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Difference between Anabaptists and Evangelicals Mysteries of the Kingdom of God Anabaptist Sermons by Eli Hofer The Writings of Ulrich Stadler |
Our Confession of Faith Introduction Confessing our faith is good and acceptable before God and also contributes to our salvation, as Paul declares, "If one believes with the heart, one becomes righteous; if one confesses with the lips, one becomes saved." (Rom 10:10 and Rev 12:11) Therefore, in our simple manner we want to confess our faith, the testimony of our heart, and our entire religion. Above all, we want to make this confession because there is so much blasphemy against the truth, which will not go unheeded or unpunished. We want to give an account of our faith, our teachings and our way of life as much in sequence as possible. Though this account we want to show that we have not deserted the Church that is in Christ Jesus, nor are we interested in founding another sect outside the Church. On the contrary, we have drawn near to the Church and committed ourselves utterly to serve God and Christ with a blameless conscience within the Church. Our faith is in Jesus Christ who has opened our eyes and turned us from darkness to light and from the dominion of Satan to God, who has forgiven us our sins and has given us an inheritance among those who have been sanctified by faith in Jesus Christ. Therefore, having been justified by faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ, through whom also we have obtained our introduction by faith into this grace in which we stand; and we exult in hope of the glory of God. To share this faith with you we want to first explain our goal in life, who
our teachers are, what we believe and how we expect to achieve that goal. Our Goal We long to say with the holy apostle Paul, "I have been crucified with Christ; and it is no longer I who lives, but Christ lives in me; and the life which I now live in the flesh I live by faith in the Son of God, who loved me and gave Himself up for me." (Gal 2:20) We recognize that it is by grace that we have been saved, are being saved, through our faith in Jesus Christ; it is a gift from God; and not because of our own works, so that we cannot boast. We are His workmanship, created in Christ Jesus for good works, which God prepared beforehand so that we would walk in them. Since we have been born again, born from above, we must learn to count all earthly things to be loss in view of the surpassing value of knowing Christ Jesus our Lord, so that we may gain Christ, and may be found in Him. Our desire is to know Him, to know the power of His resurrection, and to know the fellowship of His sufferings, to be conformed to His death; in order that we may attain to the resurrection from the dead. We do not want to hear those terrible words on Judgement Day, "I never knew you! Depart from Me, you who did not follow My way of living!" (This is my understanding of what Jesus meant in Mt 7:23 since in verse 21 He is referring to following His way.) Therefore, our goal is to be transformed into the image of Jesus, to be like Him, following His Way to the Kingdom of God. In order to be like Jesus, we must learn to love as He loves. Moreover, this love must be more than mere words, but must be manifested in deed and in truth. (I John 3:18) We know that we have passed out of death into life, because we love the brethren. He who does not love abides in death. (I John 3:14 also John 13:34-35) This is the only test in the Bible given to us to see if we are truly alive in Christ: the knowledge of our love for the brethren. If we love one another, God abides in us and His love is perfected in us. This message is so strong in the Bible that it must be taken very seriously. Therefore our goal is to learn to truly love, truly love the brethren so that God can truly abide in us. To love is to live according to His commandments. This is the commandment
that we have heard since the beginning, to live a life of love. (II
John 6) Our Teachers To help us achieve this goal, the Lord God has given us two great books: the book of nature and the Holy Scriptures. In the book of nature, since the creation of the world, His invisible attributes, His eternal power and divine nature, have been clearly seen, being understood through what He has made. Therefore, man has no excuse for not recognizing the Lord God since He is plainly seen in His creation. (Rom 1:20) And not only that but He has also given us the Holy Scriptures, especially the New Testament, the teachings of Christ and the writings of the original apostles to guide us. They have set before us the path that we are to follow. However, since all of Christianity has this Outer Word, the Holy Scriptures, and yet goes off in many different directions with it, the Lord God has given us additional guidance in the form of the writings and teachings of the 16th century brothers of Christ whom the Lord God used to restore the Church to its original glory. Therefore, we accept and follow the teachings of our beloved Peter Riedemann
as contained in his Confession of Faith as a true light and guide for our life.
We also accept the teachings of other 16th century apostles of Christ
such as Jacob Hutter, Ulrich Stadler, Leonhard Dax, Claus Felbinger, Peter
Walpot, and Andreas Ehrenpreis who taught the narrow way to the Kingdom of God,
true apostles shown approved by God with signs and wonders and miracles.
(Rom 15:16, II Cor 12:12) What we believe We hold to orthodox Christianity as described in the New Testament and explained by brother Peter Riedemann in his Confession of Faith. As he states, we accept the Twelve Articles of Faith, commonly called the Apostle’s Creed, as our basic belief as it describes the unlimited power of the Father, the righteousness of the Son, the work of the Holy Spirit and that the Church is accepted by God through Christ and is gathered by the Holy Spirit. Please read his Confession of Faith for a fuller explanation of what we believe to be the orthodox Christianity way of living, the way taught by Jesus. We believe that true Christianity consists of obedience to all of the teachings and commands of the Lord Jesus (Mt 7:21-27, Luke 6:46, John 3:36, 14:15, I John 2:3-4). In the Great Commission, the Lord commands His servants to teach the people to observe all of His commands (Mt 28:20). So this is the test of a true Church of Christ: Do they teach obedience to all of the commands of Christ? Do they teach their members not to resist an evil man, as Christ demanded? (Mt 5:39) Do they teach their members not to swear oaths, as Christ demanded? (Mt 5:34) Do they teach their members to give up private possessions, as Christ demanded? (Mt 6:19-34, Mt 19:21, Luke 12:33, Luke 14:33, Acts 2:44, Acts 4:34) If not then they are teaching a broad way and not the narrow way that Christ demanded (Mt 7:13-14), they are not building on the Rock, the Lord Jesus Christ. (Mt 7:24-27) Therefore, we believe that it is the duty of the Church to make sure that its members understand all of the commands of Christ and that they live in obedience to these commands. This is done by regular teachings on the commands of Christ. We believe that God has not changed, that He is the same yesterday, today and tomorrow. (Heb 13:8) Therefore, His call to us today, and His help for us today to enable us to answer that call, is the same as it was when the Church first began. We believe that the full gospel of Christ includes not only Acts 2:4, the Baptism of the Holy Spirit, but also includes Acts 2:44, living in brotherly community. We believe that both are important aids in achieving our goal of everlasting life in Christ Jesus. We believe that the Lord God still gives gifts to men, that He still is able, as the Bible says, to provide the Church with apostles, prophets, teachers, miracle workers, healers, administrators, helpers and other gifted men to lead and build up the Church. (I Cor 12:28) We believe that the Holy Spirit also gives His supernatural gifts today to each member of the Church, to those who are open to receive them (I Cor 12:7). We believe, as the apostle Paul teaches, that the members of the Church should seek, should desire earnestly to receive these gifts (I Cor 14:1) since they give the disciple the power to be a witness for Jesus (Acts 1:8) and build up the Church. These gifts, as taught by the apostle Paul (I Cor 12), are the gifts of supernatural Wisdom, supernatural Knowledge, supernatural Faith, Healing, Miracles, Prophecy, the Discernment of Spirits, the gift of Tongues and the Interpretation of Tongues. The purpose of these gifts is to build up the Church so that it is a shining light to the world, a city on a hill, drawing all honest men and women to it. We believe that each person has a spirit, a soul and a body, as the Bible teaches us (I Thess 5:23). We believe that a born again person must learn to align his spirit, his soul (mind and emotions) and his body in such a manner that his body is under the complete control of his soul, and that his soul, his mind and emotions, is under the complete control of his spirit and that his spirit is in complete submission to the Lord God. This is how the carnal nature of man is crucified so that the disciple is dead to self and alive in Christ. We believe that the gift of Tongues, which is much maligned today, is normally intended for the edification and consolation of the individual, allowing the spirit of the born again disciple of Christ to pray and communicate with God as the apostle Paul teaches (I Cor 14:2, 4, 14). This is a gift that the Lord wants us all to have so that we can relate to God on a deeper level (I Cor 14:5). The Holy Spirit's gifts of Tongues and Prophecy are somewhat alike. With the gift of Tongues, our spirit prays to God, putting unrecognizable words in our mouth without our mind’s involvement, as the apostle Paul teaches (I Cor 14:2). With the gift of Prophecy, the Lord God speaks to man through our tongue, putting understandable words in our mouth, without our mind’s involvement, as the various prophets in the Old Testament teach (Deut. 18:18-19, Jer 1:9, Is 51:16). The gift of Prophecy is not inspired preaching, as some would say, that is a different gift (Eph 4:11-13). We believe that we should pray with our spirit and also pray with our mind, each in proper order, as the apostle Paul teaches. We believe that we should sing with our spirit and also sing with our mind (I Cor 14:15). A careful study of the holy apostle Paul's teaching on this subject in I Cor 14 will help a person in their spiritual walk. We believe that singing should not be for entertainment, we should be focused
on singing to God and not our own entertainment. However, listening to singing,
such as listening to a young people's choir, or to tapes or CD may have some
benefit for some people, depending on where they are at in their spiritual walk
with the Lord God. Prayer, preaching and spiritual singing are the basic building blocks of the
daily Christian life, resting on a solid foundation of love, love for God and
love for the brethren. How we expect to achieve our goal Our goal is to learn to truly love, truly love God and truly love the brethren. (I John 6, John 13:34-35) To achieve this goal we seek close, intimate relationship with fellow believers; we seek to be closely bonded together in daily life where we are given the opportunity to learn to love each other, to learn to die to self so that we can truly love others. Our example is given in the Book of Acts, chapters 2 and 4 where all believers were together and had all things in common. They continually devoted themselves to the teachings of the apostles, to fellowship (koinonia), to the breaking of bread and to prayer. (Acts 2:42) They lived in a true religious community where each one helped the other to live a holy life, to die to self and to live for Christ. Their life was in this world but not of this world. They lived together, learning to truly love one another, like Jesus did and does. We also have the example of the 16th century Hutterites who followed this same Way of the Lord, living together, loving each other and helping each other to grow in spiritual maturity, living in times of refreshment that comes from the presence of the Lord. Therefore, we seek that same lifestyle, that same Way of the Lord (Acts 18:26, 19:9), that same community life as lived by the early church and the 16th century Hutterites, where we too can become more like Jesus, where we too can learn to truly love and where we can learn to receive the love of God as manifested through His children in the community. It is very easy to think that we can obtain holiness, that we can grow into the image of Christ on our own, that we do not have to give up so much, that we can continue living an individual life, be captains of our daily life, that we can achieve our goals without living in Christian community. And, since all things are possible through Christ, that may be possible. (Mt 19:26) However, such a life style is not Scriptural, and we know, when we really, prayerfully consider it, that we would not achieve the same level of dying to self, we would not achieve the same ability to learn to truly love on our own, we do really need each other. Since we want to learn from the lessons of those who went before us, the Hutterian Brethren, we intend to follow their way, their tried and proven way of living together. This way of living, this Hutterite communal lifestyle, is well described in many books; therefore, we do not need to reiterate it here. We do wish to note, however, that our desire is to identify with the original church of Christ as described in the Book of Acts and also with the original, Spirit-filled 16th century Hutterites to the extant that they followed Christ. We recognize that all too many of the modern day Hutterite traditions are traditions of men and not of God. However we think that it would be foolish to disregard the lessons that the Hutterites have leaned from their almost 500 years of communal living. We need to be guided by the Holy Spirit in what Hutterite traditions we accept and which ones we disregard, just as Jesus and His apostles did in keeping some of the Jewish traditions and rejecting others. (Here is our challenge: Is it possible to reform the Hutterite church of today so that it returns to its original foundation?) We believe that the best way to achieve our goal, the goal of becoming like Jesus, is to live in full community with like minded brothers and sisters of Christ, being fed our daily spiritual bread by Spirit-filled, gifted teachers who are given by God for the building up of His church.
Our vision for the Church is that it becomes once again like the early church, that it becomes a city on a hill, a light for the world that brings glory to God. Our vision is for a church that loves God above all things and loves one another as they love themselves. Our vision is for a church that gathers in the lambs of God, that is full of good deeds and that helps its members become like Jesus. We seek a communal church in a rural environment that is separated from the world both spiritually and physically, to avoid the contamination of the world. We seek a church that provides employment for its members so that they do not have to work for unbelievers with the risk of becoming like them. We seek a church that takes in the disabled, the handicapped. We seek a church that sends out missionaries to find and bring in those who are zealous for the Lord, who are seeking the Kingdom of God. We seek a church that is humble and is willing to seek help from others when trouble looms. We seek a church that teaches the Way of the Lord, that teaches His commands and strives to follow what the Lord and His apostles have taught. We seek a church where the love for one another is so obvious that outsiders
will judge and say, "See how they love one another!" and truly mean
it. Community life, as defined here, means living together with all things in
common as was done in the early church (see Acts 2 and 4). It means to have a
common purse with no one having any income or assets of their own, with daily
meals together, living together in brotherly love. Community life is the best place for that change to occur because in
community life, one is exposed to others who are also seeking the Kingdom and
who will be able to point out one's failings and shortcomings. This, of
course, can also be done outside of community life but not to the same extent,
for it takes close brotherly contact to really get to know one another and to be
able to help each other. We all need to learn to truly love God and truly love the brethren. Life in community is designed to enable one to practice love and also to learn to receive love, the love of God flowing through our brothers and sisters with whom we are in daily contact. 2. It provides a place where disciples of the Lord Jesus can help one
another financially. Those missionaries who have been trained in brotherly love by living in
brotherly community with daily contact with other brothers and sisters of Christ
are better able to convey the message of Jesus to those who have ears to hear. Summary Our goal in this life is to become like Jesus, to learn to love as He loves, to learn to truly love God and to learn to truly love the brethren. To love is to live according to His commandments. This is the commandment that we have heard since the beginning, to live a life of love. (II John 6) Therefore we seek to be in the "good soil" (Mt 13:23) where that can most readily be accomplished, where we can mature spiritually and be prepared to meet the Lord and be welcomed into His kingdom. This good soil is the church environment where we live and grow spiritually. The Lord said, "This is My commandment, that you love one another, just as I love you. Greater love has no one than this, that one lay down his life for his friends. You are My friends, if you do what I command you." (John 15:12-14) May the Lord continue blessing us with His grace and mercy. Don Murphy |