The Death Of The Blue Coat

Today marks the 486th anniversary of the death of Georg Blaurock or Georg Cajacob, also known as the blue coat, one of the earliest Anabaptist leaders. He was the first of the three men in Zurich to be baptized as an adult at the hands of Conrad Grebel and in turn he baptized Gebel and Felix Manz. After several close escapes and being preceded in death by Manz and Grebel, Blaurock was executed by being cruelly burned alive by the Roman Catholic authorities on September 6, 1529.

So what, that was like 500 years ago! Can't we let the past be the past and focus on the future. Well, no we can't. I realized recently that in just over 2 years, on October 31st, 2017, we will recognize the 500th anniversay of the more or less "official" start of the Protestant Reformation. This event turned the world upside down and set the conditions for the world we live in today, from the nations of Europe to the World Wars to the very existence as it does of America. A lot of people will be talking about Luther and the Reformers, some in praise and others in condemnation but the struggle between the Reformers and Rome was not the only thing going on at this time.

For me, we can never pretend that what happened didn't happen. To do justice to our history we cannot try to cover or remove the warts because they are what made us who we are. We must remember why Blaurock and others were killed, who killed them and what they were teaching that was so dangerous to the religious powers. If we forget that in the vain hope of some notion of ecumenism, we do a disservice to their life and their death and make them both in vain. I am not looking for recriminations or demanding an apology from modern Roman Catholic and Protestant leaders for their treatment of the Anabaptists but I am asking that we don't forget what made them such a peaceful yet existential threat in the first place.

So today as you go about your day, take a minute to remember the Blue Coat!

Repost: The first martyr of the Radical Reformation

Each year I try to remember the anniversary of the murder of Felix Manz, one of the earliest Anabaptist leaders and the first of many to be murdered by other "Christians". His death and those that follow are sobering reminders of the ease with which men, even men professing piety and morality, make excuses for the most heinous of behavior.

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Today, January 5th, marks the 488th  anniversary of the first martyr of the “Radical Reformation” on 1/5/1527. Felix Manz was executed by drowning in Lake Zurich, the first of a tragically large number of dissenters to be martyred by Roman Catholics and Protestants alike. We often think of the martyrs of the reformation era as men and women murdered by Roman Catholic authorities (i.e. Foxes Book of Martyrs) but the ugly truth is that often it was professing Christians murdering fellow believers over issues of doctrine.

Episodes like the martyring of Felix Manz are disquieting because we place such a reverence on the Reformation era and the Reformers. Men like Calvin, Luther and Zwingli are some of the heroes of the faith because of their deep and voluminous writings. Their writings are unmatched for depth and being simply exhaustive. Nevertheless, men like Zwingli and Calvin are redeemed sinners the same as any other Christian and are as flawed as any man. While love covers a multitude of sins (1 Peter 4:8), writing a great treatise on theology doesn’t. Zwingli reportedly wrote this regarding Manz two days before his death: "The Anabaptist, who should already have been sent to the devil , disturbs the peace of the pious people. But I believe, the ax will settle it." . My point here is not to burn the Reformers in effigy but instead to remember the courageous death of a fellow believer who paid for his conviction with his own life in a manner that is worthy of any of the great martyrs of faith.

We can dance around this all we like. Technically, Manz was executed by drowning because he broke the law (i.e. was baptizing people) but make no mistake. This was a theological issue being settled by the sword far more than a civil legal issue. He was murdered for questioning the doctrine of infant bapstism as a holdover from Rome. These were the charges brought against him:

"because contrary to Christian order and custom he had become involved in Anabaptism, had accepted it, taught others, and become a leader and beginner of these things because he confessed having said that he wanted to gather those who wanted to accept Christ and follow Him, and unite himself with them through baptism, and let the rest live according to their faith, so that he and his followers separated themselves from the Christian Church and were about to raise up and prepare a sect of their own under the guise of a Christian meeting and church; because he had condemned capital punishment, and in order to increase his following had boasted of certain revelations from the Pauline Epistles. But since such doctrine is harmful to the unified usage of all Christendom, and leads to offense, insurrection, and sedition against the government, to the shattering of the common peace, brotherly love, and civil cooperation and to all evil, Manz shall be delivered to the executioner, who shall tie his hands, put him into a boat, take him to the lower hut, there strip his bound hands down over his knees, place a stick between his knees and arms, and thus push him into the water and let him perish in the water; thereby he shall have atoned to the law and justice. . . . His property shall also be confiscated by my lords."

“Harmful to the unified usage of all Christendom”? I don’t think drowning dissenters was what Jesus had in mind when He prayed for unity among His people in John 17: 21 . I especially like the part where they confiscate his property. Felix Manz was not a violent revolutionary like the men at Muenster. All he sought was “to bring together those who were willing to accept Christ, obey the Word, and follow in His footsteps, to unite with these by baptism, and to leave the rest in their present conviction”. The crime of Felix Manz was shaking up the religious order of things, kind of like another group about 1500 years earlier (see Acts 4: 13-21). For refusing to baptize infants and insisting on baptizing only willing adults, Manz was imprisoned several times, threatened with death and ultimately executed by drowning.

What Felix Manz was promoting is the basic belief of thousands of churches and millions of Christians in America, i.e. the baptism of believers and the voluntary association of Christians in the church. Try to imagine if the city council in Louisville decreed it illegal to refuse to baptize infants under penalty of death and further try to imagine if “Christian” ministers in Louisville stood silently while this went on. Manz may have been the first martyr among the Anabaptists but he was hardly the last. We need to remember those who were slaughtered by other “Christians” when we remember the Reformation era.

How I wish we had more Christians today who had the force of conviction of men like Felix Manz, men willing to abandon all for the truth and who had the courage of conviction to stand up for the Gospel of Jesus Christ in the face of real persecution, men who were unsatisfied with the “halfway” measures of the magisterial Reformers and sought a full restitution of the Biblical pattern for the church.

A timely reminder

Thanks to Robert Martin at the Abnormal Anabaptist for his reminder that today is the anniversary of the martyring of Anabaptist Dirk Willems. If you don't know the story of Dirk, it is one of the most poignant reminders of the principle of non-resistance and enemy love that marks Anabaptism. Dirk was imprisoned by the Roman Catholic authorities for the crime of Anabaptism but managed to escape before his execution. From the Mennonite Quarterly Review we pick up the story as Dirk was pursued by his jailers:

Seeing him escape, a palace guard pursued him as he fled. Dirk crossed the thin ice of a pond, the "Hondegat," safely. His own weight had been reduced by short prison rations, but the heavier pursuer broke through.

Hearing the guard's cries for help, Dirk turned back and rescued him. The less-than-grateful guard then seized Dirk and led him back to captivity. This time the authorities threw him into a more secure prison, a small, heavily barred room at the top of a very tall church tower, above the bell, where he was probably locked into the wooden leg stocks that remain in place today. Soon he was led out to be burned to death.

By stopping to save his persecutor, Dirk Willems was recaptured and lost his life in a horrifying way, the combination of burning and suffocation that made being burned at the stake so agonizing. That makes little sense to us. Why would you help someone who was trying to capture you so that you could be burned at the stake? Serves him right, let him drown! It doesn't seem very sensible to us but to the Anabaptists who took the teachings of Christ literally and seriously there is nothing more Christ-like than loving your enemies even unto death.

We need to recover that vision of complete sacrifice that has marked the lives of so many disicples of Christ, many of whom lost their lives for the sake of the Gospel. Being a follower of Christ is not easy, it is not safe and it will cost you your life one way or the other but it is the only way for a believer to live.

The first martyr of the Radical Reformation

Today, January 5th, marks the 485th  anniversary of the first martyr of the “Radical Reformation” on 1/5/1527. Felix Manz was executed by drowning in Lake Zurich, the first of a tragically large number of dissenters to be martyred by Roman Catholics and Protestants alike. We often think of the martyrs of the reformation era as men and women murdered by Roman Catholic authorities (i.e. Foxes Book of Martyrs) but the ugly truth is that often it was professing Christians murdering fellow believers over issues of doctrine.

Episodes like the martyring of Felix Manz are disquieting because we place such a reverence on the Reformation era and the Reformers. Men like Calvin, Luther and Zwingli are some of the heroes of the faith because of their deep and voluminous writings. Their writings are unmatched for depth and being simply exhaustive. Nevertheless, men like Zwingli and Calvin are redeemed sinners the same as any of Christian and are as flawed as any man. Love covers a multitude of sins (1 Peter 4:8), writing a great treatise on theology doesn’t. Zwingli reportendly wrote this regarding Manz two days before his death: "The Anabaptist, who should already have been sent to the devil , disturbs the peace of the pious people. But I believe, the ax will settle it." . My point here is not to burn the Reformers in effigy but instead to remember the courageous death of a fellow believer who paid for his conviction with his own life in a manner that is worthy of any of the great martyrs of faith.

We can dance around this all we like. Technically, Manz was executed by drowning because he broke the law (i.e. was baptizing people) but make no mistake. This was a theological issue being settled by the sword far more than a civil legal issue. He was murdered for questioning the doctrine of infant bapstism as a holdover from Rome. These were the charges brought against him:

"because contrary to Christian order and custom he had become involved in Anabaptism, had accepted it, taught others, and become a leader and beginner of these things because he confessed having said that he wanted to gather those who wanted to accept Christ and follow Him, and unite himself with them through baptism, and let the rest live according to their faith, so that he and his followers separated themselves from the Christian Church and were about to raise up and prepare a sect of their own under the guise of a Christian meeting and church; because he had condemned capital punishment, and in order to increase his following had boasted of certain revelations from the Pauline Epistles. But since such doctrine is harmful to the unified usage of all Christendom, and leads to offense, insurrection, and sedition against the government, to the shattering of the common peace, brotherly love, and civil cooperation and to all evil, Manz shall be delivered to the executioner, who shall tie his hands, put him into a boat, take him to the lower hut, there strip his bound hands down over his knees, place a stick between his knees and arms, and thus push him into the water and let him perish in the water; thereby he shall have atoned to the law and justice. . . . His property shall also be confiscated by my lords."

“Harmful to the unified usage of all Christendom”? I don’t think drowning dissenters was what Jesus had in mind when He prayed for unity among His people in John 17: 21 . I especially like the part where they confiscate his property. Felix Manz was not a violent revolutionary like the men at Muenster. All he sought was “to bring together those who were willing to accept Christ, obey the Word, and follow in His footsteps, to unite with these by baptism, and to leave the rest in their present conviction”. The crime of Felix Manz was shaking up the religious order of things, kind of like another group about 1500 years earlier (see Acts 4: 13-21). By refusing to baptize infants and insisting on baptizing willing adults, Manz was imprisoned several times, threatened with death and ultimately executed by drowning.

What Felix Manz was promoting is the basic belief of thousands of churches and millions of Christians in America, i.e. the baptism of believers and the voluntary association of Christians in the church. Try to imagine if the city council in Louisville decreed it illegal to refuse to baptize infants under penalty of death and further try to imagine if “Christian” ministers in Louisville stood silently while this went on. Manz may have been the first martyr among the Anabaptists but he was hardly the last. We need to remember those who were slaughtered by other “Christians” when we remember the Reformation era.

How I wish we had more Christians today who had the force of conviction of men like Felix Manz, men willing to abandon all for the truth and who had the courage of conviction to stand up for the Gospel of Jesus Christ in the face of real persecution, men who were unsatisfied with the “halfway” measures of the magisterial Reformers and sought a full restitution of the Biblical pattern for the church.

Islam is not our enemy

There goes Dave Black, getting all radical again. This time he is suggesting that we should be serving the world, even our enemies, even….Islam!

Today God is calling every Christian to bondservant service to the world, even among our enemies. Please, please stop denouncing Islam. God is not interested in your demagoguery. He is looking for a lifetime of humble, behind-the-scenes service to the persecuted church -- and to its persecutors. Denounce Islam all you want, but that won't make a whit of difference unless you are willing to put your own life on the line. Today God is calling out an army of radicals who will feel His heartbeat and accept His call to live a life of Christian servanthood. (Thursday, March 10, 9:10 AM)

Praying for the persecuted church and for the persecutors of the church? How peculiar, how illogical, how….un-American! Ah, but how Christ-like it is!

I am concerned that many, many Christians view Muslims as an enemy to be feared and fought instead of a people to be loved. In the world of political conservatism where I and most other evangelical Christians dwell, there is a vocal group that sees a jihadist behind every Muslim and an enemy to be defeated with a cross around our neck and an M-16 in our hands. While we suffer through the absolutely silly “hearings” on Islamic radicalization on Capitol Hill with the approval and affirmation of many Christians, here and there throughout the world His people are taking the Gospel to Muslim lands, counting the worth of one saved soul as more valuable than their own life.

Islam is no greater a threat to the Kingdom of God than any other false belief system. Islam is no more a threat than atheism, mormonism, Hinduism, Buddhism, universalism or dare I say nominal Christianity. The Muslim imam preaching jihad is probably less of a threat than the false prophet in a suit and tie standing behind a pulpit preaching prosperity or easy-believism or hatred of our “enemies”. Ultimately none of these false belief systems are a real threat. His Kingdom is assured, His victory is already won and nothing can stand against it. Not one of His elect sheep will be lost. Why are we so eager to volunteer as soldiers to fight a war that He has not called us to? I think our real Enemy smiles when God’s people beat the drums of war and hate others because they hate us.

Are you afraid of dying in a terrorist act? If you are a Christian, you have already died. We have died to self and been made anew, born-again as a new creature. The old man, the man who clings to this life, is dead and has been replaced by a new man. The Christian has nothing to fear from a suicide bomber. What can they do to us? Take our life? It is not ours in the first place. Kill us? Kill me and I will be in the presence of Christ. Praise God!

I have no interest in defeating Islam. I am more concerned with overcoming my own pride, my own self-interest, my own notions of my “rights”. My own weakness and unfaithfulness is a greater barrier to me serving Christ than a thousand jihadists.

The death of Balthasar Hubmaier

March 10, 1528

483 years ago today, the Anabaptist Balthasar Hubmaier was executed by the government of Ferdinand I, the so-called “Holy Roman Emperor”. Burned to death for his crime of speaking out against infant baptism, he was followed in death by his wife who was drowned by the same authorities three days later.

Hubmaier was a flawed man, as we all are. Unlike many other Anabaptists, he recanted a couple of times and then un-recanted. Given that at least one of these times he was being tortured on the rack (by Protestants) and he lamented his own weakness, he can somewhat be excused. He seemed to be an unhappy fellow but he was a brilliant theologian and preacher of the Gospel to the lost.

We often think of persecution and martyrdom as something that happens to Christians in pagan lands at the hands of Muslims or some tribal people or Communist governments. It is vitally important to remember that for much of Christian history, most Christians were put to death by other people who claimed to be Christians. The persecution, torture and butchery of Christians by other Christians in the name of the Prince of Peace is a terrible stain on the church and we must remember, safe in the cultural Christianity cocoon we live in, that many Christians have gladly given their lives for the cause of Christ and we may someday be called to do the same. It is reported that at the stake Balthasar Hubmaier asked for forgiveness from any he might have offended and offered forgiveness to his enemies. May God grant us strength to be as faithful as those who came before us.

Over 1000 U.S. servicemen dead

In Afghanistan we have seen over 1000 U.S. servicemen die to liberate that nation. Meanwhile, over nine years later, we find that a man, Said Musa, who has converted to Christianity in that same nation is under sentence of death for his conversion, mistreated in prison and likely to be executed for the crime of following Christ. My brother Said will likely become a martyr for Christ as innumerable Christians have before and receive his reward in eternity, as will those who have tortured him and mocked the name of Christ when they stand before Him to answer for their crimes. I still have to wonder where the leadership of this nation is? Where is the media? I understand the geo-political situation but I still have to ask...

Is this the freedom we are willing to send our sons and daughters to fight and die for?

On this day in 1528

482 years ago on March 10, 1528 Balthasar Hubmaier was martyred by burning in Vienna. His crime? Advocating against the baptism of infants. His executors likewise martyred his wife Elisabeth by tying a stone around her neck and tossing her from a bridge three days later, an incredibly cowardly act. Balthasar Hubmaier, like so many of the Anabaptists, was killed by the unholy union of the church and the state for a practice that we take for granted in America. We still read about our brothers and sisters being martyred today in far off lands but what makes this event and others like it so tragic is that Hubmaier was killed by people who claimed to be Christians over a doctrinal disagreement.

(Thanks for the reminder to Tom Ascol)

The first martyr of the Radical Reformation

Today, January 5th, marks the 483rd anniversary of the first martyr of the “Radical Reformation” on 1/5/1527. Felix Manz was executed by drowning in Lake Zurich, the first of a tragically large number of dissenters to be martyred by Roman Catholics and Protestants alike. We often think of the martyrs of the reformation era as men and women murdered by Roman Catholic authorities (i.e. Foxes Book of Martyrs) but the ugly truth is that often it was professing Christians murdering fellow believers over issues of doctrine.

Episodes like the martyring of Felix Manz are disquieting because we place such a reverence on the Reformation era and the Reformers. Men like Calvin, Luther and Zwingli are some of the heroes of the faith because of their deep and voluminous writings. Their writings are unmatched for depth and being simply exhaustive. Nevertheless, men like Zwingli and Calvin are redeemed sinners the same as any of Christian and are as flawed as any man. Love covers a multitude of sins (1 Peter 4:8), writing a great treatise on theology doesn’t. Zwingli reportendly wrote this regarding Manz two days before his death: "The Anabaptist, who should already have been sent to the devil , disturbs the peace of the pious people. But I believe, the ax will settle it." . My point here is not to burn the Reformers in effigy but instead to remember the courageous death of a fellow believer who paid for his conviction with his own life in a manner that is worthy of any of the great martyrs of faith.

We can dance around this all we like. Technically, Manz was executed by drowning because he broke the law (i.e. was baptizing people) but make no mistake. This was a theological issue being settled by the sword far more than a civil legal issue. He was murdered for questioning the doctrine of infant bapstism as a holdover from Rome. These were the charges brought against him:

"because contrary to Christian order and custom he had become involved in Anabaptism, had accepted it, taught others, and become a leader and beginner of these things because he confessed having said that he wanted to gather those who wanted to accept Christ and follow Him, and unite himself with them through baptism, and let the rest live according to their faith, so that he and his followers separated themselves from the Christian Church and were about to raise up and prepare a sect of their own under the guise of a Christian meeting and church; because he had condemned capital punishment, and in order to increase his following had boasted of certain revelations from the Pauline Epistles. But since such doctrine is harmful to the unified usage of all Christendom, and leads to offense, insurrection, and sedition against the government, to the shattering of the common peace, brotherly love, and civil cooperation and to all evil, Manz shall be delivered to the executioner, who shall tie his hands, put him into a boat, take him to the lower hut, there strip his bound hands down over his knees, place a stick between his knees and arms, and thus push him into the water and let him perish in the water; thereby he shall have atoned to the law and justice. . . . His property shall also be confiscated by my lords."

“Harmful to the unified usage of all Christendom”? I don’t think drowning dissenters was what Jesus had in mind when He prayed for unity among His people in John 17: 21 . I especially like the part where they confiscate his property. Felix Manz was not a violent revolutionary like the men at Muenster. All he sought was “to bring together those who were willing to accept Christ, obey the Word, and follow in His footsteps, to unite with these by baptism, and to leave the rest in their present conviction”. The crime of Felix Manz was shaking up the religious order of things, kind of like another group about 1500 years earlier (see Acts 4: 13-21). By refusing to baptize infants and insisting on baptizing willing adults, Manz was imprisoned several times, threatened with death and ultimately executed by drowning.

What Felix Manz was promoting is the basic belief of thousands of churches and millions of Christians in America, i.e. the baptism of believers and the voluntary association of Christians in the church. Try to imagine if the city council in Louisville decreed it illegal to refuse to baptize infants under penalty of death and further try to imagine if “Christian” ministers in Louisville stood silently while this went on. Manz may have been the first martyr among the Anabaptists but he was hardly the last. We need to remember those who were slaughtered by other “Christians” when we remember the Reformation era.

How I wish we had more Christians today who had the force of conviction of men like Felix Manz, men willing to abandon all for the truth and who had the courage of conviction to stand up for the Gospel of Jesus Christ in the face of real persecution, men who were unsatisfied with the “halfway” measures of the magisterial Reformers and sought a full restitution of the Biblical pattern for the church.