THEOLOGICAL STUDIES

Anabaptists and Baptists

INTRODUCTION

W. R. Estep, professor of church history at Southwestern Baptist Theological Seminary in the 70's and 80's, was one of the leading scholars of the history of the Anabaptists. He begins his book on Anabaptists with the story of Martin Luther nailing his 95 theses to the door of the Wittenburg Church on Oct. 31, 1517. Baptists, indeed all Protestant faiths to one degree or another, trace their origins to Luther and his theology. In fact to be quite fair, Baptists are essentially consistent Lutherans. Luther was like the epicenter of an earthquake from which shot out all these aftershocks. Presbyterianism, Anabaptism, Episcopalianism, etc. exist because of Luther's reformation.

What do I mean by consistent Lutherans? Luther correctly understood that some major beliefs of the Bible were being perverted by the Roman Catholic Church. Although he promoted these major beliefs, he either did not understand all of their full ramifications or else refused to accept all of their full ramifications. First we will look at the beliefs we share with Luther and then we will see how we took some of his NT beliefs and brought them to their logical NT conclusions.

BELIEFS SHARED WITH LUTHER

Scriptural Authority

Luther claimed that Scripture was the ultimate spiritual authority for all Christians. Others might be authorities; however, if these contradicted Scripture, the Christian was to reject those authorities in favor of Scripture. Baptists have agreed with and followed Luther in this aspect.

In fact this has been a major issue among Southern Baptists for the past 7 years. Baptists have traditionally rejected creeds, such as, the Apostles Creed and the Nicene Creed. It's not that Baptists believe what the creeds teach are wrong; it's just that most people claim that you MUST believe what the creeds teach. Well, Baptists have a problem with this because no matter how good the creeds are, they are still the work of man. They are man's word about God's Word.

Baptists believe that the only document which should receive this kind of adoration is the Bible itself. Dr. J. W. MacGorman, longtime professor of NT and Greek at SWBTS, when asked to sign the 2000 Baptist Faith and Message, told his higher ups that the only document he would sign would be an unannotated, clean copy of the Bible. The Bible and the Bible alone is the only theological document Baptists believe in signing.

Salvation By Faith and Not By Works

Luther rejected the 7 sacraments of the RCC because Scripture did not mention 5 of them. Moreover, he held to the belief that these other 2--baptism and the Lord's Supper--were not essential for salvation. Rather, based upon Rom. 1:17 Luther taught that faith alone in Christ was the essential thing for salvation. Baptists adopted Luther's stance in this area.

The Priesthood of All Believers

Because of Scripture Luther rejected the doctrine of transubstantiation, that is, the act in which the priest transforms the bread and wine of the Lord's Supper into the literal flesh and blood of Christ. The result was that the priest no longer has these special powers. There is therefore no special class of Christians, the priests. We are all on the same level spiritually.

Moreover, since a person's individual faith saves him, that person alone is responsible to God for himself. The priest cannot intercede for me. I go alone and directly to God for myself. Each Christian then is a priest. Baptists have likewise adopted this view of the priesthood of all believers.

BAPTIST BELIEFS WHICH TAKE LUTHERANISM ONE STEP FURTHER

Baptism

There are 2 major areas in which Martin Luther just quite couldn't go any further. The first is that of baptism. Luther steadfastly believed that what saved a person was that person's faith in the grace of Jesus Christ. Faith alone saved a person. Since the NT attaches baptism to the faith of a new believer, you would think that Luther would have rejected infant baptism and adopted adult baptism.

He did not though. Whereas he said that the faith of a person is what made the Lord Supper meaningful, he just couldn't go this direction with baptism. The reason is that infant baptism results in the whole society getting baptized. As a result, in Luther's mind the whole society then becomes Christian. Now if you wait until a person professes faith in Jesus to baptize a person, you will create 2 different groups within society, the baptized and the un-baptized. He saw this as being a danger to society.

Now this argument may seem strange to us; however, you need to realize where Luther is coming from before you totally dismiss him. Before Luther hit the scene, the great unifying force in Christendom was the church itself. Europe for centuries had been composed of hundreds of duchies and city states: the duchies of Normandy, Burgundy, and Orleans; the city-states of Venice, Florence, and Naples. Barons tore England apart in the 1400's. Disunity was common throughout Europe.

The only place where there was unity was the church itself. When you went to a parish, there was only one church and one priest, not 22 Baptists churches. It didn't matter if you went to church in Naples or in London; you worshipped the exact same way, the Latin litury. The church gave wonderful unity throughout Christendom.

Luther wanted to preserve this unity as much as possible, and he believed this was possible only by having everybody be members not only of church but also of the same church. For this reason he promoted the territorial church, that is, each territory was to be controlled by only one denomination. If the prince of a territory was Lutheran, then you had to be a Lutheran if you wanted to live there. If you wanted to be a Catholic, then you had to go to a Catholic territory. It did create unity but at what price?

The Anabaptists though didn't care if this belief created 2 groups within society. They adhered even more closely to the Bible than Luther did at this point. As a result these Anabaptists submitted to a second baptism (the first one as a baby without their consent and the second after they realized that baptism in the NT is attached to the faith of a believer). The word "ana" means again. Since they were "baptized" as babies and baptized "again" as adults, they were called "Anabaptists." The contemporary equivalent to this would be believers who join the Baptist faith from a different denomination and submit to baptism as an adult even though they had been baptized ("christened") as children. We now are no longer called "Anabaptists" since our first and only baptism is the one we experience as adults. (The first known recorded instance of adult baptism since the NT times occurrred in January 21, 1525 in the home of Felix Manz, a mere 7+ years after Luther nailed his 95 theses to the door of the Wittenburg church.)

(Now what is interesting is that the Greek Orthodox Church--which knows Greek, the language of the NT--has always immersed their members. It's just that they immerse them as babies and not as adults when they come to faith in Christ, a major point.)

Now Luther knew that baptism in the NT is attached to faith. In order to placate his conscience, he said that babies in fact DO have faith. Their faith is like that of a man sleeping. He has faith before he goes to sleep, and he has faith after he wakes up. Between these 2 times the man still has faith; it's just that it is sleeping inside him. He said that the faith of a baby was the same kind of faith. Baptists believe that Luther was stretching it.

Church and Secular Governments

Separation of Church and State

The next major area Anabaptists applied Luther's teachings consistently is in the area of the relationship of the church to the secular government. Because Luther like the Catholics adopted infant baptism, his teachings resulted in the church and the state being one. By that I mean that every person in a Lutheran or Catholic country has been baptized; therefore, every person in country is a member both of the church and of the state. The 2 are one. For this reason Luther can appeal to the secular courts whenever he is on trial for religious matters. Moreover, according to Luther the secular courts can judge on church matters since the 2 groups are basically one.

Anabaptists though taught that only believers are to be baptized (they got this teaching from the NT). Since not every adult in society comes to faith in Christ, not every person in society is a Christian or part of a church. Whereas every person is a member of society, not every person is a member of the church. They are 2 separate groups. The church is to be composed only of believers, not of the whole society which has unbelievers in it. State churches therefore are to be banned.

Equality and Democracy

Luther had taught that the hierarchy of the church was wrong. The priest was on the same level as the pope who was on the same level as the local churchgoer. He based this upon the belief that the only way for ANYBODY and EVERYBODY to be saved was by faith, including priests and the pope. We are all equal in the way we are saved.

The Anabaptists took this one step further. According to the Anabaptists if we are all equal in the most critical issue of life--salvation, then we are equal in all other areas as well, the spiritual AND the political area. Just as the pope was not above anybody else, so the princes of Germany and the rest of Europe were not above anybody else. We were all equal and should have an equal say in the government.

This Luther would never agree to since he believed that this view would lead to anarchy in society. He feared and hated anarchy. As a result when the Anabaptists promoted this equality in the political sphere, Luther helped launch the attack against the Anabaptists and their supporters which resulted in the Peasants War, resulting in the slaughter of 100,000 peasants.

This belief though did not go away. In Churchill's History of the English Speaking Peoples you will see that Baptists also known as “levellers” were instrumental in the spread of democracy not only in England but also the rest of the English-speaking world. Baptists not only helped create the separation of church and state, they also helped further the cause of democracy. All because they applied Luther's beliefs consistently to the political sphere.

Freedom of Religion

The final area in which the Anabaptists applied Luther's beliefs consistently is in the area of freedom of religion. According to Luther only a person's faith saved him. Your faith can't save me, and my faith can't save you. Only my faith can save me, and only your faith can save you. As a result we are all responsible to God individually for our own lives.

Under the teachings of John Smyth [(1570-1612) and later Thomas Helwys (1550-1616)] the Anabaptists took this one step further. If I and not you am responsible for my own faith, then I should be given the freedom to exercise my faith in the way I believe God wants me to exercise it. It would be wrong for you to control my beliefs if you are not responsible for them. It is only right that I control and choose my beliefs since God is going to hold ME accountable for them. As a result, I must be given the freedom to exercise or NOT exercise my faith, just as I must give you the right to exercise or not exercise your faith. This is the most important contribution the Anabaptists have made to western civilization. Its roots though are to be found in Luther.

For more on this topic, see Baptist Patriots.