are Anabaptists the same as Amish?

[GodsLittleDove]

i'm sorry for my ignorance- i don't know very much about you guys...i'd like to find out more. Is Anabaptist similar to the Amish or Mennonites?

 

[WayneinMaine]

i'm sorry for my ignorance- i don't know very much about you guys...i'd like to find out more. Is Anabaptist similar to the Amish or Mennonites?

The Amish and Mennonites are Anabaptists, along with the Hutterites. The Church of the Brethren and some other groups such as the German Baptist also derive some of their doctrine from the Anabaptists.

The Amish split from the larger South German Anabaptist-Mennonite groups in the late 17th century. Conservative Mennonite groups share the same confession of faith with the Amish (The Dortrecht Confession). Pietism and Evangelical Protestantism (and social assimilation) have had a great deal of influence on Anabaptist groups resulting in a large number of distinct groups.

Historically Anabaptists trace their roots to the reformation groups that separated from the Swiss Reformer Zwingli over his compromise with the State. A group of farmers, tradesmen and young scholars and ex-priests sought not reformation of the State church, but restoration of the New Testament church. They re-instituted adult believer’s baptism, seeing Christianity and the church as voluntary, into which one enters as a conscious decision. Many Baptist historians trace their roots to these early believers in the matter of a "personal decision" and believer’s baptism as well as separation of church and state.

The Anabaptists were zealous in evangelism, calling men to repentance and gathering disciples into their little flocks,, sharing with the needy among themselves and in the case of the Hutterites, having all things common in full Christian community as the church in Acts 2 and 4. They were severely persecuted by both the Reformed church and the Roman church with thousands being tortured and executed. After a generation or two most of them reached a compromise with the authorities, being allowed to raise their own children in the faith but not allowed to evangelize, and being left in relative peace to farm marginal land in many parts of Europe as the "quiet in the land". In other cases they compromised their faith and assimilated into society, which tolerated pious hard working, industrious men of good character.

Eventually most Anabaptists migrated to the US and Canada and have since, in various forms, spread around the globe. Some of them are recovering the original vision of the Ealy Anabpatists and the zeal to "go and make disciples of all nations" and teach them to obey everything Jesus commanded.

 

[Hamperfull]

What he said.

Anabaptism is fairly broad these days and tends to cover the entire range from very conservative (such as the amish, cons. mennonites etc) to fairly liberal in their beliefs (quakers etc) and practices. Although I don't know a huge amount of all the sects within Anabaptism, I think most (if not all) are pacifists and believe in adult baptism and tend to branch out from there with their highlighted core beliefs (ie, headcovering, modesty, who/what God is,co-op living etc). A couple of good places to start:

anabaptists.org
charityministries.org

Hope that helps.

 

[WayneinMaine]

What he said.

Anabaptism is fairly broad these days and tends to cover the entire range from very conservative (such as the amish, cons. mennonites etc) to fairly liberal in their beliefs (quakers etc) and practices. Although I don't know a huge amount of all the sects within Anabaptism, I think most (if not all) are pacifists and believe in adult baptism and tend to branch out from there with their highlighted core beliefs (ie, headcovering, modesty, who/what God is,co-op living etc). A couple of good places to start:

anabaptists.org
charityministries.org

Hope that helps.

Neither Quakers (nor Shakers) are Anabaptists.

Over the centuries Anabaptist churches have assimilated a lot of Protestant ideas, so now there is a real blending. Groups referred to as "Old Order" have tended to resist these influences (and not merely maintained primative technology and lifetyles.) So a "Conservative" Mennonite group might be more fundamentalist Protestant but not necessarily very Anabaptist. -Confusing indeed.

Anabaptists.org is a conservative Mennonite site, charityministries.org is a revivalist group which includes a lot of ex-Amish and the like. I'll see if I can find and post some good informative sites that specifically relate to Anabaptism.

 

[Good King Edward VI]

Wayne,

How do you see the relation (if any, really) between Anabaptists and Baptists?

There seem to be so many similarities with the exception that most Baptists are at least some brand of Calvinist.

Yours,
Jeff

p.s. I apologize to all if this is a thread-hijacking. That ain't cool.

 

[WayneinMaine]

Wayne,

How do you see the relation (if any, really) between Anabaptists and Baptists?

There seem to be so many similarities with the exception that most Baptists are at least some brand of Calvinist.

Yours,
Jeff

p.s. I apologize to all if this is a thread-hijacking. That ain't cool.

Baptists., as we know them today, came into existence in England in the early seventeenth century out of the Puritan/Separatist movement in the Church of England. While John Smyth had contact at some point with Dutch Mennonites, and a union was attempted (with some of Smyth's members joining the Mennos) there were differences that kept them separated.

It's not uncommon to find Baptist histories that trace their origins to the continental Anabaptists (or through them and on back to the apostolic church), but the connection is on not really there, and even doctrinally Baptists never have accepted many of the important positions and perspectives of teh early Anabaptists.

 

[LiturgyInDMinor]

Baptists., as we know them today, came into existence in England in the early seventeenth century out of the Puritan/Separatist movement in the Church of England. While John Smyth had contact at some point with Dutch Mennonites, and a union was attempted (with some of Smyth's members joining the Mennos) there were differences that kept them separated.

It's not uncommon to find Baptist histories that trace their origins to the continental Anabaptists (or through them and on back to the apostolic church), but the connection is on not really there, and even doctrinally Baptists never have accepted many of the important positions and perspectives of teh early Anabaptists.

thankyou Wayne, as a Baptist I will concur with this sir.
2 very seperate, distinct, but somewhat similar histories between Baptists and Anabaptists.

God Bless.

 

[drstevej]

Baptists., as we know them today, came into existence in England in the early seventeenth century out of the Puritan/Separatist movement in the Church of England. While John Smyth had contact at some point with Dutch Mennonites, and a union was attempted (with some of Smyth's members joining the Mennos) there were differences that kept them separated.

It's not uncommon to find Baptist histories that trace their origins to the continental Anabaptists (or through them and on back to the apostolic church), but the connection is on not really there, and even doctrinally Baptists never have accepted many of the important positions and perspectives of teh early Anabaptists.

Well said.

My dissertation (PhD Westminster Seminary) was on the Baptist/Anabaptist connection with the Smyth/Helwys/Murton congregation.