Day 11 of 14
The Radical Reformation — Anabaptists
Those Who Went Further
Scripture Readings
Today's Reading
The mainstream Reformers — Luther, Calvin, Zwingli — broke with Rome on many issues, but they retained one crucial feature of medieval Christendom: the union of church and state. In their territories, every citizen was a member of the church, every infant was baptized, and the magistrate enforced religious conformity. The Anabaptists — literally, "re-baptizers" — rejected this arrangement entirely.
The movement began in Zurich in 1525, when a group of Zwingli's own followers concluded that he had not gone far enough. If sola scriptura was the principle, they argued, then the New Testament provided no warrant for infant baptism. Baptism should follow personal faith, freely chosen. And if faith was voluntary, then the state had no business enforcing it.
This was revolutionary — and terrifying to the authorities. Both Catholic and Protestant governments agreed on at least one thing: the Anabaptists were dangerous. Thousands were executed across Europe — drowned (a grim irony, given their insistence on believer's baptism), burned, and beheaded.
Biblical Connection
The Anabaptists looked to the early church as their model. Acts 2 describes a community that "devoted themselves to the apostles' teaching and the fellowship, to the breaking of bread and the prayers... And all who believed were together and had all things in common" (Acts 2:42, 44). This was a voluntary community of believers — not a state institution but a gathering of those who had personally responded to the gospel.
Jesus's teaching in the Sermon on the Mount was central to Anabaptist identity, particularly His words on oaths: "Let what you say be simply 'Yes' or 'No'; anything more than this comes from evil" (Matthew 5:37). The Anabaptists took this literally, refusing to swear oaths — which put them at odds with virtually every legal and political system in Europe.
Going Deeper
Hans Denck, one of the early Anabaptist leaders, articulated their core conviction: "No one can truly know Christ except one who follows Him in life" (Whether God Is the Cause of Evil, 1526). For the Anabaptists, orthodoxy without obedience was empty. Theology that did not produce discipleship was not theology at all.
Menno Simons, the former Catholic priest who gave his name to the Mennonites, described the faith in practical terms: "True evangelical faith cannot lie sleeping. It clothes the naked. It feeds the hungry. It comforts the sorrowful. It shelters the destitute" (Why I Do Not Cease Teaching and Writing, 1539).
The Anabaptists were ahead of their time in ways that are now broadly accepted: separation of church and state, freedom of conscience, believer's baptism, pacifism, the voluntary nature of faith. Their descendants — Mennonites, Amish, Hutterites, and many Baptist traditions — continue to witness to the conviction that the church is not a territory or a birthright but a community of those who have freely chosen to follow Jesus.
Key Quotes
“No one can truly know Christ except one who follows Him in life.”
“True evangelical faith cannot lie sleeping. It clothes the naked. It feeds the hungry. It comforts the sorrowful. It shelters the destitute.”
Prayer Focus
Asking God for a faith that is not just believed but lived — a faith visible in how you treat the poor, the stranger, and the enemy
Meditation
The Anabaptists insisted that faith must be voluntary — no infant could be baptized into it, and no state could enforce it. What difference does it make that your faith is something you chose, not something imposed on you?
Question for Discussion
The Anabaptists were persecuted by both Catholics and Protestants for insisting on believer's baptism and separation of church and state. Were they ahead of their time — and has the modern church absorbed their insights without acknowledging the debt?