About this Book: |
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Baptists have generally held that a church is both an organization and an organism. As an organism (a living being, or as the Bible calls the church “lively stones” in I Peter 2:5) a church can bring forth after her kind (Gen. 1:24). We mean by this that a church may dismiss some of her members to form a new and separate church, or by sending forth a missionary with authority to organize a new and separate church. We do not believe in the spontaneous generation of churches any more than we believe in spontaneous generation of animal or human life. We hold as the Scriptures teach that all life comes from antecedent life.
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About the Author: |
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Milburn Richard Cockrell was born on a cotton farm in Itawamba County near Mantachie, Mississippi, Jan. 24, 1941. He was converted in a spring revival at the First Baptist Church of Mantachie in 1956. He was licensed to preach by his home church at the age of 16, and he preached his first sermon on March 22, 1957. The First Baptist Church of Mantachie ordained him on Feb. 27, 1960, the year he graduated from Mantachie High School.
During his first pastorate at the Big Oak Baptist Church, Dorsey, Miss., he married Bettie Sheron Burcham on June 7, 1960. This union was blessed with four children, Gayle, Marsha, Christopher, and Derek.
Elder Cockrell pastored churches in Mississippi, Missouri, Kentucky, and Ohio. He preached for 40 years on various radio broadcasts. From his pen came many articles in Baptist papers. He was the founder and editor of The Berea Baptist Banner, a paper with an international circulation. He has authored many tracts and books.
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