The Radical Reformation Tradition: Anabaptists, English Separatists ...

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90 Divergent Rivers... Abraham was circumcised, and we baptized, because it is thus commanded byGod. Whatsoever disobeys and opposes the voice of the Lord commanding theseeeremonies and despises the performance of them beeause of their uselessnessand triviality, not observing that it was eommanded by God, excludes hirnselffrom the precious covenant of graee by his disobedience; neither does he provehis faith to be fmitful and Iiving, but on the eontrary he proves that it is unfmitfuland dead before God. 20However, Harding pointed out a contradiction in Simons. Of new birth Simons hadsaid that it... eonsists, verily, not in water nor in words; but il is the heavenly, living, andquickening power of God in our hearts which f10ws forth from God, and whiehby the preaehing of the divine Word, if we aecept it by faith, quiekens, renews,piere es, and eonverts our hearts, so that we are ehanged and eonverted fromunbelief to faith, from unrighteousness to righteousness ... from the wicked natureof Adam to the good nature of Jesus Christ. 21Those persons so regenerated are then baptized. This means that regeneration,salvation and conversion all come before baptism. However, he also asserted, 'Wemust receive this baptism ... Otherwise we cannot obtain remission of sins nor theHoly Ghost. For who has ever received the remission of sins contrary to the Word ofGOd?,22 This suggests that, to Simons, baptism was first in the order of salvation.In a later work, The New Birth, Simons explained how the covenants and Spirit andwater come together:In baptism they bury their sins in the Lord's death and rise with Hirn to a new life.They circumcise their hearts with the Word of the Lord; they are baptized withthe Holy Ghost into the spotIess, holy body of Christ; as obedient members of Hischurch, aeeording to the tme ordinanee and Word of the Lord. They put on Christand manifest his Spirit, nature and power in all their eonduet. 23Once more the emphasis i8 subjective: we desire to die and to rise. Yet at other times hesuggested a more reciprocal understanding: 'Tbe Lord has bound himself with us in HisGrace, through His Word', and 'We henceforth bind ourselves by the outward sign ofthe covenant in water ... that we will no longer live according to the evil, unclean lustsof the flesh, but walk according to the witness of a good conscience before Him.'24Simons provided no summary of the ritual he presupposed, though according toJohn Horsch, the word doopsel in Simons, which has sometimes been translated as'dipping', simply means baptism, and his reference to 'a handfu] of water' suggestspouring rather than immersion as the mode which he presupposed. 2520 Ibid., p. 262. 21 Ibid., p. 265. 22 Ibid., p. 244. 23 Ibid., p. 93. 24 Ibid., p. 125. 25 lohn Horsch, 'Did Menno Simons Practice Baptism by Immersion?', Mennonite Quarterly Review I (1927), 54-6.
The Radical Reformation Tradition91The Anabaptist leaders, like the Reformed, did not all share precisely the sameideas and theology. What we do find in common is use of the cQncept of covenantas a pledge, and the belief that humanity is given some capacity to actively make apledge to God. The ritual of baptism comes afterwards, as a mature act of obedienceto the prior faith. Yet it also testifies to further baptisms - particularly of suffering.As to the mode of baptism, in the sixteenth century, pouring seems to have been asacceptable as immersion.Anabaptist Baptismal RitualsThe most notable successors of the sixteenth-century Anabaptists were the Mennoniteand Amish communities, along with the German Brethren. The Mennonites wereSwiss in origin but, together with Anabaptist groups in the Netherlands, took theirname from Menno Simons. The Amish were a group that broke away from theMennonites in 1693, under Jacob Amman, who wished to implement stricter discipline.The German Brethren began in 1708 in Schwarzenau, Germany. Subject to persecution,a large number migrated from Europe to the USA beginning in the eighteenth century.It is the baptismal rites of some of these groups which are considered here. Thecommunities are by nature conservative, and thus their rituals conserve an earliertraditio. They tend to divide on a number of issues, inc1uding the mode of baptism.The Mennonite Brethren and some other small groups only immerse, and immersionis once and backwards; the Krimmer Mennonite Brethren immerse three timesforward; and the 01d Mennonites only pour water on the candidate's head. 26An Amish statement of belief and description of practice is preserved in BishopNafziger's Letter to the Ministers in the Netherlands, and is dated 1781. In the sectionon baptism, the letter explains:When we have applicants who desire to be received into the church of Christ andthe congregation of God, whether young rnen or young wornen, the same corneto us in council before the meeting (services) where they are instructed and aretold of the alrnighty power of God, the creation of heaven and earth and all thingsvisible ....27Several paragraphs summarizing the catechesis follow. It inc1udes the work of thetriune God, and 'Further they are told about the new birth and the improvement oflife, etc: 28 At the end of the instruction (the period of time is not specified) thecandidates are asked if they believe, and catechesis ends with a reading from Acts2:22ff. The ritual is outlined as folIows:26 For the various groups see Abraham P. Toews. American Mennonite Worship, Exposition Ptess, NewYork, 1960, Chapter IV. See p. 177 for the different practices.27 (Harold S. Sender ?), 'An Amish Church Discipline of 1781', The Mermonite Quarterly 4 (1930),140-48, p. 141.28 Ibid.. p. 142.
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