Anabaptism

An act by twelve men symbolized the real true break with Roman Catholicism. The word Anabaptist literally means to be baptized again, thus going against the beliefs of the Roman Catholic Church. After these men were baptized, they formed a church that was modeled in the New Testament pattern. They also emphasized the requirement of personal commitment to Christ before one could be baptized. This reformation led by Zwingli was the result of faithful searching of the Scriptures by men who wanted to follow God correctly (Curtis).

How Anabaptism all was started:

On a crisp October night in 1517, the thirty-first to be exact, a black-garbed Augustinian monk made his way undetected to the castle church. The place was an insignificant medieval German town named Wittenberg. With swift, determined strokes he nailed one of the most inflammable documents of the age to the church door, which served as the village bulletin board. Within a fortnight all Europe was echoing the sound of the inauspicious hammer. A month later the hardly-audible taps had become a sledge hammer blows assailing the very citadel of the Roman Catholic Church. For the Austin friar of that October night was Martin Luther and the apparently innocent Latin manuscripts was his first fusillade against Rome, the ninety-five thesis (Estep pg 1).

The first people group to really start the Anabaptism movement and reform were the people of the town of Zurich, Switzerland in 1517. By the year of 1522, the reformation this town really started to take shape and one of the main reasons for that was a man named Ulrich Zwingli.

In the year 1517, Zwingli was a German-speaking priest who was studying Greek. At this time Zwingli was a humanist. But by the year 1522, Zwingli was playing a very large role in the Anabaptism movement; in fact, at this time Zwingli had resolved to preach nothing but the true gospel and now he was very much in charge of the Anabaptist movement. Zwingli was a great leader because he was a scholar, a previous humanist, and an evangelical reformer. Because of this Zwingli had a very large appeal to all kinds of people and personalities, and many people came to him, therefore he was able to share the gospel with them (Estep).

Zwingli was such a good teacher and motivator that some, after spending only a year or two with him, became so zealous for the faith and what he was preaching that they went too far and became radicals. These radicals took Zwingli teachings way further than he had actually taught. The left his teachings and carried on in there beliefs of there own. These radicals were later confronted and dealt with in the town of Ulrich (Pius). A few days after the radicals were thrown out, a group of a dozen men who were dedicated believers, went to Felix Man’s home near Grossmunster. These men prayed and prayed for God to show them His Divine will in their lives. After they were done praying, the men joined together and decided to be baptized again with the true Christian baptism. The first time any of them had been baptized was when they were infants, and they believed they needed to do it again on their own belief. All these men were now baptized again under their own convictions and beliefs. This was the first real act of Anabaptism (Klaassen).

Anabaptism continued to grow throughout Europe. It also continued when people started to come to America. When the United States stated fighting the war with England, this became a problem for the Baptist Church. At first the church was divided on the issue of whether to fight or not. Some believed