The Story Of The Rebaptizers Part 1

Let us run with endurance the race that is set before us, looking to Jesus, the founder and perfecter of our faith. There were some tough times as the Reformation spread throughout Europe in the 1500s. The church got tangled in local politics and disputes arose about infant baptism. This led to a tragic practice. Today we'll hear about Christians Killing Christians, the story of the rebaptizers.

Stay with us. From the Moody Church in Chicago, this is Running to Win with Dr. Erwin Lutzer, whose clear teaching helps us make it across the finish line. Pastor Lutzer, it's hard to imagine being so divided that executions became the only way to resolve disputes of doctrine. You know, Dave, you actually put it so accurately when you made the statement that the church became entangled with politics. Back in the days of Constantine, now we're talking about the 300s, the church and the state were united.

As a matter of fact, emperors chose bishops. So you can imagine the politics, you can imagine the corruption, you can imagine the quest for power. All of this became entwined in the Christian religion and in the history of Christianity. Why understanding these issues? Why is it so important?

Well, I'll tell you why. It's because as we look to the past, we see things that we can learn, but also things that we must avoid. And sometimes false doctrine arose because of a mistranslation of the Bible. At the end of this broadcast, I'm going to give you an example of that, and it will emphasize the need for us to study scripture and to have an accurate translation. So you stay tuned, listen carefully now, but I'll also be giving you information as to how you can receive a copy of my book entitled Rescuing the Gospel Where These Ideas Are Explained.

I'd like to begin with two very unrelated events to let you know that actually this lecture is going in that direction. One time I was in Lancaster, Pennsylvania, not Lancaster, but Lancaster. And the motel in which I was staying was near a road, near a paved street. Six o'clock in the morning, I say to myself, could this be true? Am I hearing what I think I hear? And I looked out the window and I was hearing what I thought I was hearing. There was a covered wagon with horses.

The horses were clomping along the street. Why are those horses there? Well, tonight at the end of the lecture, you'll know why they were there. Another story, totally unrelated, I listened to a CD of a discussion that took place at the religious broadcasters meeting where Barry Lynn of the separation of church and state, you know, Americans for the separation of church and state and an atheist were in a debate with two Christian attorneys. And Barry Lynn kept asking this question, why do you Christians, and he's one too after all he's an ordained United Church of Christ minister, why do you need the state to prop up Christianity? Why do we need in God we trust in our coins or in the Pledge of Allegiance say under God? Let's separate the church from the state.

So you could call this lecture tonight, the horse and the attorney. All right. But it's going to take a while for us to get there is something like 20 to 25 minutes, but we'll make it as God wills.

All right. When Luther and Calvin and Swingly said the solo scriptura, it seemed as if to people that there was a deliverance that was spreading throughout Europe. The monopoly that the official Christendom had on the souls of people was being broken. No longer did people have to be subject to certain artificial laws and traditions and we might say even ideas that arose as a result of paganism. No longer did they have to be subject to that superstitions but rather they could be free and wherever the Bible was found it could now be studied.

Well thanks to Swingly's genius and remember Swingly was in Zurich, Switzerland. Thanks to his genius he attracted a group of young men who were interested in learning Greek and the classics. Among them was a youthful scholar named Conrad Grable and later Felix Montz and a number of others. They would gather together and Swingly would teach them not only the New Testament in Greek but also the Greek philosophers. But by 1523 these young men had lost confidence in Swingly because he refused to set the church free from the entanglement of the state. Swingly for example looked to the church councils as to whether or not he should abolish the mass and do away with the images in the church and they said solo scriptura, if you mean it you should stick with it and you don't need to be propped up by the city council. Swingly they believed betrayed his vow that he would not compromise where the word of God has spoken. In the words of one historian, the decision of Conrad Grable to refuse to accept the jurisdiction of the Zurich council over the Zurich church is one of the high moments of history for however obscure it was it marked the beginning of the modern church free movement.

Zealous for reform and with convictions informed by a careful study of the New Testament these men and some like-minded ones decided that they would have to break with the established reformer Swingly. Now we get to the matter of infant baptism and I need to clarify some matters because that was the big point of contention. First of all let me explain why infant baptism was so important.

You've probably heard me say this before but some of us do not believe that infant baptism is taught in the New Testament except perhaps in inference but not directly. And generally speaking the early church baptized people because they are adults upon profession of faith rather than infants. But there were those who said that there was value to the sacraments and if there's value to the sacraments then infants should not be withheld from baptism. So beginning with Cyprian in North Africa in the 200s infants were baptized and afterwards not only were they baptized but they were also given the bread and the cup because after all if there is value in the sacraments why should that be withheld from them? So both of the sacraments were given to them.

Now Tertullian argued and he was from North Africa that we should wait until these children grow up and they know what they are doing but his voice was not widely heard on that topic. Now isn't it interesting that after the time of Constantine in 314 315 isn't that interesting that infant baptism eventually became the doctrine of the church. In fact if you did not have your child baptized as an infant you could be put to death. Even Charlemagne Charles the Great decreed that if parents were found who would not have their children baptized they would have to be put to death the parents would be because of disobedience.

Why is it that suddenly infant baptism became the way to baptize? Well the answer is that it became a symbol of the unity of the church and state. You see after the time of Constantine you have emperors such as Justinian they were the ones that were appointing the bishops and so you can see corruption coming in on all sides once you have that kind of entanglement of the state and the church and you see that continues till today in Europe.

When we were in Norway with a choir I was sitting with a man who was the pastor of the church and I said who appointed you to be the pastor of this church and he said the king of Norway. That goes back to the days of Constantine. So you have this entanglement of church and state and infant baptism was symbolic of a regional church. You were baptized an infant and you were also baptized as a Christian. You were christened to prove that you were a Christian. That's why infant baptism was held by people a guy like Charlemagne didn't care about the theology of it but he saw that it was infant baptism that held Christendom together. Now some of you who have been baptized as infants those of you who have been baptized as infants could I see your hands please tonight just oh probably a third of you I thought maybe one half or three quarters of you would have been baptized as infants. You probably think that I'm on a rampage against infant baptism.

I am not I'm just teaching history I just work here at the church. Now what you need to understand as we proceed is that there are two different views of infant baptism. If you were baptized Catholic or Lutheran the liturgy said with this water we make you a child of God. In other words original sin is washed away and that's when you were born again in Lutheran and in Catholic theology. But if you're a Presbyterian and we have some wonderful Presbyterians here tonight I'm sure because we always do it is a sign of the covenant.

It doesn't save exactly it means that you will be saved or at least you have a better chance at being saved etc etc. It is more like a dedication service. So I'm just simply telling you though that infant baptism during this period of time became a symbol of the union of church and state. Now what happened is as these young men studied with Swingley they said to themselves if we are going to be a true church we have to leave infant baptism behind and we have to separate this union of church and state and that's why infant baptism became the big bone of contention.

Now we continue. January 21st 1525 a small group of men trudged through the snow to enter the home of Felix Montz near the Grossmunster church. Grossmunster means big church as opposed to small one. The city church we could say.

The Grossmunster church were Swingley preached. In fear they bowed their knees that God might show them his will and grant them courage and after prayer they baptized one another since there was no ordained minister to do this work. They pledged themselves to be disciples of Jesus Christ no matter the cost. Anna baptism Anna meaning re re-baptism was born. You see they were re-baptizers because they had been baptized as infants but now they were being baptized as adults having put their faith in Christ and so this becomes known now in history as the Anna Baptist movement the re-baptist the re-baptizing movement we could say it was born.

No other events so completely symbolized a break with Rome. Here for the first time in the course of the Reformation a group of Christians dared to form a church after what was conceived to be the New Testament pattern. As these believers studied the scriptures they were struck with the fact that the early believers were always an island of righteousness in a sea of paganism and the union of church and state had diluted doctrine and had corrupted the church and what the church needed to do is to withdraw and become a group within society once again. In light of this the reformers would have said yes the church can be expected to have persecution when the state is hostile. What the Anna Baptist said is that if a church is the way it should be it will always be persecuted by the state. Rather than joining the state the state becomes the enemy of the church of necessity.

You see the difference. The Anna Baptist replied that a state cannot be Christianized even if the emperor changes his religion to Christianity like Constantine did. Indeed they insisted that with the conversion of the emperor in what was it 315 Constantine's conversion they insist that nothing changed. They said in the early centuries the state persecuted the church and then after the time of Constantine you have now Christians persecuting Christians. You have Christendom persecuting the true church.

In fact that's true a whole different story. The Donatists in the fourth century exterminated because they believed in the independence of the church and really were quite true to the gospel and now it's going to happen again in the 16th century with these Anabaptists. All right the world they argued remains the world and if the church is not persecuted it is because the salt has lost its savor.

They had great pessimism regarding the world but great optimism regarding the church. Well martyrdom now began. The first Anabaptist martyr was Eberly Bolt a preacher who was burned at the stake at the hands of the Roman Catholic authorities on May 29 1525 but that triggered a legacy of martyrdom that continued for three centuries.

Now I want to give you the story of one martyr particularly but I could fill tonight and many many evenings doing nothing but telling you the story of the martyrs of the Anabaptists dying because they dared to baptize one another and separate from the state. Conrad Grable was one of the ones who was taught by Swingley. He was an Anabaptist preacher for only one year and eight months he went from house to house witnessing baptizing.

On one occasion he baptized 500 converts in the Sitter River. Back in Zurich he was extremely cautious about his movements fearing that his former friend Swingley would have him imprisoned. Conrad Grable and George Blaurock were finally arrested and thrown into prison in the castle at Grüningen. Three weeks later another friend Felix Mantz was also incarcerated there.

Swingley accused his former friends of sedition. While in prison Grable wrote a manuscript on baptism this was not permitted but he was able to do it and later he escaped the prison and his manuscript was published. But let me tell you the story of Felix Mantz. Conrad Grable by the way died of natural causes. Felix Mantz was the illegitimate son of a Roman Catholic priest.

He was well trained in Latin and Greek. It was at his home in Neustadt Street close to the Gross Munster where the baptism took place. And by the way I've been there on a number of occasions when I lead tours to the sites of the Reformation you can go there and today I think it is an antique shop but you can see that on it there's a little sign that says this is the beginning of the free church movement because this used to be the place of the home of Felix Mantz right close to the huge Gross Munster the big church in Zurich. And he was taken and imprisoned and then he was brought to the witch's tower in Zurich from which he escaped but later on he was again captured and he was put to death.

And I'd like you to listen to his story and we make a few comments before we move on. On January the 5th 1527 Mantz was sentenced to death quote because contrary to the Christian order and custom he had become involved in Anabaptism because he confessed having said that he wanted to gather those who wanted to accept Christ and follow him and unite himself with them through baptism so that he and his followers separated themselves from the Christian church and were about to raise up and prepare a sect of their own because he had condemned capital punishment since such doctrine is harmful to the unified usage of all Christendom and leads to offense insurrection etc. Mantz and here's the decree shall be delivered to the executioner who shall tie his hands put him into a boat take him to the lower hut there strip his bound hands over his knees place a stick between his knees and arms and thus push him into the water and let him perish in the water thereby he shall have atoned to the law and justice his property shall also be confiscated by my lords because the city hall in Zurich said that anyone who's baptized as an adult must be put to death by drowning fire or sword so for Mantz they chose drowning. So according to the sentence he was taken bound from the prison passed the fish market to the boat all along he witnessed to the members of the dismal procession and to those standing on the banks of the Lamont River praising God that even though he was a sinner he had the privilege of dying for the truth. Further he declared that believers baptism was the true baptism according to the word of God and the teaching of Christ and this brings tears to my eyes the voice of his mother could be heard above the throng and the ripple of the waves in treating him to remain true to Christ in this hour of his temptation.

Well a few moments later of course the cold dark water of the Lamont River covered him and he was drowned and I told you before Swingly was there on the shore saying of his friend if he wishes to go under the water why indeed let him go under. The drowning was considered to be the third baptism. First baptism you've baptized as an infant. Second baptism you're baptized as an adult upon profession of faith. Third baptism we will drown you and you will die. You can go today to the Rathaus there at the Lamont River close to the Lamont River and you can stand there as I have done and given a lecture on Felix Montz being representative of the thousands and thousands of people killed because they believe that one should be baptized upon profession of faith. Montz didn't write much but he did write a hymn with gladness I will sing now my heart delights in God who showed me such forbearance that I from death was saved.

I praise the Christ in heaven who all my sorrow changed. George Blaurock was severely beaten that day but lived to spread the faith two and a half years more until he was burned at the stake in Tyrol. Thus while Luther and Swingly were teaching the church and opening the scriptures to people the Anabaptists were convinced that the lifestyle of the church needed radical improvement. They called for strict morality and this is what people said of the Anabaptists. This is what Swingly said of the Anabaptists though he approved of their being killed. At first contact their conduct appears irreproachable, pious, unassuming, attractive.

Even those who are inclined to be critical will say that their lives are excellent. I'd say that's high praise and this is what a Catholic said of them. He observed in them no lying, deception, swearing, strife, harsh language, no intemperate eating and drinking, no outward personal display but rather humility, patience, uprightness, meekness, honesty, temperance, straightforwardness in such a measure that one would suppose that they had the Holy Spirit of God. But then they went on to say but you know that's just like the devil to create such godliness in people who are heretics and therefore deceive others and therefore let us make sure that they are exterminated. Now my friend if that causes your mind to spin around and you say to yourself Pastor Luther I just don't understand that.

You must understand that infant baptism was like citizenship and when people renounced their infant baptism and they became baptized as adults as far as the medieval's were concerned it was breaking up the whole medieval order of society and that's why the Anabaptists were put to death. But I also want to emphasize that oftentimes doctrinal differences came about because of a difference in translation. For example in Matthew chapter 4 verse 17 the Latin translation that's Jerome's translation reads thusly, do penance for the kingdom of heaven is at hand. When Luther made his translation into German he discovered that as he was doing this from the original Greek that the word was not penance. The word was be penitent or repent and there's a huge difference. When we get saved we don't do anything. Nobody gets saved by doing penance but they do get saved by repenting and receiving the free gift of eternal life and just to think that one word was instrumental in changing people's view of salvation. Well these are important issues and I've written a book entitled Rescuing the Gospel the Story and the Significance of the Reformation.

For a gift of any amount it can be yours. Here's what you do go to rtwoffer.com. Perhaps I said that too quickly hope that you have a pen or pencil in your hand. You can go to rtwoffer.com or you can call us at 1-888-218-9337. Let me give you that phone number again 1-888-218-9337.

You can write to us at Running to Win 1635 North LaSalle Boulevard Chicago Illinois 60614. Running to Win is all about helping you find God's roadmap for your race of life. Next time on Running to Win more on the rebaptizers and how these early groups of reformers evolved into the Mennonites, the Hutterites and the Amish. The big question then and now the separation of church and state. Thanks for listening. For Pastor Erwin Lutzer this is Dave McAllister. Running to Win is sponsored by the Moody Church.