An English born preacher (Edwin Fesche, now of Baltimore) taught this writer years ago that to be a valid ordinance of the Christian church, an observance had to be three things:

1. Instituted by Christ Himself

2. Practiced in the Acts of the Apostles

3. Explained in the Epistles of the N. T.

Only two ordinances meet these three criteria: Baptism and the Lord’s Supper.

Arthur Farstad, Journal of the Grace Evangelical Society, Spring, 1991, p. 7