(apologies to Anabaptists if I’ve misunderstood – I am still learning)
The Anabaptists first appeared in 1525. They believed that the major Reformers (Lutherans and Calvinists) compromised their commitment to Yeshua and did not take their faith far enough. Anabaptists were the radicals of the Reformation. The following are three main characteristics.
1. Unwavering, radical commitment of lives to Yeshua
They believed that following Yeshua did not mean Christianizing the world like it did to Calvinists and Catholics, it meant being separate from the world. The Amish, for example, have gone so far as to remove their entire society from the world so that they have no dependence upon it. Anabaptists did not believe (again, like Calvinists or Catholics) that the kingdom of Yahweh came into the world through government, but stood opposed to it (“separation of church and state” – meaning that God does not use the state to establish the church or the church to establish the state). This was seen as compromise with the world.
They did not believe that following Yeshua was exclusively an inner process as Lutherans did, but that real commitment to Yeshua meant and required an outward witness and struggle as much as the inner one. Nor did they believe like Luther and Calvin that man was so thoroughly corrupt that his will was in bondage and he was powerless to respond to God. Any commitment to Yeshua would be all God’s work and none of man’s, and therefore worthless.
They believed that commitment to Yeshua was a personal responsibility, and therefore, that infant baptism (a practice accepted by Catholics, Calvinists, and Lutherans) was contradictory, since an infant could not make a personal choice of commitment. It was also a confusion of state and church. Since most had previously been baptized as an infant, they re-baptized each other (hence ana or “re” baptism), signifying that no one could make their commitment to God for them and also that their membership in the church had nothing to do with the state (or vice versa).
2. Unwavering, radical commitment of lives to each other
Anabaptists believed that Yeshua and the early church formed a community whose love and commitment to each other were paramount. Therefore, they considered absolute equality of possession and money, and freely gave of anything they had to help each other. Part of the Anabaptists’ commitment to Yeshua is their commitment to sharing all things with one other in the community.
3. Unwavering, radical commitment to love and life
Anabaptists believed that when Yeshua came, he made it clear that his way was not of violence and war, but of self-sacrifice. And, again, because a person’s life is his own responsibility, no one should be forced or coerced into commitment to Yeshua by someone else. Violence and war, therefore, were the way of the world. Calvinists and Catholics believed that violence and war could be a means to their own ends or to the ends of faith – Anabaptists did not. Therefore, they lifted no weapon, practiced non-resistance, and willingly gave love and help even to those who sought their destruction.
First Anabaptist leaders:
- Felix Manz – drowned (since he re-baptized others, this punishment was seen to fit the crime)
- Conrad Grebel – jailed
- George Blaurock – tortured and burned at the stake