The Anabaptists were part of the Radical Reformation. As such, they are some of the people on whose shoulders I stand. They stood outside the organized church of their day, but paid a bloody price for it. Literally.
The dedication I wrote in Pagan Christianity is written to them as well as to those who came before and after to maintain the testimony of Jesus without compromise in the earth. Here it is:
To our forgotten brothers and sisters throughout the ages who courageously stepped outside the safe bounds of institutional Christianity at the risk of life and limb. You faithfully carried the torch, endured persecution, forfeited reputation, lost family, suffered torture, and spilled your blood to preserve the primitive testimony that Jesus Christ is Head of His church. And that every believer is a priest . . . a minister . . . and a functioning member of God’s house. This book is dedicated to you. (Pagan Christianity, p. vii.)
Jon Zens recently shared some of the untold story of the Anabaptists with a missional church. It was fascinating. You can hear it by clicking here.
(As some of you know, Zens received international notoriety when he publicly shredded a critical review of Pagan Christianity by a well-known scholar. Jon gives some excellent teaching in that piece also.)
Here are some books I recommend on the Anabaptists (all at a discount):
The Reformers and Their Stepchildren
The Complete Writings of Menno Simons
Becoming Anabaptist: The Origin and Significance of Sixteenth-Century Anabaptism
Reformation, Revolution, and Changing the Course of Church History
I remember when I first worked through the newly released ‘Pagan Christianity’. As we were working through the book and seeing everything rightfully deconstructed, I had started to worry where you would come out on the Anabaptist movement.
Many of us Anabaptists and Mennonites know all too many of our shortcomings, but it many of us also were overjoyed to see our ancestors receive this shout out that were overlooked in their radical movement.
Thank You.
The Naked Anabaptist by Stuart Murry is also a very good Anabaptist read.
Josh: While, I enjoyed the read and I also enjoy hearing Stuart Murray talk from time to time – I have some issues with this book.
Stuart attempted to restructure and redefine a movement, instead of rediscovering it. We need to be about the vision of what we were, but lived out in today’s time rather than, looking at our history and reconstructing our history based on who we are in our current manifestations.
The Anabaptists were WAY ahead of their time. They saw, more clearly than the other reformers, that the Church needed to be separate from the magistrate. The issue of believers baptism forced the issue. They pushed the reformation where it needed to go – the authority of the scriptures and the separation of church and magistrate.
Frank, great blog. I was wondering what your thoughts are in regards to the Trinity, which didn’t become an official doctrine until the 300’s after the Council of Nicea (interestingly, in 430 another council was convened where Mary Veneration was sanctioned).
Do you believe the scriptures bear out the doctrine of the Trinity? Or, like other aspects of church history, is it man-made?
Paul: You really need to read my book REIMAGINING CHURCH. It will fully answer your question with biblical and historical documentation, and it will also put it into the framework of the church. I don’t want to get into this subject on a blog post — please read the book. http://www.ReimaginingChurch.org
Brett,
I attended a German Baptist church (very like the Amish/Mennonites) for a number of years and my husband did surrender his liberty in Christ and officially join their group. (He doesn’t even serve the Lord anymore.) All your insights are completely valid. I met and came to know many who had a sweet faith, as well as many in terrible bondage, living in spiritual fear, feeling guilty,trying desperately to please God with no assurance of His acceptance, the way one thinks of the medieval Catholic mentality. I also know two different Mennonite families from totally different branches of conservative Mennonite groups. One is full of joy and the other bondage, even though they lookand believe very similar otherwise.
That doesn’t negate the Anabaptists’ tremendous beginnings — they were the Christians in the trenches truly living and preaching the Good News to the poor while the Reformers were busy fighting each other and persecuting them. The Secret of Their Strength brings out their wonderful testimony as well as their losing focus on Christ and fall into legalism.
Same thing with the Quakers. I understand that while George Fox’s wife was still alive she had to write about why making rules about dress was NOT the way to go, yet they went down that path as well. They still seemed to retain their torch much longer than some others, and they have probably done more for ‘social justice’ than any other group of Christians who ever were, since the first century. But some now don’t even believe in the Lord Jesus.
Without total dependence on the Lord, the most wonderful movements will all fail. Legalism/religion is the most insidious danger that we face, which is why there are so many warnings against it in the Bible.
The main thing we can learn from these groups in the present (besides avoiding legalism) is many still have community — they really live their lives together and take care of one another.
Great article and audio of Jon Zens — like a college-level history lesson on an oft-overlooked part of the Reformation. The Anabaptists were certainly inspiring in their boldness and commitment to simple truths even in the face of persecution.
You can find the essay that Zens mentioned (saying he hadn’t found it online yet) here :
http://books.google.com/books?id=AJWyDNATVwcC&pg=PA202&lpg=PA202&dq=%22concerning+heretics+and+those+who+burn+them%22&source=bl&ots=_CMwtI8UHo&sig=Fn0Oh2yGerB4_ob1dhfyF2wizgw&hl=en&ei=8P_QTNaaN9WmngerjMn_Cw&sa=X&oi=book_result&ct=result&resnum=5&ved=0CCEQ6AEwBA#v=onepage&q=%22concerning%20heretics%20and%20those%20who%20burn%20them%22&f=false
I am not trying to be contentious here, just seeking. Having left the institutional church 15 years ago or more now, I spent many years looking for a real church community and life. That journey led me to discover the history and current expression of several anabaptist groups, such as the Mennonites, Hutterians, and especially the eastern Bruderhof communities, the latter which I visited twice in my quest to find my place in the body of Christ. But, one thing the Holy Spirit would not allow me to do is surrender my liberty and freedom in Christ, because it is not mine to surrender, but was bought with the blood of Christ – it is for freedom that Christ has made us free. So I take exception with the the idea that present day anabaptists are “free believers,” or a free believers church. Though I repect their faith and serious lifestyle and agree with many, if not most, of their theological underpinnings, their present day expression, practices and what has become traditions, are anything but free. Their church services are similar to protestant services in form and substance except that they are more somber and serious. Women in the church are silenced and not free to speak or express spiritual gifts or ministry in corporate meetings. Meetings are lead by designated spiritual leaders and not open to the Headship of Christ by the participating body at large. There are many “expected” standards which are imposed on all as a matter of practice; those which are expressly addressed in scripture I have no issue with, but many others “add” to scripture and impose standards on all when such should be the individual responsibility and accountability to God alone – matters of the heart. Some of these practices or standards are clearly meant to protect or put boundaries around church life in order to prevent sin or “worldly” influences, but tend toward, if not outright create, legalism. I actually had one dear sister tell me that her Mennonite group was more conservative than another in my area of Wisconsin. When I replied that this other group seemed conservative to me, she replied, “yes, to you I suppose they would be!” When asked for an example of what she meant, she replied that her group only permitted buttons on apprael, while the other group allowed zippers, and prints on women’s clothing (costume really) that were too bold. In and of themselves, many of these things are inconsequential and unimportant, (especially compare to doctrines of faith about baptism, money, power, seperation of church and state, sanctity of life, sanctity of marriage, and nonresistance), but nevertheless, taken as a whole, raise serious questions about their witness and mission reach. I hope and pray that they too can find true organic community in the Headship of Christ and evolve into the true will of God for us all, but I have found no evidence of any of them being able or willing to do so. I would “join” them in a heartbeat if they could, but simply cannot as I find them currently. If anyone reading this can offer me any guidance, correction, or enlightenment on this, I would welcome it, as I repeat, it is not my intention to critize, only to seek truth. I find the anabaptist faith and life closer to primitive, first-century, or pilgrim churchlife than any other expressions today, but I also believe they have lost something of their spiritual beginnings and life, and one could not call them an organic expression, (as so beautifully defined on this blog and in Frank Viola’s writings, et. al.), by any stretch of the imagination. Finally, I find it curious that many who praise the anabaptist faith don’t talk about the scriptual teachings and doctrines that make them who they are, then apply those truths to their own corporate communities, practices, and witness. Why is that?
Brett: The Anabaptists then and now in their various forms are VERY different. The same thing with the Methodists then and what they are now. Same is true for the Quakers as well as the Plymouth Brethren (when they started with Anthony Norris Groves). Jon’s talk is about the original Anabaptists, not what they became.
As to your other question, take a look at the post on this blog called “Visiting an Organic Church: A Report” and all the related links.
I have been so inspired by the faith and commitment to the Lord and His church demonstrated by the Anabaptists and others. Thank you for highlighting this very important topic. By the way the audio of Jon Zens is very informative and extremely helpful in understanding what has shaped the church over the last 1700 years since Constantine.
The movie that Michael is referring to is called “The Radicals”. Although the acting isn’t the best the movie really captures just what Jon Zens shares on the audio.
I had hoped to subscribe but when it came to copying the text…there was no text to copy except the words “spammer begone”. I have Windows 7 and my computer is brand new. Can anyone help me with this problem? My browser is Explorer…maybe I can try Firefox which I also have.
Pagan Christianity and Reimagining Church have been so liberating. I am a product of the Jesus Movement and what started out as a sovereign move of God amongst a rural community in California. We like the Israelites were unable to trust God alone to lead us, even though He had so wonderfully for several years, teaching us through giving us wonderful songs from Scripture and we operated the gifts of tongues and prophesy in the most natural of ways…influenced somewhat by a Catholic Charismatic prayer group in town that was very sweet and that initially we attended whenever we could. We came to consensus in the most organic way…after reading the Word individually…we would share what we thought God wanted of us at that time and amazingly there would be agreement. We were already a close knit community when God stepped into our lives…the changes were immediate and joyful for the most part. People got saved just sitting next to us. We knew nothing of telling them to say the sinners prayer…they would just start crying and saying how much they needed what we had. We did not try to convince anyone of anything, we would just invite them to our meetings which were filled with music, silence, prayer, sharing, thanksgiving and praise. When our count came to about 40 we felt we needed some guidance and we prayed for , would you believe…a Teacher! Eventually God did send us a Pentacostal minister and his wife…and while we were really traumatized by their cultural differences and the boysterious manner of prayer and praise, we felt they knew more about the Lord than we did and we accepted them. The hierarchial system followed soon and while God did bless us in many ways…over the years things became very controlling and some, many were devastated. That is only a small nutshell view, but possibly one could imagine how your books have brought healing and relief and hope back into this life and several others also from the same experience.
Thanks Rita.
As a 16th generation Anabaptist, I love what you are writing and addressing. However I believe our movement was outside of the reformation. Our forefathers were radical, but we did not want to reform the Catholic church or form a protest group, the Protestants. We are not evangelical, Protestant, orthodox or reformed. We are a free-believers church.
Jeff: Correct. The Radical Reformers had all of that in common. “Reformer” isn’t precise there.
The Annabaptist rank in my Top Five Favorite Christian groups of all time:
1) The First Century Church
2) The early Anabaptists
3) The early Quakers
4) The early Pentecostals
5) The beginnings of The Salvation Army
(Of course this list doesn’t include the many groups of spontaneous, non-institutional Christians and Christian movements who were persecuted and/or destroyed by the institutional church. Many of these groups have been erased from historical records, listed as heretics, or have very limited information that has survived about them.)
I’m currently reading “The Pilgrim Church” By: E. H. Broadbent. It has a good chapter about the Anabaptists, along with the others that have remained true to the primitive practice throughout the centuries. Also has good history on the early Methodist movements and many, many others.
He starts with the New Testament believers in century 1 and works his way all the way up to the 1930’s (when the book was written).
Truly inspiring. It’s also very eye-opening to what it costs us when we comprimise and try to mingle church and government, or church and sword, or church and the world’s systems.
There’s also a movie that was made about the Anabatists. I believe it’s called “Rebels” or “The Rebels” you can find it on Netflix.
Here it is for free:
P.S. Jon Zens is a beast! 😉
You must add this book to your list on the Anabaptists:
“The Secret of the Strength: What Would the Anabaptists Tell This Generation?” by Peter Hoover
Great book, David. Out of print and Amazon wants $150 for it used. Perhaps folks can find a less expensive version.