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TOP | RELIGION | CHRISTIANITY | ANABAPTIST

What Are Anabaptists?

To: alt.magick.tyagi,alt.christnet,alt.religion.christian,alt.religion.christian.anabaptist.brethren,talk.religion.misc,alt.religion.anabaptist
From: "Terry & Utahna" 
Subject: Re: What Are Anabaptists? (the question is answered here)
Date: Fri, 03 Aug 2001 02:43:33 GMT

I'll disagree with this definition.  As a Missionary Baptist, and a
decendent of those who came before me, Anabaptist, Paulicans, Waldenses,
Albigenses, Montanists, Novationists, Donatists, Henricians, Petrobussians,
Bogomils, Arnoldists, Cathari, Picards, and whatever other name they went by
or were given.  This sect pre-dates the catholic church and therefore are
NOT protestants.  They did not protest out of the catholic church as the
Lutherans, Anglicans, Presbyterians, & Congregationalists did.  They existed
before the catholic church and were not an "arising movement" as this
definition states, but a continuing manifestation of the original Church
that Jesus Christ Himself founded.

> Anabaptist ... *n* : a Protestant sectarian of a radical
> movement arising in Zurich in 1524 and advocating the
> baptism and church membership of adult believers only,
> the practice of holiness, simplicity, nonresistance,
> mutual help, and the separation of church and state....

Now, let's take a look at the Re-Baptizers (The Anabaptists)

a.  The name "Anabaptist"
    The name Ana-Baptist means "re-baptizer".  It was a name given to this
ancient group of Baptists by their enemies because they practiced
rebaptizing all who were saved and came out of the catholic church.  It was
a name of slander and reproach by their enemies.

b.  The origins of the Anabaptists
    Many church history books put the begining of the Anabaptists around
1500, at the beginning of the reformation, but they can be traced back to
the earliest times of Church History.

    1.  The Anabaptists Descended from the Mediaeval Valdenses.
        The Waldenses were the outgrowth of many other groups down through
the years.  The Waldenses entered Holland in 1182 and by the year 1233,
Flanders was full of them.  The Waldenses were persecuted in France and
Italy, which drove many into Germany, Switzerland, and Bohemia.  These were
the seeds of the Anabaptists.


The doctrines of the Anabaptists were:

1.  Christian Charity
2.  Regenerated Church Membership
3.  Baptism of Believers only (infants were not believers)
4.  Separation of Church & State
5.  Liberty of Conscience
6.  Rejection of the Magistracy
7.  Rejection of oath-taking
8.  The Millennial Return of Christ
9.  The freedom of the will of man.
10. Salvation through faith
11. Christ-like living
12. The Lord's Supper for Church Members only.
13. Separation from unbelief
14. Cooperation among churches of like faith & order
15. Final authority of the scriptures
16. Salvation through the Blood of Christ
17. Missions
18. The sin nature of all men
19. The security of infants and young children (not through baptism)
20. Strict church discipline
21. The right of each church to choose (and reject) its own pastors.

There were many noble heroes among the Baptists during the Reformation, but
just to mention a few:

1.  Conrad Grebel, died in 1526
    Although a son of a Swiss aristocrat, he broke with Zwingli's reform
movement in 1524 over the issue of the proper subjects for baptism.  He was
an apologist for the Anabaptists.  He died of the plague in 1526.

2.  Felex Manz, 1490-1527
    He was an accomplished classical and Hebrew scholar from Zurich who
contended with Zwingli over the issue of Baptist.  He was killed by
drowning.

3.  Balthasar Bubmaier, 1480-1528
    He is a man well known as one studies Baptist in the reformation.  He
was a brillian scholar and professor of Theology.  He left Lutheranism and
eventually became a Anabaptist.  He became a great preacher and pastor.  He
was forced to flee Austrian authorities.  He went to Zurich, broken and
destitute where he was imprisoned.  After 6 months of privation & torture,
he was released.  He sought refuge in Moravia where he did his greates
service for the Lord.

4.  Menno Simmons, 1492-1559
    a.  He was known as the leader of the 'quiet Anabaptists' because he
spoke out against the events at Munster and advocated pacifism.
    b.  He came from a Dutch Roman Catholic background and became a
Anabaptist in 1531.
    c.  He became an itinerant Anabaptist preacher.
    d.  He became an influential thinker of the Anabaptists.
    e.  His teaching that the human body of Christ came with Him from heaven
instead of from Mary, His mother, caused a division among the German
Anabaptists.  The split came in 1555.

D.  The Persecution of the Anabaptists.

During this time the Anabaptists were persecuted by the catholics and the
protestants.

    1.  The persecution at the hands of the lutherans.
        At the Diet of Speyer, 1529, the death penalty was decreed upon
Anabaptists.

    2.  The persecution by the followers of Zwingli.
        "Let those who talk of going under (baptism by immersion) go under
indeed", were the words from the angry Zwingli.  The method of drowning was
made popular by Zwingle.  He developed a great hatred for the Anabaptists.

    3.  The persecution by the Calvinists.
        John Calvin despised the Anabaptists and stated, "Anabaptists and
reactionists should alike be put to death."

    4.  Persecution in Holland.
        From 1555, jesuit intrigue brought the Inquisition to Holland, and
the Duke of Alva devastated the country from 1567-1573.  Great evil was
brought upon Calvinists and Anabaptists alike.  The catholic church carried
out this persecution.

    5.  Persecution in Austria.
        Emporer Ferdinand I (1503-1564) ordered many Anabaptists to be burnt
or drowned.

I hope this has given you something to "chew" on.  I am a student of Baptist
History, from present day Baptists all the way back through the Dark Ages to
the time Jesus walked the shores of Galilee.



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