The Anabaptist Story

13. ‘01 Discuss the political and social consequences of the Protestant Reformation in the first half of the sixteenth century.

First, after the reign of Bloody Mary, the members of the Anglican Church returned to England. Some of these people had a new idea called "Anabaptism", or the idea that you should baptize people when they are able to make the choice for themselves. This was viewed as heresy, so the Baptists fled to America. The Americans agreed with the English for once. The Baptists were pushed from the northeast to the mid-east, then from the mid-east to the southeast. They weren't accepted in the southeast, so they moved west.

I would like to focus on chart 58, and learn more about the radical reformation. What was Anabaptist? It came from the Greek and are Christians of the Radical Reformation of 16th century Europe. This religion started with a reformer named Ulrick Zwingli. They rejected the infant baptism practices by the Roman Catholic Church, but believed that a person can be legitimately baptized only when they are older because they can give their consent to the sacrament which was called believer’s baptism. They believed that the Bible is the only rule for faith and life. However, because of their radical beliefs they were persecuted by Protestants as well as by Roman Catholics.

The anabaptist were thought of as rebels for a lot of reasons. My first example is they would fight or participate in any wars for the sake of them not believing in fighting in many wars. They also took for granted that the government should be separated from the church. The anabaptist had also believed that they should not kill. This referred to the government and the church should have nothing to do with each other. We have numerous people that live around here that’s religion remind you of the anabaptist. Here in our town we have Mennonites and Amish that I believe are very resembling back to the Anabaptist religion. They aren’t like normal people as well because they do a lot of things different from us and they do not use

Abstract: During the Inquisition, a reincarnated Christ was walking the streets. As he began to heal the sick, a cardinal ordered to have him locked up. Later that day, the Grand Inquisitor paid the reincarnated Jesus a visit but not to praise Him instead to reprimand Him. The Grand Inquisitor scolds Jesus for giving humankind freedom by refusing the three temptations of the Devil. He believes humans are too weak to deal with the “burden” of freedom so unhappiness is created.

Many Evangelical Anabaptists leaders at the beginning were influenced by the ideas of the age. The most outstanding influence of the age for the Evangelical Anabaptists was the study the primary sources. Like the general population of scholars, the Evangelical Anabaptists decided to “ad fontes” of the Bible. However, this group developed and maintained their radical beliefs and purity throughout history. While the Scholars and the Reformers read the Scriptures in a dualistic view of physical and spiritual, the Anabaptists were able to continue read and imitate the example of the primitive Church. How could they archive it? The interpretation and the outcomes of Holy Scriptures helped the Evangelical Anabaptists to maintain their radical

Beginning with the traditional history of the Radical Reformation and specifically with the Anabaptists, this article attempts to examine the Anabaptist origins further. Once the author establishes the traditional background for the reader, the article looks to address four areas. First, the author discusses the purpose and results of research published at the time of the report which questioned, rejected, or reformulated the possibility of envisioning an original Anabaptist unity. The author illustrates the need to examine the plural origins for Anabaptism noting that no one established the assumption of Anabaptist monogenesis as opposed to polygenesis. The essay then considers the motives behind creating what became a very contestable unity.

Success is obtained through desire, purpose, and conviction. “Napoleon Hill wrote that, “desire is the starting point of all achievement”” (Chew, 2016). The desire to give rebirth to Catholicism and faith in God gave reformers the absolute conviction needed to achieve success. Success came after the Protestants rebellion against the Catholic Church. During this time, the Catholic Church needed reform because, in its attempt to establish its preeminence, the papacy had squandered the prestige it had recovered. The Catholic Church also did not take the Protestant movement seriously. In short, sociopolitical forces along with spiritual and theological factors and the papacy’s refusal to reform itself lead to the most traumatic era in Roman Catholic history.

Before the church deliberates missiology we need to go back to the creation of all things because the glory of God is evident there. We must immediately fall back on the Holy Scriptures because they witness to God’s covenant and promises to humanity. It is a covenant that ranges from the formation of a people, Israel, temporary through the New Testament, with the coming of Jesus, to one day the complete manifestation of God’s Holy Spirit reaching to all nations and cultures. Thus we will go back in history reviewing the Medieval Church’s mission in contrast with the Anabaptist and its missiology.

Approximately 100 million of 2.2 billion Christian adherents reside around our universe today are Baptists. This highly distinctive band of Protestant founded members typically manage to intertwine themselves with a variety of lesser-known beliefs. Facts like this are valid in how they conduct their overall belief systems, worship strategies, insinuating attitudes which oppose other popular sects, along with their convictions upon the twelve disciples. Along with this, we must fully grasp and comprehend their perspectives through assimilating ourselves within their lengthy history. Simply stated, numerous written accounts start off with the immersion of early Mennonite culture onto 17th century English Separatists, which rose out of the roots of original reformed Protestants. During this warring period which the Church of England and its underlying Anglicans ultimately severed ties with the Roman Catholic Church; Puritans who disregarded the main achievements of the reformation hoped to correct the Churches errors.

I, John van Leiden, King of Munster, was a devout Anabaptist for much of my life, and did whatever I could to spread the ideas that went along with my faith. Throughout my time, I made many enemies, but I also made alliances that helped to increase the Anabaptist following. I was a feared ruler, but I did what I believed to be right in order to invoke the second coming of Jesus Christ.

“The Anabaptists held that a true reformation of the church will necessarily result in newness of life on the part of the constituency of the church, and in bringing forth the fruits of obedience and consistent Christian living in accordance with the teaching and demands of Scripture’.

     The beginnings of the Christian church are shrouded in mystery. With the lack of evidence about that time in history, it is hard to draw conclusions of any type. However, the historical analyst, Hans Kung, has written a book to shed some light on the subject. In this book, Kung discusses his opinion on the development of the early church, and its hierarchical structure. In the following paper, I will address two of the chapters of Kung’s book, “The Beginnings of the Early Church” and “The Early Catholic Church”. The points that I will focus on are: The makeup and persecution of the early church

“He (Menno Simons) was not the founder but is often called the regenerator of the Anabaptist movement. He certainly was its most important leader in the Netherlands during the sixteenth century. Menno assumed leadership during a crucial period in which the Anabaptist movement was in danger of losing its original identity. His prolific writings and moderate leadership were essential in unifying the nonviolent wing of the Dutch Anabaptists and maintaining their peaceful beliefs.”

OOver the centuries, as some Christians grew more and more doubtful about the possibility of ancient orthodox beliefs in the contemporary, critical world. Could they preach the old, old story in a new, new world in which the way of thinking was supposedly more sophisticated than in the early, medieval or Reformation worlds? Would the modern world accept traditional beliefs like the Trinity, the unity of Jesus in two natures, the total wickedness of humans and the strict, substitutionary atonement (Bingham, p. 150)? In the paper I will compare and contrast Evangelical, Liberal, and Neo-Orthodox views as it relates to scriptures. Next in this paper will discuss analyze the strengths and weaknesses of each of the three movements.