Anabaptist Theology

[00:00:00] This audio sermon is provided by AnabaptistSermons.com and may be freely copied and distributed. You may not sell or edit this sermon. Our prayer is that you would be blessed by this ministry. Let me begin this evening by reading you two stories. Fifteen hundred men had gathered in a forest for a spiritual retreat. I felt encouraged to preach for deep commitment to the Lord during the weekend. By Saturday night, I had already done extensive counseling and knew that immorality had sunk its vicious teeth into many of these men's lives. [00:00:38] They were unable to respond to the Lord with commitment unless they were first cleansed. When men get together with each other in the woods, you can really speak the truth openly. I preached on immorality and led them through Nathan's process of confrontation and commandments and consequences, and then called for them to act, to repent and humble themselves and turn from their wicked ways. The presence of the Lord was strong and I felt that public confession was necessary. I'm going to ask you to do a very difficult thing tonight. [00:01:11] If you're involved in an adulterous relationship, then I want you to stand and come forward in an act of public repentance. If you cannot find the courage to humble yourself before the rest of these men who deeply care for you, You'll never have the courage to call that other woman and put an end to your adulterous affair. I led us in a quiet prayer and then continued. No head will be bowed because the eyes of heaven are upon this place. You need to repent. You need to humble yourself. You need to end your adultery. [00:01:43] If this is your commitment, then stand and come down here in an act of humility before the Lord. Shake my hand and then go out to that pay telephone right behind this meeting place and call that other woman and end it. Tell her you have sinned against the Lord, against her, against your wife and against your children. Ask her forgiveness and tell her you won't see her again. Then go out into those magnificent woods and fall on your face and seek the Lord's forgiveness for your adultery and disobedience. There was no music, no choir, no stained glass windows. [00:02:16] No one had their eyes closed. And no one moved. My heart started pounding in my chest, and I thought the whole auditorium would hear it. I thought, what on earth am I doing? Asking men to come forward publicly and confess their adulterous relationship? What a foolish thought. No one will come. And in the midst of my fear, I cried out to God for the conviction of the Holy Spirit to sweep across the audience and break the spirit of pride and rebellion. [00:02:47] I released myself into his hands, relinquished my fear, and recommitted myself to preach the truth regardless of the response. My heart soon slowed. I wondered if I should close in prayer, but sensed I should wait. Suddenly, the wooden bleacher shook as a giant of a man in the second row to the top almost leaped to his feet. He strode right down the center aisle and finally stopped six inches in front of my face. I thought he was going to punch me. [00:03:18] I will never forget his words. I've been having an affair. No, like you said, I've been committing adultery for seven years. I'm a trucker and I'm a Christian. You're the first man who's ever preached honestly about adultery and then asked me to stop. I come down here to tell you I'm stopping. Then he stepped forward and gave me a man's hug to put my back into shape. Then he turned and started out toward the telethons. Holding up a quarter, he said, she's not going to believe it, but by God's help, it's all over. [00:03:50] That broke the ice. Many men began to file forward, tears streaming down their faces. Others knelt right where they were. The glorious return of the Wayward Sons was once again in process. Much later, when I looked out my cabin window for the last time around one in the morning, there was still a line of men waiting for those pay phones. That's a true story. Now another story. We had just finished praying together and were walking to a huge auditorium for the evening service. [00:04:21] I asked this popular preacher a question that has forever altered the way I prepare to minister to a Christian audience. In your opinion, what percentage of the average evangelical church members are out of fellowship with the Lord on any given Sunday? I've never thought about that, he said as we reached the door to the sanctuary. I expected maybe 15% maybe as high as 25% he must have continued chewing on that question because in the middle of the first hymn he leaned over and whispered well what percentage do you think it is I think it's much higher closer to 60% and perhaps as high as 75% he reacted with genuine surprise impossible not in a good church why what percentage of the people in the auditorium tonight do you think are out of fellowship [00:05:12] If I told him the truth, he'd be upset. And if I didn't tell the truth, the Lord would be upset. So I just said, I'm not sure. Because that was the truth. During the last stanza, I leaned over and said, Why don't you ask them and find out? That was a bit beyond his comfort zone, but I could see he was intrigued by the question. Before I stood to preach, he said, Why don't you ask them? You're the guest speaker. So I began my message by asking the congregation [00:05:44] Your pastor and I were having an interesting discussion about what percentage of the people attending evangelical churches tonight all across the land are out of fellowship with the Lord We couldn't decide so we decided to ask you Would you vote on the percentage you think are out of fellowship by raising your hands? All those who think less than 10% are out of fellowship 20% 30% When Weaver finished voting the average was [00:06:14] 75% Now let's get serious I continued. What about this great congregation? What about the person on your left and on your right? What percentage of them do you think are out of fellowship? We voted once again This time it was almost unanimous 70% were considered to be living in some known sin at that moment and were therefore out of fellowship with the Lord. I've repeated that test in various churches across the country [00:06:44] and found that although the average fluctuates, it seems to be somewhere between 50% and 80%. Ideas have consequences, and doctrine is ideas. The topic that I'm supposed to be sharing with you is the theology of Anabaptism. And you might say, I wonder what that means. Well, I have a book here. It's entitled The Theology of Anabaptism. See how thick it is? Well, I wonder what this book contains. [00:07:17] Well, it's rather interesting. You can put Anabaptist theology, you can put this book in a nutshell. It's about this big. I think it's basically nine words. It's referring to the gospel. If you don't live it, you don't have it. That's what Anabaptist theology basically is. It's that simple. Now, in contrast to that, before we get to contrast, let me read something to you in this book. [00:07:48] This is Theology of Anabaptism by Robert Friedman. He says, Ever since the days of the Apostolic Church, Anabaptism is the only example in church history of an existential Christianity Where there existed no basic split between faith and life, even though the struggle for realization or actualization of this faith into practice remained a perennial task. Brothers and sisters, the Anabaptist theology simply says that what Jesus said must become real in our experience. [00:08:23] We have to live it. Now compare that and contrast that with this. Lutheranism says this and they have a written theology in fact it's thick I don't have a book on Lutheran theology but I wouldn't be surprised if it's at least this thick just their theology because Lutherans are more of a creedal church Anabaptists are not a creedal church basically Lutheranism says faith cometh by hearing and hearing by the word of God [00:08:53] and so we need to come together on a Sunday morning to hear the word preached and then as we hear the word preached faith comes to us and we put our faith in God and God works on the records of heaven and makes some accounts and declares us righteous and then we are righteous. That's Lutheran theology in a nutshell. By the time Luther, Martin Luther was older he was decrying and dismayed that the morals of Europe had sunk to a new low under Lutheranism compared to Catholicism. [00:09:32] It was already bad under Catholicism, but under Lutheranism they went even lower. Lutherans understand that man is totally depraved and they can't do anything. They just need to have the word preached to them. They are so helpless that even whenever they get faith they can't do it. God has to record it in heaven. And that's about it. Now, contrast that to Roman Catholic theology. And they have a written theology, and it's extremely thick. [00:10:06] I don't even have a book on Catholic theology either, but I can imagine Catholic theology probably in several volumes. Written. But if you have to bring it all down, distill it all, So, it's basically, salvation is dispensed by the Holy Mother Church. Now, when we go into some of the four basic principles of the Anabaptist vision, we'll enlarge on these later. But the topic tonight is just an introduction to Anabaptist theology. [00:10:39] The song we sang this morning, number 374 in the hymnary, is just a well-stated piece of Anabaptist theology. Open your books, let's look at it. Number 374 in the hymnary. This is written by Frances Ridley Havergall, which lived in 1874. This is not necessarily an Anabaptist writing this poem, but she has gotten the essence of what it's all about. She says, Take my life and let it be consecrated, Lord, to thee. [00:11:13] Take my hands and let them move at the impulse of thy love. at the impulse of thy love. Take my feet and let them be swift and beautiful for thee. Take my voice and let me sing always, only for my King. Always, only for my King. Take my lips and let them be filled with messages from thee. Take my silver and my gold, not a mite would I withhold. Not a mite would I withhold. [00:11:43] Take my will and make it thine, it shall be no longer mine Take my heart, it is thine own, it shall be thy royal throne It shall be thy royal throne Take my love, my Lord, I pour at thy feet its treasure store Take myself and I will be ever only all for thee Ever only all for thee And then that needs to be lived We sing it and live it Brethren, I was preaching this morning about standing in the gap. [00:12:17] The Anabaptist people stood in the gap about 500 years ago. Europe was a mess. It was getting worse. The morals of the clergy were deplorable. The morals of the people were deplorable. There had been some Waldensian teaching throughout Europe for years. And before the Waldensian, there was other teaching. We call it the remnant, remnant teaching. There was a grassroots among the people who knew that this isn't right. [00:12:52] And there were little conventicles, little groups of people who tried to live right, even though they were members of the Catholic Church for years. Interestingly, there was a group, the oldest Mennonite church is the church at Langnau in Switzerland. And when the Anabaptist movement started, it basically recognized over in Zurich some people who began to believe like they did. That church existed 200 years before the Anabaptist movement even started. So there was a grassroots in Europe who were just waiting for this whole thing to come above ground. [00:13:30] And there were some brave men and women who basically began to take Jesus seriously and say, If Jesus said it, he must believe we could do it. So let's get busy and do it. And that's what they did. Except that it wasn't legal. Anabaptism, when it began in Zurich, the issue, the central issue that day was infant baptism. These people realized that the scriptures don't teach infant baptism And so they refused to have their babies baptized [00:14:01] Believing that believer's baptism is what the scriptures would teach Except that's not legal There was a law that if you had a baby That within eight days it needs to be christened by the church Now when it was christened or baptized by the church The priest took holy water and touched its forehead and that act cleansed original sin from that baby and that baby was saved. [00:14:35] And Anabaptists who refused to do that because of what the word of God taught came to be known as baby haters. They don't love their babies. They don't take care of them. They don't baptize them. Well, they did it out of conviction. but there was more to it than just the infant baptism doctrine the thing that was behind it was that the Roman Catholic Church wanted a monolithic society if you take that word monolithic apart mono means one lithic I guess means structure [00:15:06] I'm not sure about that but they didn't want any any deviation the church and the state work side by side They talked about it being like the warp and woof of fabric. You girls know that whenever you have fabric, you have threads that run this way and you have threads that run this way and they're woven together. And they said it is necessary, absolutely necessary to have strands of thread interwoven so that it doesn't come apart. [00:15:40] It's absolutely necessary to have the church and state work together because if you have them separate, the fabric will fall apart. Society will disintegrate if you separate church and state. And so that's why you had to have infant baptism. And that's why adult baptism became a criminal offense. If you insisted on having no babies baptized and having only adult baptism, you're also insisting on anarchy and you're insisting on something that's going to destroy our society. [00:16:19] And so the only thing to be done is to kill you and get rid of you and your people as fast as possible. except that in God's way of thinking a new era had begun and they tried to do the persecution they tried to stop it they got a late start on it and for a while this thing was mushrooming so rapidly people were so sick and tired [00:16:49] of all the immorality and all the wickedness in the church and with the church's involvement with money and being covetous and oppressing the people that when the people heard about going back to the scriptures they just flocked to it. It just mushroomed. And Europe was afraid that the whole system was going to crumble. The world was going to be turned upside down. But by that time it was too late to put it out. [00:17:21] Now, I understand my assignment is not to talk about Anabaptist history, so I'll just try to keep it focused on theology. But you can't really separate the theology from what happened in history. And so in a very real sense, the Anabaptists in their day, beginning in 1525, were the people who stood in the gap in those days. And they paid a very high price for standing in the gap. But we are sitting here today because they did. And interestingly, this idea then began to be picked up by other people in other places. [00:17:59] Quakerism has a connection to Anabaptism that I understand and other ideas. And it just amazes me how this whole thing worked. Pardon me for a little bit of history here. but when America got settled the Puritans from New England had come from the Puritans in England the Puritans in England came after the Pilgrims the Pilgrims were separatists the Pilgrims were people who had associated [00:18:31] with a Mennonite congregation in Holland and they came over now they were not believers in separation of church and state and nor were the Puritans after them. Puritans were a much larger group. And so in New England, there was a state church concept that was willing to persecute Quakers. And then in the south, in Virginia, there was the Church of England that also came from England but it represented the other side of the spectrum. And so there was a state church in Virginia [00:19:04] but in between, in Pennsylvania, there was William Penn. and William Penn did the unthinkable. He said, anybody who is persecuted in Europe, come on over here. We have this new land. We're going to open up for the persecuted peoples of Europe. Now, he was Quaker, so of course he invited Quakers. But the Quakers also went and preached among the Anabaptists and said, come on over to Pennsylvania. Well, when the Anabaptists got over here and found out [00:19:36] that it really and truly was free, They just flocked out of Europe over to Pennsylvania. And not just Mennonites, but the Brethren and other German groups. And lo and behold, the story in Pennsylvania, there was no such thing as a state church. Something began to work that was not supposed to be able to work. There was freedom of religion in Pennsylvania. Well, then it came time to write the Constitution. and Thomas Jefferson was very strong against [00:20:09] he had learned some things from the French Revolution from enlightenment but they also learned some things from what was going on in Pennsylvania and when they wrote the United States Constitution they wrote it in terms of separation of church and state and Thomas Jefferson still wasn't satisfied He says there are no expressed statements in this thing that freedom of religion is guaranteed. Freedom of assembly. [00:20:42] Freedom of the press. Freedom of religion. And so there were ten amendments. They were put to the Constitution, the first ten amendments. We know them as the Bill of Rights. And Thomas Jefferson and his people said, Yeah, we'll vote for this. If you put this into the basic law of the land, and lo and behold, it passed. And now, the United States has stood for separation of church and state. The state church of New England basically faded away. The state church concept in Virginia faded away. [00:21:15] And the separation of church and state is normal today. In fact, it's so normal. We think about it just the way it is. We can't imagine a state church concept anymore. We believe in it so strongly that our country is now trying to export it to places like Iraq. And Iraq has no philosophical base to be able to handle this. They believe that Islam should be put into law and the people of the land forced. Islam does not even have a concept of how to have separation of church and state. [00:21:48] It's built into their concept that you have to have the state and the church joined. And I don't know how this is all going to work. The United States trying to teach them how to have something that's not possible in their philosophical base. So we'll see how this all works out. Why am I saying all this? Many of our people, Anabaptist descendants, blood descendants now, I'm not talking about spiritual descendants, I'm talking about blood descendants, don't even know these things. Now, it really doesn't need to give us any sense of pride at all. [00:22:22] because this thing was bought. The whole concept of separation of church and state was bought at a very high price. So much suffering. But the Anabaptist people were the pioneers, the ones who were willing to stand in the gap in that day and say, this is what God's word teaches and this is where we're going to stand. You're allowed to kill us if you want to, but this is what God says. And by standing in the gap, They changed the course of history 500 years ago, and now we're going a different direction from what it was 600 years ago in Europe. [00:23:00] And my personal feeling is that as I look at the horizon and you see things, even Benjamin Franklin said this whole thing will work as long as there's basic morality in the land. But once there's basic morality is gone, then we're going to need a death spot once again. And so I think we're getting there rather rapidly. Another little story. There was an Amishman by the name of Jonas Yoder in the state of Wisconsin who has impacted recent history. I'd like to just share his story a little bit. [00:23:33] The state of Wisconsin told Jonas Yoder, your children need to go to high school after grade eight. And Jonas Yoder says, no, they're not. and the local school district said yes they are and Jonas says no they're not and the local school district said yes they are and Jonas says you don't understand no they're not and so the school district took Jonas Yoder to court and the school district won [00:24:04] and they said now Jonas you're going to put your children in high school and Jonas says no Well, they said, well, the law is you have to put them in high school. And Jonas said, don't you understand? No. What do you do with a man like this? So finally, I want to make sure I'm saying this right. Don't quote me. This is actually what it was. I think it went to the state Supreme Court of Wisconsin. And the state Supreme Court said, yes, the school district is right. [00:24:34] They upheld the school district and said, Jonas, you are going to have to put your children in high school. And Jonas says, look, you folks, you don't understand. No. Well, they had a stubborn Amishman on their hands. To make a long story short, the whole issue went to the United States Supreme Court. In 1972, the United States Supreme Court basically answered this question. Who owns the child? Do parents own a child or does the state own a child? [00:25:08] Now we Anabaptist people, we always think that parents own children. But the government doesn't look at it that way. That's why they have public schools. It's their children. And they want to teach their children their philosophies and their values. And Jonas did not want their philosophies and their values taught to his child. Now, the United States Supreme Court said the school district and the Supreme Court of Wisconsin made a mistake. [00:25:43] They ruled in favor of Jonas Yoder and basically said the parents own the children, not the state. And that was a landmark decision. That opened up freedom for us to have our Christian schools like we never had it before. and that also opened up the gates for homeschooling. Now, homeschooling is becoming, it used to be, I don't know you people's story here in Indiana, but when we moved to Texas in 87, it had recently gone to court in Texas [00:26:15] and recently there had been a recent decision in Leiper versus Arlington that homeschooling had become legal. Before that it was illegal to homeschool in Texas. Okay, when it became legal to homeschool in Texas, people began to homeschool more and more. But the early homeschoolers were people who did their homeschooling because they had a conviction. They wanted God's principles taught to their children. [00:26:47] They didn't want the state with its principles and philosophies being taught to their children. Those early homeschoolers were willing to pay a price. I could tell you a story, but I won't on that one. But you know, here we are now, 20 years later or more. Texas has now become known as one of the most liberal states in the country when it comes to homeschooling. And now it's almost a fad to homeschool in Texas. And the quality of the people who are homeschooling has gone down like this. Homeschooling family. That's another story. Well, we'll just stop there. [00:27:32] Homeschooling has become so much of a fad. Now there are rumblings on the horizon. I don't know about in Indiana, but there's a concept in Texas called unschooling. That you really don't have to teach your children. They just live with your parents. And as you live with your children, you teach them. So you really don't have schooling. and so some people are saying is this right that we have children going up in the state of Texas who are not being educated and now there are clouds on the horizon [00:28:05] what's going to happen but in the meantime the freedom we've had for all these years has produced across the whole nation not just 10,000 homeschoolers or 100,000 I'm talking about more than a million It threatens school districts because every child who is not in the school district reduces government funding for that school district. And so it has become a significant movement. Why am I telling you all this? Well, it's because Jonas Yoder was willing to stand in the gap in his day [00:28:39] and change and influence the course of history in our country. Did he do it? Did he set out to do that? No, he didn't. He set out to do it by being true to what he understood. And I would like to leave a challenge with us tonight. That when God calls us to do something, we just get busy like our Anabaptist forefathers. If Jesus says it and he doesn't say things he doesn't expect us to do, if he says it, let's just do it. And while we do that, we'll probably get into trouble, some place or other. [00:29:10] But so be it. God uses it however he wants to. And so, I don't know what those issues will be as we move into the future, but may we simply be faithful. Bringing it real close to home, personally, I believe that God is asking this congregation to stand in the gap of 2009. And I don't know what all that means to you, but maybe some of the reason for me saying that will become obvious as these sessions continue. Maybe I should just share my heart with you just a little bit. [00:29:44] This makes my heart cry, but I have to be honest with you. There are many, many of our people who do not know the principles of the Anabaptist vision anymore. They don't know. We're losing them. It's a living tragedy. It's just a living tragedy. Even the secular Jews who don't even believe in God do a better job in producing new Jews. They are very, very focused on their children and helping their children become good, orthodox Jewish children. [00:30:20] And we're not doing it. Even though we have a much more glorious heritage, we have the New Testament concepts as a part of our heritage. And we're not doing it. I'm going to share further my heart. This I cannot comprehend. I'm going to say it and I'll just leave it. There are many of our schools who use a non-Anabaptist curriculum. Every school curriculum, every book has a philosophy behind it. [00:30:51] It's in the blood of the book. We use non-Anabaptist curriculum in our schools that teach philosophies that are far into our concepts and think that we're going to have teachers that are going to counteract that somehow. And we have deceived ourselves. And now we're beginning to reap the fruit of that. I feel extremely privileged to be an heir of Anabaptist theology. Yes, I have blood connections on half of my family. The other half, the Rudolph side, there is no blood connections. [00:31:24] But that's really beside the point. There have been so many people have paid a high price to buy into this heritage of faith. And in our day, in Texas, I have seen many people pay that price to come into this heritage. I have one man tell me, he says, If I and my generation can just break the chain from the past, I'll be satisfied. My children can grow and build on that. [00:31:55] I consider it personally to have a very great privilege to be an heir of the Anabaptist theology. And I feel a personal debt to the next generation to teach them what their forefathers stood for and what the Anabaptist vision actually is. First-generation Anabaptism shook Europe to its foundations. It literally turned Europe upside down. That upside-downness gave birth to the concept of separation of church and state, an impossible idea to most people in the 1500s. [00:32:29] Other streams of thought contributed strength to the concept so that today separation of church and state is considered right side up. Western civilization has held that principle dear for 200 years. Now the West is trying to help the Muslim world learn the concept. Every Anabaptist young person today should understand the significance of this fact. Instead, most Anabaptist young people today are not even aware of the fact. Furthermore, most of them have only a sketchy idea of what Anabaptism is [00:33:01] And the ideas they do have are twisted and warped Many of these disillusioned young people are concluding that Anabaptism is bankrupt And are beginning to look elsewhere for their ideals It's already happening It's so sad A tragedy that's unfolding before our eyes Some present-day Anabaptists enjoy the sport of flipping the gold coins of their heritage into the air [00:33:32] to watch them glitter and glint in the sun, then hear them go plop. The liberal Mennonites of our generation have either depleted their pile of gold coins or their parents and grandparents have already done so. And basically all they have is the Mennonite name. Unfortunately, the sport of flipping out the gold coins is not limited to the liberals. The traditional Amish and Mennonites have done the same. Many of these people have little or no concept of what brought their heritage into existence. [00:34:04] Efforts to teach these people their own foundational principles are resisted. Basically, all they have is the Amish or Mennonite name and some fossilized practices that they considered sacred. Where are we? Well, we're tame Anabaptists. We're considered nice people, even valuable people to have in a community. We're known for our quality craftsmanship, our quilts, and our good food. We work hard, we're frugal, we stay close to the soil. [00:34:35] We keep to ourselves and don't make any trouble. The first generation Anabaptists were an entirely different sort. The living Word. Jesus Christ possessed them as a living presence. He moved them to insist that the word of God is a higher authority than the state or the church or themselves. Menno Simons wrote, We have but one Lord and Master of our conscience, Jesus Christ, whose word, will, commandment, and ordinance we obey as willing disciples, even as a bride is ready to obey her bridegroom's voice. [00:35:08] Michael Sattler wrote, They threatened us with bonds, then with fire and the sword, But in all this, I surrendered myself completely into the will of the Lord, together with all my brothers and with my wife, and prepared myself to die for his testimony. Hans Denk said, No man truly knows Christ unless he follows him in daily life. And they set out to do just that. But such behavior was too radical, too convicting for many. [00:35:40] One person said to an Anabaptist, Why can't you be bad like all the rest of the good Christians? One reformer wrote of Hans Denk, He has disturbed our church very much. His apparent sacrificial life, his brilliance, and his decent habits have wonderfully captivated the people. Conrad Grebel wrote, I am full of words, and the spirit of my belly constrains me. Behold, my belly is as new wine without a vent which bursts the wineskins. I shall speak and I shall breathe a little more freely [00:36:12] I shall open my lips and make answer And speak and write they did Until Europe was turned upside down The only way the church and the civil authorities knew to deal with this disturbance Was to execute them And execute them they did Except that the executions inspired more and more people to hold the same pernicious views Let me pause to say this When they would watch somebody like Michael Sattler die, they said, what glory is dying? [00:36:44] What do these people have that enables them to die like that? After a while, the authorities got smart. Instead of killing them in public, they put them inside the walls and killed them in private so nobody could see this glory is dying. Because Tertullian said, the blood of the martyrs is the seed of the church. And when the authorities killed Michael Sattler and his wife, if there was anything that helped the Anabaptist cause, it did that. [00:37:15] Because the people local knew, this man is a good man. And how he died was wonderful. And it wonderfully captured and captivated the imaginations of the common people when they saw what happened. Turn with me in your Bibles right now to Psalm 78. Please let me read to you from the New King James Version. I think this passage is rather, doesn't need a lot of comment. It just simply says this. Give ear, O my people, to my law. Incline your ears to the words of my mouth. [00:37:47] I will open my mouth in a parable. I will utter dark sayings of old, which we have heard and known and our fathers have told us. We will not hide them from their children. Telling to the generation to come the praises of the Lord and His strength and His wonderful works that He has done. For he established a testimony in Jacob and appointed a law in Israel, which he commanded our fathers, that they should make them known to their children, that the generation to come might know them, the children who would be born, that they may arise and declare them to their children, that they might set their hope in God and not forget the works of God, but keep his commandments and may not be like their fathers. [00:38:28] A stubborn and rebellious generation. A generation that did not set its heart aright and whose spirit was not faithful to God. That's Old Testament. There's a passage in the New Testament like it. I won't read that tonight. It's in 1 Corinthians 10. All our fathers, remember how our fathers were under the cloud and into the sea? And they were baptized under Moses in the cloud and in the sea. And then it finally says, but with them, not all of them, God was pleased. and there are many fell in the wilderness. [00:39:01] God has something to say in both the Old Testament and the New Testament about paying attention to the past. Learning what we can and should be from the past. Now go with me to Job chapter 8, verses 9 and 10. This is a philosophy, a Christian philosophy of history. It's in the Old Testament. I guess it's a universal philosophy of history. It's timeless. It simply says this, For we were born yesterday and know nothing, [00:39:34] because our days on earth are a shadow. I'm sorry, I should have started reading in verse 8. For inquire, please, of the former age, and consider the things discovered by their fathers, for we were born yesterday and know nothing, because our days on earth are a shadow. It's so sad that the basic thing we learn from history is that people don't learn from history. But it doesn't have to be that way. There are a few people who do read the story of the past and who do learn and don't make the mistakes. [00:40:08] Let me tell you a story. In 1955, our people, the Mennonite people, were facing apostasy and drift. and Mennonite Church gathered in Mennonite General Conference and produced a resolution. It addressed, I don't know, 10 or 12 areas of where we're having problems and weakness and suggested what we ought to do to remedy this [00:40:39] and to deal with this. And they passed it with official, they voted on it and it became a matter of the record, historical record in 1955. Wonderful words. In fact, I thought about using some the other day whenever I gave my testimony here. You know what the story is? That's all it was. Just wonderful words. That's all. Where have my people gone? They have forgotten their own story. [00:41:12] They don't care anymore. The Word of God is no longer supreme in their lives, many of them. In fact, some of my people now, you can really and legitimately raise the question whether they're even Christian in some of their theology anymore. And I'm speaking very frankly and honestly. I see you people a generation later facing some of the same kind of issues. And the question I raise in my mind, are these people going to read the story of the past? are you all going to learn from our history [00:41:44] paying attention to where we failed and say well look if they did such and such and such and such and this resulted well how can we expect to have any different results if we do the same thing so I plead with you folks to pay attention to the story of the past and don't make the mistakes that we have made but get a hold of the issues and by God's grace take a different course than what we did One of the things that I think is rather obvious from history, there are three words. [00:42:16] The first one is fight, right, and flight. The first generation fights because they know the truth, just like our Anabaptist forefathers gave their lives in fighting for the truth. The second generation comes along and becomes the heir of that. And they are right, but they did not need to fight. and the third generation flees from that. It's called flight. It's because they have no concept of what was fought for [00:42:46] and they don't even believe it's right anymore. And that's oversimplified, I realize. But the only way that the Anabaptist vision, and I'll show you some overheads here shortly, can be continued, is if every generation fights. Every generation pays the price. And I tell you, it's a high price to pay. The Anabaptist vision ideal is so fragile. The New Testament teaching, what Jesus expected, the standard is so high that many of our Protestant friends say it's impossible. Can't do it. [00:43:20] It has to be sometime in the future, in the millennial age sometime, because we can't do it now. Our Anabaptist forefathers said, look, if Jesus said it, he expects us to do it. Let's get busy and do it. And they did. And so they did not just talk about the living Christ The living Christ burned in their bosoms The living Christ revealed himself to them as the living word found on the pages of the written word The living word pulsating in their bosoms could not be stifled Everywhere they preached the word with their lips and with their lives [00:43:53] They were not stilled with threats or persecution And so they willingly shed their blood in exchange for the privilege to be at the presence of the one they love so intensely. They had found the truth and they were free. And they handed this legacy to us, their blood children. But many of us, too many of us, do not want it. We want nothing so radical. We want to be the quiet in the land. Anabaptism in its original form was only for people who were devoted to the two great commandments, loving God with all one's being and loving our neighbor as ourselves. [00:44:27] And the same thing is true today. And this is how we're going to recapture the Anabaptist vision in our day. And we'll look at the practicals of how this whole thing works out in four general principles on other evenings. In introduction to those four principles, this is not original with me. If you folks don't have this little book, every Anabaptist household should have one of these. [00:44:58] I was just down to Mennohoff and I was glad to see them there. But if you would like to purchase some, I'd be glad to get some so that we can have them. This, I know of no better concise statement. It's only 36 pages, and it's the most concise statement of the Anabaptist vision that I know. Now, there are many, many, many books that are written that flesh out these basic principles, [00:45:30] but I tried to teach this class at Calvary Bible School for three weeks, and it's far beyond what we can consider in three weeks. But this distills it as much as anything. Their message, that you'll find in here, is just as radical, so radical that many Anabaptists today have turned aside to a much more comfortable message. Today, I'm speaking for myself, I run the risk of being labeled unsound, unbalanced, and unrealistic by Anabaptist descendants for simply holding and teaching Anabaptist principles. [00:46:06] I know a story on that. It did not happen to me personally, but it's an illustration of that. But these are not just Anabaptist principles. Jesus Christ taught them and the rest of the New Testament enlarges on them. It's going to be either Jesus' way or another gospel. The Anabaptists picked them up and insisted on Jesus' way. And that way was contrary to the religious spirit of their times. And so they faced extremely difficult circumstances. By all natural explanations, the Anabaptist concept should not have survived. [00:46:39] Now, the Bible has survived. Praise God. And those principles are still in there. But as I stated in the outset, the Anabaptist people are among the few who have insisted that it's more than just head knowledge, that it must be lived. and so praise God that there is still yet today and there has been ever since 1525 there have been people who have understood these as New Testament principles [00:47:11] these are nothing unique to Anabaptists at all all they did was get a hold of these New Testament principles and insisted on living them and that has come down to us today I don't know about your stories but I know I have mentors I have examples that I can look back to in my past When I was a little boy, I've always known people who are godly, who have lived like this. I want to pass that on to my children and my grandchildren. I want young people in our day to have living models of godliness. [00:47:47] What is going on when we have this kind of thing? Well, it's simply life at work. The Anabaptists simply insisted that the living word infuse life into people who in turn make up the living body, the church. And the living body was attached to the living head, Jesus Christ. The vine was nourishing the branches. And the branches were bearing much fruit. Now let me conclude this evening by simply sharing some more overheads with you. Hopefully by now you have at least some idea of why I put that on the board. [00:48:20] Ideas have consequences. Now what we mean by spiritual gravity is our fallen nature is always pulling us down. Our human weakness and the world around us, the attractions of the world around us, fleshliness, is always pulling us down, away from God, until there's little or no spiritual life. And the only way we can overcome this is the same way a rocket ship overcomes gravity. [00:48:51] It has fuel within itself that blasts itself up through the atmosphere and out into outer space. And in spiritual terms, it's called abiding in Christ. That's the only way we can counteract the spiritual gravity. It's going down this way. Now, if you look over on this side, the Anabaptists simply insisted that the New Testament be lived. That's all they did. There's no new theology. Now, our Protestant friends have regained part. [00:49:23] The Roman Catholic, I mean, you could be as wicked as anything. So I'll share with you one other night here with some overheads as to the kind of concepts that Roman Catholics had. Basically, as long as you can get sacraments, as long as you can get the body and blood of Christ, as long as you can get baptized and the church can do various things for you, you're saved. Salvation is dispensed by the Holy Mother Church. You can do anything. Okay. It takes little or no spiritual life at all to be a Roman Catholic. And our Protestant friends have gotten a hold in various degrees. This concept, it has to be better than this. The New Testament doesn't teach this at all. And so we have various groups at various places. And I think it's just, it's a truism. The Anabaptism, or by insisting on the New Testament [00:50:18] have insisted on what even our Protestant friends call impossible. You can't live like this. The standard's too high. Martin Luther says if we try to live like this we wouldn't have any people in our church. He thought about having, see that when they preach the word they assume that there's going to be just a few people here and there who get the truth. And Martin Luther thought well maybe we ought to take those people and have a little separate church. But he thought, we just won't have enough. The Anabaptists didn't make beans about it. They just said, we're going to start obeying Christ. [00:50:49] And when they did, they had plenty of people for churches, but at a great cost. Here's another way of looking at the same thing. The law of spiritual gravitation is down. And by the way, I might mention spiritual power and energy and commitment. When Anabaptists fall from their fragile position of New Testament Christianity, their first step is back to Protestantism in some form. Now here's the very sad truth. [00:51:20] There are some people who have an Anabaptist heritage who have already gone all the way to the bottom. And even though they have an Anabaptist kind of name, they live like Roman Catholics. It is actually a fact. We have gone full circle. Some Anabaptist descendants in 500 years have gone full circle. The Pilgrim Church is going to endure. If you start over here, this is Christ. And over here we'll say as today. But notice that off this course we have people who are giving license to the flesh [00:51:54] in the name of Christ and who deviate from this course. But notice there's no future. It ends soon. But we have people who also go off the other way. License to coercion. In the name of Christ, who want to force people to do what's right in the name of Christ. Look at theirs. It's the same thing. It goes off into nothing. There is no future there. And so the Pilgrim Church is this line from Christ to today where the Spirit of God and the Word of God and the living Christ are within people and they are living it. [00:52:33] They have a living, fruitful relationship with Jesus Christ. Let me close with this one. If we have two people, a married couple, a husband and wife, and they have four children, faithful, faithful, faithful, and one unfaithful. What we say by unfaithful is that this child has not caught the principles that Jesus teaches as to how we should live and be in New Testament times. Okay, if we use the same ratio of one out of four failing to pass on the faith, here's what happens. [00:53:10] The next generation, three faithful, one unfaithful. Three faithful, one unfaithful. The unfaithful will most likely produce all unfaithful. Three faithful, one unfaithful. That's the second generation. The third generation is this double row. The bottom line result that in this generation, maybe it's the whole thing, I have to check again, but by the third generation there's only 27 faithful and 37 unfaithful. [00:53:45] This is where I could cry. Do you realize that if everybody who came across as an Anabaptist who had these living truths in their hearts, If they would have been faithful, we would have population like 12 million by now. The size of the state of Pennsylvania. The losses we have sustained are staggering. But the reason we have lost so much is that the standard for the Anabaptist ideal is the New Testament standard. [00:54:18] It is so high that many people have not caught it. But would to God that we would pour our energies. into our children, in our churches, in our school, anything we can do so that we can stand in the gap and that we don't have to give an account of our failure on that day whenever we have to stand before the judge of all the earth and answer for ourselves. There was a few things I wanted to mention yet, I apologize. Anabaptism and Protestantism and Catholicism, [00:54:53] There are some universal doctrines for all Christianity. For example, Trinity, the deity and humanity of Christ, monogamy and marriage, the doctrine of God. Everybody, all phases of Christianity hold those. Protestantism developed in reaction to these gross failures of Roman Catholicism. They went part way in dealing with these problems and they came up with things like justification by faith, no purgatory or indulgences, no church hierarchy, and the Bible and tradition are not equal. Do you know that even today, the Roman Catholic Church believes that the Bible and the tradition of the church are the ultimate authority? [00:55:30] They say that without apology. Did you know that when Menno Simons was training for the priesthood, he never once opened the Bible in his training. And when he began to have doubts about transubstantiation, which means that the wafer becomes the actual body of Christ, He felt guilty. He went and confessed it to the priest. But he kept feeling guilty about it and he decided he's got to check the scriptures. He had never done that before. And then when he checked the scriptures, he couldn't find it. [00:56:00] And he thought, well, how can all these councils, all these theologies, how can they all be wrong? But they were. The Anabaptist people went the rest of the way to reclaim original Christianity as taught by Christ and the apostles. They finished the Reformation. Their vision had spiritual power and divine strength. And they came up with the four principles we'll look at now in the future. First of all, the supreme authority of the scriptures. Secondly, Christianity as discipleship. Thirdly, the churches of brotherhood. [00:56:32] And fourthly, love and nonresistance. Which reminds me, this is probably, you can't see this from back there. But this is what I ask my students at Calvary Bible School to memorize. I'm asking my students in our school now to memorize this. I know you can't read it. I'll read it to you. The essence of the Anabaptist vision. This is what it all boils down to. The Holy Scriptures are the ultimate authority. Since they are, I order my life in discipleship to Jesus Christ. [00:57:03] When others do the same, I enter into a body relationship with them called the Church. The Church operates with love and nonresistance as it cooperates with Christ to build the Kingdom of God.