Reformation Overview: The Anabaptist
May 13, 2010 Leave a comment
Here at last are the ones I can identify the most with. They were called the Radicals and for their time they were. By being baptised as adults they were denying the efficacy of their childhood baptism and in so doing incurred the wrath of not only the Roman Catholic Church but those Protestants who had not yet seen the full light of the Scriptures. They had not seen that baptism actually plays no part in salvation but is instead by Faith Alone without any good or indeed ritual works. (Eph 2:8-10)
“Anabaptist” is a term that means “rebaptizer” and refers to what is known as the Radical Reformation.
The Protestant Reformation began in Germany in 1517. It sprang up in a different but similar form in Zurich in the early 1520′s, begun by Ulrich Zwingli, Conrad Grebel, and Felix Manz.
A disagreement over infant baptism resulted in Ulrich Zwingli having the support of the Zurich city council, while Grebel and Manz were told to submit.
They did not. Instead, along with Georg Blaurock and a few others, they rebaptized each other upon a confession of faith and began a free (non-state) church in Zollikon, just outsize Zurich. Thus, Ulrich Zwingli went on to become one of the three major Reformers, while Grebel and Manz were responsible for the Radical Reformation or Anabaptists.
Persecution shut down the church in Zollikon, but Anabaptist preachers spread throughout German and Dutch-speaking countries of Europe. They were persecuted by Roman Catholic and Protestant states alike.
At first, they were a shining example of the primitive Christian spirit, zealous, filled with love and an evangelical spirit, and steadfast in persecution. Sadly, within 50 years strife over rules and leadership split them, beginning in Holland and rapidly spreading through the entire movement.
Today, their most numerous descendants are the Amish and Mennonites, though the German Baptist Brethren, Hutterites, Bruderhofs, and numerous splinter groups also survive. Their influence may actually be growing in the 21st century due to interaction with the home school movement.
Unfortunately, modern Anabaptists, who often refer to themselves as “plain people,” are known more for their distinctive dress, Pennsylvania Dutch language, and refusal to drive cars than for zeal for Christ.
They also continue to divide over minor issues.
Many of us who carry our Anabaptist names with pride … have returned in thought and practice to the world. Those of us who haven’t done that, clinging to the traditions and the language of our forefathers, have split into almost innumerable little groups. (Peter Hoover, The Secret of the Strength, p. 270)
What was easily the most holy and most apostolic of modern Christian movements has degenerated into something unrecognizable as Christian. However, their holiness and influence on the fledgling state Protestant churches, especially on the early Baptists, can be credited for much of the freedom that we enjoy in the western world today.
These early Baptists frequently paid the ultimate price for their simple faith. To the shame of the early Reformers it was the Protestants who often did the persecuting
I am not alone in finding it ironic that many Baptists are Calvinists as they would have been put to death under the reign of Calvin.
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