Baptists/Anabaptists - unbroken line?

[Chaucer]

I met a Baptists once who told me that while the rest of the world languished in darkness (presumably the Catholic Church) there remained kind of an unbroken line of faithful worship and doctrinal understanding from the time of Christ until today. He mentioned Anabaptist and some other groups.

Does anybody know what I am talking about?

 

[Crazy Liz]

Take a look at the "Trail of Blood" thread.

Lots of churches make claims like this. None have been substantiated historically. Yes, there have been groups declared heretical during every period. Some probably wrongly so. But these heretical and so-called heretical groups are not all connected to each other. They generally arose independently.

 

[bleechers]

I would suggest reading E.H. Broadbent's "The Pilgrim Church."

Don't get hung up on needing a "headquarters" or looking for a "denomination". The church from its earliest days was made up of local, autonomous gatherings of Christians.

Today we "have church" on Sunday, but this is a man-made tradition. The true biblical church is a Body of living parts, all equal, all priests. It can exist in a prison cell in Nepal or in a small community in the Alps or in a megaplex in LA. It is not bound by structure, ritual or sacrament.

The church is a building founded on Christ and made up of lively stones. God does not dwell in tabernacles made by men (Hebrews). If you understand this basic concept, then it is easy to see that "the church" could easily "survive" against any organization or heresy.

In fact, most of the epistles were written to correct rank heresy. The true church fought false gospels, false Jesuses, false teachers and false doctrines from its very inception. Among these heresies is the heresy of "classes" of Christians; those who, in the name of Christ, Lord over God's people.

Satan presents himself as an "Angel of Light" and his ministers are "the ministers of righteousness." False teachers will rise up "from amongst yourselves" Paul warned.

Know what "the church" truly is; realize it will always be small; realize that it is meant to be persecuted; realize that it is not of this world and seeks no earthly kingdom or power. If you grasp the truth of "the church," many "problems" of history, organizations, and man-made authorities will disappear.

The gospel was delivered once for all in the first century, never to be changed (Gal 1:8-9, Jude 3). Since then, many organizations have tried to beguile people away from "the simplicity which is in Christ" (2 Cor 11) and enslave people to a "system". We know what we have received and we do not require a group to gather to vote on "truth". "Thy Word is truth."

 

[ZiSunka]

I belive that it is true. If you have studied anything about the history of Catholicism, it's hard to believe that it was EVER the one true church. It came to the point where I had to set aside my belief in God for a while while I investigated and decided whether or not Catholicism was ever The Way. I went all the way back to the earliest writings of catholicism, the earliest "fathers" of the church, and I can't find a time when following the teachings of Christ as portrayed in the Bible was more important than creating and following traditions. Yet Christ himself said that the kingdom is not found in the following of rules and traditions, but in the love that lives in the heart for God. Catholicism technically does not require love for God, or an acceptance of salvation, but merely the following of the rules.

There's a great book on the subject called, The Gospel According to Rome. You can get it off amazon.com. It's an amazing book that compares the teachings of Catholicism compared to the teachings of Christ. Fascinating how much they differ!

But anyway, if Catholicism then is NOT the one true church, how did the true faith get passed down from the disciples to the reformation? Those concepts weren't just invented in Martin Luther's head, they were being disgusted on a wide-spread basis all over northern Europe and the Middle East. People wanted to know how they could have assurance of salvation, whether or not they had to participate in mass to be in good standing with God, and so on. Luther was influenced by the "heretic" groups that practiced the teachings of Christ all around him. They seemed to have more of the answers than Rome did. Luther tried to reason with Rome to see the truth of the "heresy" that membership in the church was not a requirement for salvation, but simple faith in Christ's authority to save us is all that is required. The book of Romans explains it very well.

There's another great book called "Worth Dying For." It talks about the different and divergent groups that existed outside of Catholicism from the earliest days of the church. Some of the groups WERE indeed heretics, in the sense that they preached another gospel. But others were persecuted as heretics simply because they refused to join or participate in the Catholic church.

Read Martyrs Mirror, too. I have researched a lot of the instances in there, and a lot of them are confirmed in Catholicism's own records. It's amazing how hard the accusers had to reach sometimes to make the outsiders seem to be heretics. One group was murdered at the stake merely because they refused to be baptized as Catholic and the married outside the church in their own ceremonies and they refused to say that they believed the communion cup holds the real body and blood of Christ, but merely symbols of those elements.

Research it for yourself and see. I used to be a Catholic until I found the truth about this matter.