That the New Testament Scriptures stand alone as the source material of the Christian Way is very widely recognized. As to the final authority of this literature, however, there are two widely divergent schools, the Roman Catholic and the Protestant. The former places authority in the Church militant, while the latter clings to the maxim of Chillingworth, "The Bible is the religion of Protestants".

It is the position of the writer that the imprisonment epistles of Paul were written by the apostle some time during his three year stay in Ephesus. Though this view is comparatively new and has few adherents among New Testament students, yet in recent years it has been gaining more and more consideration and appreciation among those who critically study the situation.

Modern scholarship, in its effort to render a true account of the facts of existence, has placed much emphasis on what is sometimes called the historical method of study. The presupposition of this method is that the essence of reality lies in development, growth, and adaptation, whether the reality sought is that of an organic formation, an institution, or an idea. It is assumed that one cannot satisfactorily understand a thing until one knows the sources from which it sprang, the processes by which it came into being, and the changes which it has experienced in becoming adapted to its varying conditions.

The following is an attempt to make an unbiased search in the records of the New Testament to determine, if possible, the order of the steps to be taken by a person seeking pardon for sin. No attempt is being made to substantiate any preconceived theory. The study was prompted by a desire to settle in my own mind, by an unprejudiced search through the records, the question concerning the Law of Pardon to which I had heard many varying answers.

This study does not contemplate the work of a commentary on the Gospel according to Mark. The exegesis, explanation, and exposition of the text of the Second Evangelist is therefore excluded from this consideration.

The Bible and the Bible alone is the creed of "the Protestants" was an important statement. It startled the Protestant world, and eventually brought a reformation era into the thought and theology of the Protestants in America in the nineteenth century.

My interest in the subject of this thesis dates back ten years to the time when as a College and Theological Seminary Graduate I began to make my first visits to the sick in the congregation of which I had become pastor. Questions began to present themselves because the average sick calling seemed so perfunctory. Was I calling just to bring greetings from the church and to show my own interest? If I had prayer with the person who was sick, what answer should I expect to my prayer? Would or should there be immediate improvement and if not, why not? Would prayer help at all in the recovery? Was prayer merely a subjective spiritual exercise and if so did it have value alike for functional and organic sickness?

This dissertation is precisely what the title implies - "A History of Christian Education Among the Disciples of Christ in Indiana." We have related facts as we have discovered them in our research, with no attempt, whatever, to interpret the facts or to champion one theory or method of Christian education to the disparagement of another. We have tried to discover every enterprise of Christian education that has been undertaken by the Disciples in Indiana since they first entered the state.

With a Disciple background, the writer of this thesis has quite naturally been very much interested in the subject of Christian baptism. Any study of the value and meaning of Christian baptism will, of course, lead one back to a consideration of its origin. It seems that one is usually content with the conviction that Jesus instituted baptism and lets it go at that.

The ancient Egyptians believed in the immortality of the Soul and in Rebirth. The Egyptian embalming of the dead originated in their belief in a life beyond the grave. Polytheism and Ancestor worship prevailed in the earlier ages and as far back as history can trace it.