Today, also, those crackpots, the Anabaptists, who cause so much trouble in the world, who denounce governments, magistrates, the unity of the church, never tire of repeating this phrase, “Blessed are those who suffer persecution.” Yes, but do they suffer on account . . . Continue reading →
Some years ago, while explaining Heidelberg Catechism 114, on the moral law, I wrote, “Paul was not a Gnostic, a Valentinian, an Anabaptist, a Familist, nor an Antinomian. Continue reading
But, according to [the Gnostics], neither was the Word made flesh, nor Christ, nor the Saviour (Soter), who was produced from [the joint contributions of] all [the Æons]. For they will have it, that the Word and Christ never came into this . . . Continue reading →
The Swiss Brethren, who signed the Schleitheim, confessed (in article 6) that a Christian may not serve as a magistrate and the magistrate may not enforce religious orthodoxy and (in article 7) that Christians may not swear oaths for any purpose.60 The . . . Continue reading →
Anno, 1522. Did arise in Saxony Nicholas Stork, who boasted of dreams and visions and rejected the Scripture as being a carnal and literal rule. Antinomians call it carnal, literal, and legal. From him and others arose Thomas Muntzer, about anno 1524, . . . Continue reading →
Though the Catabaptists, who pretend to be so directed by the Spirit that if they stand still suddenly or go forward suddenly, they put it down to the Spirit, are not wrong (for we do not live, much less move, without the . . . Continue reading →
The Reformed churches and theologians opposed the Anabaptists on a number of issues beyond the most obvious question, namely baptism, one of which was a widely held view of Christ’s humanity which the Melchiorites (followers of Melchior Hoffmann), Menno, and others taught: . . . Continue reading →
Müntzer stretched Karlstadt’s distinction between the Spirit and the flesh still further by discarding baptism altogether and by setting aside the Scriptures as in themselves constituting no more than a dead letter. ‘Bible, Babel, bubble!’ was his slogan. A. Skevington Wood, “The . . . Continue reading →