Author WILLIAM R. ESTEP
Publisher WM.B. EERDMANS
ISBN 0-8028-1594-4
Many will know a little of the Mennonite churches and of the Amish communities and perhaps the Hutterites as well. Few will know of the origins of these Christian groups and the sufferings they endured in the sixteenth century in particular. This book is a reasonably detailed account of their beginnings. The Christian church has been influenced lastingly by the pioneers of this Anabaptist movement as they allowed the scriptures to be their guide in more things than the Reformation leaders such as Luther, Zwingli and Calvin did. The separation of church and state was fundamental to their thinking and the fact that church membership was linked to conscious faith in Christ corroborated by discipleship to Him and the step of water baptism and not infant baptism as the Reformers continued to teach. This movement rose more or less simultaneously in Moravia (present day Austria and Czech Republic), Holland and Switzerland. Because of their commitment to God as He has spoken, particularly in the New Testament they were ostracized and were martyred by the many hundreds. Most of the leaders of the movement in the various centers suffered expulsion and eventual imprisonment and death. In the sixteenth century the charge of heresy (leveled at many who in any way broke with the Reformers) was tantamount to treason because of the apparently indissoluble link between church and state that had been in place since Constantine. Although Luther broke from the dominion of Rome and the Pope, he did not break from the idea of the church being an arm of the state and neither did Calvin, but the Anabaptist leaders discerned that the church was a new creation and was not to be bound to earthly institutions even though these had been ordained of God in their particular sphere. It was impossible to eradicate this spiritual movement, without doubt God was behind it, opening the eyes of many to the Person of the Lord Jesus in particular and this occurred because of their determination to submit to the mastery of the Scriptures. The movement spread, although, in earliest days it suffered because of extremes such as occurred in Munster. They distanced themselves from that aberration and error that had so incensed Luther although ever after they tended to be lumped together as an extremely dangerous sect. They sought to find a place to settle in places such as England and the New World. Their commitment to the primacy of love, toward enemies too and to non-involvement in taking up the sword in any way indicates how richly they were blessed with an understanding of what the Christian community should be. This book tells about the men and this movement. In part at least, the ‘free churches’ as we know them in all their forms today are the result of the glorious period of Christian witness and martyrdom this book documents.
