Thanks man.
another question
do Anabaptist, Mennonites and Quakers believe in the doctrines of grace? ( the T.U.L.I.P)
Jeff,
Just for clarification, anabaptist would be considered a parent to it's offspring, the Mennonites, Amish, Hutterites, and a few others.
Quakers are NOT anabaptist, their parent group would be the Anglican church and Protestantism.
When the Reformation was going on in the 1500's, reviving the doctrines of Augustine, later called Calvinism, under the hands of Calvin, Luther, Zwingli, Knox, etc., another reformation was going on, the Radical Reformation. This was the birth of anabaptism. They did not "start a group" called "anabaptists," rather, they were called that because they called people to leave State religion, repent, be saved, and be BIBLICALLY baptized after conversion. Because they already received infant baptism, they were commanded to be baptized AGAIN. The Roman Catholic Church and the Reformers, thus called them ana (again) baptist (baptizers.)
Now, did Simons, Blurock, the Swiss Brethren, and the Moravians, just to name a few, believe in grace? Yes, but they did not believe the concept of grace that was espoused by the Reformers, namely, the T.U.L.I.P. This doctrine, as I said, was revived (St.) Augustinianism. They rejected the RCC, it's doctrines, and its practices. It was a Radical Reformation. They became, to the best of their ability, literalists of the teachings of Christ.
Menno said:
"Behold, kind reader, thus we do not seek our salvation in works, words or sacraments, as do the learned, although they blame us therefor, but we seek them alone in Christ Jesus and in no other means in heaven or earth. In this only means we rejoice and in no other. We trust, by the grace of God, to abide therein unto death." (from:
The complete works of Menno Simons.)
Again;
"All those, now, who accept this means of divine grace, Jesus Christ, with believing hearts, and enclose him in their consciences, believe and confess that their sins are forgiven through his sacrifice, death, and blood; that his wrath and damnation will not be upon them forever; that he accepts them as his beloved sons and daughters, and gives them life eternal. All such become of peaceable and joyous spirit, and give thanks to God, with renewed hearts; for the power of faith quickens and changes them into newness of life, and they walk thus, by the gift and grace of the Holy Spirit in the power of their new birth, according to the measure of their faith, in obedience to their God who has shown them such great love." [p. 262]
So you see, he believed not only in the saving grace of God, but the powerful life-changing grace of God. Many, when it comes to doctrine, are gun barrel straight, and twice as empty. Do not mistake me, doctrine is important, but many are good at being scholars, and disobedient to the commands of Christ, for example, to love your enemies. We, in our Americana, would rather shoot them. . . it's easier, less complications.
However, our example is anabaptist Dirk Willems:
No story of an Anabaptist martyr has captured the imagination more than the tale of Dirk Willems.
Dirk was caught, tried and convicted as an Anabaptist in those later years of harsh Spanish rule under the Duke of Alva in The Netherlands. He escaped from a residential palace turned into a prison by letting himself out of a window with a rope made of knotted rags, dropping onto the ice that covered the castle moat.
Seeing him escape, a palace guard pursued him as he fled. Dirk crossed the thin ice of a pond, the "Hondegat," safely. His own weight had been reduced by short prison rations, but the heavier pursuer broke through.
Hearing the guard's cries for help, Dirk turned back and rescued him. The less-than-grateful guard then seized Dirk and led him back to captivity. This time the authorities threw him into a more secure prison, a small, heavily barred room at the top of a very tall church tower, above the bell, where he was probably locked into the wooden leg stocks that remain in place today. Soon he was led out to be burned to death.
Some inhabitants of present-day Asperen, none of them Mennonite, regard Dirk as a folk hero. A Christian, so compassionate that he risked recapture in order to save the life of his drowning pursuer, stimulates respect and memory. Recently Asperen named a street in Dirk's honor.
- John S. Oyer and Robert Kreider, Mirror of the Martyrs [Good Books, 1990], p. 36-37.
I hope that answers some of your questions.
Ben
