A. OFFENSES

1. An offense is anything in the principles or practice of a church member or court which is contrary to the Holy Scriptures, the Constitution of the Associate Reformed Presbyterian Church, and the Westminster Confession of Faith and Catechisms.
2. Offenses are either personal or general, private or public but all offenses, being sins against God, are grounds for discipline. A personal offense is a violation of the law of God in the way of wrong done to some particular person or persons, including one's own self. A general offense is a violation of the law of God not directed against any particular person. Private offenses are those known only to an individual or, at most, to a few persons. Public offenses are those which are generally known.

B. CENSURES
(See Chapter VII on the Application of Censures)

1. There are five ascending degrees of church censure: admonition, rebuke, suspension, deposition, and expulsion. When a lesser censure fails to reclaim the offender, the court shall consider the infliction of a higher degree of censure.
(a) Admonition is kindly reproving an offender, warning him of his guilt and danger, and exhorting him to refrain from such conduct in the future.
(b) Rebuke is a reprimand, a strong, authoritative expression of disapproval by a church court.
(c) Suspension is temporary exclusion from receiving the sacraments or from a church office or from both. This censure becomes necessary when more serious offenses have been committed or when, notwithstanding admonition or rebuke, an offense is persistently repeated.
(d) Deposition is depriving an officer of the Church of his office.
(e) Expulsion is the judicial dismissal of an offender from membership in the church. This fearful censure is to be passed only for such errors or violations of the law of God as are grossly inconsistent with the Christian faith, or for obstinate persistence in grave offenses in the face of milder censures. Its purpose, like all censures, is to reclaim the member for Christ's service.
2. The censures of the Church are in no case to be employed for any selfish or vindictive purpose.