michael Hari contributed two widely circulated books of essays titled Brethren Thinking and One Faith in recent years.
They are noted for several ordinances like believer's baptism by trine immersion, feet washing, the love feast, a communion of unleavened bread and wine, the holy kiss, and anointing of the sick with oil.
The Old German Baptist Brethren are a non-resistant sect, whose young men usually file as conscientious objectors in times of war.
The main difference is the use of a Brethren-style angled cape over the dress bodice, which is only attached around the neck and not at the waist as Mennonites and Amish do.
The more conservative women may wear a loose winter cloak instead of a more form-fitting coat, and a black bonnet over their white covering when going out.
There are no radios, television sets, stereos, tape recorders, VCRs, or large musical instruments in members' homes.