Historically, we are closest to Anabaptists, who were a large group of Christians before Protestant Reformation. Anabaptists as a group do not exist any more, although there are followers of Christ who have evolved from them, notably Mennonites. Although we are neither Mennonites nor Brethren Christians, we have respect only towards Mennonites and certain Brethren Churches.

We are of the opinion that Anabaptists were almost exterminated during the Reformation, and those Anabaptists who survived these terrible persecutions have evolved in many different Christian groups who hold some or all Anabaptist ideals, as for instance Mennonites, some Brethren Christians, etc.

They were victims of terrible persecutions caused by Protestants. They were brutally killed by being burned alive. We talk much about the Roman Catholic crimes against humanity. But we should not forget that the days of Protestant Reformation were days with a smell of burned human flesh; at large cities, there were no day without burning some "heretic." And it should be quite clear that Protestant leaders were also directly responsible for crimes against humanity. Anabaptists were a huge group of Christians who were active before the Protestant Reformation. What the Reformation had done was to exterminate them. Many Anabaptist were deceived in the beginning of the Reformation by naively believing in the leaders of the new Protestant movement. They had some hope. However when they recognize the danger of the real nature of Protestantism, then it was too late.

We would also suggest that you read two works of Leonard Verduin, who has examined the extant documents written during the trials of Anabaptists. The works in question also deal with the comparative history between the State Church and other groups of Christians who were persecuted by the State Church. Verduin deals with their history. He also analyzes the roots of the development of the hybrid State-Church. His first work is The Anatomy of the Hybrid , and the second work is The Reformers and Their Stepchildren .

We have a profound respect for the Anabaptist movement. They were a major light in the dark Medieval Ages. As a major light in dark Medieval Ages, they represent not only a spiritual enlightenment, but an intellectual one as well. Many Anabaptists were intellectuals par excellence , who had a classic education, and thanks to them many manuscripts of the Bible were preserved. (Classic education implies one universalistic kind of education, among many things fluency in Greek and Latin, thorough knowledge of the ancient Greek and Latin literature, the art of rhetoric and scholastic logic, knowledge of history, geography, mathematics, etc.). Many of them were ex-Catholic priests, who have understood that the Catholic Worship was not so pleasing to our Lord. It is interesting that you could not preach in Anabaptist meetings unless you could speak fluently Greek or Hebrew, and that should not surprise us when at that time there were no bibles translated into native tongues such that common people could read them. Most importantly, Anabaptists engaged in copying bible manuscripts. They tried to spread the Gospel to the common man. During Inquisition and Protestant Reformation, Anabaptist were accused of being demon possessed because of their incredible depth of knowledge. All these claims can be verified by historical documents written during their trials, documents discovered some 30 years ago.

Anabaptist churches were neither Protestant nor Catholic. Protestantism is just an offshoot from the Roman-Catholic "Church". No mystery then that Protestants burned "heretics". It is a great wonder that someone becomes a genuine follower of Christ at all. Looking what so called "Christians" had done throughout the history would be a good reason to reject Christianity, as so many intelligent people do.

Anabaptists were indeed persecuted, for three reasons:

1. Anabaptists were against the union between the State and Church, for they regarded, rightly so, as a spiritual prostitution.
   
2. They were against infant baptism.
   
3. They were against the teaching about the salvation by the grace alone. They rather said that you were saved by God's grace through faith, and not by the grace alone. They taught that the salvation is a gift which has only one condition, namely the living faith. It is necessary to have a living faith, faith that is confirmed by having fruits of the Holy Spirit.
   

All these claims can be verified by historical documents written during their trials. And here we do speak about trials caused by Protestant Reformation. From historic works that are based on these documents, we can conclude only this: The days of Protestant Reformation had a disastrous historical effect on the subsequent history of Christianity because many distorted ideas about God and salvation were nurtured. These distorted ideas influenced and catalyzed shaping process of our modern average Christian mind-set, so that it is quite shocking to say nowadays, in Christian circles, that we are also saved through moral works and not through a dead faith with no works. And we, as genuine follower of Christ, claim that Protestant doctrines about God and salvation are false teachings. If our claim is so shocking, please read our article " Faith and Work ," that would clarify why we are so adamant in our Anabaptist belief, which is clearly taught by the whole Bible. However, in this article, we will take a historical look in Protestant doctrine on the relation between faith and works.

Many Christians consider themselves as belonging to Protestant branch of Christianity, even if they belong to Churches that are not State Churches. Some Christians would say that they are Protestants. They think that they could trace their theological lineage in such a way that the line of theological development would proceed from the Apostolic Church right on into the Post Modern era, through a historic development via such movements as the Anabaptist and the Reformation. However, it is quite wrong to have such historic perspective on Christianity. Theologically, Anabaptists and Protestant Reformers did not share same theology. Protestant theology was sacralist, inherited from the Roman Catholic Church. To repeat, Protestantism is just an offshoot from the Roman-Catholic "Church".

The common element in both Protestant and Catholic theology was the sacralist element, in that the State and the Church should be politically united, where the Church had right to use sword against heretics. The service was also ritualistic. Just visit some Anglican or Lutheran church, and observe how extremely ritualistic is their Worship. Protestants differed from Catholics on the question of icons and the Eucharist (Lord's Supper), the role of Pope, and, yes, the doctrine of salvation. Well, their doctrine was and is that you should have faith in Christ. But what does it mean for Lutherans, to have faith? It means to be baptized and belong to the State Church, and nothing more than that, although nowadays many Lutherans advocates Ecumenical union with the Roman Catholic Church. Therefore, they practice infant baptism. Anabaptists were persecuted because they rejected infant baptism, for they taught that the condition for baptism is to have faith (Acts 8:36-37), and not the other way around. It is interesting that the "offshoot" Protestant branch returns nowadays to the mother Roman Catholic Church through the Ecumenical movement.

Let us take a closer historical look on the very central doctrine of the Reformation, the doctrine of justification by faith and its bearing on the place of good works in the scheme of salvation. We will not theologically discus this doctrine here, but just focus on its historical origin in Luther's Reform. This doctrine is more discussed in the article " Faith and Work ."

In his haste to establish the doctrine of justification by faith rather than by works Luther down-graded good works; the only place he had left for good works was at the very end, as a sort of postscript or appendage, something that needed attention after salvation was an accomplished fact. We meet in Luther, to put it theologically, a very heavy emphasis on the forensic aspect of salvation and a correspondingly light emphasis on the moral aspect. Luther was primarily interested in pardon rather than in renewal. His theology was a theology that addresses itself to the problem of guilt, rather than to the problem of pollution. There is an imbalance in this theology between what God does for man and what He does in man . It was this imbalance that caused Luther to collide with the Epistle of James, by trying to throw the Epistle of James away from our bibles.

Anabaptists showed from the very first a critical attitude towards Luther's disparagement of good works. They did not go along with his one-sidedly forensic theology. They complained that "Luther throws works without faith so far to one side that all he has left is a faith without works." They suggested that Luther's "sola fide" was heresy, if taken as it was taken by some, to mean faith unaccompanied.

The Roman Catholic Church and the Protestant Reformation had throughout the whole history persecuted and killed millions of genuine followers of Christ, and we should not forget Luther's and Calvin's direct and disastrous influences on brutal murder of the whole Anabaptist movement.

We are not surprised about the sufferings of Anabaptist Christians. Compare Apostle Paul's words concerning persecution of followers of Christ when dealing with the Anabaptist case.

2 Tim. 3:12 - "Yea, and all that will live godly in Christ Jesus shall suffer persecution."

Persecutions of any form, not only those persecutions directly threatening to our lives.

Observe especially the last verse: " being defamed ... we are made as the filth of the world ." Quite strong words. As we see it, Anabaptists were literally defamed and made filth of the world, by being burned as filth. Many history books tend to ignore them, and are even written to disrepute them.

As you have noticed, in our historic account of Anabaptists, we have talked about brutal killings, grotesque burnings of innocent men and women, about crimes against humanity indeed. And we are entitled to do so, since Anabaptist history is a history of terrible human sacrifices and great tragedies. Any genuine follower of Christ should not forget the tragedy of Anabaptists. Generally speaking, history of the true Church is a history of persecutions. But in spite of these persecutions, there were always genuine followers of Christ spreading the Gospel. They were under many names. We know one of these groups, namely the Anabaptists.

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