Radicals, Heretics, … Ana-Baptists! - A Lecture

Thine holy place they have destroyed,

  Thine altars overthrown,

And reaching forth their bloody hands,

  Have foully slain thine own.

And we alone, thy little flock,

  The few who still remain,

Are exiles wandering through the land,

  In sorrow an in pain.

We are, alas, like scattered sheep,

  The shepherd not in sight,

Each far away from home and hearth,

  And, like the birds of night

That hide away in rocky clefts,

  We have our rocky hold,

Yet near at hand, as for the birds,

  There waits the hunter bold.

We wander in the forests dark,

  With dogs upon our track;

And like the captive, silent lamb

  Men bring us, prisoners, back.

They point to us amid the throng,

  And with their taunts offend;

And long to let the sharpened axe

  On heretics desend.

-          Anabaptist Hymn: Leonhart Schiemer – 31, Auss Bundt

Prayer

Birth of the Anabaptism Movement

January 21, 1525, a dozen or so men slowly trudged through the snow.  Quietly but resolutely, singly or in pairs, they came by night to the home of Felix Manz, in the shadow of the Grossmünster.

And it came to pass that they were together until anxiety came upon them, yes, they were so pressed in their hearts. Thereupon they began to bow their knees to the Most High God in heaven and called upon him as the Informer of Hearts, and they prayed that he would give to them his divine will and that he would show his mercy unto them. For flesh and blood and human forwardness did not drive them, since they well knew what they would have to suffer on account of it.

After the prayer, George of the House of Jacob stood up and besought Conrad Grebel for God's sake to baptize him with the true Christian baptism upon his faith and knowledge. And when he knelt down with such a request and desire, Conrad baptized him, since at that time there was no ordained minister to perform such work.

After his baptism at the hands of Grebel, Blaurock proceeded to baptize all the others present. The newly baptized then pledged themselves as true disciples of Christ to live lives separated from the world and to teach the gospel and hold the faith. And with that birthed what we know now as the Anabaptist movement.

Introduction

For those of you who don’t know, I enjoy studying history, specifically Biblical/Church history. So before just jumping into Anabaptist history we should ask ourselves why is it necessary in the first place?

Pastor Keith touched on this a little bit at the end of the sermon a few weeks ago but I want to spend some time examining this question. Let me start by making a statement that we’ll look at:

                “History, i.e. the study of, is foundational to understanding Doctrine and Theology”

So what do I mean? Well God being all powerful and all-knowing could have simply giving us an extended version of Leviticus, where it’s just rule after rule; simply a list of do’s and don’ts for every situation that we faced. 

In the bible we have a historical record of past events, from a variety of authors, settings, styles. It’s not just a list of accomplishments of the Hebrew people nor their trials. So the question remains, Why? If our goal is just to know what to believe and explain it why did he not just give us text book on systematic theology?

I am sorry but I am going to ask that you open up your bibles now, though I know Pastor Keith snuck it in during his “lecture” so I think it’s ok. J

First let’s take a look at Colossians 1:24-28:

[24] Now I rejoice in my sufferings for your sake, and in my flesh I am filling up what is lacking in Christ's afflictions for the sake of his body, that is, the church, [25] of which I became a minister according to the stewardship from God that was given to me for you, to make the word of God fully known, [26] the mystery hidden for ages and generations but now revealed to his saints. [27] To them God chose to make known how great among the Gentiles are the riches of the glory of this mystery, which is Christ in you, the hope of glory. [28] Him we proclaim, warning everyone and teaching everyone with all wisdom, that we may present everyone mature in Christ.

(Colossians 1:24-28 ESV)

We see Paul’s desire to make the word of God fully known. Notice he is not simply talking about telling someone the Gospel. He is experiencing the Gospel physically as well as spiritually so it is not just a philosophical discussion for him.

One more passage, Colossians 2:8-15:

                [8] See to it that no one takes you captive by philosophy and empty deceit, according to human tradition, according to the elemental spirits of the world, and not according to Christ. [9] For in him the whole fullness of deity dwells bodily, [10] and you have been filled in him, who is the head of all rule and authority. [11] In him also you were circumcised with a circumcision made without hands, by putting off the body of the flesh, by the circumcision of Christ, [12] having been buried with him in baptism, in which you were also raised with him through faith in the powerful working of God, who raised him from the dead. [13] And you, who were dead in your trespasses and the uncircumcision of your flesh, God made alive together with him, having forgiven us all our trespasses, [14] by canceling the record of debt that stood against us with its legal demands. This he set aside, nailing it to the cross. [15] He disarmed the rulers and authorities and put them to open shame, by triumphing over them in him.

(Colossians 2:8-15 ESV)

Here we see Paul encouraging the brethren not to be swept away by worldly philosophy, why? Because Christ is God in the flesh and he dwells in you and that he has made you alive. And see how he once again specifically mentions how God intervened in History by nailing our debt to the cross and disarming the rulers and authorities. This knowledge of Christ is experiential; we have a real God who came in the flesh at a specific time for a specific purpose and now dwells with us.

I believe this is what we see when we look to our forefathers. For those that were truly Christians, their desire was not just to have the best biblical interpretation, or the best apologetic. They had the desire to conform their lives to be more like Christ. So we see men and women struggling again and again over theology and trying to be obedient to God’s word. And as the early church was able to learn from Paul and the struggles he had in teaching and defending God’s word, we have the benefit of 2 thousand years of Christian brothers and sisters struggling with God’s word that we can learn from.

With that in mind we will not spend all of our time just going over names/places/dates but we will make sure to spend time examining theological debates of the past. So today we will attempt to do that with an often over looked group of Heretics/Believers known as the Anabaptists.

Reformation Context

If you remember; a couple weeks ago we covered Martin Luther and the Protestant Reformation in Germany. Then we touched on the Anabaptists a little bit, focusing on the great suffering and persecution they went through.

Another prominent figure in his own right though often over shadowed by Luther is Ulrich Zwingli, also known as the ‘Swiss Reformer’. The young priest was called to Zurich, Switzerland to be the people’s priest in the city church of Grossmünster in the early 16^th century. Inspired by Erasmus and Luther he had a zeal for the New Testament and the Gospel. He guided the city and eventually the country to reform by not just preaching the gospel but by teaching the word and instituting disputations. (A combination between a theological debate and a court case.)

This is the context were the Anabaptists come in. Zwingli attracted many young scholars hungry for the Word of God. Three men are worth pointing out today as they are credited as the founders of this Anabaptist movement:

Conrad Grebel – Scholar; His father was a member of the Zurich City Council

Felix Manz – Illegitimate son of a catholic priest and very well educated; Soon to be the first Anabaptist martyr at the hands of Zwingli’s followers.

George Blaurock – Former Monk; Known for his eloquence and eventually called ‘the second Paul’ by his brethren.

I want to take a moment to try and give you an idea of the scope of the movement. Even though these men are credited as being the founders of the movement it is by no mean a centralized or organized group.

Roughly the same time as these men were meeting together that historic night in Zurich similar ideas were popping up throughout Europe. Areas like Austria / Germany / Moravia and the Netherlands. For the sake of time we will focus on Switzerland and the common thread among these groups.

Radicals / Heretics / … Ana - Baptists!

Now we come to the heart of the matter. For a thousand years it has been the Law that re-baptism was a heresy punishable by death along with Anti-Trinitarianism.  So the question is would cause these men on that cold winter night to sign their own death warrants?

Thankfully God has preserved for us many writings of these men including what could be considered as the Anabaptist confession of faith. Just like the 5 solas this allows us to take a look at what these Brethren saw distinguished themselves from the Catholics and reformers. It is known at the Schleitheim Confession.

The Schleitheim Confession

It covered seven issues, or points:

1. Baptism
2. The Ban (Excommunication)
3. Breaking of Bread
4. Separation from the Abomination
5. Pastors in the Church
6. The Sword
7. The Oath

If there is one issue above all others that explains their split with Zwingli and the reformers it would not specifically be baptism. Though baptism is directly link to it, the main point of contention would be that the Church, the true church, is of confessing believers only. This lead directly to the first point, that:

“Baptism shall be given to all those who have learned repentance and amendment of life, and who believe truly that their sins are taken away by Christ, and to all those who walk in the resurrection of Jesus Christ, and wish to be buried with Him in death, so that they may be resurrected with Him and to all those who with this significance request it (baptism) of us and demand it for themselves.”

So the practice of infant baptism, which the reformers accepted was, “The highest and chief abomination of the Pope.” This point is the core issue that runs through all the forms of the movement we see through Europe so let’s take time to examine it.

Baptism

Though the reformers had much disagreement with the Catholic Church, one thing that did not change is the mixed State / Church which accepted all that were baptized. The Brethren were convinced that baptism was for believers only which forced them to reject infant baptism.  They charged the reformers with being ‘Semi Popery’ and “Halfway Men’ because they would not completely separate from the Pope.

Thus they were labeled ‘radicals’ for trying to create a new church of newly baptized adults, hence came the demeaning charge against them, “Anabaptist” which means ‘Re – Baptize’.  This title of course they would not accept as they firmly believed there is only 1 true baptism, so they called themselves the ‘Brethren’.

Zwingli tried to persuade them that they were in error but to no avail. And is 1525 in Zurich was held a series of 3 public disputations where the Brethren were to defend their position.  Unfortunately they were unable to refute the charges of Zwingli and his followers and by the end the magistrate judged against them. An issue was ordered that infants should be baptized and parents that refused should leave the city.

The brethren refused to obey and as a result the leaders were rounded up and arrested. Though some did profess conversion (back to Protestantism) and were set free the others escaped and continued to preach and teach the gospel.

Grebel, Manz, and Blaurock were rearrested and the magistracy threatened death by drowning for those that continued in this error. In Jan of 1527 Felix Mans became the first martyr of the Swiss Brethren crying out “Into thy hands, O Lord, I commend my spirit!”

This unfortunately was only the beginning as men and women alike were martyred all across Europe by both Catholics and Protestants. And as Pastor Keith described in more detail it was devastating to the movement. Though persecuted they saw rapid growth from 1525 until about 1540 throughout Europe. However, since churches were not left with leaders for very long they were quickly scattered and suffered greatly as is expressed in their hymns.

Thine holy place they have destroyed,

  Thine altars overthrown,

And reaching forth their bloody hands,

  Have foully slain thine own.

And we alone, thy little flock,

  The few who still remain,

Are exiles wandering through the land,

  In sorrow and in pain.

We are, alas, like scattered sheep,

  The shepherd not in sight,

Each far away from home and hearth,

  And, like the birds of night

That hide away in rocky clefts,

  We have our rocky hold,

Yet near at hand, as for the birds,

  There waits the hunter bold

We wander in the forests dark,

  With dogs upon our track;

And like the captive, silent lamb

  Men bring us, prisoners, back.

They point to us amid the throng,

  And with their taunts offend;

And long to let the sharpened axe

  On heretics descend.

Conclusion

History matters!

Theology matters!

Men and women alike have shed their blood so that they might more fully know Christ. And Christ shed his blood so that we might fully know God.  And this sometimes requires debating over God’s Word so that we protect each other from error and heresy. Even in the pages of the scriptures we see this done by Paul and Barnabas over the issue of circumcision.

Acts 15

                [4] When they came to Jerusalem, they were welcomed by the church and the apostles and the elders, and they declared all that God had done with them. [5] But some believers who belonged to the party of the Pharisees rose up and said, “It is necessary to circumcise them and to order them to keep the law of Moses.”

                [6] The apostles and the elders were gathered together to consider this matter. [7] And after there had been much debate, Peter stood up and said to them, “Brothers, you know that in the early days God made a choice among you, that by my mouth the Gentiles should hear the word of the gospel and believe. [8] And God, who knows the heart, bore witness to them, by giving them the Holy Spirit just as he did to us, [9] and he made no distinction between us and them, having cleansed their hearts by faith. [10] Now, therefore, why are you putting God to the test by placing a yoke on the neck of the disciples that neither our fathers nor we have been able to bear? [11] But we believe that we will be saved through the grace of the Lord Jesus, just as they will.”

(Acts 15:4-11 ESV)

Notice what the text says, they

1.       Where welcomed by the church

2.       Some believers said it was necessary.

3.       The apostles and elders were gathered together to consider this matter.

This was a Christian debate on very significant issue and they judged accordingly. This is what we see throughout history and we should expect to do the same in our own lives. Truth matters and sometimes Christians get it wrong, or are led astray. As Paul says to Timothy, “All Scripture is breathed out by God and profitable for teaching, for reproof, for correction, and for training in righteousness, that the man of God may be competent, equipped for every good work.”

Prayer

Let us pray that God gives us the wisdom to teach/reproof/correct our brothers and sisters and gives us the humility to accept correction ourselves. 

*** Sources ***