burnt
Well-known member
March 10, 1528: "Martyrdom of Balthaser Hubmaier, 48, German reformer and chief writer for the Anabaptist movement. Arrested in Moravia, Hubmaier was later condemned at Vienna and burned at the stake." (SLO)
A respected instructor at an institution of learning recently commented that, after their inception, the Anabaptists did not have a well-developed and written theology or Christology. (He went on the say that they suffered such severe persecution that the movement was almost wiped out.)
The statement saddened me most profoundly in light of the accounts of the suffering and death of hundreds of early Anabaptist believers who would not sacrifice their beliefs even for their lives. They were drowned, pulled apart by machines, burned at the stake, impaled and tortured to death.
After the Anabaptist movement began in or about 1525, most of their leaders, like Hubmaier, were martyred before they had much time to "theologize" and record their thoughts, most of them being killed within a couple of years after receiving baptism and openly stating their beliefs. All because the early Anabaptists, a people of peace, were wrongly seen as a threat to the early mainstream reformers, the religious establishment and the political system.
To make such a dismissive statement, as was made by that teacher, is an affront of the most extreme kind, especially when holding those leaders in comparison to other reformers who enjoyed the luxury of writing down their thoughts in a degree of relative safety from physical attacks by the church and other reformers.
In essence, the statement provides a contrast between those who clearly modeled the teachings of Christ in their lives, and those who profess a "sound" Christology yet then go out and proclaim bloodthirsty pogroms against those with whom they disagree.
The historical records hold the evidence. And no amount of gilding or revisionism will change that.
Clearly, this thought process has consumed me this past week and resulted in a much clearer understanding of the fact that the Anabaptists were/are neither Protestant or Catholic and are still not well understood by most of Christendom.
"But the Jews who were not persuaded, becoming envious, took some of the evil men from the marketplace, and gathering a mob, set all the city in an uproar and attacked the house of Jason, and sought to bring them out to the people. 6 But when they did not find them, they dragged Jason and some brethren to the rulers of the city, crying out, "These who have turned the world upside down have come here too." Acts 17:5,6. (NKJV)
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fN6nJV_mxU4&list=PL4776D2F453A9C143
March 15, 1950: "American missionary and martyr Jim Elliot wrote in his journal: 'The believer is a displaced person. He loses the controlling features of both environment and heredity.' " (SLO)
That's all I have for this week. Lots more to read by following the link below.
http://www.studylight.org/his/tich/?d=0310
A respected instructor at an institution of learning recently commented that, after their inception, the Anabaptists did not have a well-developed and written theology or Christology. (He went on the say that they suffered such severe persecution that the movement was almost wiped out.)
The statement saddened me most profoundly in light of the accounts of the suffering and death of hundreds of early Anabaptist believers who would not sacrifice their beliefs even for their lives. They were drowned, pulled apart by machines, burned at the stake, impaled and tortured to death.
After the Anabaptist movement began in or about 1525, most of their leaders, like Hubmaier, were martyred before they had much time to "theologize" and record their thoughts, most of them being killed within a couple of years after receiving baptism and openly stating their beliefs. All because the early Anabaptists, a people of peace, were wrongly seen as a threat to the early mainstream reformers, the religious establishment and the political system.
To make such a dismissive statement, as was made by that teacher, is an affront of the most extreme kind, especially when holding those leaders in comparison to other reformers who enjoyed the luxury of writing down their thoughts in a degree of relative safety from physical attacks by the church and other reformers.
In essence, the statement provides a contrast between those who clearly modeled the teachings of Christ in their lives, and those who profess a "sound" Christology yet then go out and proclaim bloodthirsty pogroms against those with whom they disagree.
The historical records hold the evidence. And no amount of gilding or revisionism will change that.
Clearly, this thought process has consumed me this past week and resulted in a much clearer understanding of the fact that the Anabaptists were/are neither Protestant or Catholic and are still not well understood by most of Christendom.
"But the Jews who were not persuaded, becoming envious, took some of the evil men from the marketplace, and gathering a mob, set all the city in an uproar and attacked the house of Jason, and sought to bring them out to the people. 6 But when they did not find them, they dragged Jason and some brethren to the rulers of the city, crying out, "These who have turned the world upside down have come here too." Acts 17:5,6. (NKJV)
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fN6nJV_mxU4&list=PL4776D2F453A9C143
March 15, 1950: "American missionary and martyr Jim Elliot wrote in his journal: 'The believer is a displaced person. He loses the controlling features of both environment and heredity.' " (SLO)
That's all I have for this week. Lots more to read by following the link below.
http://www.studylight.org/his/tich/?d=0310
