This year, the world celebrates 500 years of the Anabaptist movement. There are websites, European tours planned and Anabaptist-themed study Bibles on the way. Anabaptism itself is a kaleidoscopic movement—the Radical Reformation it spawned included reformers from the violent apocalypticism of Thomas Müntzer to the peaceful separatism of Menno Simons.
Today, its descendants include traditions as variant as the Amish and, well, the Mennonite Brethren. It is a movement that spans the globe, with the majority of those baptized into Anabaptist-rooted churches coming from Africa, Asia and Latin America. And it all started with a baptism.
“Fear came over them…”
In Zurich, Switzerland, around the same time that Martin Luther rediscovered the gospel of God’s grace, Ulrich Zwingli began systematically preaching through the Bible, beginning with Matthew 1:1. This caused quite a disturbance among the people of his community who were accustomed to hearing staid sermons following prescribed doctrine. It also caused something of a disturbance in his own heart. As he later put it, “I came at length to have trust in nothing and in no words so much as in those which proceeded out of the mouth of the Lord.”
So Zwingli, having come under the conviction that people and churches should do only what is expressly called for from the Scriptures, proceeded to fan the flames of radicalism. He led a Bible study in which members broke their Lenten fast by scarfing down sausages, a flagrantly provocative act against the church’s rules on eating during the season of fasting. His followers engaged in iconoclasm (the destruction of images used in worship) and he pushed for the reformation of the Latin Mass.
Men like Conrad Grebel and Felix Manz were with Zwingli every step of the way. Both men were discipled by Zwingli and were counted by the Swiss reformer as friends. They fully bought in to the gospel Zwingli so forcefully proclaimed: The Scriptures were to be their guide.
But once Zwingli decided that his reformation should move no faster than the Swiss state was willing to let it, Grebel and Manz understood it as a serious breach. As Grebel put it, “The Word was overthrown.”
Baptism became the central issue. Though early in his ministry Zwingli entertained the notion that infant baptism was unbiblical and, thus, no baptism at all, he had come to side with those who favored infant baptism. He helped convince the Zurich council to issue a mandate for infant baptism on January 18, 1525, threatening anyone who had not baptized one’s children in eight days with banishment. For many it was, as we say today, a “moment of truth.”
Thus, on January 21, 1525, a small group of people met at Manz’s home. Though Bible studies and home gatherings were commonplace for them, this was no ordinary meeting. As one early document describes it, as they gathered, “fear came over them and struck their hearts.” Why were these early Protestants so overcome with a burden of fear?
Flouting Zwingli and the Zurich council, they were about to be baptized upon the confession of their faith. Grebel baptized George Blaurock, a relative newcomer to their community. Blaurock then baptized Grebel, and the two of them baptized the others in the room. Though “they were well aware of what they would have to suffer for this… together they surrendered themselves to the Lord.”
“Submerged permanently”
And suffer they would. Soon, not only would a failure to baptize one’s infants lead to banishment, “rebaptism” would become a capital offense. Grebel, Manz and Blaurock were imprisoned and essentially left for dead until they made a daring escape. Manz, however, was recaptured the next year and drowned in the Limmat River. Blaurock was burned at the stake two years later. Grebel only avoided such a fate by dying of the plague.
And it was far more than the Anabaptist leaders who suffered. Normal people, seeking to follow Christ best as they could, endured all manner of abuse, mistreatment, persecution, torture and death by decapitation, burning and drowning. Some scholars estimate that as many as 5,000 were martyred between 1525 and 1618.
Many of the testimonies of these martyrs have been compiled in Martyrs Mirror, an invaluable and inspiring resource. As Zwingli himself put it, “Whoever will be baptized hereafter will be submerged permanently.”
By God’s grace, the movement did not end there. Though the Anabaptists were indeed persecuted wherever they want, their movement spread throughout Europe, with communities not only in Switzerland but also in the Netherlands and modern-day Germany, Austria and Czech Republic.
From there, many moved to Russia, where they were given safe haven by Catherine the Great. Facing renewed persecution, many made their way to Canada and the United States, and then the rest of the world. As Anabaptists have spread far and wide since 1525, the Word has remained central. The blood of our martyrs has indeed proved to be the seed of the church.
In this sense, Zwingli’s prediction was woefully inaccurate. Anabaptists—which, literally, means “re-baptizers”—continue to baptize in God’s name upon the confession of one’s faith. In another sense, however, Zwingli was more right than he knew.
For the Anabaptist life is a cruciform life. And when Jesus Christ became human, he did not become only partly human, or human for a time. Instead, the Word became flesh and dwelt among us. When Jesus Christ went to the cross, dying for the sins of humankind, he did not only appear to suffer; he did not only appear to die. Instead, Jesus Christ died for the forgiveness of sins and was buried.
Similarly, when we, upon the confession of our faith, are submerged into the baptismal waters, we know we aren’t just getting wet. Baptism is a permanent submersion. The old life has gone, and a truly new life has come.
This new cruciform, baptized life means living as Jesus lived for us, turning the other cheek in the face of our persecutors and forgiving those who have wronged us “seventy-times-seven.” It means giving as Jesus gave for us, generously and for the blessing of others. It means serving as Jesus served us, on behalf of “the least of these.”
It means loving as Jesus loved us, sacrificially even for the sake of our enemies. The early Anabaptists remind us that encountering God’s amazing grace in Christ is transformative. And nothing can ever be the same.
As we remember our ancestors and celebrate 500 years of Anabaptism, let us, too, surrender ourselves to the Lord. Let us carry on their legacies by carrying our cross. May our baptisms be a permanent submersion.
Tony Petersen is a pastor at Mountain View East in Fresno, California, and adjunct history professor at Fresno State. He and his wife, Roxanna, have four children.
