The Church of God is the living stones of those who believe in Christ and accept him as their Lord, the head of the corner. All the offices of this Church are filled by Christ Himself - priest, bishop, shepherd, teacher, healer, savior. We worship God in spirit and in truth, trembling in awe of His power, meeting together under the cross of Christ waiting for Him, the Word, to guide us. Peter was an unlearned fisherman, yet by the anointing of the Holy Spirit he became known as chief among the apostles. It was not his leaning but his direct experience, again by the Holy Spirit, which showed him that Jesus Christ was the messiah, and that converted him to Paul, the apostle of the gentiles.
Friends eschew the importance of all external religious practice.
By His own blood we become a part of Him. The purpose of baptism is to wash one clean of past sins and of the power of sin, to leave one pure to go forward as a member of the body of Christ. Jesus plainly warned of the hypocrisy of the Pharisees, who washed the outside of the cup and left the inside unclean, or who whitewashed the outside of a tomb when the inside was corrupt. This true cleansing is the baptism we recognize and humbly seek every day. Although Jesus submitted to baptism himself, he clearly stated that he did so to fulfill the scriptures.